<p>I understand your frustration, it is painfully hard to get a handle on how exactly college admissions works for Hispanic applicants. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. First, we can’t see behind the doors of admissions committees, so we can only interpret the relatively few results we see, so there is much room for error. Second, and probably most importantly, I think think that how adcoms view Hispanics varies with both the school and the various attributes of the applicant (eg. country of origin, SES, etc.), making generalities pretty useless I’m afraid.</p>
<p>You look like you’re doing great in your coursework and are pursuing the things that interest you both in and out of school, that’s exactly what you should be doing at this point in time. I’d suggest a couple of things:</p>
<p>Take the PSAT as a soph. You don’t have to study, just look on the CB website and see how the test is laid out and what kind of questions they ask. Since soph year doesn’t count, it’s a great time to see where your strengths and weaknesses are so that you can efficiently prep for the jr year PSAT, which in turn acts as prep for the SAT.</p>
<p>Look at summer programs listed in the sticky Resources thread on this forum. Most are open to students for the summer after their soph and/or jr year; these are great opportunities to show your dedication to your various interests.</p>