"I've made a huge mistake..."

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>…any Arrested Development fans here??</p>

<p>Personal Info:
Senior at large PA school that usually sends maybe 1-3 to top schools (usually Penn) every year
White male
Hoping to major in bio (perhaps a bio/marketing double major)</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA: 4.0 UW, 102.71 W (not sure how that converts onto 4.0)
Rank: 1/488
Courseload: most difficult available, taken every AP of the 7 my school offers and all other classes are honors throughout all 4 years
SAT I: 760CR 710M 730W, 2200 total
SAT II: 740 US History, 690 Math I
APs: 5 US History, 4 Bio, 3 Chem (taking 4, possibly 5 more tests at the end of this year)</p>

<p>ECs:
–greatly involved in my church for my whole life and have racked up 1000s of volunteer hours in all sorts of activities–altar server, usher, volunteering at bible school, setting up for the church picnic, anything possible really–I have a great rec from my priest
–United States Senate page for Sen. Arlen Specter in summer 2007…I’m most proud of this, seeing as I applied and got accepted on my own merits and without connections
–internship at the World Aerobic/Hip Hop Championships in Los Angeles for three weeks two summers in a row (Hip Hop Championships will be featured on upcoming NBC reality series World Moves!)
–chosen as “Scholar of the Year” from my school, where each district in the area picks the most well-rounded student for a newspaper piece and radio interview
–Scholastic bowl team (12); my school does things backwards and ONLY chooses seniors…we won states and went to nationals last year, hoping to live up to that!
–National Merit Commended Scholar
–AP Scholar
–National Honor Society
–Spanish club (9,10,11,12)
–school golf team (10,11); nothing special here, just something I enjoy
–school bowling team (9,10,12); won most improved in the scholastic league in 10th
–won photography contest in our decently large local newspaper (100,000+ circulation)
–pretty extensive world traveler…don’t know if this really counts as an EC, but it did help to shape my world outlook and thus my essay, which I think came out great!</p>

<p>Work experience:
–job as dietary aide at local hospital from Oct 2006-August 2007, about 15 hrs/wk
–job as dietary aide at nursing home from August 2007-present, about 10 hrs/wk</p>

<p>Recs are glowing!
I wrote my essays. I think they’re good. Most others do as well…so we’ll see!</p>

<p>School List:
Stanford SCEA
Duke
Pepperdine
William and Mary (OOS)
Davidson
Pomona
Rice
Vanderbilt
UNC-Chapel Hill (OOS)</p>

<p>Thank you for checking this out!</p>

2

<p>hey what hs you from if you dont mind me asking.</p>

<p>if too personal, what county?</p>

3

<p>Outstanding Grades/ranks. Stellar Sat’s + II’s. Stellar Ec’s.</p>

<p>In at;</p>

<p>Duke
Pepperdine
William and Mary
Davidson
Pomona
Rice
Vanderbilt
UNC - Chaper Hill</p>

<p>And for standford, I do not know, but i think you have a more than decent chance of getting in than 85% of this board.</p>

4

<p>Stanford likes to see passion for something. I see a great application but no real drive for anything in particular. Not sure about the rest but good luck!</p>

5

<p>NO TOUCHING!</p>

<p>what a tv show that was</p>

6

<p>Stanford is the only school I see that would be the tough one, but the others you have good shots at.</p>

7

<p>fyi, have a look at some of vandy’s merit programs. you might be able to squeeze out some money.</p>

8

<p>Borderline at Stanford
Borderline at Pomona (math scores are relatively low compared to Pomona’s average of 730)</p>

<p>In everyplace else–and I think you’d be perfect for Duke in particular. They should love your profile as listed here.</p>

9

<p>Agree completely with Calcruzer about Stanford, Pomona, and Duke. You seem like a future Duke alum…</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the responses, everyone! Any positives about Duke are greatly encouraging, since it’s probably my #1 school right now.</p>

<p>As for Stanford, I realize it’s a crapshoot (as it is for everyone) because I don’t have a really “focused” EC list. But I tried to address this in my intellectual vitality/why Stanford essays, mainly saying how I have a broad range of interests and tried to foster them. Paraphrasing everything, I basically said that I didn’t want to limit myself during my extracurricular experiences, but instead used everything at my disposal to get a sense of the world. Whether Stanford admissions will buy that as an adequate excuse for a perceived lack of an obvious passion, your guess is as good as mine!</p>

<p>Anyone else want to throw something out there?</p>

11

<p>Quick bump?</p>

12

<p>I just blue myself.</p>

<p>Arrested Development fan at Duke? Someone with a sense of humour at Duke? (I live in North Carolina [Charlotte] and have mostly been exposed to obnoxious upper-middle class white Dukies that seem to take themselves too seriously.)</p>

13

<p>Well, there (clearly) aren’t many Arrested Development fans out there unfortunately, but I really don’t think the people at Duke are all that bad. I have a couple of friends who go there–and when I visited only had positive experiences!</p>

<p>Now UVA was another story…</p>

14

<p>One last attempt to save this.</p>