<p>Hello! This is my first post, so I thought I would jump right in and cut to the chase. (Was that redundant?) At any rate…</p>
<p>I am going to be a junior at a public school. I am a white, middle-class girl, since I’ve heard it can matter.</p>
<p>I am in all of the “academic” and “honors” tracks in school, since our school is divided into: applied, then academic, then honors/AP. For the past two years, I have taken all but one of the advanced classes offered to me. I did not take “honors” (referred to as “special”) math either my freshman or sophomore year because math in eighth grade was a bit difficult for me. I did, however, end both of those classes with an A, although they were “regular academic” classes.</p>
<p>Next year (my junior year), I will be taking AP English (I took honors last year, weighted), academic physics (I have taken academic biology and chemistry), Spanish 3, psychology, a computers class, US history, and pre-calc/trig. I took my first year of high school math in eighth grade, and will be taking a fourth year of math my senior year.</p>
<p>For my senior year, I plan to take, as I said, a fourth year of math, science, AP English, Honors Spanish 4, possibly AP European History, and a few writing/English-oriented electives.</p>
<p>I am also working on getting it approved by my guidance counselor and principal to design my own course of study to prepare myself to take the AP test for AP World Literature. Some high schools actually offer this course, but mine does not, and I am very interested in it.</p>
<p>I am involved in tennis, private art lessons (I have also taken a few art classes in the past two years in school), have been in my school’s fall play, and plan to lead a small group of teenage girls at my church’s youth group this coming fall, winter, and spring. I am also a member of the Pittsburgh Rat Lovers Club.</p>
<p>I have not yet taken the PSAT or the new SAT, nor the ACT. In seventh and eighth grade, however, I took the SAT through John’s Hopkins.</p>
<p>Seventh grade
570 Verbal
530 Math
Eighth Grade (I somehow accidentally skipped a few pages…)
550 Verbal
510 Math</p>
<p>I am a member of the National Honors Society, the Spanish Honors Society, and the gifted program. </p>
<p>I have also competed in gifted competitions and one at regional levels in Future Problem Solvers and the now defunct Creative Convention. This past year, my Future Problem Solvers team was selected to go to states, but our packet did not make the top 10, I believe it was, to qualify to win.</p>
<p>This coming fall, I will be attending the CYLC’s National Youth Leadership Council in Washington, D.C. I was recommended by my English teacher, and have been told many times that it will be a great experience. (Although people have told me that it sounds boring, I actually think it sounds very interesting, and am really looking forward to it.)</p>
<p>My cumulative GPA is 4.02 on a 4.0 scale (cumulative of course meaning 9th and 10th grades combined). I do not know my class rank, although my educated guess would be somewhere around the top 10-15%.</p>
<p>My writing skills, especially with essays, are very good (not to be conceited, just honest). I have always excelled in English, and plan to study English at CMU, should I get in.</p>
<p>Please, all honest opinions and suggestions are welcome. Even if you think I don’t have a shot, please let me know - it can’t hurt to tell me what would help, right?</p>
<p>Thank you all in advance.</p>