I am a rising senior trying to figure thinks out before I submit applications. I want to be CEO of a Fortune 500 industrial company in the future, but also am leaving other career paths besides corporate management open such as engineering, sales, researcher, consulting, investment banking, and private equity. Location and research that would help my startup, along with prestige of the university and good financial aid were important criteria to me, hence making Stanford my first choice. I am a prospective Chemical or Mechanical Engineering major. My stats are as follows:
GPA: 4.72 - Valedictorian
Test Scores: 1520 out of 1600 New SAT and 33 ACT composite
Main ECs: Patents, entrepreneurship, and scientific research
Income: <$30k
Race: African and White
Since Stanford is my first choice I am curious if I should I apply to Stanford SCEA or applying to my non-binding EA private schools such as Caltech, MIT, and Northeastern to maximize the number of decisions I receive. I also plan on applying to Michigan and NC State EA as well. So should I apply to Stanford SCEA or not based on what I have written?
Places like MIT and CalTech will be interested in what you have accomplished outside the classroom so the patents , reserach and such are important but you have not provided enough information about them to be informative.
You should add UChicago to your list as being nearly on par with Caltech/MIT.
Does EA provide an admissions advantage at Stanford if you discount the athletes? MIT says there is no advantage, not sure about the others.
I’d add Harvey Mudd for a tech entrepreneur before I’d add UChicago.
U Chicago does not have engineering - OP mentioned he is interested in engineering. OTOH - Northwestern DOES have ChemE and MechE programs.
Caltech and MIT will look very closely at your math scores. You will also need SAT II subject test results for those two. Have you finished precalculus or calculus? If so, your ACT math should be 35 or 36 and your math II subject test should be 750+ and preferably 800. If your math scores are in range, you may have better luck with the MIT/Caltech/Northeastern option. If not, then go with Stanford.
Other universities you may want to look at are Babson and Olin in MA - they share a campus and you can cross-register. I would also have a look at Santa Clara U -it’s in Silicon Valley. It has nonrestrictive EA as well, so you could apply along with the MIT/Caltech/Northeastern schools.
My D16 who will be attending MIT in the fall choose to apply to MIT, Caltech and Santa Clara EA. Stanford was her first choice, but realizing the odds for unhooked applicant, she didn’t apply early. She was rejected from Stanford in RD. We can’t help but wonder if the outcome could have been different if she applied early. She also had patent and research. Her SAT was 2350 out of 2400 with 800 on SAT 2 math.
Ya I would definitely apply for some safety schools, nobody should take getting into CIT, MIT or Stanford for granted. For example, I had a perfect ACT and very solid extracurriculars, but still got rejected from Stanford
Applying RD to Stanford probably doesn’t decrease your odds much at all so I agree with the plan of applying to lots of other EA schools so you can hopefully get other acceptances and financial aid packages so in the end you compare and try to maximize aid at the school you prefer out of all your acceptances.