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here are my stats....

KS-1/2 asian, 1/2 white-
GPA-3.8uw, 4.38w(soph/junior years-3.9uw, 4.5w)
SAT-
1st time-1470(670v/800m)
2nd time-1490(690v/800m)
SAT II's-IIC-800, writing-660, chem-750
ACT-32
rank-top 5% out of 380

APs so far(sophmore/junior year)-
Stat-5
Chem-4
Calc AB-5
US history-4
lang/comp-3(oops)

by the end of senior year, will have 10AP classes, and 7 honors classes. AP classes include, calc ab, calc bc, chem, bio, langcomp, litcomp, us history, us govt, stat, economics. (second heaviest course load in grade, the only kid who has taken more APs than i have is val. 1600SAT, calc as freshman...etc...)

ECs/Awards:
NHS
Track 3 years, varsity for 2, spent 3 hours after school everyday all second semester
Asian american club 3 years
French club 2 years
French NHS 2 years
Environmental club 3 years
FBLA, 5th in state in Parliamentary Procedures, team took first place overall in state. 1st in PP at regionals.
AMC12-106.5, qualified for AIME, got recognition awards and crap
Emporia State Physics exam, 2nd in State
Fluent in japanese, went to school every saturday for 6 hours each week for 10 years
recieved certificate saying that i completed the course work that a japanese student in Japan would have completed up through middle school.
60+ hours of community service so far, volunteer with Kaeru No Kai, where local japanese kids get together and participate in japanese culutural activities.
Natioal Merit, commended scholar (208)
Mu Alpha Theta senior year.
summer job with SEARS-1 year
volunteering with museum over summer on their educational branch.

Postions-
FBLA-treasurer
NHS-treasurer
Asian American club-President
Mu Alpha Theta-founder/(co-)president


Schools im lookin at....eeeek.....
Amherst
Rice (ID)
Dartmouth
Brown
Middlebury
Colgate
Pomona
Yale(safety......im kidding, probably wont apply, save myself the 75$)

major-math/econ, maybe(probably) go on to law school.
as you can tell i need safeties, and matches, i have none. i like smaller schools. with nice campuses. so do i have a good chance at some of these schools? and other schools? im open to suggestions. and ill be retaking the SATI or SATII-writing in october, dont know which one.
thanks!

By Incollege88 (Incollege88) on Thursday, July 22, 2004 - 02:28 pm: Edit

Hey Kousake- You could probably count Colgate as a safety/match, Middlebury as a match/reach, and the rest as realistic reaches. Your stats are obviously good and your ECs are impressive. I got accepted to Rice with similar stats and ECs. I also got accepted to Brown. I didn't apply to any of the others except Yale, at which I was wait-listed. However, you should really consider Duke as well if you're thinking of math/econ and then law school. Those are three great strengths at Duke (especially getting kids into great law schools) and it sounds like it would be a great fit. Pomona, at least at my school, is very picky about whom it admits and its decisions can be rather confusing. I was all about Yale before I visited and found the students to be extremely self-absorbed and egotistical (they were still asking about each other's SAT scores..) Other schools I would suggest are Wesleyan, a match/reach, Claremont McKenna, a match, USC, a safety, Wash U, which is unpredictable but if you show interest it's a match, Tufts, a match, and perhaps Vanderbilt, a safety/match. Don't worry, however, because you will end up at an awesome school. Also, try to visit and stay with students at the schools in which you are very interested.

By Kousuke (Kousuke) on Friday, July 23, 2004 - 12:14 am: Edit

thank you incollege88. hmmm...if Yale really is that way, i think i wont even apply. its unfortunate that all of these schools are so far away. i will be visiting amherst in a couple weeks and am thinking about going over to pomona and maybe rice over the school year. my top choices are rice/pomona/caltech(dream school)/amherst right now. i dont know much about Brown yet. what are the students like? how are the dorms? what is the school's strongest departments? im assuming you chose brown over rice, what made you eventually do this? and Duke university, would it work for me, i hate sports/jocks/cocky weight lifters and conservatives? for that matter, will Brown work for me? how big of a reach is duke for me?
Thanks!

By Ay_Caramba (Ay_Caramba) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 09:56 pm: Edit

you're good for both duke and brown but you need good, no, GREAT essays. that is the key. i'm biased, but i would take duke for math/econ over brown. duke has a great law school placement rate too. for example, the only schools that sent more kids to harvard law school last year than duke were yale and harvard.
as for yale, i don't agree with incollege88... i loved yale when i visited and the kids were really nice.
but yeahhh, for brown (or duke or any top school)... your writing sat II is low. i would retake that and not your sat I. 1490 is good enough for pretty much any school, but a 660 writing looks kind of bad..

By Craigk10 (Craigk10) on Monday, July 26, 2004 - 10:40 pm: Edit

If it means anything I chose Brown over Duke and I got a 670 on writing. My SAT was only 10 points higher too.

By Kousuke (Kousuke) on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 02:42 am: Edit

thanks, ill def. retake that writing score. hoping for that 700+, praying for 730+. crap, better go to sleep or read more "sister carrie," damn that book sucks.
thanks

By Stanfordnualum (Stanfordnualum) on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 03:08 pm: Edit

I would also put my alma mater -- Stanford and Northwestern on your list. They are not huge but probably still too big for you (1800-1900 students per class). Stanford's econ is one of the very best with the famous Hoover Institute on campus. NU's econ is in the top 10 (I hate the ranking talk; but "very good" sound vague) and its "mathematical method for social science" (MMSS) program complements econ very well and you may want to check that out.

I am curious why everyone seemed to forget U of Chicago. It's hard to find another place to have better math AND econ.

By Fredmurtz2 (Fredmurtz2) on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 03:30 pm: Edit

Kousuke: What are you looking for in a school? Dartmouth and Ponoma are rather different for example.

Chicago probably doesn't get much of a mention in this paticular board because of it's extensive core requirements. How do you rank undergrad departments? That seems more suited for graduate/professional consideration.

I'm a bit skeptical of the whole department ranking undergrad thing -- Just what makes a good department in the rankings? Usually numbers. Number of professors retained, Grant funding, Output of students. That doesn't and can't consider how good of a teacher are the faculty (Dartmouth and Brown -- two schools with the worst Ivy grad rankings are ranked #1/2 for Teaching quality for undergrads.) Correlation doesn't mean causation. But, it shouldn't be summarily dismissed either. Princeton generally also gets plaudits for its' commitment for UG education [unhindered by the presence of large graduate schools like B/D] However, if it comes down to being a better teacher or having more time for me versus winning a NIH grant, I'd take the former everytime as an ug.

Disclaimer: I am unaware of the methodology of the survey done by USNEWS in 1995 that I speak of. I'm sure there are pitfalls in it too however.

By Kousuke (Kousuke) on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 05:54 pm: Edit

i really dont know what i want in an college. at times i like warm weather, but at others i like cold. what im mainly looking for is a smaller school, <6000 students, not a dominant party scene, and a mainly liberal school, my worst nightmare would be a drug abusing, alcoholic conservative. i also would like a culurally diverse campus, a lot of nice people, not too many stuck up, "hey, im going to abercrombie in my lexus to buy some cute outfits with my mommy and daddys credit card" types of people. a school without a very strict core curiculum that asks you to take 20 history classes, 20 english classes and so on. i want a school that will let me dive into what i want to study, and only have me take a limited number of writing and english classes, but i still understand i need to take them, and hopefully no history classes. im looking to go to a nice school like that, that also has a nice law school placement and good reputation with law schools.

By Kousuke (Kousuke) on Thursday, July 29, 2004 - 06:10 pm: Edit

stanfordnualum, to tell the truth, the school i plan on EDing to right now, Amherst, is probably #3 on my list behind Stanford and Caltech. but i wouldnt DARE apply to those schools, they scare me, i am 99.9999% sure of my rejection from those schools that i probably wouldnt want to use my ED on one of those 2 schools, no matter how much i love them. what with my GPA being too low for stanford.... but i love the school, so far from what i can tell. beautiful campus, excellent academics, wonderful location, a lot of diversity and stuff. also, im afraid my essay idea wouldnt work as well for stanford or caltech, being that they are over run by asians, http://www.collegeconfidential.com/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?5/82032 im thinking it will work better with the northestern schools. but if i dont get amherst ED, ill most definately apply to Stanford RD!