I’m only a junior right now but wonder what yall think of my chances so far and what I should improve over the next 2 yrs.
Demo: Asian, Male
School Background: Highly Competitive Public School. Ranked #8 in NY and top 100 in US
Stats:
GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.4 weighted
SAT: 1570 (800 math, 770 reading)
APs:
Sophomore Year:
Comp Sci A (5)
World History (5)
Junior Year:
Physics 1
Physics 2
Bio
Environmental sci
US History
Senior Year (Future):
Physics C E&M
Euro
AP Calc BC
AP Stats
Extracurricular/Awards:
Science Research: Researching AI and applications for cancer diagnosis (submitting to Regneron, Google Science Fair, WESEF in senior year)
Math: Captain of Math Team, Top AMC scorer in school 3 yrs in row, AIME qualifier, Awesome Math
Academic Challenge (Trivia Team): Captain, 5 regional awards, 2 national competitions won
Science Olympiad: 6 regional medals, 2 state medals in mostly in Ecology and Electrical Engineering Events.
Comp Sci: Pres of Tech Club, AP Comp Sci TA at School, Took several courses on Python, Java and Machine Learning on Edx, Coursera etc.
Soccer: Varsity Player for State Championship contender
I still have a year and a half before admissions, so hoping to pick up a few awards in research. Also MIT, Carnegie, Stanford aren’t my only picks, just my top ones. I’m confident about the others.
MIT, Carnegie Mellon (for CS), and Stanford are all very difficult for admissions, and are reaches for even the strongest students (which includes you). They are out of reach for everyone else. Being Asian will not help you since so many very strong Asian American students apply to these schools.
However, for CS you do not need to attend a top ranked university. Graduates from MIT and Stanford routinely work alongside graduates from U.Mass Amherst, any of the SUNYs, any of the Universities of California, and many “out of the US” universities (including the IITs), and no one cares where anyone got their bachelor’s degree.
I think that you should just keep doing what you are doing. Take the classes that you want to take and continue to do well in them. Participate in the ECs that you want to participate in. Apply to top schools and also apply to at least two safeties.
To me it looks like you are going to do very well wherever you go to university.
@ahoiq5u09aofjo Hello there! I’m confused on how you were able to take the SAT. When did you take it? Have you also considered USC’s CS program also? It’s pretty dope. What are your grade trends like? AP Calculus AB isn’t on your list, are you taking it this year and just forgot to?
Chances for asian males from top NY public HSs are very tough at the schools you are interested in.
Son graduated from top ranked NY public (#1 ranked US public by WSJ) about 5 years ago and most STEM kids with stats and demographics similar to yours ended up at schools like Georgia Tech, CMU, Wustl, Vassar, etc.
The ones who made it into HYPMS level had things like semi-finalist or better from top science fairs, college level math course work at top colleges with outstanding grades and recommendations from professors, top summer programs like RSI, legacy bumps.
I took the SAT pretty early. I have looked at other programs, but I think I have a strong chance for those. For grade trends, I have gotten straight As throughout 8th, 9th and 10th grade. (Advanced students take their first high school classes in 8th at my school).
Also, I am taking Advanced Precalc right now, which covers a lot of the course work of AP Calc AB. I guess I could take the test for it, but I don’t think I need more AP tests.
For top CS programs, the three schools you mention MIT, CMU, and Stanford are arguably better than HYP. All are extremely hard to get acceptances from, but your stats will make for a competitive application.
Can you also tell me a little more about the core areas of English and foreign language? I realize you don’t want to study these areas, but the very top colleges still care about them, as well as how far you took them. I think a mistake many stem kids make is that they only care about stem, and forget to show themselves as true polymaths. Also, I would recommend throwing in an AP Chem or college chemistry course to make yourself even more competitive against other top applicants.
I would also suggest to reach out to MIT and Carnegie soccer coaches if you think they would be interested in you. It might give you a hook in the admission process.
Based on experience at my son’s HS, self-studying BC, getting a 5 and taking a more advanced college course (multi-variable calc, etc.) over the summer would help more.
Mathy summer programs that had major impact were RSI and the USAMO team camp.
To add on to what @tdy123 said, whatever you can do in the summertime like additional math courses or even some extra stuff like more edx courses (I’d recommend the Microsoft C++ courses) You’ll have a better chance when it comes to to MIT,CMU, and Stanford.
I haven’t been ignoring the humanities, but I also haven’t been focusing on them a lot. I’ve taken English at the standard level. This year I had the opportunity to take AP English, but decided against it. I don’t think I will be interested in the class, and I’m worried it will lower my GPA. I’ll consider taking in 12th although I think that is unlikely. I’ve also taken Spanish up to level III, but dropped this year so I could double up for AP sciences. I have thought about this a lot, and I stand by that decision for a few reasons:
I’ve maintained A’s in these classes
I already know a foreign language that I have been speaking at home for my entire life
I’m not just dropping Spanish to get more free time. I’m using the extra space in my schedule to pursue more STEM APs which I believe will be more impactful than simply doing a 4th year of Spanish like everyone else. I would not be able to pursue all these APs without dropping at least one class. Spanish and Research are the only options.
I’ve also been compensating by taking more history APs (World, US, Euro) which I enjoy much more. I realize the value of humanities courses even for a STEM major, but this is a calculated risk which will hopefully pay off.
I would also suggest to reach out to MIT and Carnegie soccer coaches if you think they would be interested in you. It might give you a hook in the admission process.
I second this - having a coach’s endorsement could give you a substantial leg up in admissions, especially at CMU. Reaching out to MIT and CMU coaches should be done VERY SOON and if possible attending ID camps for those two colleges would help a lot. I am not an athletic recruiting expert by any means so for more info look elsewhere, but this is something you should seriously think about if you want to play soccer in college.