Chance a Black Male at some of the Top Universities!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So I'm a junior right now, but I'm looking at some schools that I really like. I was hoping you all could give me advice and your thoughts on the following universities. I will be applying as a Finance/Computer Science major. Thanks so much</p>

<p>UPenn
UChicago
UMichigan
MIT
Stanford
Caltech
University of Southern California
Princeton
Columbia
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Berkeley
UCLA
UWashington
Penn State
Carnegie Mellon
UMiami
Johns Hopkins</p>

<p>Objective:</p>

<p>SAT I (breakdown): 2150 (first sitting)... Math (790), CR (630), Writing (730); taking 1 more time.. hoping to break 2250
SAT Subject Tests (place score in parentheses): Math II (hoping for 750+), Bio: (hoping for 700+)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.5
Weighted GPA (out of 5.0): 4.3
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 8%
AP (place score in parentheses): Calc AB (5), Comp Sci (5), this year, taking: AP Calc BC, AP Bio, APUSH
Senior Year Course Load: Linear Algebra (AP Credit), Multivariable Calc (AP Credit), AP Chem, AP Stat, Honors Gov, AP Econ, AP Psychology, Honors English, Honors Engineering, Select Choir
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Duke of Edinburgh (Bronze, Silver, maybe Gold), Winner of 4 major intercollegiate hackathons (pretty big deal to just get invited to compete, let alone win), will probably be Semi-finalist/Finalist for National Achievement, will be commended for National Merit, Winner of National Mergers and Acquisitions competition 2 years in a row, Place at States FBLA all years competing, Venture Scholar</p>

<p>Subjective:</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): FBLA (Regional President - Region encompasses 12 high schools in county) grades 11+12, FBLA Regional Treasurer (10), FBLA Chapter Vice President (9), Homework Helper Club (tech chair), Student Council Treasurer (9-10), Class Council Treasurer (9-11), Varsity Tennis Team (9, 10, 12), Attending and winning hackathons, Mu Alpha Theta, Spanish Honors Society, Business Honors Society, Science Olympiad, Frisbee Team (9-12)
Job/Work Experience: Computer science research at Temple University, Work at a few startups, writing software throughout the year 10th-12th grade
Volunteer/Community Service: Gold Presidential Service Awards
Summer Activities: LEAD CSI, Computer Science research at Caltech and Temple University, Mergers/Acquisitions Competitions at Columbia and Vandy, Paid Internship at a Data Analytics Startup, writing software and algorithms
Essays: Hopefully will be good
Teacher Recommendations: Hopefully will be pretty good
Counselor Rec: Will probably be relatively generic
Additional Rec: Will get really good rec from boss at tech startup</p>

<p>Other</p>

<p>State (if domestic applicant): PA
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: AA
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 150-190
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM</p>

<p>Reflection</p>

<p>Strengths: Chill, good talker, relatable, easy to talk to, can carry out intelligent conversation with almost anyone, good leader
Weaknesses: teenager lol</p>

2

<p>We got similar stats. I have slightly higher stats but your ECs blow mine out of the water. I think you have a good shot at all of them because Affirmative action really helps. Make sure you write killer essays. You definitely will not get into all of these schools but if you apply early I think you can have some very good schools that will accept you. </p>

3

<p>SAT, UW GPA slightly below Ivy average. URM may help but not a ton… I wouldn’t count on any of of the selective ones.</p>

<p>You’re definitely in at Penn State, though.</p>

4

<p>I think you should really strive for even better grades for your senior year, but if not, your SAT and AP test scores will help justify your abilities.
Defff in at UMich as well.</p>

5

<p>Ivies/Stanford/MIT/Caltech/UChicago are all reaches for you. Get your CR up and you might get into some of them. </p>

6

<p>In everywhere or almost everywhere (you’ll probably blow off the application at a Couple of olaces like most people do). Only weakness is the sat but your urm status makes up for it pretty handily. I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>

7

<p>Regardless of your URM status, your GPA is EXTREMELY low. Nothing can make up for that.</p>

8

<p>UPenn, UChicago, MIT, Stanford, Princeton= Very High Reach
Columbia, Northwestern= High Reach
Vanderbilt, Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Caltech= Reach to Low Reach
UCLA, UWashington, Penn State, Carnegie Mellon, UMiami, University of Southern California, UMichigan= Low Reach to Match</p>

<p>Extracurriculars look very good, especially because most of them are 4 year commitments.
GPA is low but with class rank (also depends on school size though) doesn’t look as bad, especially with high SAT scores and challenging course load.</p>

<p>Chance Me Back??? <a href=“http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1651346-help-rising-junior-chances-for-my-top-schools.html#latest”>http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1651346-help-rising-junior-chances-for-my-top-schools.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>With your GPA, I’d say Berkeley and UCLA are reaches. And they don’t consider your race.</p>

10

<p>@collegetime18 they can say they don’t consider race, but in reality almost everywhere does, if you look at the acceptance rates of African-Americans and other URMs they’re much higher than for other races (Caucasian, Asian) <a href=“3 Hooks in College Admissions”>http://diycollegerankings.com/college-admissions-hook/2935/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>@noel597‌ What are you talking about?
There have been people of various races that have gotten into all of those colleges with similar stats. You being an URM only helps you out and nearly every other URM with those stats have gotten in to those colleges. However, it is never a sure thing with selective schools like Stanford ETC, they are reaches for everyone. You are pretty much in at Penn State and USC and close to it in UCLA and Berkeley(being out of state hurts… a lot… if you lived in California it would be a sure bet, they accept people with way lower stats). Best of luck come November - December </p>

12

<p>@castle027‌ that article doesn’t discuss CA specially and I disagree with you. This year an AA male from Oakland Tech got into a bunch of Ivies but not Berkeley. His GPA wasn’t high enough for Berkeley (mean this year is 3.9 UW) and they didn’t consider race because they legally cannot, unlike the Ivies.</p>

13

<p>I know they legally can’t @collegetime18, but to say that they don’t consider race at all is completely false. Despite what nearly any (top) college says, there’s no way they’re going to have a 99% white student body. Although quotas don’t exist anymore, colleges still factor in race. That being said, I agree with you that you shouldn’t depend at all on your race helping you when applying to colleges, because in the end the best applicants of every race get in.</p>

14

<p>What race matters a lot except at UC’s. They are legally barred from considering race, and naturally they won’t end up with 99% white (tons of
Asians). If they do consider race, it’s minimal and incidental (from
Bias).</p>

15

<p>I would like to point out that both UCLA and UCBerkeley are both pretty diverse, even if they don’t consider race.</p>

16

<p>Undoubtedly but I don’t think it’s because they consider race which they don’t. A study on admissions after they stopped considering race showed a dramatic spike in Asian representation and a drop in URM’s. There are obviously talented URM’s who have gotten in without needing race as a factor at ucla and berkely.</p>

17

<p>@gtownhopeful2016‌ Um… Of course he’s going to get into college, but he probably won’t get into a lot of the top schools. They don’t excuse his low GPA because he is African American… Even his SAT score is too low at the moment. He would need a 33+ or 2220+.
UCLA and Berkeley in particular are HUGE reaches. Even UCSB would be a low reach with his GPA.</p>

18

<p>You should focus your search on the strong stem schools your 790 in math will matter. CMU univ of Chi. MIT is a reach but one worth taking if you can improve your grades. Your weakness is your CR and needs to improve but an almost perfect score in Math is going to put you in a different category. You may want to add Harvey Mudd, disagree about cal Berkeley you are solidly in their 25/75 ratios with your test scores. I would think their dearth of AA students would make you appealing. Also you can still raise your gpa and an upward trend would really matter. </p>

19

<p>@mayihelp UC’s cannot legally consider race. Furthermore, in 2012, those student who applied to UCLA with an unweighted 3.4-3.7 faced an admit rate of around SIX PERCENT. So yes, UCLA and Berkeley are reaches.</p>

20

<p>When you are considering admission to a competitive college, don’t count on race helping you. I’ve seen many stories on the African American threads where students with great stats were rejected. If these schools are so important to you, improve your GPA, nail your SSAT to improve your changes and hope for the best.</p>