Hi everyone, I’m a high school junior just looking for some realistic feedback. I am looking to apply to USNA, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and SUNY so far. My #1 choice is USNA, and right now I feel like I have a good shot there. Reach schools are MIT, Caltech, and UC Berkeley. SUNY is more of a match/safety. I am looking to major in physics. Here are my stats:
Academics
- Took 8 AP courses sophomore year and became a national scholar that year
-19 APs thus far, getting a few more senior year and hoping for state scholar, but I live in FL so it will be tough.
among those are all the biggies( AP calc AB and BC, physics C, English lit and English lang, chem, bio, etc.)
-4.0 unweighted GPA, haven’t checked my weighted in a while
-National Merit Scholar finalist
-2400 SAT sophomore year
-34 ACT junior year
-IB program
Sports
-sophomore and junior year varsity swim team, planning on continuing senior year
-sophomore and junior year varsity tennis, planning on continuing senior year
-freshman,sophomore, and junior year varsity and club sailing teams
-nationally ranked laser sailor
ECs
-4 years mu alpha theta math team, won many awards and have been eligible to go to every national and state competition since I started high school
- mu alpha theta chapter vice president at my school and national student delegate to the mu alpha theta organization
-Model UN - school club president and won multiple delegate awards at conferences
-Science fair- won in my division at regionals in 8th grade, 10th grade,11th grade and participated in ISEF this year
-Physics Olympiad semifinalist
-over 200 hours of community service at my sailing center
-level 2 certified sailing instructor
-over 100 hours of community service at the conservation foundation in my community
-sailing team captain this year and sailing club founder and president for 2 years
-national medalist at the scholastic art and writing awards this year and last year, state medalist freshman year and 8th grade
-piano and guitar (not as a part of band)
-science national honor society, english national honor society, national honor society, spanish national honor society, mu alpha theta(national math honor society), rho kappa (history honor society)
-part time job at a restaurant
-STEM team (took first place individually at the state competitions in physical science(8th), physics(11th), and chem(10th))
-national honor society secretary
If anyone has some honest thoughts to share on my chances at the universities I listed or any recommendations on great physics schools, I would really appreciate it!
I would say you’re a shoo in for all of them – I’d be surprised if you weren’t to get in as a physics major especially as you were a physics Olympiad semifinalist (assuming this is at a national or international level) . Don’t know anything about USNA so I don’t know your chances there.
You have a very high chance in all of the schools. 2400 sat and 4.0 unweighted plus so many APs and Awards. You can get into MIT with no problem.
Pick and choose closely related extra-curriculars that you want to lead a career field in. Listing all of these activities will make you look “well-rounded” which is not what you want.
If you don’t get into the Naval Academy, are you going to try for a Navy ROTC scholarship? Do these schools offer Navy ROTC?
I don’t know- I know the naval academy weighs ECs and sports more than most schools, and they say that the acceptance rate is around 12% but I’ve heard that’s actually skewed because they count incomplete applications. Does anyone have some insight on that?
I’m a sophmore in community college with 37 credits under my belt. After a couple summer classes and the fall my GPA should be a 3.6. My courses are great in economics and I’m taking higher maths this summer and in the fall (which I do pretty well at typically)
My extra carriculars: After my senior year of high school I took an intership with Southwestern Advantage. I left home from Nashville to Dallas, TX to sell educational books door-to-door over 70 hours a week. I did pretty well. I then took a part-time job with a fortune 500 company (Simon Property Group) working in mall offices and operations. After that I took another part time sales job while in school with a start-up staffing company. (Owner is a Penn grad) and one of my reccommendation letters. Now I’m working with a software company that designs 3d printers, face scanners, and 3d scanners. I work with software engineers to hardware engineers for a great company with only 25 employees. I wanted to add my EC’s because I know my GPA is average, and my EC’s are what would get me in. What tier of schools should I apply for? Going to apply to transfer to NYU, Michigan, Virginia, Berkeley, etc. My dream school is Cornell. Do my EC’s give me a chance at ivy league schools? I know the chances are slim, but arr they 0? Cornell, Vanderbilt, Chicago, Brown? Thanks for the imput! Trying to get some feedback.
@codyweak I think you meant to start a new post. Not under notarobot314 's post.
@notarobot314 I feel like you’re definitely qualified for those schools. However MIT and Caltech are reaches for nearly everyone unless you did something that shows incredible potential. I don’t think it is as easy as @jamesxyz1998 said.
Remember to take the appropriate SAT subject tests.