Chance Me Berkley, Northwestern, UChicago, Cornell, Duke, and Rice (Will Chance Back)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I’m currently going to be a senior at a public high school in Princeton NJ area. I was wondering if you guys could spend some time and consider my chances for getting into Berkley, Northwestern, Uchicago, Cornell, Rice, and Duke and possibly give me some advice. Just a note, I will be ED’ing to Duke. Thank you so very much in advance.

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2270 700CR, 770 Writing, 800 Math (will take ACT upcoming in September, hoping for at least a 35)
ACT (breakdown): NA
SAT II (place score in parentheses): Recieve scores on July 21’st for Physics and Chemistry (expecting 750+ on both) will take Math in October also 720 on biology won’t be sending this though
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 UC GPA (Used a calculator) is 4.67
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School Doesn’t do Ranks
AP (place score in parentheses): Biology (5), Calc AB(5), Chemistry (4), APUSH (4), Physics 1 (4)
IB (place score in parentheses):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP Physics (school groups together both physics C tests in this class), AP Comparative Gov’t, AP Comp Sci A, Language Arts 4 Honors, and International Buisness and Cultures
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Did Model United Nations for 4 years have a couple of certificates from it (Was chair of a committee for my schools conference), Relay for Life for 4 years (On leadership board for my school), Soccer 4 years (1 year freshmen team, 1 year JV team for which I was capitain, and 2 years on varsity)
Job/Work Experience: Worked at Stanford Research Institute branch in New Jersey during the summer between sophmore and junior year and summer between junior and senior year, Central Jersey’s Student Innovators Assocation (Represetative for my school for two years)
Volunteer/Community service: Started a volunteer program to teach kids with autism soccer with help of local soccer organization for which I personally get volunteer hours from along with being a coach for the program, Also about 30 hours from SONJ
Summer Activities: Intern for a Rutgers University Cancer Researcher, Also the work experience was during summer
Essays: I have good essay ideas (how my brother being diagnosed with Autism has changed me) and i’m confident in writing ability
Teacher Recommendation: Language Arts Teacher (will be very strong, has always told me he thinks “i’m the man” and am very smart), Physics Teacher (will be good, she liked me and thought I worked hard), and Chemistry Teacher (Will definitely be good, might be great not too sure)
Counselor Rec: Either decent or good, we weren’t too close though
Additional Rec: Guy from Rutgers cancer institute I’m interning for, and the lady from local soccer organization that helped me start soccer program
Demonstrated Interest: I have visted Northwestern and Uchicago, have not visited rest of the schools, although I was originally born in Texas if that gives any aid for Rice probably it won’t though
Interview:

Other
Applying for Financial Aid? Yes
Projected Major: Biological engineering or mechanical engineering
State (if domestic applicant): New Jersey
Country (if international applicant):
Ethnicity: Indian
School Type: Large public high school - Known for being rigirous and competative, had a New York Times article written about it recently on how they were trying to relieve stress
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Around $300,000 not too sure though
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

Also I’d like to know other colleges I should look at if possible

2

Bump

3

That part isn’t happening for most of your schools.

Being that you would be OOS for California, Berkeley is not happening. Berkeley is a California state public school. No monies for OOS students.

4

Honestly financial aid would be nice but I don’t care too much its just that a lot of money is taken up by my brothers therapies so financial aid would help

5

Im also a CJSIA rep

6

  1. You are applying ED to Duke but have never visited the campus? Why would you not at least go and visit? What if you hated the campus?

  2. Your CR score is on the low end for these schools. Since the old SAT is not offered anymore, are you planning on retaking?

  3. Your list is very top heavy. You stand a chance of being rejected across the board. There are no match or safeties in your list.

  4. The list of extracurriculars are fairly modest. You really need to have something of international or national reputation to make yourself stand out

7

  1. Have you entered into any science competitions? If yes, any awards?

  2. I think your SAT score is fine, but I agree that the CR score can be improved.

  3. You might need to beef up the extracurricular section; it’s lacking a bit.

I think you have a a pretty good shot at Berkley, Cornell, and Rice. Northwestern, Uchicago, Cornell, and Duke may be reach schools. However, I am not very familiar with the typical stats of someone who is accepted ED to Duke.
Chance me back? (:

8

^^^ This!

…Is terrible advice. (For the chances part anyway) That is why you don’t listen to everything you read on CC (especially other rising seniors).

First off, drop Berkeley unless you are prepared to pay full freight. Also the engineering school is notoriously competitive, the odds of you getting in an as OOS student (w/o a 2400…even then) are the same as you getting into Harvard or MIT…maybe even lower. As for Uchicago, you know they like the intellectual/classical/artsy fartsy students. Just look at how abstract the supplement prompts are. They have an extensive core-curriculum and only have a new molecular engineering major for undergrad that they added last year. (https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2015/07/01/uchicago-creates-undergraduate-major-molecular-engineering) Even that is more based in theory than practice. If you are truly set on mechanical/biomedical engineering, you need to go a school with a definitive engineering school. I would really like you to look into Uchicago some more because I don’t really see it as a fit. Cornell is an ivy league school with a GREAT engineering program. I think you pass the academic threshold, so don’t bother with standardized tests. It’s going to come down to the effort you put into making yourself stand out in the essays. I’m sure your story with your brother is compelling, but know that the topic of illness in the family is a popular one. Try to make your voice come out because the Indian competition is thick. I don’t know much about Duke and Northwestern so I won’t steer you wrong there. Best of luck