<p>GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.3ish weighted
Rank: 5 out of 501
SAT Reading: 800 Math: 750 Writing: 800 I brought it up from 2110 to 2350.
SAT II: Chemistry: 740 Literature: 760
APs: Chem, Psych, and English Lang in Junior year. 5s in all three. APs this year: Music Theory, Macroeconomics, American Government, and Calculus AB.
1st Quarter Grade Report: I have As in everything right now.</p>
<p>ECs:
Playing guitar for 5 years, composing, recording, producing music
Over 200 hrs volunteering at Hospital (ER and transportation) sophomore and junior year
National Honors Society Senior year
A/V Tech Club senior year
Jazz Band senior year
Marching Band senior year - Guitarist and in charge of speakers/mixer
Black belt in Chito-Ryu, been doing it (karate) for over 6 years</p>
<p>Awards: AP Scholar, National Merit Semifinalist
Essays and Recs: Really good IMO, about a mental breakdown thing I had a few years ago. I was psychologically and neurologically like “detached” from anything and it really screwed up my philosophy but I came back from it as a better person and became in touch with nature and music and art and curious about the world around us and thinking for myself, all this stuff, which I think will give a LOT of clarity to my schedule: the first two years, before this, I took all honors/standard classes, but the next two years my classes have had the hardest classes you can take.</p>
<p>Anyway, please honor flyingllama’s dog and me by giving me a rough chance of how I stand. I know my test scores are good but idk how much that matters anymore at places like Brown.</p>
<p>This isn’t exactly about your chances, but I would NOT write about mental/emotional problems in your essay. I think I heard somewhere that the Virginia Tech shooter wrote about his mental issues for his essay- so you could guess why colleges would be reluctant to accept someone with a similar essay. I guess it all depends on how you frame it, but be careful what you say about that.</p>
<p>I agree with Brownie56–even if your essay is extremely well-written, I think admissions officers will still feel uneasy about you because of your past mental/emotional problems. On the bright side, you have an outstanding GPA and test scores. Compared to your grades and scores, your extracurriculars only seem decent, but are probably still good enough. I’m just surprised you can have such a great unweighted GPA and a not-much-higher weighted GPA. (I have a far worse UW GPA than yours but higher W GPA) It’s just strange. But I guess if you are able to explain that in your essay, then you have a decent shot.</p>
<p>Maybe our schools weight differently? Honors are .5 extra and AP are 1 extra, and that 4.38 takes into account the first year or so where I only had like 2 honors classes and the rest standard. Last year I had 3 AP and 3 honors, and this year I have 4 AP, 2 honors, and 2 music classes besides theory (we have a weird block scheduling thing this year allowing me to take all that stuff).</p>
<p>And honestly maybe I phrased my essay wrong, I don’t talk about it like a mental breakdown but more of a philosophical thing. I’m sorry for being unclear, I figured saying it the way I did would save time but…I guess not.
But thank you for the input, I really appreciate it cuz I don’t know much about Brown’s decision process.</p>
