Chance Me: Carnegie Mellon MSC

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

Hi I’m a junior in high school in PA and I’m wondering what my current chances of getting into MSC are, and what I should do to improve my chances.

GPA: 3.96/5.13
SAT: 1400 (retaking this year)
PSAT: 1470

APs: (Only allowed to start taking APs junior year, so mainly no results yet)
AP Chinese: 5 (independent study)
AP Calc AB
AP Literature
AP Biology
AP US
Senior year plans for APs:
AP Physics C
AP Calc BC
AP Chem
AP Euro

Extracurriculars/Activities:
Mock Trial (Made to finals last year)
Editor of Literary Magazine
Section Leader of Wind Ensemble
Secretary of German Club
Math Club
National Honors Society
Tri-M Music Honors Society
1st Grade Chinese Teacher
Writing Seminar TA
Public Speaking TA
Paderewski Medal
Church Music leader
Total 200 hours community service so far
Not sure if this helps me or not but my dad’s a CMU alumni?

2

Forgot to mention I’m also in German Honors Society

3

Your chances are not great right now as a 1400 is low for CMU (I am wondering why your PSAT score (out of 1520) is actually higher than your SAT score (out of 1600)? Anyways, your GPA is exceptional and you do not need to take so many APs, but try to get your SAT to around a 1500/1600 to have a good chance. Your extracurriculares also seem scattered right now, and you do not need to do so many as well. Try to find a few related to your major over the summer and write those on your app. You’ll also need a great essay after that, and if CMU is your first choice, apply ED as that legacy status will help you more during ED than RD.