Chancing for RD schools after updates to my application. Basically I am an African-American male interested in engineering and entrepreneurship with fairly high stats. I’m also low income and first gen to college. So far I have been accepted to local state school and UMich, and deferred from Princeton. I was also invited to Rice VISION and Carnegie Mellon Celebration of Diversity Weekend shortly after applying (all-expenses paid college visits for minorities). Overall, not entirely sure how good my chances are, but I’m hoping to get into at least 1 Ivy.
Objective:
GPA: 4.8 W and 3.75 UW
New SAT: 1500 SAT (770 math and 730 verbal)
ACT: 32
SAT II: Did not submit unless required (high 600s)
Rank- 1/124 (shared with 19)
Senior Schedule- AP World History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Psychology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, Honors English, Honors Civics, Multivariable Calculus (DE)
AP Scores- 5s in Calc BC, Calc AB, Physics 1, English Language, Statistics; 4 in Microeconomics
Course Rigor- 11 APs, 1 DE, 11 Honors throughout high school; most rigorous in my HS
Hooks: African-American male, low income, first gen to college
Intended Major: Mechanical Engineering or Economics
Subjective:
Extracurriculars: Founder and CEO of a medical device startup, Presented Materials Science research at international scientific conference after receiving NSF grant, University ASME Design Team, President of Debate Team
Job/Work Experience: Brother and I started a landscaping company to help support my parents pay for health insurance.
Volunteer/Community service: Conservation volunteering, NAACP
Essays: 9/10. Counselor said they were the best she’s read in the last 10 years. Very well written essay about my transition from a chef to an entrepreneur. Related it to my uncle who has lung cancer.
Teacher Recommendations: 9/10. Great. My economics teacher said that I would accomplish great things for society with the right resources. Chemistry teacher said I was the best student in 30 years.
Counselor Rec: 7/10. Good.
RD schools:
Princeton (deferred EA)
Rice
Cornell
WashU
Carnegie Mellon
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Penn M&T
Columbia
Harvey Mudd
Stanford
Hooks and ECs appear extremely strong. Especially the startup, very impressive. Your SAT scores are decent but will put you below average for Princeton, Stanford, and Columbia. EC’s and hooks will likely compensate for the small score difference at Cornell and Rice. Course rigor is also decent but not extraordinary for the ivys. I think the rest of the schools are almost a certain thing (>70%).
Forgot to mention but although your rank and weighted gpa is awesome, your unweighted gpa won’t help your case very much. Considering that it is by no means bad, I think your focus on your ECs will help weigh it out.
urm hook, low income, and first gen will help you.
Princeton (deferred EA) - accept/waitlist
Rice- accept
Cornell-accept
WashU-accept
Carnegie Mellon-accept
Vanderbilt-accept
Northwestern-accept
Penn M&T-accept
Columbia-waitlist
Harvey Mudd-accept/waitlist
Stanford-depends on essays
So, overall profile that I’m sure you’ve heard before; you;re a strong applicant to a lot of these places, hopefully you sent SAT over ACT, your GPA looks alright, although even with heavy weighting, colleges like to look more at UW, and IDK if your class rank is based on weighted or unweighted. So, pure academically, a little bit low for some of the top places and on target for some of the almost top places. However, you’ve got AA on your side. That gives you a big bump, I think especially so at engineering schools which get comparatively even fewer minority applicants. So, without further ado, predictions. Also, I’m assuming an Econ major for all, although your odds will go down slightly at engineering schools.
RD schools:
Princeton (deferred EA) - Probably rejected, unless some new developement gives you something big to add.
Rice - Accepted
Cornell - Accepted
WashU - Accepted
Carnegie Mellon - Accepted
Vanderbilt - Accepted
Northwestern - Accepted
Penn M&T - Rejected
Columbia - Rejected
Harvey Mudd - Rejected
Stanford - Rejected
Your EC"s are awesome! SAT II scores are a bit low, so not sure about HYPS (ik u didn’t do Yale but u get the point) , but I think perhaps the others you are qualified enough to be competitive
I think you’re start up would be a good hook, and you have a 1500 SAT!! I don’t see why you wouldn’t get in everywhere? But then again I dont know much about this process! Thanks for chancing me!
I’d say you have a pretty good chance for all! Princeton, Stanford, and Columbia could be low reaches and you never really know for those schools, but I’d say you have a better chance than most. The rest seem to be matches with Northwestern and Carnegie Mellon probably high matches. Good luck!
I’d say that you have excellent chances of admission at Rice, Cornell, WashU, and Carnegie Mellon.
I don’t have a strong sense of how you’d fare at Northwestern.
I suspect that you would have been accepted at Vandy if you’d applied ED, but that school is so focused on test scores (and on filling the class with early admits) that I don’t think you’ll be accepted there.
I doubt that you’ll be accepted at the remaining schools . . . though hope springs eternal! In any case, you should feel confident that you’ll win admission to some of the finest schools in the land.
Northwestern you have a great shot if you’re essays are as good as you say they are. Wash U definitely you’ll get in , Rice you have a pretty good chance, Stanford again essays mean a lot to them
Hi! Parent of a WashU student who got in ED for class of 2021. You’re likely in given your SAT and AP scores. You are competitive with the scores and strong focus.
Cornell is the likeliest Ivy for you to get into. URM with high test scores, good grades, and interest in engineering-an adcom’s dream candidate. My son’s school (highly ranked school in California) had 2 students get into to Cornell ED and your grades/test scores are way better than theirs.
You might have a good chance at Harvey Mudd as they like high standardized test scores plus they aren’t as diverse of a student body.
The rest of the schools are a flip of the coin literally but your profile gives you a more than excellent chance.
ECs are very strong - I’m sure talking about the startup in your essays would give you a large advantage. Hooks are good as well! Being a minority student in engineering will probably give you an advantage as well.
Unweighted GPA is a little bit low for the colleges you are looking at but not too concerning, especially considering your insane weighted GPA.
Your ACT score is very good, but then again almost all people applying to these types of schools will have a score in and around a 32. SAT is also very good.
Back to your ECs: it seems like you have pretty deep investments in all of these and leadership positions in a few - nice!
I’m not super familiar with some of these schools but I will do my best to predict based on what I know:
Princeton (deferred EA) - reject
Rice - accept
Cornell - accept
WashU - accept
Carnegie Mellon - accept
Vanderbilt - accept
Northwestern - accept
Penn M&T - accept
Columbia - reject
Harvey Mudd - reject
Stanford - accept
Pretty cool ECs! Just like what everyone else said, a little low on the academic side but I’m confident you will get accepted to at least one of your reach schools.
