Chance a sophomore for Carnegie Mellon

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>yeah that's right, I'm a sophomore. but no, I am not applying to college, lol. </p>

<p>Just wanna see how I'm doing</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning (by section): 2050 (720 M 700 W 630 CR)<br>
SAT Subject tests: Bio - 740 Math2 - 740 USH - 740
APs: taking Bio and Euro this year
GPA, Weighted and Unweighted: 3.85
Rank: top 5% of 300
Senior Yr. Courseload: most challenging (it will be ;))
Number of Apps from Your School: ~3</p>

<p>ECs:
Clubs: President/Founder of Asian Culture and Charity Club, Captain/Founder of Math Olympiad, member of academic challenge, member of chess club, member of spanish club, member of Interact club</p>

<p>apart of mainline youth chamber orchestra (respected orchestra in philadelphia)
district orchestra (audition coming up, hope I get in)</p>

<p>Volunteering: will get hours from interact club, will get some more hours from hospital volunteering next summer, and i have some from violin playing for church and teaching bible lessons. (only 20 hours) (together in the end I hope 100+)</p>

<p>Awards:
1st place Deleware Valley Science Fair Biochemistry
Nanotech/Biointerface award
Parental Drug Association Award
1st place county best of show science fair
1st place county biochemistry science fair</p>

<p>Job/Work Experience: Shadowed a Dentist for a summer (25 hours), did research at hepatitus B foundation</p>

<p>Essays (subject and responses): at least decent
Teacher Recs: at least decent
Counselor Rec: Ditto.</p>

<p>State or Country: PA
School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Average, silver, public
Ethnicity: Asian
Income Bracket: 150k
Gender: Male
Strengths/Weaknesses: science + music?</p>

<p>am I on my way?</p>

<p>my future schools:
UPenn ED
HYPS
Carnegie Mellon
Lehigh
Lehigh accelerated dental Program with Upenn (7 year)</p>

<p>treat me like a senior? treat me like a sophomore? doesn't matter. give me insight! lol
am I on the right track?</p>

2

<p>oh and I have a patent with my name in it. (2nd name)</p>

3

<p>UW GPA is somewhat low for HYPS and Penn.
SAT is looooowww for HYPS and Penn. Take classes or prep yourself if possible.
SATII is average for HYPS and Penn, could definitely be better, especially considering you’re from the Asian applicant pool.
ECs too “stereotypically Asian” for HYPS and Penn.
Amount of community service hours is lacking and don’t stand out (hospital and church are again, stereotypically Asian).
Courseload seems decent but HYPS applicants will have pretty impressive soph and jr schedules. </p>

<p>Patent might help slightly. Class rank will help.</p>

<p>I’m not too familiar Carnegie Mellon.</p>

4

<p>okay. Good thing I still have time to improve.</p>

<p>more opinions please. </p>

<p>SAT is way low yeah I know but I’m a sophomore, but I understand your judging me as a senior which is what I asked for</p>

5

<p>Come back in 2 years.</p>

<p>However, I can tell you right now, with the huge amount of Asian applicants to any school, despite the fact that you have a good rank+gpa and decent SAT, you’re as close to the stereotypical asian as can be. (Which is a horrible horrible thing).</p>

<p>Try to differentiate yourself from other asian applicants, you’re still a sophomore, I’m not telling you to quit the clubs you’re in now, but how often do you see an asian applicant that has:</p>

<p>“Hi, I’m asian,
I play the piano, I’m good at math, I’m also in the orchestra, I’m in the chess club, I’ve won a bunch of academic awards.”</p>

<p>The answer is, of course, very often. Go out and try to play some sports, because right now, you’re just another asian who has the done same things and have the same things listed on your application like 90% of the other asians competing the same competitive pool. </p>

<p>I’m not trying to be arrogant or anything, but I’ll use myself as an example.</p>

<p>I’m in the process of applying to universities too, but I play Ice hockey at an extremely high level (Top 5 Ranked team in Independent prep schools/ Top 100 Ranked Defensemen in 2005/2006 in America/ U-16 Japan National Team invite) and I’m also a highly devoted bboy (Breakdancing for 5 years). I’m Asian too, but I suppose that my ECs, because they aren’t very “usual”(I guess that’s the right term) in Asian applications, it will make me stand out compared to some other kids.</p>

<p>What I’m trying to say is, Hey, you’re a great student, but you need to be more than that to be competitive to some good schools. So you’re still young and have two years, so try something new.
Good luck!</p>

6

<p>No, your SAT low as a sophomore for HYPS as well. I wasn’t really judging you as a senior.</p>

<p>My sister @ Harvard got a 2200 sophomore year (January, I think?) taking it cold. She took it later again after prep as well; however I won’t divulge her final SAT score except that it was higher.</p>

<p>Coincidentally I took it Jan of my sophomore year as well (cold, like her) and got the same exact score as her…unfortunately I can’t report my admissions results as I’m in my junior year right now.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, she didn’t take a prep class and self studied. I’m planning on taking the same path as well but I don’t know if I’m cut out for that (seems like a lot of motivation), but I don’t really want to take a prep class either since it’s expensive. If your income bracket is 150,000+ I would expect your parents have no issue shelling out a couple of Gs to give your SAT a boost.</p>

7

<p>starting SAT score a 2200? kind of ridiculous. you must have a smart family. I took it cold in 9th grade got a 1600.</p>

<p>@‘passion’: thanks for the advice. I did soccer as a freshmen but that doesn’t really do much to my application.<br>
not going to lie… science and music is my passion, which I know isn’t very unique… oh well. I’m trying to get into INTEL this year and I’m doing the Siemens competition in senior year, and I’m also trying to get into the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra and Symphony. </p>

<p>time to kick it up a knotch</p>

8

<p>bump bump bump</p>

9

<p>get both CR and Math up to 740 each, and youll be good for any school, stats wise. Just remember that the essays and making yourself unique count just as much as the stats. If i could go back and change one thing it would be to join the math club since my freshman year. just find something that makes you different from everyone else. So far though, great job!</p>

10

<p>Pssst, get in to Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. Then you can really say you play violin!</p>

<p>As others have said though, come back in your senior year.</p>

11

<p>I don’t mean to be a downer, but Carnegie only takes your SAT scores from Junior & Senior year. Given your scores already, I’d assume you’ll only score higher.</p>

12

<p>Yes, my current SAT score is just an indicator so yall know how to chance me.</p>

<p>thanks for all the insight! lot’s of things I need to do this current sophomore year and junior year</p>

13

<p>bump! for more opinions</p>

14

<p>I’m sitting here right now with the admission statistics I got from a visit to CMU the other day, and assuming you’re going to apply to the Mellon College of Science, you have the scores to get in (considering you’re a sophomore, that’s pretty damn impressive). Take a rigorous course load, retake the SATs, and you’ll be in there for sure.</p>

<p>As for Penn, if you’re applying ED there then you might have a better shot. I’d have to say low reach, with those numbers and ECs, for Penn but I’m sure you’ll be extremely competitive for it when you reach your senior year. </p>

<p>As for the other schools, I really don’t know much about them to give you any information.</p>

15

<p>i think academic wise your on the right track. i would bring up that GPA just to be on the safe side. </p>

<p>as far as extracurriculars, maybe you can try to be more unique? but also remember colleges look at how long you have been involved with an activity and if you have leadership roles. but dont just do something because you want to break the mold of a typical asian student, do it because you want to.</p>

<p>good luck :)</p>

16

<p>thanks for all the opinions.</p>

<p>any other thoughts please? the more feedback, the better</p>

17

<p>

</p>

<p>Oh, save it – you sound like an elitist.</p>

18

<p>Good chance at Carnegie and ED Penn, but reaches/low reaches for everything else.</p>

19

<p>thanks for the feedback breaker.</p>

20

<p>shameless self bump</p>