Am I Screwed?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm very depressed right now... I'm applying for Electrical and Computer Engineering and heard back from some of my schools... got into University of Illinois at Urbana, University of Michigan Ann-Arbor, UCSD and UC Santa Barbara, but have gotten rejected from MIT, UC-Berkeley, and waitlisted at Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>I wasn't very concerned about MIT because its a reach at any rate, and even UC-Berkeley because they only took 2% applicants out of state (1000 of 45,000 applicants out of state). However, getting waitlisted from Carnegie Mellon came to me as a shock. For me it's like a roadblock from the other schools I'm hearing from - Stanford and some of the Ivys: Cornell, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Upenn. </p>

<p>My stats are as follows:</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 650 CR 750 M 770 W
ACT: 33
SAT II: 690 Chem 690 Math1 710 Bio
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.3/4.6 W (in my school 4.6 is the theoretical highest possible)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 2
AP (place score in parenthesis): 4 on AP History
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: 5 APs: AP French, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics at STanford EPGY, AP Computers at Keystone High School Online, Chess class elective, Public Speaking, English World Literature
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Cum Laude Honor Society (11th), Mu Alpha Theta Math society (11th), AMC 10 (highest score in school), numerous school awards (merit in classes, community service, student council, technology, etc.)
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Chess team 2 years, Lead of TSAs 4 years (Technical Support Assistants - group of tech savvy kids responsible for upkeep of the network, servers, student/faculty laptops), Tech Crew 3 years (setting up the school's PA system for events), Mock Trial 11th, Yearbook 3 years (co-editor senior year), The Leader newspaper (11th and 12th - co-editor 12th grade), Created/founded/run the school's first online radio (11th, 12th), Math Team 9-12th, Student Council Executive Secretary (12th), guitar since 4th grade, bass since 8th grade, played double bass in High School band 9th-10th
Job/Work Experience: Work at school's summer camp (summer of 9th, 10th - started working at age 13), Internship at Brainlink International Inc. IT computer consultancy (from summer of 11th-present - started working at age 15), working on my own company startup in technology and computers - submitted my 39 page business plan to colleges.
Volunteer/Community service: have won awards each year for over 250+ hours, will have 1000 hours+ for my cumulative high school career
Summer Activities: Employment as noted above. In summer of 10th grade I attended a Chemistry Program at Columbia University for a month.
Essays: common app was about my experiences with helping my community after a local university, St. John's, threatened to intrude on the well-being of the neighborhood and residents. working with congressman, during my summer of freshman year and the residents of my community to protest the changes. Related that to what i've learned so far about leadership and giving speeches to my high school, about the economy, racism and diversity, and one as Barack Obama.
Teacher Recommendation: go to a small school so from teaches that knew me very well - my AP US Teacher (and also athletics director), and Chemistry Teacher (also Science Department Head)
Counselor Rec: Included specific information about me, including the fact that my age restricted me from doing any work in labs. (MITES at MIT and the Caltech Programs both called me up and said I qualified but my age restricted me from participating because of insurance reasons)
Additional Rec: From my employer at Brainlink International Inc., one from my Computer Teacher who also oversees the Technical Support Assistant and Tech Crew Programs I lead
Interviews: went well - some were an hour (Harvard, Upenn), some were a lot longer (Columbia, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton) - ended up talking for close to 3 hours.
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: yes
Intended Major: major in Electrical and Computer Engineering, major in astrophysics, minor in business economics and finances
State: NY
School Type: private. Graduating class size is 36 kids.
Ethnicity: Parents from Guyana, South America.
Gender:M
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): will be first generation college graduate, youngest graduate - skipped 4th grade - will be graduating at 16.
Sports: Varsity Soccer 9th, Varsity Cross Country 10th-12th, JV Tennis 9th-10th, Varsity Foil Fencing 9th-12th (Varsity Captain 11th-12th)</p>

<p>Overall, I thought I stood a chance. I'm at the top of my grade and everyone in my school expects a lot from me. Two students in my school have gotten into Upenn (ED) and cornell (rolling) but I feel that a large part is because they are minority (black) and female because their SAT scores are below 2000, like in 1800s, GPAs much lower than mine, and are not even in any of the advanced courses I am in.</p>

<p>I am wallowing in my misery on the couch in my basement, stopped doing work, and have given up. Please give me your perspective on if I stand a chance anymore.</p>

2

<p>wow.
i must admit that is a very impressive resume.
good luck with the rest of your applications.</p>

3

<p>yea your resume sounds amazing and you look great in paper. if your interviews were that long that's a good sign. my sister was waitlisted a carnegie mellon 3 years ago and when she visited and talked to them they said if she stayed interested and proved her interest and desire to be there they would let her in. she ended up at usc so i can't tell you if they actually would have let her in but i would just show interest if that's where you really want to go.</p>

4

<p>well i wanted to be able to choose... just the kind of person i am but also for financial reasons. i'm looking at it as a roadblock though. like if get waitlisted from a school like carnegie mellon what about the others?</p>

5

<p>i feel colleges can be so diverse in what they look for that being waitlisted isn't necessarily an accurate assessment of what the other colleges will do. whatever carnegie mellon decided isn't going to change the other schools decisions. all i can really say is wait for april. and i really understand the whole financial aid thing. my dad just lost his job but before he was making just over 150k. im waitlisted at duke and sitting here not knowing what to do because even if i get admitted i won't get financial aid but i can't imagine myself anywhere else.</p>

6

<p>where r u from cause I was thinkin of goin to ucsb, but am worried that I will be the only kid from mass.</p>

7

<p>i'm from Queens, New York. If I had to decide from the 4 i got into right now I'm not sure... California is beautiful but UMich is ranked higher... you going to UCSB for comp/electrical engineering?</p>

8

<p>Don't sweat it too much. I got rejected from MIT but accepted to Cornell, Northwestern, U Chicago, and USC (along with a number of other schools). Not all schools are looking for the same EC's, test scores, backgrounds, etc. </p>

<p>There are cases of top students that get rejected from every stop school they apply to except Harvard. The are cases of students that get in almost everywhere EXCEPT Harvard. These are rare, but they exemplify how some schools want certain things and other schools want others.</p>

<p>You're bound to get into at least one of your top schools. I find it hard to believe that you won't.</p>

9

<p>To me, your application looks very fake. As in you said "huh, that will look good on an application, I'll do it". Whether or not this is the case, I don;t know.</p>

10

<p>There are a lot of those. :/</p>

11

<p>I'm not sure what you mean by fake... I did everything I wrote I'm very involved with my school - especially the technology department. Obviously you do stuff so it looks good for college but I love chess, joined the chess team, and now I take chess class. I express myself and am openly critical of injustices by the school and administration... so i joined the newspaper. I was critical of the people running the yearbook and the ideas that were not representative of past graduating classes, so I joined yearbook to represent my class in the major ideas made. My involvement with the TSA and tech crew stuff is overwhelming - I don't even have a choice its a responsibility. People - teachers and students - rely on me to fix their computers, servers, laptops, etc. The school relies on me to set up the PA systems for the plays, fairs, etc. In 11th grade, the Mock Trial got a case where a witness was a computer expert so they asked me to do the part. I ran for Student Council, campaigned in Middle and Upper Schools grades 6-12, and won by a landslide but I continue to support charities and be an outspoken member of the Council...</p>

<p>I could go on, but I'm not sure what you mean by your comment Poseiden. It makes me feel uneasy so please explain yourself.</p>

12

<p>lol. do u know that the programs at Michigan and U of I are nationally ranked. stop whining and crying. schools like Berkeley, Mellon, Standford, and the Ivies are really random. You apply to them and you pray that one or a couple accepts you. You are a common applicant to those schools (no offense, you have a great app). They can have whoever they want, and unfortunately they chose another kid with your stats or higher stats. As far as the other kids in your class gaining Ivy admission, yes, it is true that Ivies sometimes lower standards in order to add diversity, but plenty of people are forced to compete against that unfairness. Just look at the schools who accepted you and realize that you are going to get a great education. Good luck, and dont be depressed, many others have been in your situation and survived.</p>

13

<p>I think it's very hard to predict what will happen, and you should just hold your breath and cross your fingers. On the one hand, some of your scores are not super-high for those top schools, but you are a URM, which makes a difference. But you've got some great choices already.</p>