Michael Phelps is great, I'm not :(

Chance Me / Match Me
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<p>Stats:
•SAT I: 2110 (Critical Reading: 710, Math: 690, Writing: 710)</p>

<p>•SAT IIs: Biology (740), Chemistry (720), Math IIC (760), Chinese with Listening (750)</p>

<p>•GPA: 3.57 UW, 3.88 UC</p>

<p>•AP courses taken: Biology (5), Chemistry (4), English Language and
Composition (4), U.S. History (3)</p>

<p>•Senior AP courses: Comparative Government, Calculus AB, English Literature, Physics B </p>

<p>Other:
•Extra Curriculars:
hospital volunteer (4 years, 150+ hours)
marching band (4 years)
Boy Scouts (soon to be 10 years, Eagle Scout, leadership awards)
California Scholarship Federation (2 years)
Sign Club (1 year)
Media Club ICC representative (1 year)
Principal Honor Roll
Big Brother Big Sister Organization (1 year)</p>

<p>•Teacher Recs: APUSH teacher (decent), Math teacher (great)</p>

<p>•Counselor Rec: generic</p>

<p>•Supplements: recommendation from principal of Highland Oaks
Elementary School</p>

<p>Location/Person:</p>

<p>• State: California
• School Type: Public, 59th in the state
• Ethnicity: Asian
• Gender: Male</p>

<p>Chance for:
USC
Harvey Mudd
UCLA
UCSD
UCI</p>

<p>Basically I’m really worried about my GPA. It’s pretty low compared to most people who apply. Almost all my classes have been extremely rigorous and I have not taken any “joke” classes. Maybe that’s why my GPA suffered so much. Do college care that much about “course rigor”?</p>

<p>Here’s a list of past graduates and their statistics (for comparison purposes)
[AHS</a> c/o 2008](<a href=“http://www.arcadiachineseparents.org/college.html]AHS”>http://www.arcadiachineseparents.org/college.html)</p>

2

<p>yes colleges will highly consider your course rigor.</p>

<p>what’s your weighted GPA?
USC-reach (b/c of your gpa)
Harvey mudd- i’m not too familiar with this school,sorry!
UCLA-reach
UCSD-in
UCI-in</p>

3

<p>Hey melissaray thanks for the chance.
My weighted GPA is the same as my UC GPA </p>

<p>do’nt know if that lowers my chances of getting in :/</p>

4

<p>Ill just tackle Harvey Mudd.</p>

<p>I would say its a fairly high reach for you. Your Math SAT is a bit low (you want 750+), your ECs are weak, and your GPA is very low. To be honest, even if you were to bring your SATs above 2300 I would still consider it a reach for you. (I hope that doesnt sound mean, but notice the rejection on that site you linked for a 2300+ 3.9 candidate.)</p>

<ul>
<li>Why are you getting a letter of rec from your elementary school principal? </li>
<li>Do whatever you can to avoid putting CSF on your application unless you were an officer. If that brings you under the minimum number to fill up the slots, pick up a Rubik’s cube.</li>
</ul>

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<p>Hey seiken i was wondering why you say to avoid putting CSF on the app.?</p>

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<p>Well, at many schools CSF is a joke; you show up for a couple of meetings, and then attend six flags once a year. Some have a community service requirement of like 10-20 hours, but the community service itself is worth more than having CSF on your application (unless as mentioned you are an officer). In general, I would say CSF is good for the scholarships, but is hardly an actual extra curricular. Maybe it was just horribly bad at my public high school, but I really cant say CSF ever actually did anything worthwhile for my school or the community, we were told just to join because it “looks really good on college applications,” but now that Ive done it for 4 years I think they were comparing it to an empty slot.</p>

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<p>Cool, I found someone else with the high course rigor/low GPA problem.</p>

<p>I looked at the chart (my friend goes to your school!), and I’d say:</p>

<p>USC: Match
Harvey Mudd: Reach
UCLA: Reach
UCSD: Match
UCI: Safety</p>

<p>Try retaking the SAT for 100+ points or the ACT. Good luck!</p>

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<p>Seiken- the csf at my school was an absolute joke too. all we would do is put our name in the sign-in sheet, the president of the club would say ok we should do a car wash! blah blah blah and we never did anything. should i leave it off my apps.?</p>

9

<p>In my opinion, school clubs are only worth they get you into. If because of CSF you end up volunteering 100 hour at Martha’s Kitchen then CSF paid off - nevertheless I would put down “volunteering at Martha’s Kitchen” as an EC, not CSF. Personally to me it just seems like a weak point in your application if you cant find something else to put down, but I am not a college adcom. In either case, I chose to put down “World of Warcraft raid leader” instead and that worked out well for me.</p>

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<p>Hm well for CSF at my school we just have to meet the GPA requirement for that specific semester and fill out a sheet. We never had any meetings for it. The letter of rec from the elementary school teacher is just a thought, I might not even do it. The only reason I was thinking about including it was because I’m doing my eagle project for that school. </p>

<p>@iLikeFood: yeah, I’m retaking the SAT in october </p>

<p>bump?</p>

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<p>bummpppppppppppppzzzzzzzzzzz</p>

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<p>bumpz bumpz</p>