<p>I'm a rising senior looking to major in engineering in college. Here are the stats:
ACT: 36
SAT: 2240 (won't be sending this in most likely)
PSAT: 223 (NMF in Illinois, pretty positive)
UW GPA: 4.0 (W: 5.2)</p>
<h1>1 in class of 300</h1>
<p>5 APs, 5 more next year (4 on AP US is the only score I have right now)</p>
<p>4 year varsity soccer starter, captain this year
NHS member, President this year
Mathletes (3 year all-conference, 2 year President, state champion oralist this year)
All the other honors societies
I play the trumpet outside of school
Club soccer takes up most of my time
around 80ish volunteer hours, mostly through helping out at youth soccer camps
Boys State nominee this year</p>
<p>So that said, here's where I'm looking to apply to, in categories:</p>
<p>Reaches: MIT, Stanford
Low Reaches: Northwestern, Wash U, Notre Dame
Matches?: UIUC (in-state), U of Michigan-AA, UW-Madison, Purdue</p>
<p>Do I have these in the right categories? I'm having a hard time coming up with safeties because I find myself really not wanting to settle for less than the above schools. </p>
<p>It would help me out a ton if you guys could give me input on the schools and my chances at them, and maybe to suggest some safeties for me. I'm looking for strong engineering schools in the Midwest, around 3 or 4 hours max from Chicago.</p>
<p>Purdue and UIUC are safeties IMHO. I’d say that you might want to look ED one of your top schools though, just because of the competitive nature</p>
<p>I think you definitely have enough safeties. You might just want to apply to your favorite one or two publics EA. Chances are very high that you’ll get in, and then you don’t have to spend money on other safeties. And, on the off chance you don’t, you still have plenty of time to apply to other safeties.</p>
<p>If you are seriously looking to go to a selective private, you should definitely cast a wider net. If you want to do engineering, perhaps try EA at MIT (and if you’re interested, CalTech). If you get in, you can then only apply to schools you might consider OVER what you already have. You could also add Princeton and Cornell to your list, as they have good engineering schools. Depending on what branch of engineering you are interested in, UPenn might also be a good option.</p>
<p>You have enough safeties. You should take Math level 2 and some science subject test for MIT, and possibly a third in the humanities. Also, 36 ACT and 2240 SAT? That’s weird… I wouldn’t send in the SAT, then.</p>
<p>dude, you’re thinking of yourself too highly. Besides soccer, your EC are lacking. You’re academics are pretty good, but the schools you’re applying to are highly competitive, so they will be weighing EC very heavily because everyone applying has good academics. Even your safeties, like Purdue, are not an 100% get in. Lower your expectations. MIT is like a 0% chance.</p>
<p>“Even your safeties, like Purdue, are not an 100% get in. Lower your expectations. MIT is like a 0% chance.”</p>
<p>Err, I don’t think so. College admissions are a crapshoot, but the OP has as much a shot as anyone. And sure, Purdue isn’t 100%, but it’s well over 90%. Big 10 schools are very stats heavy, and the OP is well over the benchmarks. </p>
<p>Also, MIT is at least a 10% chance, as that’s their acceptance rate. For the record, I know good number of people who got into MIT with good academics and solid, but not out-of-this-world ECs (myself included)</p>
<p>okay, no one seems to understand that HPYSM has like a 30% acceptance for perfect standardized tests, way to go man, you have a very good chance.</p>
<p>all your matches are valid safeties, and all your low reaches should be matches or high matches.</p>
<p>apply restrictive EA to stanford and you’ve got quite a shot. b/c you have no USAMO or SIEMENS or INTEL awards i wouldn’t apply EA to MIT, do Stanford instead. but you’ve still got a good shot at MIT, and your first place mathlete state champion thing is pretty great, so MIT wouldn’t be unreasonable.</p>
<p>Apply EA to every school on your list, you shouldn’t worry about the number of safety schools you have because you’ll get into college. Your stats are Great, relax, write good essays, and keep up the good work. You have as good of a chance as anyone who is applying to MIT or Stanford.</p>
<p>What’s “all other honor societies?” I mean, I go to a high school in a city where honor societies are non existent or mean nothing. But apparently everybody and their grandparents on CC are part of some sort of honor society. Curse my bankrupt and low opportunity district!</p>
