Chance an asian male for mechanical engineering?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics:

  • Asian male (Taiwanese-American)
  • Somewhat competitive public high school in Illiniois
  • Middle Class
  • No hooks

Intended Major:

  • Mechanical or Computer Engineering

UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 5.0 (4.54 UC GPA)

Rank: School doesn’t rank

SAT: 1510 (760 E/750 M), essay 4/6/4 (lol), probably not going to send
ACT: 35 (36/36/35/34), essay 9
SAT II: 770 Physics, 800 Math 2

AP’s:

  • AP Computer Science (5)
  • AP US History (5)
  • AP Psychology (5)
  • AP Lang (5)
  • AP Calc BC (5/5)
  • AP Physics 1 (5)
  • AP Physics 2 (4)
  • AP Physics C
  • AP Statistics
  • AP Lit
  • AP Govt & Politics
  • AP Macro

EC’s:

  • Marching Band (4 years, 1 year “leadership team”)
  • Jazz Band (3 years)
  • Scholastic/Quiz Bowl (3 years)
  • Pit Orchestra (for my school’s musical, 2 years)

Awards:

  • AP Scholar with Distinction
  • NHS
  • Tri-M Music Society

Reaches:

  • UC Berkely
  • Stanford
  • UT Austin (?)
  • Northwestern
  • Brown
  • Pomona
  • Cornell

Matches:

  • UIUC
  • Purdue
  • Rice
  • University of Michigan Ann-Arbor
  • USC

Safeties:

  • Illinois Tech
  • Alabama (guaranteed admission due to ACT/GPA)

General Thoughts:
I feel like my EC’s are honestly pretty weak; they’re mostly focused on music, and besides for marching band, I don’t really have any leadership positions. My test scores/GPA are pretty good, but I don’t know if they really make up for my general lack of EC’s. I know that most of my reaches are crap shoots for everyone as well, but I would like to be chanced on my matches/safeties, and if you guys have any other ideas for matches/safeties, I would like to hear them as well.

Thanks!

2

Here are the 2016-17 numbers for Purdue’s middle 50% in terms of test scores:

SAT: CR = 520 - 640
M = 560 - 690
W = 520 - 630
ACT: 25 - 31

Here are the comparable numbers for Rice:

SAT: CR = 690 - 770
M = 720 - 800
W = 680 - 770
ACT: 32 - 35

In each of the metrics, Rice’s 25% scores are higher than Purdue’s 75% scores.

The point is that you need to re-think how you are approaching your target schools in terms of distinguishing between reaches and matches. Rice, USC, and Michigan all belong in the “reach” category. This means that your list is very heavy on reaches and very light on matches. You should revise your list accordingly.

3

Can you and your parents afford the net price at each school?