Greetings: Chance me?

wrightm
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:18:22 +0000

Hey everyone, I’m a junior looking to apply to Harvard, if you don’t mind, would you chance me?

Basics:
Gender: male
Race: white (I have about an eight of Native American too)
School: Highly competitive public school in SE Wisconsin
Intended major: Biology

Objective:
SAT: yet to take (anticipating somewhere in the 2300)
ACT: 31 (yeah, I know, a bit low. I’m taking it again and know I can do much better)
SAT II: Yet to take any, but anticipating close to 800s in Bio M, Math, and U.S. History
GPA: 3.98 unweighted/4.7 weighted
Rank: 5/378, possibly better

AP scores: Bio 5, APUSH 5, Lit 5 (again, anticipating)

Transcript:

Freshman
Biology/molecular biology
gym
health
Honors geometry (took honors algebra back in 8th grade for credit)
Honors English 9
Band
Spanish II

summer of frosh year, I took gym to get credits out of the way

Sophomore:
Honors algebra II
Honors chemistry
gym
international business/mktg. (only available class because of gym requirement)
Band
Honors English 10
Spanish III
Modern World History (basically world history from Ottomans to now)

Junior:
Honors physics
AP biology
APUSH
AP Lit
Honors Precalc
Band
Spanish IV

Senior (obviously not there yet):
AP chem
AP Stat
AP Calc AB
AP Lang
AP Gov
Spanish V
Principles of mktg/sports marketing (again, only thing that fit schedule that seemed remotely interesting)

Extracuriculars- note that though senior year has not happened, when I state a (12) it is implied that I will be a part of the extracurricular:
Saxophone player-7 years tenor & bari, state qualifier for Solo Ensemble in 3 separate events and will go again this year
jazz band (9,10,11)- lead tenor in jazz
marching band (9,10,11)- section leader of all saxophones, did optional homecoming show every year
pep band (9,10,11)- again, section leader
concert band (9,10, 111)- technically a class but requires MANY hours outside of classroom. We design our own concerts & do a lot of community outreach events. I’ve served as a volunteer, photographer coordinator and assistant, writer (for sketches involving music), actor (again, for sketches), set & tech assistant, and of course a musician

Drama
Spring play (10)- I played Tom Snout in our production of Midsummers
Summer musical (10)- musician (I played saxophone for pit orchestra in our production of All Shook Up. Some of the hardest music I’ve ever played)

Sports
Soccer team (9)- utility player, coach used me everywhere and anywhere I was needed
lacrosse team (10,11,12)- discovered the game last year, fell in love. Defensive player
Baseball (9,10)- just rec league, not very good, but I love playing

KMO (11,12)- knowledge masters open, a huge 3 hour long team test take twice a year with topics in every area (If I’m not mistaken, we were 2nd in state this year)

NHS (11,12)- President, I am very hands on with the outreach we do and try to attend every service project I can, HIGHLY INVOLVED

Siemens project- working on it right now with some students

Medical explorers (10,12)- group dedicated to exploring the medical field, job shadowed a radiation oncologist for the day, awesome

Spanish Honors Society (11,12)

Religious youth group (9,10,11,12)- very involved in my church and youth group

SMART team (12)- starting next year I will be part of a protein modeling team at MSOE

BEAMR (11,12)- (founding member) research project with the Medical College of WI (highly respected in proteomics and genetics) in which we studied the salivary proteome. Probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.

DECA (10,11,12)-business club at school. We fund raise and do all sorts of events, but my biggest experience is being a finalist in DECA competition (highly competitive) at both district and state levels and then going to the International Career Development Conference last year. I did not place, but it is very difficult just to attend, especially in the event I was in. AMAZING experience.

Plans for 12th grade:
Plan on starting Science Olympiad team @ school,
volunteer @ Children’s Hospital
Join Interact (another service group)
Spanish club

Work experience:
Babysitter (starting back in 8th grade)- I am extremely passionate about children, and (I want to be a pediatrician specializing in infectious disease/immunology someday)
Farm hand back in middle school
Probable job at local grocery store (Pick n’ Save) this year

Service
I assistant coach my brother’s baseball team
I do VBS at my school and spend countless hours with the associated responsibilities of it
I’m going to help out with Summer School (for the little kids) at my local school
Mission trip to the Dominican Republic. It was incredible.
Lots of random service stuff (either through church or through NHS participation)
It all totals up to a ridiculous amount of hours (not sure specifically, I’ve got to record it, but well past 300 hrs)

I assume that my letters of recommendation will be great (I’ve got an extra coming from the head of proteomics research who I worked with on the BEAMR project) and I am an above average writer (so I assume the essays will be no sweat)

Sorry, forgot some stuff:
My school is in the top 3% of all public schools in the nation, and my income bracket is 80,000-100,000

Awards
Honor roll (9,10,11,12)
Brewers award of some sort showing that I was in the top 10% of the school
Midwest talent search (back in middle school, kids with exceptional abilities were invited to take ACT)
AP scholar (assumed)
National Merit Semifinalist (again, assumed)
Sorry for the long rant. Best wishes all!