Chance me at top Engineering schools? I'll chance back everyone who wants to be.

Hi. I’ve applied to a bunch of places, and have seen a ton of people get rejected early. Could people just predict accepted/deferred/rejected? Thanks. Applied in Biomedical Engineering/Computer Science to all, so schools/colleges of engineering.

Applying to…
-University of Michigan - Accepted EA
-University of Maryland - Accepted
-UC Berkeley
-UCLA
-Washington University in St. Louis
-Georgia Tech
-Columbia University
-Harvey Mudd College
-Cornell University (5 legacies, parents, grandparents, great grandparents)
-Carnegie Mellon University (Applied to school of CS, I know it’s ridiculous)
-Johns Hopkins University (Applied to BME Program, I know it’s ridiculously hard but they also consider you for the general school if you don’t make BME)
-USC
-Princeton University (2 legacies, grandfather is still very very connected with the school (was an interviewer))
-Stanford University

Objective:
-SAT I (breakdown): 1580 (790 M, 790 R/W, 23/24 Essay) (1 Sitting)
-SAT II: 800 Math II, 780 Bio
-Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.80 w/o freshman year , 3.7 with. (4.0=A, 3.0=B, no +/- weighting)
-Weighted GPA (Out of 5.0): 4.7 w/o freshman year , 4.5 with. (All AP/College level honors-y are on a 5.0)
Lots of the schools i’m applying to cut out freshman year from their GPA calculations.
-Weighted and capped GPA (For UCs): 4.03 (I know it seems low, but the max I could get is 4.25 with the number of classes I took, the average accepted from my school is 4.1)
-Rank: Top 10%-ish? They don’t really rank, but that’s within a crazy competitive magnet school

AP: National AP Scholar, Computer Science (5), Biology (5), Physics (5), Chemistry (4), Statistics (4), BC Calculus (5), English Lang (5), World History (4), NSL (5)

IB: N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Linear Algebra, Mathematical Physics (Crazy hard), Marine Biology, Political/Sports statistics, Honors English, AP Macro, Research Project

Pretty crazy course rigor throughout HS: Quantum Physics, Organic Chemistry, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, Cell Physiology, Immunology, Analytical Chem, Physical Chem, Bio Chem, and all AP english and social studies’.

All the math/science courses I’ve taken are college level, above AP.

Major Awards: National Merit Semifinalist, National AP Scholar, AP Scholar with distinction.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:

Debate Team (Captain of school team), Also on an independent team. Top 200 in the country, made NSDA Nationals and a bunch of other national tournaments. Round of 16 at a big international debate tournament, have gone far in a bunch of other national tournaments too.

3rd degree Black Belt, Have won a few sparring competitions

Independent Soccer Team (Captain, Goalkeeper) On it since kindergarten
Independent Baseball/Basketball teams, Low-level

Surf and Rock climb a lot, wrote some essays about the rock climbing community.

Job/Work Experience: Interned in a well-known Parkinson’s disease lab over the summer at UCLA, designed/programmed something to make their research a lot better,and so it could be fully automated. I may get a patent on it, but not in time for college apps. Played it up in essays and stuff.

Camp counselor the previous two summers

Volunteer/Community service: Lots of miscellaneous stuff, but the Camp counselor work experience was as a volunteer.
Summer Activities: (See above)

Essays:

Essays are 8+/10, both parents are writers/lawyers and I have them working with me on them. I’ve got a lot of dramatic, good stories about how my grandparents have Parkinson’s so I did Parkinson’s research, carried a kid out of a valley on my back during a camping trip when he gashed his knee open, etc. I pretty consciously tailored my essays to what the different schools I applied to were looking for in students.

Recommendations:

Teacher Rec #1: Computer Science Teacher, 8/10. He had everyone he gave a rec to fill out a form, so I gave him a bunch of good material to write about. Very eloquent guy, Harvard journalist turned CS major, should be a good rec.
Teacher Rec #2: Economics teacher: 9-10/10. Loves me, I get hundreds on everything in his class.
Counselor Rec: 7/10. I talk with her fairly often, she likes me. Gave her some good material to write about, wouldn’t expect anything too fantastic though.
Additional Rec:10/10 From the PI of the lab where I worked, well-respected researcher. Said he would write a “Glowing” rec for me at the end of the internship
Interview: I interview well, have had a few and they’ve gone well so far, I had an especially great Princeton Interview.

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, but don’t really need it
Intended Major: BME/Computer Science, maybe minor in business or finance.
State: MD
School Type: Public, Magnet
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Upper
Hooks: No real hooks, have some legacies.

Thanks for reading this far. Again, just an accepted/deferred/rejected for each place. I know some are hard to predict. I’ll chance you back.

Berkeley-accept
UCLA-accept
WashU-accept if you showed lots of interest, waitlist if not
Georgia Tech-accept
Columbia-waitlist/reject
Harvey Mudd-accept
Cornell-accept
Carnegie Mellon-accept
JHU-reject
Princeton-waitlist/reject
Stanford-reject

A lot of these prediction could change based on how much adcoms like your essays.

Exactly what legacies do you have at Cornell and Princeton?

Chance back:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1963227-chances-after-being-deferred.html

@ap012199 Thanks for chancing, and I have 2 parents (Undergrad, LSA) a grandfather (undergrad, engineering), a grandmother (LSA) a great grandfather (engineering), and aunts and uncles, none of whom have been super involved after graduation as Cornell legacies. For Princeton, I have a Grandfather who was an undergrad business major, who was super involved afterwards, donated, was an interviewer, etc. I’m hoping that can give me a little edge.

Hmm… idk about Princeton then. But, nonetheless, you have one of the strongest profiles I’ve seen in a while! I’m sure you’ll get into a bunch of great schools. Good luck!

-UC Berkeley: accept
-UCLA: accept
-Washington University in St. Louis: accept
-Georgia Tech: accept
-Columbia University: waitlist/reject
-Harvey Mudd College: accept
-Cornell University: accept
-Carnegie Mellon University: accept
-Johns Hopkins University: waitlist/reject
-USC: accept
-Princeton University: waitlist
-Stanford University: reject

Incredibly strong profile. Your legacies should help you a lot, and your courseload is really quite impressive. Unweighted GPA seems a little low but could be excused because of your courseload. I feel like your ECs are very good but perhaps aren’t as “wow” as top schools are looking for. Tippy-top universities like to see awards/ECs that show some kind of super strength/passion in one area, and I think that’s lacking here. You’re very well-rounded and good at everything you do, it seems, but you’re not godly in one area. Also for awards, the AP Scholar Award won’t amaze them because so many people have it and it doesn’t show true “passion” - that might be an issue. Nevertheless I think you’re safe for Cornell because of your stats/legacies/ECs (plus two of my friends barely did anything in high school and got in), and Princeton might be ok because of the legacies as well. The lower tier schools should be fine, though.

Good luck!

Chance back?
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1965769-chance-me-for-u-michigan-berkeley-u-penn-columbia-princeton-harvard.html#latest

-UC Berkeley: reject
-UCLA: accept
-Washington University in St. Louis: accept
-Georgia Tech: accept
-Columbia University: reject
-Harvey Mudd College: accept
-Cornell University: accept
-Carnegie Mellon University: reject
-Johns Hopkins University: reject BME, accept normal
-USC: accept
-Princeton University: accept
-Stanford University: reject

Overall pretty good applicant, just going to be GPA that hurts you at these places.

I can’t chance you specifically for the engineering program since I am more interested in medicine so I am not familiar with the rigor and acceptance statistics of engineering programs in these schools. However, you have an amazing SAT score and course load so I think you will definitely get into most of your colleges! Do you have any tips for the SAT? I am taking it in March and I was wondering if you had any study methods that work well?

Berkeley-accept
UCLA-accept
WashU-accept if you showed interest, if not you’ll be waitlisted
Georgia Tech-accept
Columbia-waitlist/reject (they might hold your other legacies against you)
Harvey Mudd-accept
Cornell-accept
Carnegie Mellon-accept
JHU-waitlist
Princeton-accept
Stanford-reject

Chance me back? http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1939905-chance-me-p1.html

@sandiee I never really had too much trouble with standardized tests, but to just get me over the edge from low 1500s to the upper region, I got a prep person and did a few sections, it was mostly just about not making dumb mistakes on things, like misreading a question or answer, etc. I just would go over my work repeatedly, and took as many practice tests as I could. Also, I had as little sugar/caffeine as I could for the week before the test, and then stayed on a sugar and caffeine high the whole time, which maybe helped? You never really know.

@yalehopeful017 thanks, chanced you back.

-UC Berkeley: accept
-UCLA: accept
-Washington University in St. Louis: accept
-Georgia Tech: accept
-Columbia University: accept
-Harvey Mudd College: accept
-Cornell University: accept
-Carnegie Mellon University (engineering) : accept
-Johns Hopkins University: accept
-USC: accept
-Princeton University: waitlist/reject
-Stanford University: waitlist/reject

Thing is with Princeton Stanford it is a bit difficult to assess from without a clear focused standpoint (ex: spending a lot of effort solely on math or physics), I think your research, work experience, and leadership position would probably get you into JHU, Cornell, Columbia, maybe Princeton depending upon the nature of the legacy

Chance me back: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1966267-chance-me-engineering-schools-mit-penn-princeton-cornell.html#latest

Honestly, you have an amazing profile, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you get into any (or all) of your reaches. With that being said, the Ivies and Stanford are a complete toss-up at this point. You will definitely receive a fair read, and you definitely have solid chances, but nothing is certain in the highly competitive environment of college admissions.

@Ikaruga Chanced you back, thanks for your feedback. Hopefully it goes as well as you predicted.

@skyb1ue Thanks, I’m hoping. PM me if you want me to chance you back.

holy moly wow you’re impressive!!! i don’t think i could give you a school-by-school prediction of your results (sorry :frowning: ) but imo you have a shot at pretty much everywhere! while your uw gpa is a bit low, your course rigor is very impressive. everything else looks fantastic and i think you definitely have a good shot at cornell, princeton, and washu (but i don’t know a ton about what other colleges value so idk if i can predict it well). good luck and hopefully you’ll get lots of good news in march!

Berkeley: accept, UCLA: accept, WUSTL: waitlist/accept, Georgia Tech: accept, Columbia: waitlist, Harvey Mudd: accept, Cornell: waitlist/accept, Carnegie Mellon: waitlist, Johns Hopkins: accept/waitlist, USC: accept, Princeton: waitlist/reject, Stanford: reject

Great stats, obviously, but I think you need to make sure you communicate(d) a clear story about your passions and extracurriculars, since you don’t have a singular focus.

Chance me back?

berkeley: accept
ucla: accept
WUSTL: accept
g tech: accept
columbia: waitlist
harvey mudd: accept
cornell: accept
carneigie: accept
JHU: accept
USC: accept
Princeton: waitlist
Stanford: waitlist/reject

You’re a very strong student and as long as you really communicated about your research experiments and other related activities you’ve got a good shot. Chance me back?

Best of luck dude you’re gonna do great and you’re gonna get into some great schools, that’s for sure.

@writergirl0316 Thanks for chancing me. I was careful to have a story about what I wanted in all of my essays. A lot of people at my school are fantastic at math and science, like, prodigial level. But, they could not explain a word of what they were doing to anyone who wasn’t a god, too. I sold myself as someone who could do almost all of the science stuff that they could do, but also articulate it in a way that was understandable to someone without a pHd in astrophysics. Do you think that colleges could like that story? I’m not the kid who’s been convinced CS is his path forever, but I also kind of explain why I switched more to engineering late in the game, during my internship.

@admiral12 Thanks, and haha, I already gave you a (Admittedly somewhat limited) chance. I think you’re a really solid applicant for any school, if you gt a more final list of places with some more final stats sometime later this year or next year, I’d be happy to try and give you some more concrete results.

@Lehnsherr oh lol i wasn’t paying attention to names thanks

@Lehnsherr As long as you come across as genuine and passionate in your story, I don’t think there’s a particularly “bad” one you could tell. Just make sure that what makes you different shines through!

@writergirl0316 I tried, so let’s hope so.