Reaching kind of high?

chenatoga
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:45:05 +0000

My parents (well, my mom mostly… Asian parents haha) is pushing me to apply to pretty much all the top schools. I’m a little sick of it, but I do have a few on my mind. Here goes…

Stats:
-Asian male
-GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.11 UW
-Rank: 1/367

Tests:
-ACT:

1. 35 English, 36 Math, 31 Reading, 36 Science; 35 Composite

2. 35 English, 35 Math, 32 Reading, 35 Science, 8/12 Essay; 34 Composite
-SAT: 730 Verbal, 800 Math, 770 Writing; 2300 Composite
-SAT II: 780 Chemistry, 780 Math 2, 710 US History
-PSAT: 222 - National Merit Scholarship semifinalist

Courses:
-6 AP classes completed, 9 total by graduation (counting AP Calc AB & BC separate)
-5’s on AP Human Geo, AP Calc BC, AP Chemistry
-4’s on AP US History, AP Lang & Comp (= hell, just saying haha)
-Also taking 3 science classes this year

ECs: eheh. I’m pretty weak here, but anyways…
-Orchestra (main EC; Youth Orchestra of the Rockies, Western States Orchestra 2008 & 2009, Colorado All-State Orchestra 2008, chamber orchestra camps, orch letter + 3 bars, pit for school musical)
-National Honor Society (lot of work for Leukemia & Lymphona Society - why didn’t I apply for an officer position?!)
-Science Bowl (It’s my only science EC ever, but I can barely count this one. I literally started a week ago, so I’m hesitant on putting it on apps)

Other stuff:
-Majoring in chemistry/chem engineering (hence why I’m worried about no science ECs)
-I’m ranked #1 now, but I’m tied with 3 others and one of them’s sure to beat me out. Minor detail.
-If it helps, my friend was accepted to Stanford last year with pretty much the same academic background (and he’s also majoring in chem!). However, he had way more ECs.

Colleges:


Stanford
Northwestern
MIT
Carnegie Mellon (my parents don’t want me to apply b/c of financial aid, but chance me anyways)
Duke
Princeton
University of Colorado (fallback)


As you can see, I’m set when it comes to schoolwork and test scores, but I think my relative lack of ECs will hurt a lot. But hey, be brutal!