Better Chance EA? Yale? MIT? Chance me, please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>PSAT: 226 SAT: 2340 SAT Subject Tests: 2280
Math:
80
Critical R:
73
Writing:
73
Math:
800
Critical R:
800
Writing:
740 (Essay 12)
Math:
770
Chemistry:
780
Literature:
730</p>

<p>My Cumulative GPA is
unweighted 3.8/3.9
weighted 4.2</p>

<p>Relevant Previous Advanced Placement Coursework
Calculus BC 5
Physics C Mechanics 5
Physics C E&M 4
Statistics 5
Computer Science AB 5
English Language & Composition 5 (self-studied)
European History 5
Biology 5
Chemistry 5
United States History 4</p>

<p>Senior Year Coursework
AP English Literature
Spanish IV
Advanced Topics in Computer Science
Multivariate Calculus & Differential Eq.
AP Art History
AP Environmental Science</p>

<p>Extracurricular
- SIMR/CCIS(Stanford Institutes of Medical Research)- Selected for competitive eight week program at Stanford
approximately 500 hours, (less than 9% acceptance) in biomedical informatics research. Received $1500 stipend along with an
incomparable experience in the realm of medical science. In addition, I was able to attend lectures for introductory clinical
medicine in immunology at Stanford University.
- Independent Research—Developing an algorithm using Java to solve the multiple sequence alignment problem—did by
myself at my school as part of my research class--wrote a technical paper and presented poster board at Synopsis Science Fair
(over 300 hours in Grade 11)
- Working with a Professor and head of division of Biomedical Informatics at Stanford University, in the area of Biological Ontology, testing the software BioPortal 2.0 for bugs (paid work)
- The Health Trust—Grade 10-11—Position: Youth Advisor—Requires a renewable year long commitment—Volunteer twice
a month for about 2-5 hours at each event/meeting. Each youth advisor must do the following in addition to volunteer events:
Assist in developing creative approaches to promote youth wellness, Advise THT about health programs and services for
youth, Help decide how to grant available money to youth led service projects, Assist THT in identifying health focused
volunteer opportunities for youth.
- Initiated a pilot program with the Health Trust at inner-city elementary school where I teach a class weekly on the importance
of health and nutrition by following the nation-wide renowned CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health) curriculum.
- Piano Tutoring low income children—ten years experience—California of Merit Certified till Advanced Level
- Tae Kwon Do—Committed more than 5 years will test for Black Belt this year
- Chosen for Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS). Am captain of my team—Grades 9,10,11, 12
- Model United Nations---founder member/ participated in numerous conferences—Grade 10,11,12
- Mock Trial & Forensics—Speech, Impromptu, Oratory—Grade 9,10, 11, 12
- Founded Online Book Club at Harker and selected by librarian to write monthly book reviews for new and recently
published books. Reviews published in Voice of Youth Advocates Literary Magazine.
- Member of National Honor Society—organized hunger banquet and assembly (Grade 10)
- Peer Tutor—Junior High and High School students: Grade 9, 10, 11—Tutor in math and science. (20 hours)
- Sacred Heart Academic Summer Day Camp Counselor for Underprivileged Children: Grade 9, 10—over 40 hours and
Sacred Heart Kitchen Pantry: Grade 7-11—Over 100 hours and Primary Plus School for Children—Grade 9 – 30 hours
- Selected (less than 20% acceptance rate) for a fully paid three days, two nights Enterprise Leadership Conference (Rotary
Club)—exposed to business, finance, & entrepreneur world. Had classes on economics. Busy and full schedule. March 2008
- Know Java (advanced), Ruby(intermediate), Linux, R Statistical Software, and emacs. Expert at Microsoft Office.</p>

<p>Awards and Memberships
- National AP Scholar after Junior Year
- Presidential Scholar Candidate (probably)
- National Merit Semifinalist (probably)
- High Honors: 2004- Present—Cumulative GPA – 4.2
- Independent Research--Won 2nd place in Computer and Mathematics category, Best Biotechnology Project, won Certificate
of Achievement for innovative project from the United States Army, and won 2nd place for my technical paper
- Harker Outstanding Delegate in Model United Nations—Grade 10
- First Place Research and Position Paper—Stanford Model United Nations Conference & First Place Position paper—Harker
Model United Nations Conference—Grade 10
- 1st Place(JV)—Grade 10, 2nd place—Grade 11(Varsity), 3rd Place—Grade 9(JV), Junior Engineering Technical Society
- Impromptu finalist and Oratorical Interpretation Semifinalist—Santa Clara University Speech Competition—Grade 10
- National History Day Essay selected at local level and went to State level—Grade 10</p>

<p>I'm really considering applying to Yale SCEA for engineering but I think I might have a better shot at MIT and CalTech EA and I can't decide what I should do. What do you think? Chance me for those schools and Stanford/Princeton/Harvard/Brown direct medicine/ and UCB EECs, please.</p>

<p>Oh, and I figure my recs should be good, one borderline really good.</p>

<p>My essays will hopefully be good, too. I'm having an on campus interview at Yale in a few weeks, and I'm not sure how that will go but i've been prepping a lot for it.</p>

<p>I'm also female, not sure if that helps but it does sometimes for engineering. I'm Asian Indian so no minority help. Please help!</p>

<p>I know I posted this somewhere else but I thought I might be able to get more replies here.</p>

<p>Thanks for all your help.</p>

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<p>Bump it up… someone please help me. I could really use the help to see where I have a shot and whether its worth applying…</p>

3

<p>Wow, those are some good ECs and SATs. What is your rank? Anyways, chances at MIT are very high, due to all your amazing math interest and the fact that you are a girl( I just saw that, wow). I would apply to MIT EA/ED(I don’t know which it does), because you are a good student and schools will want to snatch you earlier. I don’t know about Yale. I mean, I think you have a good chance, but then again, so do a lot of people who apply there.</p>

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<p>Applying to MIT EA makes absolutely no difference for admissions. However, in general you are a very strong MIT applicant.</p>

5

<p>Good chances.</p>

6

<p>Thank you for your replies! My school doesn’t rank. I think I’m probably in my top 15% or less maybe; definitely top 25% if you only take my GPA into account. I go to a pretty competitive school. </p>

<p>I also think I might be a stronger applicant for MIT and if I apply there I get the chance to apply to CalTech early action too and thus would hopefully have at least one acceptance by January. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, during my research, I’m quickly falling in love with Yale, and if I had to choose, I might pick that school instead. But I’m not sure if that’s in my best interests during the application process. </p>

<p>I do know, however, that if you apply to Yale early, your chances of getting accepted is higher.</p>

<p>I’m very confused about what to do, but I appreciate your advice! Can you chance me for any of the other schools like Stanford or Princeton?</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

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<p>Also, I’ve actually taken the SAT twice. In march and june. The first time I got a 2210(CR:700,M:770,W:740), but I hear that all colleges always take your higher score. but I figure I should mention that.</p>

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<p>A lot of MIT-caliber applicants looking to go into engineering end up applying to both EA and usually get accepted to one or the other, and of course sometimes both or sometimes neither. But I see a lot of people get deferred at MIT early and accepted at CalTech early, or the other way around.</p>

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<p>That’s part of my justification for applying to those colleges early. So it doesn’t look like I have as much of a good chance applying to Yale early.</p>

<p>I guess the coin is leaning towards the technical institutes more.</p>

10

<p>A couple of picky things that I’d get really annoyed about if I was an Admissions Officer…</p>

<p>For Model UN you have “founder member”. If you mean that you were a member in the first year, it’s “charter member”. If you founded it, just say founder.
And don’t put that you’re an “expert at Microsoft Office”. The rest of that line is impressive enough, that just sounds like you’re adding fluff.</p>

<p>But yeah, don’t worry about it.</p>

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<p>^^Lol. Thanks. I just reread that and you’re right it does sound a little fluffy. I didn’t know that about founder/charter member so thank you, and I guess it was a little of both, but I suppose the correct term would be charter member.</p>

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<p>except gpa, ur in, but i dunno how much mit cares abt gpa</p>

<p>also, you may want to think abt harvard too since your good at both bio and mun (stanford mun, dont know exactly what it is, but it must be better than what i did)
so you could apply to harvard for med
but engineering def mit</p>

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<p>…Why engineering at Yale? </p>

<p>Oh, as a side note, there aren’t that many Indians at YP as you might think, judging from my preview visits (I think they all went to MIT :P).</p>

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<p>“except gpa, ur in, but i dunno how much mit cares abt gpa”</p>

<p>What are you talking about? I was a competitive MIT applicant with 3.55 UW / 4.01 W.</p>

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<p>Your GPA might hurt a bit, but your SATs are fine. Your EC’s are very impressive. You clearly show passion, as well as some interesting sides of you. (Not MUN or forensics, but your service work.) The only problem i see is that you don’t have any leadership. By leadership, i dont mean like being captain, but being able impact others, and be involved with the community. It seems like you’re not very social, and like doing things all by yourself. However, that’s just ONE weakness. Just be sure to really get good recs and have a good essay, and you’ll have really good chances.</p>

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<p>I have almost all A-/As and a couple A+s. I have two B+s from APUSH which is mostly reflected through my AP grade too, and my independent research this last year took up hours and hours of my time so I badly balanced my harder than sophomore year school subjects and thus my GPA this year was a 4.15ish weighted(meaning A-s and one A+ and one B+) and so my cumulative GPA dropped. I talked to my counselor about explaining that to colleges, but he said it wasn’t that important to explain the A-s. But I do get your point about my GPA being a little low and I hope to bring it up as a senior.</p>

<p>I’m a little worried about the fact that I took the SAT twice and for technical schools I’m kinda sad I didn’t get an 800 on Math IIc(i think a bad day) but i’m not so obsessive(or at least i’m trying not to be) that I will retake it. But I do think MIT/Caltech like schools might not like that.</p>

<p>As much as I would like to be accepted to any of these schools that are pretty much all reaches, I really want to go to Yale because I have fallen in love with the atmosphere there. The school just fills me up with happiness and their engineering labs aren’t bad. They have at most a 6:1 student teacher ratio in their engineering school and I heard that from T. Kyle Vanderlick(head of engineering). As a girl, I think Yale Engineering might be a better fit for me, but I’ll know for sure after I’ve visited MIT and Caltech. Plus, I’ve never really had the chance to actually pursue humanities as much as I would’ve liked and thus Yale might be a better place for me to spread my wings. I also think that at Yale I will have a better foundation for post undergrad work. Plus Yale has good research facilities and is very supportive of its student body. As Vanderlick said, YALE backwards is ELAY( if you want Engineering and Liberal Arts, then Yale is the place for you. lol)</p>

<p>I’ve also heard that the personal satisfaction of students at Yale is higher than it is at most other schools. Plus their residential system is amazing. So yes, I’m a little infatuated with yale, which is kinda a recent thing and part of the reason I’m contemplating applying early so seriously, but the way you guys have been replying, it makes me feel that my chances aren’t that strong at Yale as they would be at MIT, causing me to rethink my decision.</p>

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<p>Equilibrium, Research is my passion. After almost two years now of heavy day to day work on research I feel like I would be lost without having some scientific dilemma to pursue, and thus because I don’t have solid leadership, I’m mostly hoping my volunteer work and research efforts will oversahdow that.</p>

<p>Stanford MUN isn’t very special. It’s just the annual MUN conference hosted at and by Stanford. I’ve won some awards there, but I don’t think its much more special than going to a conference at another college or high school. </p>

<p>I have thought about Harvard, but the people that go to Harvard from my school are extra exceptional, so I’ve always been very intimidated by the thought and don’t think I have much of a chance. Its not that I think I have a better chance at other reach schools, its just I feel like its a more realistic fantasy if that makes sense. It probably doesn’t and is just me. I will be applying there, but mostly right now I’m just worried about applying to schools early. </p>

<p>Thank you all for your advice. I’m still really unsure about what I’m going to do, but talking about it here at CC has definately helped.</p>

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<p>Even to a newbie like me it seems you have great shots. And are you guys honestly complaining about his 3.9 Unweighted GPA?
…</p>

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<p>her and its actually more like 3.85, i think. I’ve never actually calculated it because our school only gives weighted gpas.</p>

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<p>I am in the same boat as you were this time last year. Please look at my profile and chance me to Yale SCEA or MIT EA?</p>