I really want to study chemistry, do I have a chance?

Colleges & Universities University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
1

<p>Hi all, you may have seen this on the ‘generic’ chance me thread but I really want to study chemistry and I heard UNC-Ch is a great college for research. </p>

<p>Well, here it is. Thanks</p>

<p>Junior, 15 years old (Skipped a grade)
Glastonbury, CT – One of the top schools in state
Have about 10 or so kids going to Ivyleagues + Stanford and MIT
Have another 5-10 or so kids going to top tier schools
Indian American
Grades:
GPA:
Weighted-4.5
UNC Weighted (6 for AP, 5 for Honors, 4 for Regular) - 4.45 Freshman, Sophomore 4.88, Junior 5.424, Average = 4.92
Unweighted- 3.7ish…Our school does not do Unweighted (Straight A’s in Math + Science’s)
This year I have a 4.623, Straight A’s in every class…and then history (B-, haha, but only 1 person has an A average in our AP History Class)…lol.
I am currently taking 4 AP Classes and rest honors
Note- GPA of our valedictorian is 4.74
Very rigorous class schedule- took most number of AP’s and honors class in sophomore and junior year. No AP’s are available to freshman
Class Rank – Currently 19/523- top 3.6% (Went from 75 in freshman year to 37 in sophomore year to 19 in junior year). Upward trend in grades…</p>

<p>Standardized tests:
AP Exam Scores (predicted and received) – Stat 4, Bio 4, Chem 5, Calc BC 5, Lang 5, Hist 4 (hopefully :wink: )
SAT – 2110
Planning on taking ACT next week, I have been scoring around 32/33 on the practice
I might take SAT again but not too sure, the highest I would get if I did study everything would probably be 2200…not work the effort though
SAT Subject (Predicted…since Math and Chem are my BEST subjects) – Math 800, Chem 780+, Bio-710 (Not submitting)</p>

<p>Next year will take:
AP Physics C: E+M
AP Spanish Lang
AP English Lit
AP Comp Sci A (Self study)
AP Psych (Self Study)
Multivariable Calculus or Physical Chemistry (A junior chem course in college)
Organic Chemistry at Columbia via SHP (Will found for sure June 23rd !)
Quantitative Analysis of Chemistry (3rd year chemistry course in undergraduate, sophomore/junior chemistry college course)
Advanced Research Mentorship </p>

<p>At the end of my senior year I will have taken:
-11 AP’s

  • 3 or 4 college courses
  • 2 years of research (250 hours+), produced 2 research papers</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (Divided into section)
Note: School only allows one president position
Science:
-Science Quiz bowl- 7,8,9,10,11,12
B Team 7th, A team captain in 8th, C Team 9, B Team 10, B Team Captain 11th, Will be A team captain next year
Our science quiz bowl team has gotten 1st in state for the past 4 years and made it to nationals. I will hope to continue our schools achievement of qualifying for nationals each year.
-Part of Chemistry National Olympiad Team ( we got 1st place in state)
-Completed Chemistry Research with a nearby professor at a college – 125 hours
Research was successful (something a pHD applicant would submit), will be published in chemistry journal

  • Junior Humanities Science Symposium, will present research next year
    -Another research project next year (another 120-130 hours, just love doing chemistry research)
    -INTERACT, Chemistry program at University of Connecticut
    -Will submit research to INTEL
    -Same for Siemens next year
    -State science fair
    -Science National Honor Society
    -Science Honors Program at Columbia University
    -JETS (physics competition)</p>

<p>Math
-Math team for 4 years , 9,10,11,12
-B Team for 9,10 and A Team for 11,12

  • Total of 55 members in Math team, only 5 members of A Team
    -3rd highest scoring Junior in State for Math
    -1st place in our division (total of 2 divisions), beat the next closest team by 40 pts
    -Our team got 3rd place in state, qualified for NEAML
    -Part of NEAML team
    -1 of 5 juniors to take Calc BC this year
    -Helped out for 4 years in Math Counts competition as a proctor and for 9,10 and “head proctor” for 11,12. I did this competition in 6,7,8 grade and now I help out (We get free donuts :slight_smile:
    -AIME (Next year, expecting), missed cutoff this year by very little
    -Math National Honor Society
    Languages
    -Foreign Language Honor Society
    -Tutor for students who require help in Spanish (10,11,12)
    -Latin National Award- Cum Laude
    -Languages are not my forte and will not be emphasized in my application</p>

<p>Sports</p>

<p>Table Tennis(4 years):
-Started a table tennis club in school
-President of Table Tennis Club
-Spend 20ish hours each week practicing/training table tennis in 3-4 clubs
-Won multi-state table tennis tournament (Under 1750, 2000 is considered a professional)
-Was ranked #1 junior in state, moved down to #2 this year, will attempt to regain title
-Participated in International Table Tennis Tournament (Over 10,000 people)
-Ranked 45th in nation for my age
-3rd place team in Division B at MIT Table Tennis Tournament
-Will be on A team next year

  • Constantly go to tournaments and perform quite well
    -Still working on tablet tennis and hoping to improve more
    -Train people for free at local clubs</p>

<p>Chess (8 years)
-Less emphasis after entered high school
-Chess Club 9,10,11,12
-1st place team district chess champions 10,11,12
-Co-Captain of team 10

  • Captain of team 11,12
    -Have received over 20 trophies for tournaments, but most are before high school
    -Received 5th place state award (when I was younger)</p>

<p>Volunteer
-Key Club 9,10,11,12 (Do around 20-30 hours an year)
-INTERACT Program, 9,10- Help Seniors (60+) get acquainted with computers
-Camp Sunrise (Help special need kids for 2 weeks in summer)

  • Tutor middle school students once every week 10,11,12
    -Help out at local school fairs and events
    -MLK African American event
    -Liaison (Leader of group of helpers) at Big Brother Big Sister Program -12th grade
    -Helped out at elementary school special Olympics 11,12</p>

<p>Cultural
-Part of TYCT, cultural group that volunteers and helps out the needy people
-Head Tech Crew Manager at invASIAN, an Asian cultural dance show (60-80 people came and watched)
-Indian event helped out at High school, 10,11,12
National Honor Societies:
-NHS
-NSHSS
-FLHS
-Science
-Math</p>

<p>Leadership Positions
-Are intertwined within my EC’s…</p>

<p>Jobs: NONE- I CANT WORK IM ONLY 15, :frowning: :frowning:
-However, I was a High School Campus Leader that was recruited by ■■■■■■■■■■■ </p>

<p>Recommendations:
Excellent recommendations from AP Chemistry (Doctor from MIT/Stanford, known for 3 years) and AP Calc teacher (Known for 6 years, from Middle School)</p>

<p>**Essay: **
I am talking about a table tennis experience at a multi state tournament that changed my view on our society
-I consider myself to be a good creative writer, but not very good at writing about certain books</p>

<p>Final Notes/Information:

  • Thanks for the chance (I know this is a long post…)! I would appreciate if you would say why you said what you said.
  • I hope I did not simply have a laundry list of EC’s, I think I have focused on 3-4 major places (Science, Math, Table Tennis, Community Service). I am not including all the other things I have participated in or done since they are not my passion.</p>
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<p>I’d say you’re a likely in, though nothing is ever certain with OSS</p>

<p>Also, UNC really doesn’t consider SAT II’s other than for math and language placement.</p>

<p>I don’t think they have released this upcoming years essay topics yet, so hold off on deciding what your going to right about, there may very well be a prompt that suits you better than the ones you are thinking of now.</p>

3

<p>I don’t really understand why you wouldn’t give it another shot at the SATs … 2110 is very good, but not stellar … somehow that score doesn’t fit to your other acheivements. </p>

<p>My son had a very similar score in his first test and got it up to 2390 … got accepted to UNC (OOS), and he didn’t have any college courses nor research activities (not available here). He also skipped a grade, but that seems not really to get valued by the colleges (my personal impression)</p>

<p>Key will be how your essays are - try not to come across as ‘cocky’ or arrogant - your post here is a little long and too detailed, IMO (mentioning that your Chem-teacher is from MIT/Stanford isn’t necessary, gives it a bit of an arrogant touch …)</p>

<p>But you should have a very good chance for UNC (again, try to improve your SAT score). And yes, I do agree that UNC is a top-place for Chemistry …</p>

4

<p>@Tony- thanks for the input, i will consider holding off the essay till i know what the topic is for sure</p>

<p>@eml- sorry if i came off as arrogant, the MIT/Stanford was when I posted it on the regular chance thread (I am also applying to MIT, so I was wondering whether have a recommendation from a professor who went to MIT would make a difference or not). I forgot to get rid of that. </p>

<p>As far as the 2110 goes, I do not feel I would do much better, but I should probabaly consider studying over the summer and try it again in the fall. Thanks for the input!</p>

<p>Anyone else?</p>

5

<p>I think you would get in to UNC. I don’t think I would bother taking the SAT again either if you’re going to take the ACT (and you have a lot of other things going for you). Not so sure about MIT though, ha ha. They are so selective!</p>

6

<p>You should get into UNC. I got in and my stats are complete crap compared to anything else, especially yours. You said your val had a 4.74? Are you guys on the 5.0 weighted scale?</p>

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<p>^^^Yes they are.
And edit, this year I had a 4.676</p>

8

<p>Holy cow man. If you’re at one of the best schools in your state and your val only has that GPA then something is off.</p>

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<p>^I’m going to assume that the poster is on the scale where an academic class is 4 points, honors is 5, AP is 6. That’s what my school was on, and our valedictorian had about a 4.8, I want to say? If that’s the case, then the 4.74 at the end of junior year sounds about right.</p>

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<p>Yeah, I’m sure there’s a scale difference, I’m just not familiar with it. I was thinking in terms of how my school’s grades were weighted so I was surprised at first. We had 5 vals with a 5.0 and that was perfect on our scale. Our sal had like a 4.97 I think. You crazy school systems and your varying grading scales!</p>

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<p>Yeah, there’s soo many systems, it’s confusing. But for all UNC purposes, GPAs get translated to the scale I mentioned above, so that there’s no crazy differences like that.</p>

12

<p>@lauriebeth- actually our school does it where honors and ap are both 5.0 so our scale is out 5.0
If I converted mine to UNC’s scale it would be about a 5.0ish</p>

<p>@forthelineage He has straight A’s with an A-
However, there some required courses that we all MUST take such as health, gym, electives etc. these courses are neither honors nor ap and so they are out 4.0, which bring down the cumulative GPA.</p>

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<p>um I live in CT and glastonbury is not one of the top schools in the state, like not even close(try all of the schools in southern fairfield county), that doesnt really matter though anyways, colleges care about how good you are, not about how good your school is. I don’t really have a lot of knowledge about admissions, but I would think you are good.</p>

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<p>If you want to go to UNC and study chem, you might want to wait to take quantitative analysis at UNC…as tough as the class is…it’s pretty amazing taking the classes with professors that invented the techniques that you’re being taught…</p>

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<p>@stewta- i am not not going by standardized test scores. that is quite useless. rather, i am going by how glastonbury performs at sports as well as other competitions (in math and science). As you can see in my list of ec’s, glastonbury does very very well at competitions each year as well as sports (#4 soccer team in nation). But, you maybe right, if you are going by CAPT scores or something like that. also, I dont get glastonbury isn’t even close to a “top” school if it manages to send about 10 kids to HYPSM and an additional 20ish kids to top tier colleges. your claim does not seem very accurate nor does it make a lot of sense. </p>

<p>I know I wrote 5-10 kids going to top tier schools up there but after our school newspaper came out with all of the places that our graduates are going, I surprisingly counted around 20 additional to 10 HYPSM.
I think you are though, what highschool does not matter as much. </p>

<p>Thanks for the chance though! </p>

<p>@phony- I live in CT… :frowning: so I cant drive to NC every week to take a class lol</p>

16

<p>I think phonyreal meant holding off on taking it once you got to UNC? Since obviously taking it from CT isn’t really an option :)</p>

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<p>Oh wow, Im dumb. I read that too quickly and misunderstood what he said. Yeah, I will retake both orgo and quant at UNC (If i were to get in), I just want to take it now as well :P</p>