Another boring chance thread (Yale SCEA among others)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I go to a competitive public magnet school in Southern California. I am an Asian girl. My family's income is around $80,000/year. I don't know if any of that is relevant at all but I figure if you're gonna read all of this it doesn't hurt to add in a few extra sentences. If it is too long, I've attached a TLDR at the end.</p>

<p>The List
Yale SCEA, Cornell, Northwestern, UPenn (legacy), Columbia, Washington University in St. Louis, USC, Rice, Amherst, Harvey Mudd, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine</p>

<p>Intended major: Computer science and/or electrical engineering</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9 unweighted, 4.2 weighted
Rank: N/A, but top 15%-ish</p>

<p>ACT (no SAT)
34 Composite
34 English
35 Writing
32 Reading
36 Science
7 Essay</p>

<p>AP's
Chemistry (5)
U.S. History (5)
Calculus B/C (5)</p>

<p>SAT II's
Chemistry (760)
Math Level II (800)
U.S. History (780)</p>

<p>Senior Year Courseload
- AP Economics
- AP Government
- Regular American Lit
- AP Statistics
- AP Biology</p>

<p>School Clubs
- Executive Vice President of robotics (12)
- Treasurer of robotics (11)</p>

<p>Volunteering
- Managed a month-long robotics summer camp for underprivileged kids (last summer)
- Directed an after-school physics camp for a local elementary school (11)</p>

<p>Work Experience
- Managed engineering summer camp (last summer)
- Management Intern (summer 2011) at a local startup company, where I reviewed the work of 20 other high school interns--some older than me</p>

<p>For the purposes of this, let's assume that my essays and recs are decent but nothing extraordinary.</p>

<p>Please let me know what you think! :)</p>

<p>TL;DR: Strong but not incredible academics, girl in EECS, leadership in clubs, leadership in volunteering, leadership in work experience, general focus on robotics/engineering + management</p>

2

<p>Pretty good! I’d say you’re a match for UPenn (since you’re a legacy anyways and would be applying for engineering). I’m not familiar enough with the other schools to give you any kind of educated answer. The only downside to your application is that you don’t have much diversity (engineering, engineering, engineering). Maybe use your last couple of months before apps are due to try a new club or something, just to show admissions committees that you’re willing to branch out. Good luck!</p>

<p>Could you chance me too?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1401307-i-made-list-please-check-twice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1401307-i-made-list-please-check-twice.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Do you know if you cracked the top 10%? Colleges really like to see top decile in your class</p>

4

<p>Girl in Robotics = Caltech,MIT,HYPS auto admit</p>

<p>No but seriously your work in Robotics, which is so male dominated, will help you.</p>

<p>If your going for Harvey Mudd, why not add Scripps?</p>

5

<p>I suggest lowering your expectations a bit and adding a few more safeties unless you are fine with the possibility of going to Davis or Irvine. You have done extremely well. Nevertheless, there are several strikes against you in the ridiculously competitive world of admissions to the very top universities including very low class rank for top schools, average ECs for top schools (at best), and Asian from CA.</p>

<p>I would not use your SCEA at Yale. Ranking in top 15% will make you a non-starter there. This is a very, very high reach to the point of little chance. Why not use ED at Penn to take full advantage of your legacy status? Even with that, Penn still a reach (10 - 33% ED) given class rank as even from the best HS, Penn wants top 5% and usually higher than that. Without ED (where legacy usually not counted) Penn = high reach). </p>

<p>Other high reaches = Columbia, Amherst</p>

<p>Reaches = Cornell, Washington University, Northwestern, Rice, Berkeley</p>

<p>Low Match (50 to 66%) = UCLA, Southern Cal</p>

<p>Safeties (over 90%) = Davis, Irvine</p>

6

<p>Wait, why are you applying to all those liberal arts focused schools if you’re going into Computer Science? Don’t see Stanford, MIT, or Caltech anywhere on that list.</p>

<p>Not bad, not bad at all. ECs and Volunteering list is perfect- short, sweet, focused, and shows you have dedication. Grades are great, although standard for Ivies, and the rest of it looks pretty normal too. Your ECs and gender may push you over the top, but you can’t really estimate these things.</p>

<p>I’d advise you to not to apply to Yale or any other of those schools that aren’t so good in your major.</p>

7

<p>I disagree with OhRylie when he said you were “a match for UPenn” nor would I agree with basicspace in saying that your “grades are great”. To be frank, you almost certainly won’t get into quite a few of the ‘top’ schools simply due to your class rank. If you aren’t in atleast the top 10% of your class, your chances become very slim for ANY of the more competitive colleges. And I’m assuming that your college reports your rank based on percentile rather than an exact number since you said it was N/A?</p>

<p>I think UPenn reported that more than 96% of their incoming class was in the top 10% of their graduating highschool. As you can imagine, most of those that are admitted to Yale, Columbia, and various other top universities are also almost all in the top 10%; actually a greater percentage than UPenn in several cases (the majority probably being ~the top 5%).</p>

<p>Your UW and weighted GPA are fine though. And a 34 on the ACT is excellent, and will definitely help in giving you a competitive edge. Your subject test scores are also great and will only strengthen your chances. Your ACT and subject test scores are your biggest assets at this point.</p>

<p>Your ECs are also not that great. While I’m sure that they will appreciate your consistency and focus in robotics/engineering, there is still nothing impressive or unique that would boost your chances for any of the top institutions. To sum your ECs up, what I see is involvement in Robotics club, a couple camps, and a some ‘management’. </p>

<p>Yes, you show some leadership, but these particular activities really don’t stand out. Most of your time with your ECs, such as with several of those camps, was during the summer. What happened to 4 years of highschool during the school year? Was basically the only thing you were involved in Robotics Club for a couple years? Maybe being a female involved in Robotics makes a slight difference, but it will only help you to a certain extent. I think MutaRiSC is somewhat overstating the difference it will make, but it still counts.</p>

<p>I really wouldn’t bother with applying to Yale SCEA. You have 0% chance of getting in at this point. Plus, being Asian will really work against you since the competition is so fierce. But don’t worry, I’m sure that you will still make it into quite a few of the other colleges in your list. I’m not that familiar with a couple of those that you listed, but make sure you have a true safety. Good luck!</p>

8

<p>@OhRylie
I see. Thank you for your input! I will reply in your thread. :)</p>

<p>@DuhNaNaNaa
Nope. I know for sure I’m in the top 20% and I know for sure I am not in the top 10%. I estimate I’m somewhere in the top 15%-ish but my school doesn’t give out exact numbers.</p>

<p>@MutaRiSC
I don’t know about auto-admit, but I agree with you in that it’ll definitely help me. Also, while Scripps is a respectable school, I don’t think I could go to an all-girls college.</p>

<p>@muckdogs07
I don’t see how other safeties would be too different from Davis or Irvine other than the fact that I’d have to pay more. Correct me if I’m wrong. As for Penn, I’m not attached enough to the school to be willing to commit there for ED. As far as class rank goes, because of the immense grade inflation at my school, one B will take you out of the top 5%, two B’s out of the top 10%, etc.</p>

<p>@basicspace
I want to go out of state (so no Stanford or Caltech) and I want to avoid super-tech-y schools because honestly, if you’re a girl at Caltech or MIT, you will get hit on 24/7 and life is not going to be fun for you and the dorms are co-ed.</p>

<p>@SAT128
I see. I don’t know how much in detail colleges look into, but I basically got taken out of the top 10% after getting one extra B. My school also doesn’t do things like B+ or A-, so one 89% can really really screw you over if being out of the top decile is a requirement for admission as you say it is. In any case, I concede that I have little to no chance at Yale. The main reason I’m applying is honestly to get me to write my essays on time because Yale’s essays parallel a lot of my other college essays.</p>

9

<p>Agree with SAT128, but forgot about Harvey Mudd on your list. This is an excellent choice (have visited this school several times and tried to convince my son to apply there last year (unscuccessfully). Mudd has wanted more females for awhile, and all of your aptitudes and ECs are in the sciences. Being a female with that portfolio will stand out at Mudd and thus, although Mudd may actually be harder to get into than some of the other schools on your list, I say for you Mudd = low match (50 to 66%) and would strongly encourage you to consider using your ED there.</p>

10

<p>@muckdogs07
I consider Harvey Mudd a safety because although it has a 15% admit rate for males, its admit rate for females is around 40%, which makes it easier than all of my schools except for Davis and Irvine. Furthermore, Harvey Mudd has a female president, and its incoming freshman class has more females than males because of the ridiculous amount of affirmative action they do. Also, I appreciate your input regarding ED at Harvey Mudd, but I am against Early Decision in general because of financial reasons and as explained above (in response to SAT128) I have a kind of stupid but semi-justified reason for applying to Yale SCEA.</p>

11

<p>For clarification, why I’m applying to Yale SCEA</p>

<p>I don’t think I have a shot at Yale, but I am applying there early anyways. Here’s why:</p>

<p>I am not attached enough to any of my schools to consider doing ED. I also have financial reasons for not doing ED. I know this would really help me out with Penn, but I’m not in love with the school. Actually, I’m not in love with any of my schools.</p>

<p>Even though I didn’t want to do ED, I wanted to have a hard early deadline for college apps, so I decided to do EA somewhere, which led me to: Caltech, MIT, Stanford, UChicago, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Among those, I compared their supplemental essays to see how closely they matched the supplements from the schools that I actually have a chance of getting into. Yale was the only school that didn’t require me to write an essay that I wouldn’t be able to repurpose.</p>

<p>I hope this clarifies things, and no, I will not change my early school. :stuck_out_tongue: I will, however, consider changing/adding other schools, though.</p>

12

<p>Good luck. </p>

<p>I do think you should add Harvey Mudd and perhaps Carnegie Mellon.</p>

13

<p>Well, MIT’s 45% females isn’t that bad at all. It’s probably the most balanced tech focused school out there. This isn’t Qatar, you know. No one will hit on you in college (more than usual :P) compared to other schools.</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd is in state though, and also has a skewed ratio. Why not take Caltech as a safety, weird as it may sound?</p>

<p>Cornell seems like a really good choice for you, being the best Ivy for engineering out there. Princeton isn’t too far off either. And what do you know, Yale is just a few spots down on USNWR.</p>

14

<p>Gracefully,</p>

<p>Fair enough re Yale. If this is your true dream, go for it regardless of the low chances. Maybe they will take you as the lopsided robotics girl they crave. That is certainly what I would emphasize in the application. Also, helping poor children with robotics is a nice touch. Too bad about grade inflation at HS, but this still takes you out of contention with most of the Ivies Applying RD to Ivies really hard for anyone. Most of them take 40 - 50% ED and that does not leave many RD spots open for all of the amazing students who got rejected form their first Ivy choice and are now applying to the others. </p>

<p>Just to give you an example, my oldest son had a slightly more rigorous curriculum (took Physics C and multi variable senior year, with 5 on b/c calc after junior year), a much higher class rank form a strong public school in NOVA (top 5%), and slightly lower SAT and SAT II, and about the same ECs as you (although different focus). Results – Going to UVA and very happy; Rejected – Vanderbilt; Wait listed - Duke, Hopkins, and Chicago. Just note this to show how tough it is out there for even very good students like yourself. </p>

<p>Mudd is not a safety for you even with a 40% admit rate for females. At best 50/50, but if your heart is not set on it, I agree do not bother using your ED on this school. Sounds like you really want out of state. Agree with poster who suggested Carnegie Mellon and would also suggest RPI and Case Western (both of which I think are safeties for you where you might get scholarship dollars in addition to typical financial aid). Good luck!</p>