Chance a kid having his quarter life crisis early for MIT, Caltech, and the Ivies

Applying to College
1

Demographics: Hispanic and Native American first gen that goes to a competitive magnet school

Intended Major(s): Biochemistry (or Biology)

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1530 (780M/750EBRW)

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0uw : 4.7w. I am currently our class salutatorian.

Coursework: 12 Honors, 14 APs/DEs, and 8 Academic Courses (all A’s)

AP Macro - Currently taking

AP Micro - Currently taking

AP US Gov - Currently taking

AP Comp Gov - Currently taking

AP English Lit - Currently taking

AP Spanish Lit - Currently taking (almost no one else in my county takes this course)

Engineering AP Physics C - Currently taking

Engineering Multivariate Calculus - Currently taking

Engineering - Currently taking (not weighted on a 5.0 scale)

AP Spanish Language - 5

AP Chemistry - 4

AP Biology - 4

AP US History - 5

AP English Language - 5

AP Calculus BC - 5

AB subscore - 5

Awards:

  1. National Merit commended scholar
  2. National Hispanic Scholar
  3. AP Scholar with Distinction
  4. I placed in some writing competitions (writing is something I do for fun)
  5. National Honor Society
  6. MuAlphaTheta
  7. National Science Honor Society
  8. Hispanic National Honor Society

Extracurriculars: (Not the strongest point of my app -_-)

  1. Founder of a community outreach organization that partners with many local libraries in the area and helps students learn to code

  2. We have nearly 40 teachers
    2. I frequently meet with leaders of industry (tech CEOs etc.) to discuss sponsorships and what we’re doing with the program
    3. We are already planning on scaling our operations to a national scale
    4. All of our work is provided free of charge to students. Equity is one of our biggest
    priorities

  3. I have worked as a STEM tutor and SAT tutor with Khan Academy to help allow kids that can’t afford expensive test preparation better demonstrate their academic preparedness.

  4. Vice captain of our FRC team and cofounder. We are getting ready to compete this year.

  5. Lead researcher and chemical engineer for Pyura labs, a new research group that is working on a major and novel carbon sequestration project before going public later this year. We are partnered with major benefactors and the University of Washington.

  6. SSP Researcher with MIT and Caltech over the summer, conducting research on methods to reduce fungal induced food insecurity. In silico and in vitro, it would appear that our designed competitive inhibitor was over 90% effective in preventing the propagation of our target fungus.

  7. Member of DECA (didn’t spend too much time in this club, but I participated in 9th grade)

  8. Speech and debate

  9. HOSA (I helped the debate portion of our team go to states)

  10. Wrestling

  11. Track and Field

  12. Advocate for adding classes to our school’s curriculum (like AP Spanish Literature and, for a separate school in my district, AP Calculus BC). Occasionally, I have been invited to public speaking events to promote the AP curriculum.

  13. Spanish interpreter for various community groups

  14. I worked at a Popeyes over the summer

  15. I currently work at Harris Teeter to help my family cover some of my educational costs.

  16. I currently work as an article writer for a watch investment group. I love watches, and the side cash isn’t bad. I have taken on other jobs as well in the writing industry in the past. Right now, I am working on a side project that requires me to report on the local happenings in my county.

LORs:

In general, 10/10. The people from my magnet school are known to write killer letters of rec.

Essays:

I don’t know if I can fairly grade my own essays, but I will say that I get paid to write, share opinions, and entertain readers on the internet, so I would like to say that they were pretty decent.

Schools: I would love to know where I should apply for ED/EA. Right now I would like to go to Yale, but I don’t know how realistic that is. Where should I apply that would give me a good shot.

2

You can apply to any school in the country but one that you can love and afford…not just ‘the ivies’. So if you want Yale apply to Yale. You can consider SCEA.

Just ensure your overall list is balanced with targets and safeties and apply only to schools you can afford. There will be many publics and privates that will throw merit money at you ( not Yale which has need based money). There’s also full rides like the Johnson @ W&L, Douglas at American, Presidential at SMU, and full rides at UVA and W&M.

What is your family income and / or budget ??

3

Right now, my family is counting on the financial aid to help us afford any of the Ivies. UVA is my state school, so I don’t have bad options here. Ideally 20k and below would be financially possible for us. If I were to get enough financial aid from Yale, do you think I would have a shot at getting admitted?

4

Yes. Have you run their NPC?
https://admissions.yale.edu/estimate-your-cost

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5

Your admission has zero to do with your aid at Yale.

You need to run the net price calculator to see if you can afford it.

You need to do this for any school of interest.
If it shows you a # significantly higher than you can afford, then it is likely not the school for you.

That goes for any college that does not offer merit aid.

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6

You are a top student at a magnate school with strong ECs and a URM. You will be extremely competitive for any and all schools. Some will suggest you “hedge” your bet with OOS schools like Alabama but I think you will have some great options at elite universities. While the schools you mention are need blind for admissions you should confirm their affordability and discuss with your parents.

I would focus on what you you are looking for specifically in a school so that you can write compelling essays and more importantly ensure a great fit. Good luck.

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7

I would tone down the language.

Good luck!

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8

In all fairness, that is what I do. I have a lab, and I run it. I write up the experimental designs, get budgetary and advisory approval, and manage my experiments. I manage our equipment for the most part, and I am in charge of writing reports on all preliminary data. I have people in my lab that help with this, but for the most part I tell them what we are doing. Don’t get me wrong, I have people to report to, and I definitely don’t have total autonomy, so how should I word this?

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9

It looks like I can afford it based on their calculator

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10

Very true!

11

Do you already have an engineering degree?

12

If you are the lead researcher at a company that is going public within six months, I wouldn’t be worried about college right now. It seems very suspicious that you have this position but also have to work at Popeyes and Harris Teeter to make money.

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13

@teleia gave you good advice: tone down the language. You are not a chemical engineer just because you ‘write up experimental designs’ and do experiments. Any AO who sees any 17yo claiming to be the “lead researcher” of a research group is going to raise their eyebrows very high, and is likely to assume nepotism or serious connections.

You have a great story to tell- don’t over-egg the pudding.

Also, seriously edit your ECs: something you did for a short time in Grade 9 probably shouldn’t be on the list. Focus and group them by their relative importance to you and the story you are telling about yourself.

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14

No, and I didn’t mean to give the impression that I did.

15

Research assistant or apprentice technologist would be the language I would use. The duties you described are within the purview of those job titles.

Good luck again.

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16

Public as in we plan on transitioning from an incubator and transitioning from angel investors to a more well known company. We are no where near an IPO, and frankly, that’s not even one of the conversations people are having. Right now we aren’t working with the general populace quite yet. And technically I don’t have to. I worked at Popeyes one summer though, and I liked the people, so I thought I might get back into it. You raise good points though, and I don’t mean to misrepresent myself in any way.

17

Correct. I will try not to overstate my involvement going forward. My bad. I will go through and remove some ECs. Not all will go on my common app; I just wanted people to know what I’ve done throughout high school.

18

Good idea! I will use those instead

19

Use the net price calculator on each school’s web site to get a financial aid estimate for that school.

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20

Deleted
@VAStudent2023

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