I applied to colleges as a junior and was recently accepted to a few - namely, Cornell, UC Berkeley, CMU, among others. I was wondering - would you recommend I attend these schools next year or stay behind for senior year?
Some compelling reasons to stay are to continue competing for awards - I was interested in seeing if I could make Intel STS or ISEF by senior year, as well as YoungArts, Siemens, Presidential Scholars, etc. Also, I would have a chance at re-applying to some of the more selective schools I’m interested in - Stanford, MIT, Harvard, and Princeton among them. My stats are below for anyone interested in determining whether I have a chance at any of these schools.
I’m interested in filmmaking, animation, neuroscience, computer science, human-computer interaction, and entrepreneurship. Any help would be amazing!
Stats (some of this is obscured to protect privacy)
Objective:[ul]
[] SAT I (breakdown): 2310 - 780 (Math), 770 (Reading), 760 (Writing)
[] ACT:
[] SAT II: 780 (Math II), 730 (Chemistry), 750 (Biology-E)
[] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 (94.5)
[] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%-10% (our school doesn’t release rankings, but NHS is only for top 10% and my grade is above the cutoff by a few points)
[] AP (place score in parenthesis): Biology (4), Chemistry (3), Euro History (4), Psychology (4), Enviro Sci (4), Calc BC (5), Comp Sci (5), Physics C: M (5), E&M (5), English Lang (5), Spanish Lang (5)
[] IB (place score in parenthesis):
[] Senior Year Course Load: Probably this year’s courses? - English Lit, Spanish Lit, Multivariable Calc/Diff EQ, AP Statistics, and some phyics/literature electives
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Google Science Fair Finalist, Intel ISEF Finalist, Local science fair winner, Qualified to AIME, USACO Gold Level, Spoke at TEDx talks, National press coverage, Scholastic Gold Key, USABO Finalist, USNCO Finalist, Science Olympiad State Gold Medals, NCWIT National Award, Played in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Published a book at 12, Started a non-profit, National service awards[/li]
[/ul]Subjective:[ul]
[] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Council (SAB, Even Planning), Key Club (State Officer soph year), DECA (State Officer soph year), Founded my school’s hackathon (Director), Varsity Golf (Captain), School newspaper (Editor), self-started 501 c3 (Founder, raised over $100K), Hacker Club (President), NHS, Science Olympiad
[] Job/Work Experience: Intern for local startup, Freelance web development work, Kumon tutor, Restaurant waitress (Denny’s), Data specialist (remote work), TA for Chinese camp
[] Volunteer/Community service: Chinese school TA, Hospital volunteer, Key Club (400+ hours), Volunteer for local Buddhist center
[] Summer Activities: (freshman year) CTY, Debate camp (I used to debate), Research at local university, TA for Chinese summer camp, Key Club ICON, DECA Nats (soph year) Girls Who Code, Research at local university, Acted in 2 indie films, hackathons, Key Club ICON, DECA Nats (junior year) RSI, SPARC, Brain Camp @ Muhlenberg, hackathons, volunteer with a 501 c3 I started, Key Club ICON, DECA Nats
[/ul]Other[list]
[] Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
[] Intended Major: Computer Science + HCI
[] State (if domestic applicant): PA
[] Country (if international applicant):
[] School Type: Public
[] Ethnicity: Asian
[] Gender: Female
[] Income Bracket: $90K
[*]Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Girl in STEM?
btw, I’m in DECA also and was wondering what is the ‘DECA NATS’ thing you listed under summer activities?