Chance/Improvements for a 2011 URM???

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Yo all :)
I'll be a junior next year, but here's what I have thus far...</p>

<p>Gender: Female
Race: African-American (Jamaican, Haitian, Kenyan, and Cherokee Indian, yea!)
Location: Wisconsin
Possible Major(s): Engineering, Political Science</p>

<p>ACT Composite (taken in June of soph year, no prep): 34 (34 Sci, 33 Math (:/), 36 English, 32 Reading, 10 on essay)</p>

<p>SAT (Jan. of 8th grade thru special program, will retake obviously lol): CR: 620, M: 630, W: 590, 8 on Essay < expected to go up alot of course</p>

<p>Rank: 2nd (weighted), 12th (uw), top 5%
GPA: 3.875 uw, 5.somethin weighted, my school uses a CRAZY system so id even know</p>

<p>Some EC's/Awards:
Intel ISEF 2008, Engineering Project (1st @ regional, 1st @ state)
Intel ISEF Finalist 2009, Engineering Project (1st @ regional, 2nd @ state in engineering)
Tutor in STAR Tutoring Program (2009)
Policy Debate 2007-2008 (1st place in JV @ State, high places @ other tourneys)
Public Forum Debate 2008-2009 (1st Alt. at CFL qualifier, 8th ranked PF team in State)
Oratory in Forensics 2009 (Finalist at Nat'l Forensics League Qual)
Some Spanish Awards (96th percent. on Nat'l Spanish Exam 2009)
Dean's List
Honor Roll
Mock Trial (Lead Attorney)
Model Organization of the American States
Volleyball (Freshman and JV team, hoping for varsity next year)
National History Day Finalist 2008</p>

<p>Current Job: Paid research assistant at Marquette University doing nanotechnology research</p>

<p>Courseload(s):
All Honors available Freshman Year
Took only AP offered this year for sophs. (AP Euro - score: 5)
JUNIOR YEAR (will take) - APUSH, AP Bio, AP Calc BC (I'm a year ahead in math), AP Chem, AP Physics (self-study), Honors English, Honors Spanish
SENIOR YEAR (will take) - AP Stat, AP Econ, AP Eng, AP Physics C, AP spanish, AP Gov
Definitely most challenging @ my school</p>

<p>Rec's should be really good. Essays should be good.</p>

<p>And now the beauticious schools I would <em>love</em> to attend:
MIT
Yale
Franklin Olin
Harvard
NYU
Caltech
Stanford
^ All OOS as you can see...No way I'm going to Madison like everybody else...but my mom is a widow with both me and my sis heading off the college around the same time so I would definitely need some scholarship money or fin. aid!</p>

<p>Please chance and/or give advice on how I could improve my chances to get into these schools. I've thought long and hard about this list!</p>

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<p>b-u-m-p
b-u-m-p
b-u-m-p</p>

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<p>bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmppppppppppppppp</p>

<p>Plz. I’ll chance back :)</p>

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<p>FWIW, I think “chances” are dumb. Lose the SAT, use the ACT, and you’ll be fine, but you should still have some financial and academic safeties ( Franklin Olin? Not familiar. I don’t think NYU is a financial safety )</p>

<p>Check this out.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/african-american-students/638464-actual-results-thread-african-americans.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/african-american-students/638464-actual-results-thread-african-americans.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks Shrink, and for the link. The thing is I don’t want to apply to a ‘safety’ that I don’t actually want to attend. And all the safeties I can think of are places I don’t want to go at all…</p>

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<p>You can’t find a lower tier school you want to attend??? There are HUNDREDS of schools!! It is early ! There is time. What are you looking for in a school experience?</p>

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<p>I know, I know. I have time. I just hate settling. What I really want is a school with <em>amazing</em> academics, definitely east coast or west coast, urban is a plus, not too large, DIVERSE (no all females or HBU’s), good poli.sci and/or engineering programs. The quality of the academic environment and location are most important to me.
I thought NYU was a fairly low-reach because I’m well above their middle-50 ACT but it still has the things I’m looking for.
Do you have schools you’d like to suggest?</p>

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<p>Low reach at all
it def doesn’t hurt that you’re female. :)</p>

<p>thanks for chancing me</p>

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<p>Wow you are a great candidate. You are from an under-representated state and are an under-representated minority. I think you should put Cherokee Indian as that is probablly more powerful than african american. However, you probably are in at all</p>

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<p>I’m no expert in anything OTHER then “diversity”.</p>

<p>For diversity, most/all the Ivy’s, most of the top 20, including Duke, Emory, WUSTL, UNC-CH, also Occidental and Pomona if you consider LAC’s …someone else will be along…</p>

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<p>Ivy’s def not safeties. top 20’s as safeties? Maybe Georgetown but Emory and Duke are harder for admission than NYU and in places I don’t wanna be. None of these are ‘financial safeties’, at least not sure-things. all of those would probably be here in state and there is no way I’m staying in Wisconsin.</p>

<p>@NWdivision: I’m only about 1/8 cherokee tho. And it doesn’t really show lol.</p>

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<p>These are not safety recommendations. I am no expert on what would be a safety for you. I was sharing what I have learned about where you can find diversity plus academic rigor. Financial safeties might be a tough nut on either coast.</p>

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<p>I think 1/16 is the cutoff to be considered a cherokee indian.</p>

<p>i think you’ll be in at Stanford and in at Yale SCEA. i dont know the other ones. sorry.</p>

<p>you need leadership. your community service is nonexistent. improve there. your ACT is fine tho- i wouldnt bother to retake the SATs. i just wouldnt put them on my app.</p>

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<p>@ Junie: Yea, leadership <em>sigh</em>…
Is being a free tutor not community service? I also organized a program with the Red Cross but that was the summer before 9th grade…
Do you really think those schools won’t care if I don’t have an SAT score?</p>

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<p>Female + URM + Engineering = you’re going wherever you want. </p>

<p>Possible waitlist at Harvard or Yale but you’ll probably get into one of the two. Why does CC have a such a concentration of overachievers?</p>

<p>btw with your profile, NYU would definitely give you some decent aid; but I don’t know if you’d want to be here for engineering…</p>

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<p>bdl108: Doubt that equation holds true lol. I’m not an overachiever by the average CC standards hahaha.</p>

<p>Yea, I was hoping NYU would make more financial sense then some of the others (cept Franklin Olin. free tuition say what?). But, who knows?</p>

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<p>Hey,
Great app, you have features that stand out such as the ECCs for Engineering majors. The ACT/ GPA rank are fine for each of the institutions. I hope the job is unique and designated primarily towards you- I see some kids with that in different colleges, esp Columbia in NJ; and it turns out that many kids have it- doesn’t really show the adcoms that you’re doing something special at a great institution, just another stat filler. My recommendation- forget SATs, maybe do another ACT and try for 35-36 (after all, you decide what to send to colleges, so why not take another shot at a score that only few people get per year), and improve the leadership. You’ll prob get that somewhere between this year and next, and represent yourself well in the apps. Service too, but make it UNIQUE; not the typical soup kitchen stuff once a month.</p>

<p>MIT- low reach, too many of your caliber going for the same major, the URM def helps
Yale- EA it if you can, still low reach/ reach; a buddy of mine got 2300, top 5%, great ECCs and was still waitlisted then rejected this year, so you never know…
Franklin Olin- not familiar, sorry…
Harvard- low reach/ reach, always gotta put this for Harvard, can’t figure out what these guys want…
NYU- In, even with Stern app; the only problem is the money; cheap FA
Caltech- low reach, same thing as MIT
Stanford- EA it, unknown because of “The Stanford Slaughter of 2009”… so many high caliber applicants were rejected this year. It’s anyone’s call</p>

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<p>As an overachieving URM, you will probably get into all of your choices, and need-blind schools will likely be quick to offer you aid. Frankly, your applicant group is so minuscule that you don’t have to be worried about getting into at least a few of your top choices. By the way, I like the addition of Olin to your list of schools - it’s a truly top caliber school that is completely free, as I’m sure you know. In 10 years it’ll be as well-known and prestigious as any Ivy/Stanford/MIT/Caltech/etc.</p>

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<p>OP: As monstor said, applicants like you are hard to come by. I guess you’re unaware of how scarce female engineering majors are, let alone URM female engineering majors?</p>

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<p>@ ggts: thanks a bagillion. I’m hoping I could somehow write about the experiences I’m having at my job (it is kind of a specially created position for me, both my parents went to Marquette lol). It really is showing me what college life and research is all about.
Maybe Dartmouth or Columbia (Fu Engineering maybe?) would be better on the FA front than NYU…</p>

<p>@ Monstor: Thanks. And Franklin Olin = wayyyyy too underrated/unknown! </p>

<p>@bdl108 and monstor: I just hate to be one of those people like OF COURSE I’ll get into Harvard, duh…and then comes the rejection letter lol. Any improvements or recommendations you can share? A good safety with FA perhaps?</p>