<p>I was wondering what tier of schools would be the best for me to apply to?</p>
<p>(Yes, I have a college counselor, but I was just wondering what others’ opinion might be)</p>
<p>“Ivy” Tier: Cornell, Dartmouth, Brown, etc.</p>
<p>Top Tier: Northwestern, Rice, etc.</p>
<p>Public Schools: U of California – San Diego, U of I – Champaign-Urbana, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks 
Here’s my info:</p>
<p>Took all accelerated honors or AP courses [16 total] except for 2 regular honors math courses </p>
<p>Nationally ranked/highly competitive high school that sent almost 50 students to Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, and CalTech, as well as schools of equal caliber last year</p>
<p>approx. 1100 in graduating class; no class ranks</p>
<p>ACT: 35
SAT: 2200
SAT 2: 800 on Japanese, US History, Biology
GPA: 3.5 UW /4.6 W</p>
<p>Raving recommendations from: Japanese teacher, AP English teacher, piano teacher</p>
<p>Very talented at piano (progressed rapidly in short amount of time [once I started taking it seriously XD]), volunteered in music tutoring and accompanying for children, as well as being a guest performer in Music Institute of Chicago Composer Labs, won various competitions such as Granquist (2 times), Northwestern Music Festival (6 times), CAMTA (5 times), NSMTA (1 time), and have played concerto with HS orchestra; attended prestigious Aspen Music Festival for piano during the summer</p>
<p>Highly proficient in Japanese (only Sophomore to test into AP language course at my school EVER); passed the JLPT 1, the highest level a Japanese government test that proves that I would be able to understand a Japanese college textbook; I am also completely Caucasian, and we use no second language at home; I studied abroad in Japan for 2 months at age 15, living relatively independently and studying for at least 5 hours a day in addition to the immersion of daily life; I will help teach the AP Japanese class during my senior year; I will do an independent study during my senior year for Japanese ‘year 6’ since AP Japanese is considered ‘year 4’</p>
<p>Involved in volunteer and global clubs: Leader of Global Activism Club in grade 9 in which we organized a trip to the UN and met with the Sudanese consulate to discuss Darfur. We were the first school group to do this. We also raised 20k for Angola. Also have been involved with “Adopt a Family” for four years, have done beach clean-ups, and helped build a house for habitat for humanity. I also am a member of Japanese Culture Club and International Club.</p>
<p>State Science Olympiad Competitor in Grade 9; Won 1st place in Region for Ecology in Grade 9 (competing against soph, jr, sr in the region and state)</p>
<p>Won a significant leadership award at Cheley Camp in Colorado (hiking/outdoors camp)</p>
<p>My GPA is lower than it should be because I’ve been dealing with severe depression and other psychological issues since I was 10 or 12, and it got really bad in my sophomore year. I completely lost all hope and motivation in life, and my mom even considered having me drop out because it got so bad. </p>
<p>There were tons of family problems that year, such as my dad having a very rare illness that doctors still can’t diagnose (involving his brain and spinal cord), my brother going to jail and, my sister coming back from her second deployment to Iraq and becoming a very dangerous alcoholic. I also have been struggling with severe eating disorders since I was 13. I am almost fully recovered now.</p>
<p>Among many other issues XD It took A LOT of work for me to get motivated again during junior year like I was during freshman year. I was in a really messed up place during sophomore year. And many other years… But during junior year [and most likely senior year!] I was in a happy and healthy place.</p>
<p>WOW THAT WAS LONG.</p>
<p>Excuse any grammar or writing mistakes… I’m not going for perfection… just as long as the information is there !!</p>