Chance for MCS RD?

<p>SAT: 2110 (800 M, 680 CR, 690 W) only took it once, regret it now...
SAT II: M2-800, Chem-700
GPA: 6/7 in IB, which is like an A- or A?
Rank: N/A, we don't do ranking (idk if this matters but my school is ranked in the top 25 by usnews report)</p>

<p>ECs: math team/club (vice-president), chess team/club (captain of team/ vice-president of club), debate team, table tennis team/club (founding member), mouse squad (vice-captain), mouse corps, math/chemistry tutor, newspaper club, a bunch more...</p>

<p>Awards/Honors: top AMC 10 scorer (2011), top AMC 12 scorer (2012), merit commended student (the PSAT thing)</p>

<p>Work Exp: paid internship at citibank, internship at northrop grumman</p>

<p>Rec Letters: math teacher (amazing), history teacher (idk, prolly mediocre)</p>

<p>Essays: Decent</p>

<p>i really want to go to MCS, but my stats are pretty weak compared to everyone else... what do you guys think?</p>

<p>What major are you applying for? Also, what did you do during your internships at Cibitank and Northrop Grumman?</p>

<p>i’m planning on majoring in Applied Mathematics.
in my internship at Citibank, i worked in the Operations and Tech. department and pretty much went around the 50 floor building fixing technical issues.
in my internship at northrop grumman, i learned about designing products for clients as well as some engineering</p>

<p>I got into MCS ED as a Math major, so I think I can chance you accurately. </p>

<p>First of all, your “stats” aren’t a major problem. Although your SAT is low overall, you scored 800 on the math section and the SAT Math II. If you apply for math, Carnegie Mellon will focus on your SAT Math scores and pay less attention to your SAT CR and W scores. In addition, your EC’s and work experience are definitely good enough. </p>

<p>You do have some potential problems however:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Awards - “AMC Top Scorer” prizes are only awarded at the school-level, so colleges like CMU won’t care about them. In addition, national merit commended is not that presitigious. Although awards aren’t necessary to get into MCS, they help your application significantly. Many of your competitors will be AIME/USAMO/MOP qualifiers, USA(X)O semifinalists/finalists, INTEL/SEIMENS semifinalists/finalist, etc. There are numerous math and science competitions and, thus, numerous applicants who won awards in such competitions. </p></li>
<li><p>Essays - No offense, but “decent” essays aren’t enough to get into a top school like CMU. Your essays have to unique, interesting, personal, insightful, and, above all, relevant to their prompts. Your application is definitely good, but you need strong essays to stand out from your competitors and get into MCS. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Overall: You have a good chance at getting into CMU provided you write strong essays. I’d say low reach with good essays and reach if you’re essays are merely above average. If you’re interested in my stats, see the following results thread.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-2017/1431553-official-carnegie-mellon-2017-results-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/carnegie-mellon-2017/1431553-official-carnegie-mellon-2017-results-thread.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>thanks for your insight! just to clarify about my essays, i said decent because i haven’t read any other cmu supplement essays, so i can’t really compare it to other applicants. but yeah, i’m definitely going to continue working on my essays! thanks again man and wow, your stats blow mine away :P</p>