Chance me as I start my apps :) [Asian @ Stanford, "top" schools & RISD]

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello! I'm starting my common app, and I'd like to get chanced at some of the school I'm applying too. I'm undecided whether I'm applying to the college or engineering school as I'm wavering between biochem and bio(medical) engineering.</p>

<p>Schools (listed in order of desire): Stanford SCEA (top choice!!), Columbia (dad went there), UPenn, Yale, Harvard, Brown, RISD, Caltech, Rice, Vanderbilt, Chicago, (in at UT Austin)</p>

<p>Also please chance me at these programs: Brown PLME, Brown/RISD joint-degree program, Rice/Baylor MSP, Vanderbilt ENGAGE</p>

<p>======================================</p>

<p>Male, 16, Asian</p>

<p>Stats
Rank: top 3.92% [23/586] Probably will go up due to straight As last semester.
GPA: 5.58/6 W, 3.92 UW (2 semester Bs 9th, semester B 10th)
Context: medium (2700) sized public school. This year sent: 3 Stanford, 2 Harvard, 3 MIT, 1 UPenn/Duke/Brown, 6 Rice, many Plan II & BHP</p>

<p>Scores
PSAT: 218
SAT: 2110 first time 2280 second time
SAT II: 780 Bio M, 800 Chem, 800 Math 2
AP: 5 on Bio, Chem, US History, English Language [next year: Macroeconomics, US Govt, English Lit, Physics C, Calculus BC]</p>

<p>Course Load
9:
H World Geography
H Geometry
H IPC (integrated physics & chemistry)
H Biology
English 1 (non honors)
Japanese 1</p>

<p>Summer:
H/Pre-AP World History
10:
AP Biology 2
H/Pre-AP English 2
H Algebra 2
H Chemistry 1
Japanese 2
Health & Fitness (req)
Yearbook</p>

<p>11:
AP English 3 (language)
AP US History
AP Chemistry 2
H Pre-Calculus
H Japanese 3
H Physics 1
Yearbook</p>

<p>Summer:
AP Macroeconomics
AP US Govt
12:
AP English 4 (lit)
AP Physics 2 C
AP Calculus BC
AP Japanese 4
AP Studio Art 2D
PE (req)
Yearbook</p>

<p>Extracurriculars
9th:
none</p>

<p>Summer:
Rice University Summer School
10th:
Red Cross
Yearbook Student Life Editor
Japanese NHS</p>

<p>Summer:
Rhodes College Summer Writing Institute
11th:
Red Cross Webmaster
Yearbook Editor-in-Chief
Japanese NHS/Science NHS/NHS</p>

<p>Summer:
Rice University Summer School
12th:
Red Cross President
Yearbook Editor-in-Chief
Asian Cultural Exchange Society Publicity Chairman (club's first year)
Japanese NHS/Science NHS/NHS</p>

<p>Awards
USNCO Chemistry Olympiad National Honors
(National Merit Semi-finalist hopefully)</p>

<p>Work
Volunteer 100+ hours like everyone else (mainly via Red Cross)</p>

<p>Worked summer 08 (probably cont into school year) 8hr/wk for Math teaching institute</p>

<p>Freelance design work online for clients</p>

<p>Recommendations
Ok, I guess. I don't know any particular teacher the most, so I'm asking my AP English Lang teacher (got a non top 5%er into Harvard??) and Physics or Chem (who sent me to USNCO) teacher.</p>

<p>Essays
Still thinking...</p>

<p>======================================</p>

<p>I don't have much medical EC so I probably won't get into PLME, Rice/Baylor, or ENGAGE. :(</p>

<p>Lay the smackdown on me!</p>

2

<p>Pyn,
Your SATs/GPA are excellent as is being USNCO although your ECs are average at least for those schools. With that said…</p>

<p>HYS Super Reach, pretty much for everyone
Penn Reach
Columbia w/ Legacy Less Reach
Vanderbilt Match
Caltech Reach, I would err away from tech schools like Caltech/MIT since they are grade deflation which would hurt you if you were pre-med
Chicago Slight Reach, also has deflation thing look at Caltech
Brown Slight Reach, PLME Reach also look at Northwestern HPME
Brown PLME/RISD, Vandy ENGAGE, Rice/Baylor Don’t Know, Sorry</p>

<p>Also, try Johns Hopkins & Duke both excellent schools for Biomedical Engineering & pre-med</p>

<p>G/L</p>

3

<p>Hey, we’re like almost identical in what schools we want to go to! :stuck_out_tongue: btw, for the Baylor/Rice med program, you HAVE to do EA I think… correct me if I’m wrong. That’s why I’m not going to try for that one, since I’m also planning to apply EA to Stanford.</p>

<p>Your standardized test scores are amazing, especially in the sciences, which will help you a lot since you want to go into biomed / the sciences. Also if you’re planning to apply to the med programs, that helps a lot. Besides your scores however, you don’t have too many “shining” ec’s or awards… schools are really random though, especially the top schools. I’ve seen people with almost no ec’s but perfect test scores get in, and people with amazing ec’s but mediocre academics, both get in, so I’d definitely say you still have a chance with your high scores.</p>

<p>Please chance me too? :slight_smile: I’d appreciate it! <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/540368-my-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/540368-my-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Thanks simpleperson. Johns Hopkins and Duke’s location and atmosphere don’t appeal to me, even though they have the academics I’m looking for…</p>

<p>@xpassion: Rice has ED, but you don’t need to do ED. You only need to turn in your app (RD) early at like December.</p>

<p>In my group of friends my SAT is the lowest (each of them is 10 points higher than the other).</p>

5

<p>aww man how could you pass up JHU biomedical engineering! #1 in the country!
oh well less competition for me… ok not really.</p>

6

<p>Ohh.. okay, I will take a look at that again, my mom told me that the MSP applicants had to apply ED or something.. I’ll look again :)</p>

<p>Yeah, tell me about it. I’ve got two friends who got 2400’s, lol. Comparing myself to my much-smarter friends who score perfect on nearly EVERYTHING, I feel extremely pessimistic about my chances of getting into the colleges I want to go to (hence the posting on cc to get unbiased opinions instead of my discouraged guessings)</p>

7

<p>I don’t understand how RISD got on your list if you are interested in biochem or biomed engineering. Other than AP Studio Art next year, you list no art classes or art-related EC’s. How are you going to put together an art portfolio that will get you into one of the premier art schools in the world? Are you even interested in art? It just doesn’t seem to make sense with the other schools and comments you have listed.</p>

8

<p>i know it looks like i have no interest in art… my schedule is pretty much the “standard”/asian course load one needs to take to get into top 5%. i decided to apply for yearbook (its a class) because it was an extracurricular where i held leadership and got to do design. i think it would look equally bad if i didn’t take all 3 AP sciences like every other person in the top of my class. we are required to do an art class, and so i went to the teacher and showed her my previous (before high school and design work during high school) work. (rather than taking an art 1 or music history class).</p>

<p>i’m mainly applying to RISD because of the brown+risd program where i could do my pre-med and graphic design at the same time. otherwise while i’m interested in design, i pretty much don’t have any honors or awards asides from online things, and i’m just naturally inclined towards sciences. most colleges on my list have a somewhat decent arts dept according to rankings so i could at least pursue a minor if not a double major. :)</p>

<p>i don’t have extremely high hopes of getting in as they only take 40-50 people, it’s just one my dream opportunities :)</p>

9

<p>When you say “national honors” for USNCO, do you mean semifinalist? Or, did you actually make the camp? If you made camp, you’re in everywhere. If it’s just semifinalist, it’s not nearly as big a deal. I’m going to assume you mean semifinalist: </p>

<p>Stanford SCEA - High Reach
Columbia (dad went there) - Low Reach/High Match for College; In at Fu Engineering
UPenn - Reach for College; Low Reach at SEAS
Yale - High Reach for College; don’t bother applying engineering lol
Harvard - High Reach
Brown - Low Reach
Caltech - High Reach
Rice - High Match
Vanderbilt - Match
Chicago - (this is not a good school for either of your intended majors, but…) Low Reach if you have amazing essays
Brown PLME - (harder than HYPS) High Reach
Rice/Baylor MSP - Low Reach</p>

10

<p>i mean i took the national exam and got honors (top 100 or whatever out of the 900 national exam takers), but i did not make it to camp.</p>

<p>i wanted to apply to chicago because the essays are interesting :P</p>

<p>thanks :)</p>

11

<p>well, in that case, you have slightly better chances than I gave for each. Unfortunately, your app might be relying a lot (perhaps too much) on that single factor because everything else you have is usual. Up your SAT score, that’s all you can do now.</p>

12

<p>ok i guess its up to my mediocre writing skills to churn out some awesome essays :o</p>

13

<p>is being an AP Scholar with Honors acceptable as an “honor”? (since everyone gets it…)</p>

14

<p>^no</p>

<p>reach at hypsm. decent shot at rest.</p>

15

<p>Why are you applying to RISD? It seems to stick out from all the other schools you’ve listed since you’re planning to go into biochem or BME.</p>

16

<p>question also, how into art and design are you? you don’t seem to be extremely, but then again i could be completely wrong. all the other schools on your list, do you know if they have good art/graphic design programs, or are you just applying to them because they are top notch?</p>

17

<p>i picked the schools because they were both top notch schools and because they were ranked decently in art rankings (not as good as risd, mica, or pratt though) also design is the only thing that i’ve done in my life that could potentially be a career and i like it. but school wise i dont think its wise to choose only to do art so im pursuing something im good at (science) as well.</p>

18

<p>I can’t give you chances, since I’m not knowledgable about the east coast schools, but I do want to give you support for being an art/science person! It’s so hard when you have to maintain choosing a specific schedule but find a way to “show” your art interest as well - I’m in the same dilemma. I can’t even join my Yearbook because of how it’s always in my 6th period, but I have to take another AP during the same time =/ But seriously, best wishes to you!</p>

<p>If worse comes to worse, you could always apply to art contests and use the new awards as your appeal, usually they only consider appeals if there is new information to be considered. Would that work out?</p>