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O.O. You guys have some pretty interesting stories here.
I plan to major in nanotechnology at either USC, UCSD, UCBerkeley, or Penn State. I don't know of that universities that offer nano as a degree other than the ones that pop up on google search. UAlbany seems way too high for me right now, and it'd probably be a better candidate for grad school anyways.
In a sense, I am shooting pretty high in comparison to my grades. Nano is considered Chemical Engineering, and i have 0 involvement in there besides taking normal chemistry at my school, which puts me at the back of the line... My school does not offer AP Chemistry and the local community colleges here were jam packed full of kids. The only class that had open spots left was a guitar class or some shit like that...
My unweighted GPA is like a 3.9 now, but that's really easy to get at my school. The valedictorians here often graduate with no less than a 4.6 weighted avg GPA and there's a pelthora of people with weighted 4.0s and above.
I have about 12, going on 13 years of musical experience and about 7 years in orchestra. I've also been in the band program for 7 years and currently assistant drum major....Too bad this is all the extra curricular crap I have.
You guys make the essay sound like it's the entire application process. Can it really overshadow lackluster SAT scores and extracurriculars if it's really really good?
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I know my friend got into Spring admission Berkeley with an 1800ish SAT, and 4.3 or so weighted GPA. He was very confident in his essays and he wasn't that big on extracurriculars.
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I'm pretty nervous too.
I really fucked up last semester when I got 3 B's. I've always been a sorta B student, but I was getting straight A's my Junior year until right before I went for a national competition and I fucked up three of my easiest classes.
Now I'm feeling really sunk and down on myself. Hahaha. My chances are pretty god damn low. xD
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On July 09 2010 18:26 n.DieJokes wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 17:46 Z3kk wrote:
I'm a poor little soon-to-be sophomore (but fear not, I'm a self-proclaimed 90th percentile in maturity and coherency here on TL), and I'm just stressing my ass off already about college and what I'll have to do to get in...
I hope to be able to amass a transcript/application with something around the stats (so to speak) of chen... I don't want to clutter up TL with shit so here and now, could some of you smarter and more successful guys give me some guidance and help? Much appreciated!
It's about two in the morning and I'm typing this in bed w/ and iPod touch due to insomnia, so I have to go... ;____; Best of luck with your college apps and make sure you plan out your essays well!! To be like Chen? Take the following courses over the summer at your local university/community college: Chem Honors Bio Honors Pre-calc Physics Honors Then go directly into the AP of those courses in addition to taking as many non-pre req. AP courses (Stat, AP US--> Euro, Enviro, Psy, Micro/Macro if your school offers it and ect.) while still completing the absolute minimum number of extra-curriculars needed to graduate. Immediately join the Asian club, red cross clubs, chess team, debate, science team, math team and brainstorm ideas for possible clubs that you can start. You must be at least active in all of them so you can run for officer postions your junior and senior year To score a 2300 my advice would be to take it at the end of your sophmore year/beginning of junior year just to see how your doing. Then take a prep course unless you score 2200+, then just skip to step three. Step three, buy two very large books, read through the material in the subjects you don't think you're realistically able to perfect on your own. Take the practice tests until your scores reach your target area (this is not as bad as it sounds) For the SAT II's: Math II is pretty easy if you're already in calc (which you should be by junior year) it just takes a little repetition and review to make sure you don't make too many stupid mistakes. Same goes for Math I but your margin for error is significantly smaller Physics just requires study, if you can finish AP physics in your junior year you're gonna rape that test. As I said earlier, its a lot of easy stuff but its completely overwhelming if you've only had a physics honors course. Chem is hard, but again is you can finish Chem your junior year your going to rape that test. Take your US SAT II right after your ap tests in the subject and you'll kill it My several cents
Thanks for the info!! :D
I'm taking normal chem, honors pre-calc, and honors physics in my sophomore year. What else would/could I take if I took those classes during the summer (wondering)? ><"
I'll probably take SAT II Math level 2 at the end of sophomore year (which is what I've been told I'm supposed to do) . For the clubs, should I join them even if my school's clubs are generally horrible and inactive? And how should I approach community service?
I really don't have time right now, but can I continually PM you with questions and such? 
I live in California, if that makes a difference with academics.
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Having just finished my first year of college, I can tell you I was in your same shoes as a HS junior/senior. I was dropping bricks all over the place after looking at other people's stats/achievements on the internet. I was browsing around forums such as TL and college confidential (probably two of the worst places I could go to boost my self esteem ^_^) and found I couldn't even compete with anyone on any of the sites.
Like you, my stats were average (I am also Asian). Actually, browsing through other people's stats scared me away from applying to any Ivies or any other top tier school. I ended up applying to "average" schools and got in them all, unsurprisingly. I'm at University of Michigan now, and I can say that even though my HS credentials were on the lower end of all the students here, I haven't had much trouble at all keeping up in college (based on first year experience).
When you get to college, you'll find all that high school bs is meaningless. SAT's, SATII's, extracurriculars...no one cares. It's a fresh new start. As long as you are willing to work, nothing will separate a 1900 kid versus a 2200 kid in college other than the effort that is put in.
If you're still worried about whether you can get in a good school, let alone compete with the other students there, then I have a little story. I know someone who had very very average HS stats. SAT score was like 1280/1600 or something. Only took 1 or 2 AP's. I don't even know if she was top 10%, but she may have been. Anyways, she went to University of Michigan and majored in electrical engineering. She graduated with a 3.7 (when the average engineering GPA here is like 2.7 or something) and went on to grad school, ultimately landing a job with Boeing.
Btw, I don't know too much about the UC system, but your stats seem good enough to get in any of the UC's, with the only exception being Berkeley. Just apply early and you should be fine.
Like I said, I also shat bricks looking at other people's stats, so I was too afraid to apply to better schools. I guess my advice to you is, don't get your mind wrapped up in what other people have accomplished. High school stats mean nothing once you get to college. Aim high. Good luck  .
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On July 09 2010 18:06 ghermination wrote:
Man it seems like such a waste of a childhood to study like six hours a day and take ten AP classes. While anecdotal evidence proof does not make, i got into a pretty good school - Sveuciliste u Zadru (or university of Zadar) with a measly (US) 3.2gpa (edit: 3.45 weighted... i think that was it) two AP classes with scores of 4, and a smattering of extracurricular activities that weren't really very impressive. I just don't understand why people can possibly motivate themselves to such ridiculous levels of over achievement when anything past a 4.0 is the equivalent of academic e-peen... you're already going to get into most schools and the ones that will reject would reject you with a 4.2 as well.
Can anyone here explain the mindset behind this? It just seems like such a waste to me to spend the only completely free years of your life trying to emulate the system that's going to chew you up and spit you out in 18 years anyway.
I can. To be quite honest, kids like Chen don't really try all that hard especially for every single thing on that resume. I'm sure they try hard to work on the one or two things that max out/round out the application, but most of these kids just kill high school because they know how it works and how to get through it efficiently. It's especially easy with AP's structured the way (most tests are pretty easy to 5 with only 2-4 weeks of intensive studying, some few actually require a year of work) they are and high school essays being really simple (have a decent sense of structure and an ounce of creativity, and you'll ace shit). It's not necessarily about being a genius, it's
Not just talking out of my ass here, my college resume was a carbon copy of Chen's except with worse sat II's, +0.3 GPA(4.65w, 3.98), -1 job and -1 internship, +2 5'ed aps, +4 courses at princeton university, and cross country/track every season (with an honorary varsity title lol i suck at running) till i broke a bone. I didn't study 6 hours a day, I played a lot of wow and sc and spent a lot of time helping out my brotherhelping out my brother.
infact we got the exact same SAT score, which by the way imBLIND is far from perfect. there are 2 categories of college relevant info: stuff that gets you not hard cut in initial consideration (for T1 school certainly GPA above 3.6, SAT above 2300, volunteer and leadership experience on your app. Then there's the stuff that actually sets you out of the crowd when you pass the checkpoints, which is like really sick accomplishments/special situations that you write about in your essay
[spoiler] (pretty much situations like the one in the link above, but i couldnt write about that.)
And yes affirmative action rapes you esp at T1/non state schools, but going to a T1 school is not all important. + Show Spoiler +obviously just thinking of the math top 10% doesnt actually mean that much unless you go to a really prestigious school or have disadvantaged circumstances just because of how many high schools there are / how selective admissions is
Also something to consider is that if you are focused/know what you want to do, you have a big leg up on other people in the long run/life careerwise. If you know you want to do nanotech, you are gonna get a huge advantage by doing research every summer in a totally focused way and taking classes that cut straight to the chase and then taking lozza grad seminars. But man, get some experience with it asap (like go visit a lab or company) and figure out if you really want to beeline like that! Bc if you do and you have second thoughts it can be tricky to change things up, from my experience.
Hope I dont sound like too much of a knowitall douchebag =/. PM me if you want any more info.
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On July 09 2010 18:06 ghermination wrote:
Man it seems like such a waste of a childhood to study like six hours a day and take ten AP classes. While anecdotal evidence proof does not make, i got into a pretty good school - Sveuciliste u Zadru (or university of Zadar) with a measly (US) 3.2gpa (edit: 3.45 weighted... i think that was it) two AP classes with scores of 4, and a smattering of extracurricular activities that weren't really very impressive. I just don't understand why people can possibly motivate themselves to such ridiculous levels of over achievement when anything past a 4.0 is the equivalent of academic e-peen... you're already going to get into most schools and the ones that will reject would reject you with a 4.2 as well.
Can anyone here explain the mindset behind this? It just seems like such a waste to me to spend the only completely free years of your life trying to emulate the system that's going to chew you up and spit you out in 18 years anyway.
1) they don't work as hard as you make them out to; high school courses don't teach that much material, it's about how fast you learn and how you take the tests.
2) it's both rewarding and a challenge to keep a high gpa, that's one form of motivation
3) they know they can get into most schools, but they want the best. Anything that helps will be reason enough
4) parenting is a big factor, Asian value education as a form of social status, possibly more than money and job. It's just part of the culture. Their motivations come from both their upbringing and their own determination (due to their upbringing, I guess) to become the very best
5) it's an investment. If you get into a good undergrad program, you are more likely to get into a better grad program or job. I don't have the stats, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit if top school grads get paid more on average than other schools.
6) if you want to get into a respectable grad program, undergrad will be very similar to high school. The bad thing is, you won't realize this until your 3rd or 4th year, when you begin to dread your low GPAs in the first few years.
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United States10328 Posts
On July 10 2010 05:33 imBLIND wrote:
In a sense, I am shooting pretty high in comparison to my grades. Nano is considered Chemical Engineering, and i have 0 involvement in there besides taking normal chemistry at my school, which puts me at the back of the line... My school does not offer AP Chemistry and the local community colleges here were jam packed full of kids. The only class that had open spots left was a guitar class or some shit like that...
Self-study AP chem. It takes maybe 2 weeks (use breaks); I went through 2 SAT II books for the SAT II and then 2 AP books... and got a 5.
On July 10 2010 05:33 imBLIND wrote:
I have about 12, going on 13 years of musical experience and about 7 years in orchestra. I've also been in the band program for 7 years and currently assistant drum major....Too bad this is all the extra curricular crap I have.
push this stuff a lot. I hope you're pretty good (I suppose I have a lot of experience too but am pretty terrible for having played for so long.) For Ivies you have to be really fucking good at something (or really good at a lot of things but those are more of a long shot, especially if you're from california...) For UC's, darn I am not so sure. But remember that colleges in general are trying to build a class that they like. You obviously aren't stupid (a useful skill toi have), so make them want to have you at their school.
On July 10 2010 05:33 imBLIND wrote:
You guys make the essay sound like it's the entire application process. Can it really overshadow lackluster SAT scores and extracurriculars if it's really really good?
People like to overemphasize essays, especially for juniors (late in the year) and seniors, because it's pretty much all you have left that could possibly change their mind. If your essay stands out, more power to you (I think something like 10%? of people are helped by their essays if they're really really good, and 5% of people are hurt by terrible essays... ask flamewheel he told me this. I probably remembered it wrong.) Definitely spend time on them -- you never know if the admissions officer will be like "OMG I LOVE THIS KID" and slobber all over you.
Since it sounds like you're... a junior? DO YOUR BEST to get good grades this year. It's pretty crucial. If you're not super-good at something and want to get into a selective college, the least you can do is make mostly A's with maybe 1 or 2 B's per year, in hard classes. Also, try studying a bit for the SAT... I'm sure you can get 2000+ if you work at it.
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CA10835 Posts
go to USC, easy choice 
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Insert standard USC joke.
Doing well on the SAT is pretty simple. In fact, it's pretty similar to being good at StarCraft.
Take. alot. of. tests.
I spent 30 minutes a day 1 month before my sat doing the reading section and got an 800. I didn't practice the math section like this, but I'm sure I could have boosted my score another 50 points. (Math section is all about not being flustered for time -.- ).
30 minutes to at most 1 hour a day and you'll dramatically increase your scores.
APs are pretty simple generally. Looking back, HS classes make the actual subjects a lot harder to master than they are.
~~~
To the op,
Essays can help a ton. I had excellent essays and they definitely boosted me into a school I didn't expect to get into.
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On July 09 2010 17:45 R04R wrote:
1910 is a perfectly good SAT I score. If your GPA is at or above 4.0, you're in a sport, regardless of how well you do, and you have at least 3 years in one community service/club, you should be able to get into all the UCs bar UCLA/Berkeley, with Davis/SD being a slight reach.
High School class of 2010 had the hardest application period ever, and will probably be the same if not easier next year.
You'll be fine. What major/field do you want to pursue?
I was stupid because I didn't know anything about college application and didn't apply to (good) privates. Find some that fit with you well, you're bound to get in one of them.
1910 is a stretch for berkeley/ucla in my experience
i go to berkeley, and my roommate had 1910. and i have a couple 1900 friends from my hs that also made berkeley (though as spring admits).
so my point is - if ur in the 1900s, u got a shot at berkeley.. its sort of a stretch tho
i think u should be fine for usc
but privates are pretty damn expensive
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CA10835 Posts
On July 10 2010 10:23 Sabu113 wrote:
Insert standard USC joke.
What does that even mean? If you're talking about freshman statistics USC and Reed are peers.
On July 10 2010 10:32 OMin wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 17:45 R04R wrote:
1910 is a perfectly good SAT I score. If your GPA is at or above 4.0, you're in a sport, regardless of how well you do, and you have at least 3 years in one community service/club, you should be able to get into all the UCs bar UCLA/Berkeley, with Davis/SD being a slight reach.
High School class of 2010 had the hardest application period ever, and will probably be the same if not easier next year.
You'll be fine. What major/field do you want to pursue?
I was stupid because I didn't know anything about college application and didn't apply to (good) privates. Find some that fit with you well, you're bound to get in one of them. 1910 is a stretch for berkeley/ucla in my experience i go to berkeley, and my roommate had 1910. and i have a couple 1900 friends from my hs that also made berkeley (though as spring admits). so my point is - if ur in the 1900s, u got a shot at berkeley.. its sort of a stretch tho i think u should be fine for usc but privates are pretty damn expensive
if it's a stretch for UCLA/CAL it's a stretch for USC too.
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Are you guys all from CA? It's probably a lot harder to get into Berk from out of state/country?
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@duckett: dang I read the link about your brother. You must've been really strong to get through school with all that going on.
Lol and all those guys with a billion aps well aps are kinda lol. It's very easy to cram and get 5's w/o really knowing the subject very well. So for something like general chem vs ap chem, well you always have time to learn that stuff later. So it shouldn't discourage you from nano or anything.
@op since you are applying to ucs I would think that stuff like sats are a fairly big factor (since they get so many apps). Don't you have the chance to take the sat before college apps are due? I would really recommend doing so and idk try to break 2100? It's not out of reach since people often increase their score by a ton after taking it say the second or third time. Yeah sure people can get in with lower scores but it seems like the surest way to increase your chances at this stage.
For the math section just practice, but really it shouldn't be too hard to improve in this department.
For the writing and vocab section I think it might help to read more often. I think it's a lot better to learn grammar and vocab from reading rather than cramming from prep books. Lol although going on forums a lot can be a bit detrimental to grammar... (I've almost started replacing "you're" with "your" due to people almost never getting it right). But yeah reading more good stuff will help you internalize grammar rules so on the mcs you can just blaze thru cuz you know intuitively what is right or not.
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Dude, as much as you think comparing yourself to someone else is going to help, it's only going to stress you out more. I did the same exact thing as you and it only made me more paranoid.
When you're looking at someone's rejected stats, there are countless variables that could have influenced that decision. Maybe the recruiter didn't like the tone of the essay, maybe the college wasn't looking for more of that type of student that year, etc.
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Nothing wrong with the CSU schools if you don't get into UCs.
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Just to freak you out more, your class will have even worse college acceptance rates than class of 2010. Like someone said above, class of 2010 had the worst acceptance rates of all time, and 2011 will probably be worse.
I wanted to go to Harvard, but then their decisions come back, and they accepted 6.5% OF ALL APPLICANTS WTF!?!?!?
._.
No way. Absolutely no chance for me to go there. I got wait-listed, which doesn't mean shit, because all of the people that got accepted chose to attend anyway. Waitlist decisions usually are supposed to last all the way until July. Harvard's waitlist was closed on May 18 or some date around there. ><
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disregard my post (misread...) -.-;
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On July 10 2010 06:26 Z3kk wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2010 18:26 n.DieJokes wrote:On July 09 2010 17:46 Z3kk wrote:
I'm a poor little soon-to-be sophomore (but fear not, I'm a self-proclaimed 90th percentile in maturity and coherency here on TL), and I'm just stressing my ass off already about college and what I'll have to do to get in...
I hope to be able to amass a transcript/application with something around the stats (so to speak) of chen... I don't want to clutter up TL with shit so here and now, could some of you smarter and more successful guys give me some guidance and help? Much appreciated!
It's about two in the morning and I'm typing this in bed w/ and iPod touch due to insomnia, so I have to go... ;____; Best of luck with your college apps and make sure you plan out your essays well!! To be like Chen? Take the following courses over the summer at your local university/community college: Chem Honors Bio Honors Pre-calc Physics Honors Then go directly into the AP of those courses in addition to taking as many non-pre req. AP courses (Stat, AP US--> Euro, Enviro, Psy, Micro/Macro if your school offers it and ect.) while still completing the absolute minimum number of extra-curriculars needed to graduate. Immediately join the Asian club, red cross clubs, chess team, debate, science team, math team and brainstorm ideas for possible clubs that you can start. You must be at least active in all of them so you can run for officer postions your junior and senior year To score a 2300 my advice would be to take it at the end of your sophmore year/beginning of junior year just to see how your doing. Then take a prep course unless you score 2200+, then just skip to step three. Step three, buy two very large books, read through the material in the subjects you don't think you're realistically able to perfect on your own. Take the practice tests until your scores reach your target area (this is not as bad as it sounds) For the SAT II's: Math II is pretty easy if you're already in calc (which you should be by junior year) it just takes a little repetition and review to make sure you don't make too many stupid mistakes. Same goes for Math I but your margin for error is significantly smaller Physics just requires study, if you can finish AP physics in your junior year you're gonna rape that test. As I said earlier, its a lot of easy stuff but its completely overwhelming if you've only had a physics honors course. Chem is hard, but again is you can finish Chem your junior year your going to rape that test. Take your US SAT II right after your ap tests in the subject and you'll kill it My several cents Thanks for the info!! :D I'm taking normal chem, honors pre-calc, and honors physics in my sophomore year. What else would/could I take if I took those classes during the summer (wondering)? ><" I'll probably take SAT II Math level 2 at the end of sophomore year (which is what I've been told I'm supposed to do) . For the clubs, should I join them even if my school's clubs are generally horrible and inactive? And how should I approach community service? I really don't have time right now, but can I continually PM you with questions and such? I live in California, if that makes a difference with academics.
It's even better if they're horribly inactive. Then you don't need to do a lot for reach officer positions, on your application it will read ________ officer regardless of how active the club is. It would be nice if they were recognized but thats makes it harder anyway and it would have to be a pretty well rated to be recognized.
For community service I'd go check out your local hospital and your elementary school, they usually have volunteering positions open that all look good and I've found to be very rewarding. If you interested in medicine I'd recommend checking out your local ems squad, usually you have to be 16 to join but mine (and many others) will pay for your training to be and EMT which alone is a stellar amount of volunteering.
If you've already signed up for those classes I wouldn't sweat it too much. Just make sure you take the AP's of the subjects you want to take SAT II's in/ are very confident you can crush during your Junior year. Feel free to pm whenever, I'm always happy to give advice
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This blog is somewhat depressing (like the usual College ones) and encouraging (as usual as well)... it's always ridiculously hard for me to resist posting all of my scores and to shout CHANCE ME!!!
I have a feeling Class of 2011 (us) is not going to have such a fun time next spring.
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EPT
