where do i fit?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Background
Race: Chinese
Gender: Male
Location: New Jersey
Family income: >300k, one little brother
College Class Year: 2012 (currently a Junior)
High School: Public
High School Type: Competitive, large public. 2250 students total, sent 15 kids to Ivies in 2006, and probably about two dozen more to other top 20 schools.
Will apply for financial aid: No</p>

<p>Stats
Class Rank: ~20/550 (top 5%)
UW GPA: ~3.7
SAT: 800M 720V 710W (2230, taking again in october)
SATII: Taking US History & MathIIC in May, Chem in June
APs: this year - APUSH & Calc AB | next year - AP Lit, Euro, Calc BC
Schedule: Most Rigorous Available, all honors/AP classes since frosh year</p>

<p>ECs

  • Model UN: various awards at national conferences over past few years, Middle School Liaison as Junior, running for VP as senior
  • School Newspaper: Head business manager since junior year, political columnist
  • Chamber Ensemble: Most advanced group of singers who audition to be part of this selective 38-person ensemble. Total choir size: ~130
  • Varsity Basketball: played throughout high school, varsity since junior year
  • Student Action Committee: facilitate dialogue between the student body and school administration, conduct annual voter registration in support of the budget</p>

<p>Other

  • All-State Choir
  • Intern at local mayor’s office during his campaign in 2005, directed efforts to reach out to the Chinese-American community in my town (organizing campaign visits to local chinese schools, community centers, churches)
  • Over 80 hours of community service, volunteered for the Corzine campaign in 2005
  • Job as a teaching assistant at Kumon Learning Center since frosh year, 4 hours a week
  • Accepted into UPenn Wharton’s Leadership in the Business World summer program for summer of 07
  • Lead Organizer of a student-faculty charity basketball game (in association with Model UN) at my school to help alleviate the humanitarian crises in Darfur, Sudan. (scheduled for late May)</p>

<p>Chances to these schools?
ED - UPenn Wharton
EA - UChicago
Princeton
Stanford
Duke
Columbia
Dartmouth
Cornell
WashU
Northwestern
Georgetown
UMich
UVA
NYU Stern
Rutgers</p>

<p>I need some honest opinions guys, what do you think?</p>

2

<p>I’m going to be honest. What’s going to hurt you most is the fact you took AP courses in freshman year.</p>

<p>Despite the fact that most colleges look for a challenging courseload in students, it’s very difficult to take people who have taken an AP course in 9th grade. There was really no point to take college level courses in 9th grade, despite how well you did in them.</p>

<p>Think about it. How unbelievable does it sound that “college level courses” are taken at the beginning of high school… I highly doubt the colleges will smile upon that.</p>

<p>Of course you can’t change that now, but what you should’ve done is take two AP history courses during sophmore and junior year, then after, take 3-4 AP courses during your senior year.</p>

<p>My advice: Show your passion through your essay. DO NOT write about big goals in life or what seperates you from other applicants or why you deserve to go to that school. The best thing to do is use an experience that reveals plenty of positive things about your character.</p>

3

<p>I have no idea what the above poster is talking about in regards to AP courses. I have never even heard of a challenging course load as a negative. </p>

<p>ED - UPenn Wharton- Slight Reach/ Reach
EA - UChicago- Match
Princeton- Reach
Stanford- Reach
Duke- Slight Reach
Columbia- Slight Reach
Dartmouth- Slight Reach
Cornell- High Match/ Slight Reach
WashU- high Match/ Slight reach (you’ll probably be waitlisted lol)
Northwestern- High match/ Slight Reach
Georgetown- High match
UMich- Safe Match
UVA- Match
NYU Stern- High MAtch
Rutgers- Safety</p>

<p>Great list, you’ll have a lot of success.</p>

4

<p>The only people that I’ve seen rejections from to high caliber colleges were people who took AP courses freshman year.</p>

<p>AP courses are important, but belong in your junior and/or senior years.</p>

<p>You’re looking at it to simply. Colleges do like a challenging courseload, but they realize that freshman year is completely overkill to have an AP or two in. A freshman student in high school taking college level courses would convince colleges that the student did not grow mentally at all throughout his high school years. However, this is not the case for honors courses.</p>

<p>High school is about doing your best every year, yet increasing in performance. Colleges like to see PROGRESSION rather than a 98 average in freshman year with 2 AP’s and 90 average in junior year with 4 AP’s.</p>

<p>To win a college over, you must show that you’ve grown, and still have room to grow. If you get an AP or two around junior year, then take 4 AP courses your senior year, it will show that the school clearly knows you are ready.</p>

<p>The bottom line is that colleges do not want a seemingly “burnt out” kid, who has worked at the same level throughout their high school experience.</p>

5

<p>UchihaMikyas: I’ll have to reiterate slipper1234’s point that your post makes absolutely no sense. </p>

<ol>
<li>Your whole theory is based upon your assumption that he did badly junior year, when in fact he’s top 5%.<br></li>
<li>His taking AP classes freshman year (btw I have no idea where you’re getting this from, since he says “HONORS/APs since frosh year”) simply shows that he’s SMARTER than the average student.</li>
<li>So you’re saying that Einstein was a burnout, b/c he took college math in middle school.</li>
<li>Consistently stellar grades will beat a “trend”, every time. 98-98-98-98, for example, is much more impressive than 88-90-92-94.</li>
<li>I have no idea what you mean by “burnt out kid”, since he’s obviously taking harder classes as he advances. Look at the schedule: Calc AB junior year–>Calc BC senior year.</li>
<li>Maybe the average student isn’t “ready” before junior year to take APs, but this guy certainly is. Good job, myang, and keep it up–I’m sure you’ll be fine on college admissions.</li>
</ol>

6

<p>I seriously doubt that taking APs early on in highschool is a bad thing, because if it is then every kid at my school is in serious trouble because we were required to take a minimum of 1 AP in freshmen year and 3-4 in sophomore year…</p>

7

<p>When I say burnt out, I mean exhausted from work… I have no idea how you thought I was referring to a burnout… </p>

<p>My stand is that high school is only meant to be half the battle, it’s not necessary to take AP courses starting at freshman year.</p>

<p>Also, consistent grades are actually frowned upon… I’m surprised you didn’t know that. The 88-90-92-94 is actually better…</p>

<p>I can tell the three of you know little about the admissions process… Distinguishing yourself among other applicants has nothing to do with the years of or amounts of AP courses that you take.</p>

<p>Of course you will need to take SOME AP’s… but colleges do not care if you are a little “genius” who is “different” from everybody else.</p>

<p>If a school requires freshman to take 1 AP, it will not show that you earned it through your studies, and rather just chose it quick with a guidance counselor.</p>

<p>Progressing and working your way through high school, getting through introductory courses, and clearly obtaining AP’s in senior year due to a reference (since you are jumping from regular classes) will mean a lot more to colleges compared to the kid who scored AP’s since freshman year.</p>

<p>There are so many cases where kids who have taken AP’s since freshman year end up getting rejected.</p>

<p>Freshman year is the time to do your best in honors(not AP) classes, build character, and learn about where you want to take your high school career.</p>

<p>Sophmore year is the time to experiment with an AP in history. It’s also the time to learn about your passion in life.</p>

<p>Junior year is the time to choose one AP based on preference as well as various introductory courses. It’s also the time to shine by looking for research oppurtunities, as well as competing in science olympiads (if you are looking towards a future in the sciences).</p>

<p>Senior year is the time to get a majority of your classes to the AP level.</p>

<p>That kind of progression is admirable to the people admitting you to (even the Ivy Leagues…).</p>

<p>You guys get the impression that being that elite student who worked hard will win you a better chance at the Ivy Leagues.</p>

<p>However, it is the people who focus on progressing throughout their high school experience that benefit most, chances wise. Even if you start at humble beginnings…</p>

8

<p>UchihaMikyas.
im not sure who told you what is good and bad
but you are 100% completeley wrong.</p>

<p>Consistent great grades are way better than improving good grades</p>

<p>Top schools would much rather have a kid that gets a 4.0,4.0,4.0,4.0 all years of highschool over a kid who has a 3.7,3.8,3.9,4.0</p>

<p>seriously, get it right
who even told you that</p>

<p>it was like my friend tried convinceing me that Brown was considered the best school in the world and the hardest to get into</p>

<p>and he said if ur GPA is good and SAT is great u ca ngo just about anywhere</p>

<p>like my friend had a 2200 sat and a 3.6uw,3.9w
and my friend was telling me that my friend^^^could get into columbia, cornell, etc, really easily</p>

<p>and Jayrayman
ur posting in the wrong spot
u r supposed to create ur own thread on the subject</p>

9

<p>my bad guys, i’ve been away for a couple of days so i haven’t monitored all your responses. haha when i said honors/aps since frosh year, i didn’t mean that i took ap courses frosh year. my first 2 aps were this year (junior), APUSH and calc. sorry for the confusion</p>

10

<p>bump bump bump</p>

11

<p>oh yeah i also need to mention that i’ve gotten suspended for one day due to an in-school cell phone violation. that’s one of the weaknesses on my app that i’m pretty worried about. how much of a factor will that be?</p>

12

<p>Hm… is your suspension an in-school one or out-of-school? Because if it’s in-school and your school is like mine then its not reported to colleges. I doubt it will affect very much, however, regardless of what type of suspension it is due to the nature of the cause. (A cell phone violation? REALLY!!! Good lord. Three-quarters of my school would face a high school long suspension if that existed here in KLHT.)</p>

13

<p>Uchiha Mikyas…whaaat? A bitter student who took APs as a frosh and didn’t get in, perhaps? That’s the only explanation I can think of for your ridiculously inaccurate post.</p>

14

<p>Uchiha, if you’ll notice, the kids who get into Ivies ARE the ones who consistently did well and worked as hard as they could since freshman year. Colleges don’t want a kid who only started working hard when they realized it was crunch time and they needed good grades. So… what you’re saying is that it’s better to PURPOSELY do poorly freshman year in order to show improvement later instead of just doing your best from the get-go? Somehow… I don’t think so.</p>