Somewhat final list, what do y'all think?

Nakane · November 1, 2004, 10:18pm

Korean male, came to the US 4 years ago (Permanent resident)
Senior from Suburban Houston, Texas
SAT: 1460 single sitting (710v 750m)
GPA: UW 3.73/4.0 W 4.8/6.0
Class rank: Low due to transfer of school from outer-state(New York).. my registrar wrote a letter regarding this disadvantage.. 126/624; top 20%
SAT II: Blows..
Math IIC 750
Math IC 730
US History 660 (5 on the AP..)
Biology 650 (4 on the AP..)
Writing 640 (no comment, retaking)

Currently enrolled in: Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Govt, AP Psychology, AP Physics B,
Spanish III H, Band.

EC's: Marching/concert band 4 years, clarinetist.
Junior Engineering Technical Society Historian
National Honor Society
Nominated to National Youth Leadership Conference stuff
JV Soccer 9,10
Academic Decathlon
Rehabilitation Pavilion Therapeutic Recreation Volunteer, 100+ hrs.
International Club
Local library adult reference volunteer, 120+ hrs.
Some NY-state recognized math awards
Decent recommendations
Decent+ essays

Colleges:
<<reach>>
Cornell CAS ED</reach>

<h2>Rice Rolling decision</h2>

<<match~reach?>>
NYU RD</match~reach?>

<h2>Emory RD</h2>

<<safety~match>>
University of Texas at Austin RD
Trinity, San Antonio
Texas A & M</safety~match>

Thanks in advance!

Kosuke · November 2, 2004, 12:18am

Rice has no "rolling decision." do you mean intrim decision?

Nakane · November 3, 2004, 12:49am

Yes, that's what I meant.

Tsunami · November 3, 2004, 1:38am

AP Psychology, Spanish III, 50% of the Asian population graduating from 4 year colleges as opposed to the 28% white statistic, Cornell, Rice, NYU.

Lol.

Your essay had better be good.

Nakane · November 3, 2004, 2:05am

"AP Psychology, Spanish III, 50% of the Asian population graduating from 4 year colleges as opposed to the 28% white statistic, Cornell, Rice, NYU."

Huh?

Tsunami · November 3, 2004, 2:11am

AP Psychology is the weakest of all the AP Tests by far.

Just going up to Spanish III is almost as bad as just going up to Spanish II, even if Honors.

And Affirmative Action is going to hurt you. Badly, although to relinquish it would probably be a dishonor... Catch-22 for you guys, I tell ya.

Nakane · November 3, 2004, 2:18am

Well, I'm only taking AP Psych because it's a one-semester course and an honors credit.. I could have just easily gotten an off-period. For Spanish III, I didn't have much choice because at my previous school I took Italian. (took up to II) The new/current school didn't offer Italian so I even had to take Spanish I at a summer school to take Spanish III by my senior year.

Tsunami · November 3, 2004, 2:22am

An off-period would be better... Self-studying really impresses colleges. Also, it would have meant more if you would have taken a real academic class at a Community college rather than AP Psych.

It's really too bad you missed the Spanish with listening SAT II... An 800 on that would have made it all the better. You can still take the Italian, and the Spanish without listening but I doubt it would do much for ya.

Nakane · November 3, 2004, 2:31am

I'm not even sure how Affirmative Action works. It's kind of hard to take a real academic class at a college when marching band rehearsals end every day around 6 pm and you are tired as heck(excuses, I know, but they are valid =p). I have to admit though I'm not a good Spanish student, I'd probably not even break 600 on a Spanish SAT II test.

So the point you're trying to get across is that taking the AP Psych course itself is going to hurt my chances? The only reason I'm taking this is for an easy A and thus a slightly higher class rank by graduation.(hopefully) For self-studying I'm planning to study for the AP Chem test on my own, but it's not like it's going to affect ED..

Either way, I appreciate your comments.

Tsunami · November 3, 2004, 2:39am

Exactly.

It's a problem, I've found, with Koreans. Don't take it as racist or anything, but most Koreans, as Professor Escalante said in Stand and Deliver "Get A's because they take the Mickey Mouse classes." That is, the classes in which they can easily perform at extremely high levels.

That is, to take a class like AP Psychology (Which is the biggest "Easy A" class of all time) is going to reflect negatively on you.

In the end this is what colleges dislike, and I think that the college officials know who's who when it comes to this kind of things - if I can easily see it, so should they.

The fact that you have practice until 6 PM doesn't mean you can't take classes either, haha. Just means it's harder. And that's what it all comes down to sometimes - who wants it the most and who's willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of academics.

Anyway, chipper up man, and if you still want to self-study Spanish and own the SAT II, it's not too late - you're Korean.

I know you can do it because I, a Mexican, self-studied the Korean language in two weeks and got an 800 on the Korean SAT II by using the Korean learning style. :)

BTW: Affirmative Action is when disadvantaged minorities have about a 600% greater chance of being accepted into top schools than whites and asians in the US.

The statistic is that 50% of Asians in the US hold college degrees. This is almost double the second-highest race's percentage - whites at 28% - and it's 5 times more than the Latin-American statistic. Affirmative action is going to kick you in the shins, so to speak, because prestigious schools are extremely backers of AA. In fact, most Universities are.

Nakane · November 3, 2004, 2:50am

As a matter of fact, my caucasian friend recommended me the course, and then, all the "smart" kids, regardless of their races, are equally obsessive when it comes to GPA's and stuff.(I am the only Korean in my class of 624 lol) Also, only about 7 out of ~30 kids in my Psych class have an A, so I wouldn't call it a Mickey Mouse class. =p

But dude, you got an 800 on the Korean SAT II and you're Mexican? Dang, that's pretty darn impressive, I've heard that Korean is one of the hardest languages to learn as a foreigner..

Oh and cut me some slack, I didn't know much English at all till the year 2000. =p But then there are those Korean geniuses like my friend who came here as an 8th grader and got into Princeton. (1600 SAT, 3 800's)

BTW: Disadvantaged minorities = ? African Americans and who else? Latin Americans?

Tsunami · November 3, 2004, 2:58am

I learned English at a pretty late age myself, in fact, Spanish is my first language.
And yes, AP Psychology is a "Mickey Mouse Class."

Well, at least it should be, since the test is so easy. I passed it on normal psychology. In fact, I recommended that a friend of mine take normal psychology instead because it would leave him with a much better idea of the subject than the normal AP Psych. If someone doesn't get a 5 on the AP Psych test then that just means they were really lazy, haha. Of course, pretentious high school teachers always want to take credit for the student's success, so they tend to pile homework and mundane assignments on students for the sake of saying they did something.

Korean's actually not so hard. I admit, it's somewhat daunting at first... But it's just like Spanish except for the fact that it has less grammatical irregularities than Spanish. Everything seems to be well-structured in Korean.
The hard part about it is actually speaking and listening. It's hard for Koreans to understand me when I speak it because it's hard to pronounce and it's a difficult language to master listening-wise as well. At least for me.

Nakane · November 3, 2004, 3:03am

Well I wouldn't know what it'd be like to be learning Korean.. how did you even learn to read the language?

Also, to sum it up, what do you think my chances for Cornell ED will be percentage-wise? Assuming that my essays are not superb.

Tsunami · November 3, 2004, 3:07am

I learned how to read the language off some website. I think it was catcode.com or something of that nature. Anyway, what's so hard about it? Hangul is really logical - props to good ol' Sejong, he did a bang up job with it.

Assuming that your essays are not superb, you have about a 10% chance.

If you manage to pull off some essays that will go down in history as some of the greatest written works of humanity (a bit of hoperbola there). Then you have a 30% chance.