URGENT: where to EA/ED?

Yingcai
Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:42:00 +0000

I realize that I had this same info posted about a week ago, but I need to decide where I am going to EA/ED at pretty soon. I have thought about REA at Stanford, but I am not sure if I should do this (seeing as applicant pool might be even more competitive). Where would it be most beneficial (if at all) to EA/ED?

Im applying to:

Stanford
Swarthmore
Georgetown SFS
UPenn
Middlebury
Dartmouth
Rice
Johns Hopkins
Vassar
UT Austin

Male, Caucasian

SAT:2280 (CR 760 Math 720 Wr 800)
SAT 2:Chinese (800), MATH 2 (750), Lit (770)
AP: Chinese-5, Calc AB-4 (Taking APUSH, CHEM in Spring)

Academics:
My School does not rank the students, however, my College counselor basically told me that I was in top 5 in my grade (out of only ~130…). This may seem uninteresting, yet my school sends AT LEAST 20-30 kids every year to the level of schools that I am applying to - there are roughly ONLY 3 letter A grade equivalents in ANY given class, so having an A (even an A-), is like being the best in the class. Also, my school does not place the name AP, on any given course description (like many Northeastern Prep schools.

-Latin 1-4
-Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus, AB Calculus AP, Multivariable Calculus
-Chinese 1-6
-World History, US History to 1900, Contemporary Chinese History, Contemporary US History
-English 9-12
-Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Chemistry II

I have had A’s or higher every year in each class, except for math…which was a B in both fresh/soph years…

Also, I just got back from School Year Abroad China, where I spent my Junior year studying Chinese in Beijing while living with a Chinese host family. The experience was amazing, and the academics were grueling. I was able to skip 5 level of my American school’s Chinese after being back.

Extracurricular:

-Model UN (10-12)
-Quizbowl (10-12)
-Chinese language School (3 hours/Sunday) (9-12)
I began in the Bilingual level 1 class and I am now enrolled in the level 10 Native Speaker class, the highest in the entire school. I am the only non-chinese person to do such in the school’s history.

Chinese Culture Club (9-12), President (1 year)
-Red Cross Club Founder (1 year)

Red Cross volunteer (3 years)
-Volunteer at a NPO dedicated to blind and visually impaired children’s education (10-12: over 170 hours total), every Saturday morning at 8 AM til 10.
-Taekwondo (8-12), Blackbelt (1 year)
-Interned at a local hospital for over 80 hours during the summer: shadowed Cardiologists, observed open-heart and catheter surgeries, performed (not kidding, not sure how this is even legal…) a renal stent placement.

In China

-Calligraphy class weekly(75+ hrs)
-Traditional chinese instrument lessons weekly (75+ hrs)
-Taught English to 60 4th graders at Migrant School in Beijing Slum weekly (60+ hrs)
-I took care of orphans who have undergone surgery for conditions such as cleft pallet weekly (55 hrs).
-Wrote a 10 page research paper on the Migrant Phenomenom in Beijing, includes original research from interviews with workers, college professors, and the highest ranking police officer of Haidian District in Beijing. To be published along with other students research.
-Went on Study Trips to remote areas such as Yunnan (borders Thailand and Burma), Guizhou (borders Vietnam), Fujian (across the strait from Taiwan).