Advice: high stats, few ECs, top schools.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Asian male from CA, parents' income ~150k, at a competitive public high school with ~500 per class (lots of NMSF, five 2400s in my class, 20+ valedictorians per year, and so on). Many AP classes offered.</p>

<p>Major: Undecided (likely at least one of Math, Physics, and CS)</p>

<p>GPA (unweighted) - 3.95 (B+ in honors chemistry, predicted B+ in AP chemistry)
GPA (weighted, 5 for honors/AP/college) - 4.58
GPA (UC) - 4.25
Class Rank/Size: Top 10%, class of ~500.
Most rigorous courseload.</p>

<p>SAT I - 2360 (790 CR/800 M/770 W)
SAT II - 800x3 (Math 2, Physics, Chemistry), 770 (Biology M)</p>

<p>14 AP exams. Highlights:</p>

<p>10th - Physics B (self-study) (5)
11th - Chemistry, Computer Science A (self-study), Calculus BC (self-study), Physics C (self-study)</p>

<p>(Four other juniors at my school are doing the same thing with self-studying physics, so it's not really unique...)</p>

<p>Senior course load:</p>

<p>AP English Lit
Government/Economics (required)
Finite/Discrete Math (college credit)
Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra (college credit)
AP Japanese
AP World History (might switch to AP Bio, or AP Physics C if I'm lucky)</p>

<p>Activities:</p>

<p>Piano (many years)
Administrator of unofficial school web portal (2009-2011)
JETS-TEAMS (engineering competition) - Varsity Captain (2011)
Volunteering at local library - 40 hours (fall 2011) (unless they somehow don't have space for me...)</p>

<p>AMC 10 2010 - 100.5 (A), 102 (B)
AMC 12 2011 - 90 (A), 93 (B)
(no AIME qualification)</p>

<p>Did Fnet=ma in 2010 and 2011, but got really bad scores, so no semifinal qualification</p>

<p>Special programs:</p>

<p>CTY (summers 2008, 2009)
Art of Problem Solving Precalculus (online course, spring 2010)
AwesomeMath Summer Program (summer 2010)
CTYOnline Linear Algebra (2010-2011)
SSTP (research program) (summer 2011) (more like internship than independent research, so probably not Intel/Siemens)</p>

<p>Honors:</p>

<p>National Merit Semifinalist
National AP Scholar
USA Math Talent Search Honorable Mention (2010-2011)
NACLO (North American Computational Lingustics Olympiad) - Invitational round qualifier (2011)</p>

<p>Tentative list of colleges (limited to 10 private/OOS schools)</p>

<p>Reach</p>

<p>MIT
Harvey Mudd
Caltech
UChicago
Swarthmore
Rice
WUSTL
Johns Hopkins</p>

<p>Match</p>

<p>Carleton (might be reach?)
Carnegie Mellon (MCS)
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC San Diego</p>

<p>Safety</p>

<p>UC Santa Barbara
UC Davis
UC Santa Cruz</p>

<p>Weaknesses</p>

<p>1) Lack of ECs - Long story short, I attempted to become good at math and/or physics and failed, partially due to bad time management and partially due to starting late. (Freshman year was mostly studying in order to get higher As in biology; a waste of time in retrospect.) So that plus self-studying a lot of APs means that I don't really do much outside of school. Whoops. Lack of self-confidence and shyness meant that I didn't try to join robotics or science bowl teams. Double whoops.</p>

<p>(For those wondering, pretty much all I do outside of school besides piano and academics is watch anime or read reddit, Metafilter, and CC.)</p>

<p>2) Mediocre teacher recs - APUSH teacher (doesn't really like me, don't participate in class, and I nearly fell asleep many times due to it being first period), sophomore Algebra 2 teacher (he likes me, but I don't know if he writes good recs). Decided not to take classes I'm actually interested in junior year. Triple whoops.</p>

<p>3) Not taking a precalculus or AP calculus class - I took algebra 2 in 10th grade, studied precalc and AP Calc BC on my own. (I took AP Stats for my math in junior year.)</p>

<p>Questions</p>

<p>1) Any advice on how I can improve in the short time remaining (besides working hard on the essays)?
2) What are my chances at the "tier" just below HYPSMC (e.g. Rice, WUSTL, JHU)? Are they pretty much just as reachy as HYPSMC?
3) Any suggestions for less selective schools good in math, physics, and CS with good merit aid (enough to make up the difference between UC and private school costs)? (I ruled out RPI, WPI, and similar schools because of the male-female ratio; around 60-40 is my limit. I'm also considering Grinnell and URochester.)</p>

2

<p>Bumpin’ it up~</p>

3

<p>Excellent stats indeed. However, all I can say is good luck; your recs and ECs really do seem horrendous.</p>

4

<p>Ur getting a big scholarship from carnegie, i am sure. As for ivy, u can never be sure</p>

5

<p>Update: I’m pretty sure that I’ll be taking AP Bio instead of AP World. No Physics C class because not enough people signed up (partially due to the teacher not letting Physics B self-studiers in… good riddance).</p>

<p>^^Yeah, I’m pretty aware of that. I might try joining scibowl, robotics, or something next year (despite being a nooby senior) and hopefully I can not fail Fnet=ma and AMC. xP Can’t do much about recs at this point, though.</p>

<p>^How can you tell? I would be pretty happy to get a large scholarship from CMU because I like it more than Berkeley, and my parents would be more likely to let me go if accepted with a good scholarship. :D</p>

6

<p>I might add a few more matches, simply because your chances at one are much greater than at the HYPSM tier. As an Asian male, I’d look very closely at LACs: they’re desperate for boys, and you’ll be considered a URM rather than an ORM.</p>

7

<p>^
I’m not sure I’d generalize and call all LACs “desperate” for dudes. There’s obviously a split between male and females, but it’s not like Carleton is going to admit a second rate guy just to make up for it. </p>

<p>Which is not to say that the OP is second rate. Those stats are killer. I’m not sure I’ve seen such a disconnect between stats and ECs on CC before (which is certainly not a good barometer, but whatever). Still, # focused schools <em>will</em> accept you.</p>

8

<p>Certainly Wabash isn’t exactly desperate for guys. :P</p>

<p>On the LAC front, I’m also looking into Wesleyan, Haverford, and Macalester. Oberlin and Grinnell look a little too isolated for my preferences at this point, unfortunately, and Reed doesn’t have Japanese classes. (I’d like to have the option of continuing my Japanese studies in college.)</p>

<p>Any chances for some good merit aid at URochester?</p>

<p>(Oh, and I’m predicting 780+, most likely 800 on SAT US History, if it makes any difference.)</p>