Need reassurance (what this forum was made for)

Applying to College
1

<p>GPA: 3.85 UW, 4.35 W
Top 20% (worst part)
White male from California
School top 105 in nation</p>

<p>11 APs, 4 honors
Test scores:
SAT I: 2320 (780 CR, 780 W, 760 Math)
SAT II: 770 Chem, 790 USH–660 Math II (will not send)
PSAT: 205 </p>

<p>ECs:
Editor and writer for a blog about travel with special needs children
Clubs:
President and founder of Linguistics Club (11, 12)
Founding member of Model United Nations (12, Semester 2)
Founder of school publication (don’t want to reveal all details O.o) (12, S2)
Editor of Literary Chronicles (11, 12)
Volunteering at Rec Center (9)
Member of Philosophy Club (9, 10)
Member of Red Cross Club (10, 11, 12)
-Activities Coordinator (12)
Member of “padder” club-volunteering, etc. (11, 12)</p>

<p>Community Service:
Red Cross: approx. 40 hours (18 hrs/year)
Friendship Circle (11, 12): 40 hours (33 hrs/year)
Rec Center: 20 hrs (20 hrs/year)
Youth Leadership Congress:
20 meetings, 40 hrs/year
-Web Moderator (11), unknown (12)
Community Emergency Response Team: 18 hours training, 4 events participated)
Certified in First Aid and CPR </p>

<p>Other:
Hebrew High School (9, 10)</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Tutoring (12)
Editor for blog about autistic rights and activism (10, 11, 12)</p>

<p>Awards:
AP scholar w/ Distinction
National Merit Commended
Honor Roll
CSF (all years)
ELC (apparently, but I could not list as an award)</p>

<p>Weaknesses:
Bs both semesters in AP Chem (got 5 on test though, reported that on apps)
Took college prep mathematics and AP Stat instead of AP Calc
Took Human Geo
Only top 20%, not top 10%</p>

<p>What are my chances for these schools:
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UCSD
UCSB
Stanford (REA*)
Claremont McKenna
USC
Tulane (already accepted with maximum scholarship)
Rice
WUSTL
UChicago (EA)
UNC-CH (EA)
UMiami (EA)
NYU</p>

<p>A lot of people in my school are applying to these schools, including valedictorians (we have 42 O.o). What are my chances?</p>

2

<p>You will probably get into all of the schools on that list except maybe Stanford and UChicago. Your lackluster rank is the only thing that worries me though, but you should be OK.</p>

3

<p>Oh, and the highest GPA in my grade is 4.8125. Z_z</p>

<p>And the two people with 4.8+ GPAs are applying to a lot of the same schools as me, with their only handicap being Asian males:
Rice, WUSTL, Emory (I forgot to put Emory on the list), Stanford, the UCs, I think Chicago. And some vals are applying to the rest except WUSTL.</p>

4

<p>Hey stevenf, good to see you again… I remember we talked about our rank situation a while ago. Hope we don’t get screwed over by our ranks at top high schools, despite rigorous courseload and very solid SAT’s. Usually a low rank is explained by poor GPA/easy courseload, and I see neither for both of us. Let me know how everything turns out!</p>

5

<p>Stanford’s REA limitations mean that you should not apply EA to Chicago or Miami if you apply REA to Stanford.</p>

<p>The UCs don’t care about your current rank.</p>

<p>Your intended major has nothing to do with math? It appears that math is the weakest part of your academic credentials (relatively low Math Level 2 score, avoiding calculus in favor of statistics).</p>

6

<p>^ Will do. Best of luck on your admissions progress too. It’s such a shame because I’m technically a transfer student to this high school (out of district) and if I had went to my home district high school-while finding friends might’ve been harder-I would almost certainly be in the top 10%.
@ UCB: Math is the weakest part by far, since my science is rather covered (AP Chem, AP Physics, Honors Bio, Honors Chem). I’m looking at the humanities, so Math won’t be a potential major; for schools like Rice, I’m applying to the School of Humanities.</p>

<p>And the asterisk means I’m considering it. It has a few loopholes that allowed Tulane and UNC, and to an extent UMiami.</p>

7

<p>Oh, update: if it matters any, I wrote about and included comments on how I have epilepsy and my brother has autism which affected me. For the overcoming advertisy aspect.</p>

8

<p>In college, you may still want to take some courses that will help your quantitative and logical thinking, such as calculus, (college level) statistics, and logic (from the philosophy department, if you do not take more advanced math courses that emphasize proofs), to complement the qualitative and humanistic thinking that your humanities major will help you with.</p>

<p>Calculus can help you understand statistics and physics as well as help you understand the difference between something and its rate of change ("___ type of job will have a high growth rate" does not necessarily mean that that type of job will be plentiful), and a good understanding of statistics will help in understanding many of the things that go on in the world. Logic will help you understand whether arguments and claims are valid or not.</p>

<p>Don’t forget to make sure that each school is affordable.</p>

9

<p>Steven – Reassurance Time</p>

<p>Tulane is a top 50 School. You’re already in there with a top Scholarship This says to me that they think you’re REALLY qualified and they really want you, and you’re one of their top candidates.</p>

<p>What I take away from this is that your application should be strong for many of the schools on your list that may have even tougher acceptance criteria.</p>

<p>However – even if you were not ultimately accepted at any, you’re already into a fantastic school, with $$ to boot. So, no matter what happens, your college search is already a success!!</p>

10

<p>I’m most worried about UCLA and Berkeley acceptances though.</p>