How much is too much? Suggestions and recommendations really needed.

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Warning: really long post ahead. I apologize in advance.</p>

<p>Okay, first, I’m going to bombard you with a bunch of random information you may or may not need to know about me. The gist is, my biggest problem is that I’m plain confused. The questions are at the bottom, since I don’t want to bore you. Thanks!</p>

<p>The hardcore facts.
GPA: 3.99 UW
Rank: Top 1% / 500
SAT I: 2270 – 720 CR, 750 M, 800 W, will retake
SAT II: Biology M 750, Math II 790
ACT: N/A, 33 or 34 on practice tests
AP scores: None yet
Ethnicity: Vietnamese
Family income: > $200,000
Prospective major: Biomedical Engineering</p>

<p>Classes, yay!
No APs before this year.
Junior Schedule: APUSH, AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP Language, French 5/6, Band/Orchestra
Projected Senior Schedule: AP Gov, AP Chem, AP Physics, AP Literature, French 7/8, Band/Orchestra, and Multivariable Calculus at community college</p>

<p>All the nice extras…

  • Hospital: Clinical research at hospital laboratory (10, 11); before that volunteered in ER at children’s hospital (9, 10). Usually volunteer 18-20 hrs each weekend.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>*Vietnamese teacher<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: Teach younger students how to speak their parent’s azn language. Self-explanatory. 4 hrs/ Friday.</p></li>
<li><p>*Science Olympiad<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: team captain (11), secretary (10), MVP (9, 10), lots and lots of awards at invites through state. Created a bridge program so SciOly members can tutor other students based on what subject they’re studying. Got Sci Oly to judge annual middle school science fair. Established B division at middle school. Sometimes go on elementary school tours to demonstrate engineering projects. Currently working with science professor at middle school to revise the mousetrap car and tower building exercises in physical science curriculum. Mondays.</p></li>
<li><p>*Robotics<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: Co-Captain/Main builder (10, 11). Did very well at state, team was finalist for a couple awards–but won none. Created an after school monthly enrichment program for middle and elementary school MESA students during which they can learn to build and (somewhat) program a robot. More build, actually… haha (: Currently working with the team to build a robot that will empty the book bin at HS library. This project has thus far been a dismal failure. Tuesdays.</p></li>
<li><p>*Theater<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: Did theater before high school. Lead in several one act performances (10, 11), supporting roles in musicals (10, 11), stage manager (9).</p></li>
<li><p>*Traditional Dance<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: Did before high school. Perform many times a year, from local temples to large performances in Seattle. Sometimes in a group, sometimes solo. Dance instructor for younger students at local temple. 4 hrs/Thurs, 2 hrs/Fri after I finish teaching.</p></li>
<li><p>*Music<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: Did before high school. Have been in the top school orchestra since 9th, section leader (10, 11). Occasional solos. Teach middle schoolers how to read music and play their string instruments. 3 hours/Wed</p></li>
<li><p>*Math<a href=“9,%2010,%2011”>/i</a>: Secretary (10, 11), designed website for team’s use, and the website used at regional competition. Math tutor, pre-algebra through pre-calculus.</p></li>
<li><p>Other: NHS, Key Club. Have raised over $2000 for the hospital through both NHS and Key Club. Assisted professor in biology research as a rising junior.</p></li>
<li><p>Math tutoring is whenever someone needs it, which is pretty darn often, but there are times when no one needs help. Typically meet during the 30 min lunch and then 30min-1 hr after school.</p></li>
<li><p>SciOly and Robotics have set meeting days, but the times range depending on how much we’re cramming. Typically, the science study hall goes for 1-1.5 hours, never more than 2. Robotics meets on a lot of break days to build and construct.</p></li>
<li><p>I do have to sacrifice some of my activities when doing theater, but my ECs usually don’t get in the way until hell week. After that, it’s back to normal.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Awards/Honors
No special awards, seriously. Ehehe.

  • Annual department awards in math and science (9, 10), and in history (9)
  • Volunteer awards, nothing big. At least 2000 hours of community service, though.
  • Lots of science olympiad medals?
  • Random essay competitions, about $1000 earned from these</p>

<p>Questions

  1. Does this seem like too much? I still manage to get good grades and enough sleep (although “enough” is a little subjective), and I’ve been doing this for a while.
  2. I’m a little iffy on math team. I’m pretty strong at math, and I know I make a difference on whether the team goes to state, but ehhhhh. Should I keep it?
  3. Same goes for NHS & Key Club. Scratch them off?
  4. Do I lack a focus? A lot of people have said I don’t have something that I’m really good at, my counselor included. Does it appear as if I’m dedicated, or just a serial club joiner? I do what I do because I enjoy it (unless it’s NHS & Key Club, that was for my friends). What can I do about this?
    The most important question.
  5. What colleges am I a match for? I really underestimate myself sometimes, and overestimate other times. I’d like an honest opinion. Schools interested in thus far: UW Seattle, Harvey Mudd.</p>

<p>tldr; based on my stats, do I look appear like a person who joins everything? What other colleges do you suggest for me?</p>

<p>Thanks for responding! :D</p>

2

<p>Do you really need to retake the SAT Reasoning with >700 on each section? Your percentile ranks are 96, 98, and 99+.</p>

<p>Is your family able and willing to full-pay any college (up to $60,000 per year)? Be sure to have the “money talk” with your parents before application season. At $200,000 annual income, even the most generous with financial aid colleges may not be that generous, so if your family is unable or unwilling to full-pay, you need to consider lower price colleges and colleges that give large merit scholarships.</p>

<p>What state are you a resident of?</p>

<p>Note that biomedical engineering seems to be extremely popular for some reason, which may make it more difficult to be admitted to at colleges while select by major.</p>

3

<p>Resident of WA state (sorry for forgetting that, yikes, pretty important)</p>

<p>Financial status (I should probably address this):
My parents are willing to pay the full price. A while back, we started discussing this, and they agreed that if I had the opportunity, I would be able to go. I have never been more grateful for such parents, to be honest. However, they do want me to consider my options, and see if there are any colleges that I could seriously compare to UW’s tuition.</p>

<p>I’m retaking because at my school there’s a generous merit scholarship that is awarded students with a 1500 M and CR subscore, and no one has won it for quite some time.</p>

<p>Thanks for the heads up on BME. :)</p>

4

<p>Being in Washington, definitely consider University of Washington, since it is highly regarded (top 10 in some lists) in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, is ABET accredited in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, and is less expensive for you due to your residency.</p>

<p>But check the school specific forum and ask if there are any special difficulties getting into the major – another popular major at University of Washington, computer science, is very undersized compared to student demand, so students have a hard time getting into the major.</p>

<p>University of California, San Diego has a high reputation in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, but is probably not as difficult to get into as the usual suspects like Johns Hopkins, MIT, and Duke. Georgia Tech also. But they will be more expensive than University of Washington.</p>

<p>Don’t forget to include a safety or few. If University of Washington is not a safety (including for getting into the major), some other schools to consider include University of Minnesota and Stony Brook University (these have somewhat lower out of state costs than most other out of state state universities). Some students choose to use community college (intending to transfer to University of Washington or other four year school as a junior) as their safety.</p>

<p>If family circumstances change and you need to go cheap (or want an extremely assured safety), look at University of Alabama, Birmingham and its Blazer Elite Scholarship that your stats qualify for automatically if you apply by the deadline.</p>

5

<p>If you’re really interested and involved in all the activities (and it sounds like you are) I don’t think it’s a lack of focus. You’re doing this stuff and contributing, not just sitting in meetings. If nothing else, it would make a possible application essay, the problem of actually enjoying/doing a lot of activities and it being seen as something negative.</p>

6

<p>uab is the only alabama school that offers biomedical engineering… look at the sci/tech honors program also…incredible for research opportunities.</p>

<p>can pm me if you like… as ucbalumnus posted guaranteed merit</p>

7

<p>^ Thanks, everyone! I did take a look at UAB, and those are some great merit scholarships. I’m going to take a look into the science programs there. (:</p>

<p>Any other suggestions?</p>

8

<p>mascara… look at not only sci/tech honors, but also biology scholars program and you might want to check out the howard hughes sponsored phage genomics honors course that you can take as a freshman.</p>