Chance a Sunny San Diego Kid for MIT: Biomedical Engineering?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>White Male, Dutch ancestry.
California (3rd Generation) Resident
Attending Private School in San Diego, CA</p>

<p>Major: Biomedical Engineering
Alt. Majors: General Engineering, Biochemistry, Biology...</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.96 (One B in sophomore math)
Weighted and Capped GPA: 4.29 (What CSU System Uses)
Fully Weighted GPA: 4.46 (UC GPA)</p>

<p>SAT I
Overall: 2200
Composite: 1470
Math: 730
Critical Reading: 740
Writing: 730</p>

<p>SAT II
Chemistry: 600 (Took honors chem two years ago and haven't touched since…)
Math Level II: 790</p>

<p>ACT
Composite: 33 (33.5 => 34 if you super score)
English: 35
Math: 31
Reading: 34 (35 if you super score)
Science: 33
Writing: 31</p>

<p>PSAT: 2011 National Merit Commended Scholar</p>

<p>School didn't offer APs, took UC and CSU transferable Community College courses instead.
11th Grade Fall
-Spanish 1: A
-Calculus 1: A</p>

<p>11th Grade Spring
-Spanish 2: A
-Calculus 2: A</p>

<p>11th Grade Summer
-Calculus 3: A</p>

<p>12th Grade Fall
-Linear Algebra: In Progress…Guaranteed an A
-Physics 1 (Mechanics and Heat): In Progress…Guaranteed an A</p>

<p>12 Grade Spring
-Differential Equations: Planned for Spring of Senior Year
-Physics 2 or 3 (Still deciding): Planned for Spring of Senior Year</p>

<p>Senior Year Course load
-Advanced Orchestra (7th year Violist)
-British Literature
-Competitive Forensics III (Lincoln-Douglas Debate)
-Differential Equations (College)
-Economics
-Linear Algebra (College)
-Physics 1 - Mechanics and Heat (College)
-Physics 2 or 3 (College)
-U.S. Government</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities
- Member of School's Speech and Debate Club (10, 11, 12)
- Member of School's Speech and Debate Team (10, 11, 12)
-Traveled across California to 6-7 Statewide Tournaments every Spring
-Qualified for National Tournament 2010 held in San Diego, CA
-17th Ranked Lincoln-Douglas Debater in National Forensics League</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Soloist Bass in School's Patriotic Show Choir (9, 10, 11)
-Performed in Washington, DC (In front of multiple members of Congress + 2000 member audience), Marine Base Camp Pendleton, Navy Medical Center San Diego, Disneyland (CA), U.S.S. Midway (Raising Support for Soldier's Families), and the Official U.S. Military Naturalization (Citizenship) Ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Midway for 800 new citizens.</p></li>
<li><p>Suzuki-Trained Violist for 7 years. (…9, 10, 11, 12)
-Member of Youth Orchestra (9, 10, 11)
-Violist in the Grossmont College Symphony Orchestra (12)
-Performed in front of the Chairperson of California's Community Colleges
-Performed Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" with the San Diego Ballet</p></li>
<li><p>Member of School's Chapter of the Eta Sigma Alpha National Honor Society (11, 12)
-Elected Public Relations Chairperson (12)</p></li>
<li><p>Participated in Several Neurological Research Studies with Faculty of UCSD as a Subject. (9, 10, 11, 12)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Please Chance me for MIT: Biomedical Engineering!</p>

<p>I would really appreciate any feedback, Thank You!</p>

2

<p>Are you Luke Brown? Just checking…</p>

3

<p>nope, definitely not! sorry :P</p>

4

<p>Nobody can really chance prospective MIT students. Having said that, I would say your chemistry SAT2 may hurt you as admissions officers here say that around 700 is good.</p>

5

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-accurate-chance-mit.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/939227-reminder-no-one-not-even-me-can-give-you-accurate-chance-mit.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, MIT does not have a biomedical engineering major, not that we admit by major to begin with.</p>

6

<p>I realize that nothing is for sure when chanceing…but I wanted to know if I should spend the time I have actively pursuing a school like MIT. </p>

<p>I scored so low on the SAT II Chemistry because I had hardly studied chemistry for about a year and a half before getting SAT II Prep Books the week before. :/</p>

<p>Biomedical Engineering is a very niche field, so an under grad in a related field would be just fine; GenEng, Bio, BioChem, etc.</p>

7

<p>Well, MIT won’t know that you scored so low because you hardly studied, so that definitely will hurt you. But it is very good you got a 790 on Math II!</p>

<p>It’s always okay to have a reach school, so I wish you the best of luck :slight_smile: Who knows who MIT will accept? We will have to wait and see!</p>

8

<p>Just a random note, have students from your school applied to MIT before?/Does MIT know your school?/Does your school send a detailed report to MIT about the school?</p>

<p>With no class rank or AP tests, and a below average (not saying harmful, but below average) chemistry score, it may be a little challenging for MIT to figure out the context of the school you come from without additional, non-applicant supplied info.</p>

9

<p>

</p>

<p>You might want to look into a school you’re applying to :wink: We have BME as a minor at MIT. We don’t have general engineering (you pick a type of engineering) or biochemistry (I believe it’s a focus in the chemistry department) as majors either.</p>

10

<p>@PiperXP I was looking through my application and found out it said “Biological/Biomedical Engineering.” I now realize that it’s a BioEng major with a BME minor…that seems like the path I’d take. I hate different terms for basically the same major ;)</p>

<p>@RazorConcepts I know of just a few. One actually is in a graduate or doctorate program currently (almost finished). You’re right, school doesn’t have AP tests, but “unofficially” I’m basically 1/70 (small class, I know). This is why I decided to enroll in UC transferable Community College courses, so the academic rigor was evidently there. Believe me, finishing the mathematics required for complete degrees at many other universities while still in high school is no joke; it was hard work, and I have the transcript to prove it.</p>

11

<p>Disasterpone:</p>

<p>My mouth was literally agape reading the first half of your application. We have very different interests and extracurriculars, but good lord our courses and sats are almost identical. I mean seriously.</p>

<p>Almost the same composite SAT out of 2400, the exact same out of 1400, same deal where I had a low science SAT because I didn’t touch it in a year, but a 790 Math II. Same deal where school doesn’t offer APs, so I took cal 1,2,3 and linear algebra at community college, as WELL AS Physics 1 and 2 there. Haha, same rank, same intended major, same PSAT result, good lord. Should we check if we have matching scars? lol</p>

<p>By the way, I wouldn’t worry about your/our situation with the science SAT. It obviously isn’t a <em>good</em> thing that we semi-bombed it, but contrary to what some people have said, I think they’ll see the correlation between when we took the course and our score. After all, they see on our self reported coursework when it was that we took the class, and they see the date that we took the test. Given our high math scores and science class grades, I think they’ll understand that the explanation isn’t simply that we’re stupid :P</p>

12

<p>Haha…that’s actually very weird…what state do you live in? I’m hoping you’re right on the chem satII!</p>

13

<p>Just a stone’s-throw from sunny San Diego… Texas… haha.</p>

<p>Well I think that since they look at us holistically (not with a point based system), it doesn’t seem as though one test would do us in. I mean, my understanding from all of the MIT presentations that I’ve gone to is that they want to admit students who they think will be successful at MIT and contribute something to science/the world in their lifetimes. If they see from your awards and accomplishments that you have the raw talent that is necessary to take advantage of MIT’s resources, and from your essays that you have the right personality to be a good addition to the school, then that’s what matters. If they had 1 spot left, and were choosing between your application and one other, wherein both had accomplishments of almost identical impressiveness but different chem scores, I highly doubt that they would resort to choosing based on that; they would probably just sit down and reevaluate your essays and accomplishments again and make the tough decision that way.</p>

<p>Bottom line, if someone showed me a list of all of the things that you accomplished in high school, but said “oh by the way, he scored a 600 on chem”, I don’t think I’d be hung up on that, nor would the MIT adcom. :P</p>

14

<p>In my opinion, Community Colleges are the way to go to get credit & accelerated learning while still in High School. It’s cool that we’re both in the same track!</p>

<p>You make a good point, obviously it would have been better for a higher score…but it might get overlooked somewhat since I’m not even going into chemistry. Now I just have to finish writing good essays. ;)</p>

15

<p>Yea, I actually really like it; most of the freshman level classes at CC’s are kind of a joke (first year english and history, for example), but the sciences and maths I’ve taken are pretty damn hard. Plus, a lot of the students in those classes with me have been University of Houston students who couldn’t fit a, for example, physics one class at UH into their schedule, so they took it at the local CC. I’m in pretty intelligent company, so the education I get is pretty thorough.</p>

16

<p>The cc classes I’ve taken (besides spanish I and II) have been extremely rigorous, but that’s nothing a little hard work and late night studying with pandora can’t fix. :wink: Most of my peers in cc classes are transferring into the Math/Science departments of UCSD, UCLA or SDSU (flagship CSU campus), so for the most part they’re pretty intense. Of course next door you’ve got a beginning algebra class…hehe</p>