Applying to right schools? :-\

Applying to College
1

I’m freaking out right now cause I feel like all I’m applying to are reaches and the only schools that I maybe might get into are my safeties. Here are my stats:

Major: Chemical Engineering
SATs: 740V/690M/660W, but I think I’m going to submit ACTs instead of these
SAT IIs: Math IIC - 760, Chem - 750
ACT:
32 Composite
33 Reading/English
34 Math
28 Science
AP: Chem - 3 (should I just omit this score?)

ECs
-karate 10th/11th
-Prom Committee 10th-12th
-Mu Alpha Theta 11th/12th, I’ll be President this year
-Math Team, 10th-12th, I got first place at every competition in 11th grade
-World Youth in Science and Engineering Competition, received 2nd place in Chem and 5th in Math at State 10th-12th
-Newspaper Club, Editor 11th
-Co-founded and am President of the Science Club, 11th-12th
-NJHS secretary/treasurer, 9th
-Theater, 9th-12th
-Voice Lessons, 10th-12th
-Guitar Lessons, 9th, 11th-12th
-Piano Lessons, 9th, 12th
-Softball 10th-12th
-summer program in physics at Columbia
-Book Awards from Wash U and Yale

Schools I’m applying to:
Columbia
Cornell
Stanford<br>
Tufts
University of Delaware
University of Maryland-College Park
UPenn
University of San Francisco
Yale

I’m thinking about doing SCEA at Stanford or ED at Cornell, but I’m not sure.

Are these schools apply-able? If they’re not, could you recommend some schools for me?
Thanks so much! : )

2

<p>Are you a minority? Many of the schools are BIG reaches. Ever thought of applying to some LACs?</p>

3

<p>I'm Indian, and I have looked at LACs, but a lot of them don't offer ChemE. Which ones would you say are the big reaches?</p>

4

<p>What's your GPA/rank?</p>

5

<p>I disagree with crazyscientist. I live in Cornell, and I say that Cornell for one would be very happy with your EC's and scores. However, I gotta say your SAT is a lil weak, and that AP score won't help you out. ACT I have lil clue on lol.
Cornell, Maryland, USF (you better be in CA to apply there, lol, cuz they accept like 10% out of state), Tufts, are all very reachable.
Columbia, Yale, Stanford, UPenn ur gonna have a lil trouble with.</p>

6

<p>5 of them....so too many. Why don't you keep three big reach and look for two more matches. Boston u...macalester.. something along those lines ( but sorry i know nothing about chemE so can't help u with that</p>

7

<p>comeon, look at his EC's, state competitions? That deserves way better than BU or Macalester.
Look for John Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Wash U... for matches. Make your safety schools BU and Mecalester and scuh.</p>

8

<p>ya but he is Indian and has no WOW hook...do you know how many Indians apply to all of these places with like a gazillion competitions and such
but wash u is prolly also a match</p>

9

<p>true, but I understand that, as I am a Chinese-American, and lol... that's all I gotta say.</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the quick replies, guys! My GPA is 4.0 unweighted and I'm ranked 1/15. Macalaster, Georgetown, and BU don't offer ChemE, but I'll look at your other suggestions, thanks : ). And I'm female, does that help any? Cause aren't there not a lot of female applicants for engineering? Do you have any safety recs?
Thanks</p>

11

<p>hey, Cornell has a nice ChemE program right? It's really a nice school, I'm not advertising, but dang, I lived there for a loooonng time, and still, it's incredibly beautiful.</p>

12

<p>tho it is a bit rainy, second overcast place besides Chicago.
Don't let that discourage tho... I live in Iowa right now, and I still long to go back to Cornell at times.</p>

13

<p>besides Seattle, crap too much talk about Chicago. It's the second most overcast place in the United States besides Seattle.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, Cornell is like my dream school, I would love to go there. But do you really think I have a shot?</p>

15

<p>being a girl, i think you have an excellent shot. If you got your math up to a 700-720, ur good i think</p>

16

<p>You sure you want ChemE? AP score isa 3, no offense, but I heard that generally something that you should major in, you should be getting a 4 or 5. Your decision though.</p>

17

<p>I would have to agree that there are way too many reaches. You have average or below average scores for all of the top schools. Being Indian, without a hook, that makes them VERY big reaches. Telling Cornell you want chemE with a 28 science score on the ACT and a 3 on the AP will make things difficult. Nice rank, but out of 15 it may not have much impact. I think schools more like Carnegie Mellon (match) and WashingtonU (reach but realistic) are more likely.</p>

18

<p>i love your username... Anchorman = awesome movie! :D</p>

<p>If you get your math SAT up, i think you would have an excellent shot at Cornell engineering ED. Good luck!</p>

19

<p>If I pull my ACT Science score up to at least a 30, would that improve my chances? If I could do that, would I have to retake the SAT? What would a hook be? </p>

<p>koala717 - thanks, I agree, Anchorman is awesome : )</p>

20

<p>the ACT science curve is so harsh that most schools know by now that a '30' and a '28' are separated by a single question.</p>

<p>on the other hand, if you can improve every other category as well, then it would be worth your time to retake.</p>

<p>
[quote]
You sure you want ChemE? AP score isa 3, no offense, but I heard that generally something that you should major in, you should be getting a 4 or 5. Your decision though.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>that's crap. a single score on one exam should not discourage anyone from pursuing any one major (or more, if that is the case).</p>