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Xargon42 · June 21, 2009, 1:53am

I am going into my senior year and wanted to make sure i was on the right track in terms of which colleges i should apply to. Here are my credentials:

UW GPA: 3.89
W GPA 4.56
Class Rank: 3/487
SAT:2050 CR 690 M680 W 680
SAT2: Bio-E 730 Lit: 720
classes taken:
math: honors algebra, hon geometry, hon trig
english: hon 9th english, hon 10th english, AP Lang
Spanish: honors 1-6, AP spanish (4 years total)
Science: HOn Biology, AP biology
Music: 2years concert band,m 2 years symphonic band.

EC: I have done karate for 8 years, 2000+ hours cumulative. I am a black belt currently, i volunteer teach karate classes for kids over the last 3 years (300+ hours) and have a job working at a daycare/karate school (300+ hours) many regional awards and one international third place.

I have played the trumpet for 8 years, guitar and bass guitar for 3 years. I have been in the school’s band every year, plus the jazz band and am a founding member of the school’s pep band. I also am in a rock band that has performed at my school’s battle of the bands.

During my junior year, I was accepted into a special year-long class called Tomorrow"s Leaders Today that teaches leadership skills while showing many aspects of community leadership positions.

I have been on the school’s badminton team for 3 years and was made team captain in my junior year. (I was the only non-senior team captain). I also did the wrestling team for the first time during my junior year.

I have volunteered on a few occasions at the local police department’s bicicyle safety workshops giving safety tips and presentations.

I am waiting on my AP, ACT, and more SAT test reslts. I feel confident that i passed the APs and hope to get a 2200 on the SAT or maybe a 33 on the ACT ( I feel pretty confident that i did well on the ACT). I know my current SATs are not superb.
I am mostly white, but part hispanic, and live in California.
My mom went to stanford and my dad to berkeley. these are the schools i am thinking bout applying to:
Reach:Brown COlumbia Princeton Stanford UC Berkeley
Match: NYU UCSB, UCSD
Fallback: Cal Poly slo, UCD, UCSC.

I am a pretty good essay writer, so I think that will increase my chances during the application process.

Please let me know if I have a chance of getting into my reach schools. I really appreciate you taking the time to read this

Xargon42 · June 21, 2009, 1:57am

Oh and also I plan on taking next year: symphonic band, AP stat, AP gov/econ, Phsychology at the local JC, AP lit equivalent at the JC, and AP physics

steeze · June 21, 2009, 2:22am

nice profile.

out of the handfull of people I knew that got into UCB, you sound way more qualified than them. But because of this year’s budget cuts, I’m pretty sure that’s gonna raise the bar…but none the less you look pretty qualified for UCB. the other schools im not sure about because i don’t know anyone personally that has made it there. But by comparing statistics, you seem qualified, maybe not SUPER SUPER qualified, but qualified imo.

they say undergrad doesn’t matter too much if you’re going back for grad school.

Xargon42 · June 21, 2009, 2:30am

Alright cool. Thanks

moosey · June 21, 2009, 2:31am

What are you planning to study? How are your recs? Do you need FA?

Xargon42 · June 21, 2009, 2:39am

Maybe premed. I have a pretty good relationship wtb all my teachers so I could get some good recs. I will be needing fa, yeah

moosey · June 21, 2009, 3:00am

You’re definitely on the right track. Your stats looks very good, and if you can get that 33 or 2200, then you definitely have a shot at all your reaches. One problem with your ECs is that none of it is related to your major, and while you have shown commitment and excellence at a lot of them, not a lot of them show outstanding leadership.
Keep in mind that admission, especially at top colleges, can be very random (at least to the applicants; maybe it’s not random for the adcom). There’s always the old story of the tuba player getting admitted over the flute because they just admitted 3 flutes. Don’t get too emotionally attached to your reaches. 
I’d suggest cutting some safeties and adding some matches though. I would say UCSB is a safety as well. There’s no need for UCSC, and I would move Cal Poly up to a match. What about USC and UCLA? They are matches for you.

Xargon42 · June 21, 2009, 7:36pm

I’m not a huge fan of so cal but I will keep those in mind. I didn’t realize that cal poly would be a better match than ucd or ucsb. Thanks for the advice.

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