Chance me (Class of 2021)

Goals: Most of the selective schools (Ivies, Emory, GeorgiaTech, MIT, CalTech, Duke, Emory, etc) ← most of these are probably out of my league, but I still want to know
I think most of these are my match schools: University of Florida, University of Miami, University of Maryland, Florida State University
Major: Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, (maybe minor in a particular history)
Demographics: Asian (Chinese) w/ US citizenship, Male, poor background (combined income less than 40k)
School: somewhat competitive public school in South Florida (with a few students making it into very selective schools every year

SAT/ACT: I just took the August 2019 SAT, still waiting for scores (estimate about 1450), but my PSAT10 score was 1340, with 740 in math and 600 in reading, PSAT9 was 650 in math and 590 in reading
SAT Subject Tests: So far I’ve done math 1 3 times and highest was 740, math 2 2 times and highest was 750, chemistry 1 time with 760.
AP scores: APHUG 4, AP Calc AB 4, AP Chemistry 4, AP CSP 4, APAH 3, AP World 5, AP Psych 5
AICE scores (a British-version of AP I guess, similar to IB): AICE General Paper (B), AICE Thinking Skills (A), AICE International History (B)

Ranked 1 out of 619
GPA: 3.9107 out of 4 (unweighted), 5.4464 out of 6 (weighted)
Freshman Year: Pre-AICE English, Spanish 3 Honors, Algebra 2 Honors, Pre-AICE Chemistry, Debate 1 Honors, Principles of Engineering Honors, AP Human, (DE History of Aviation), (DE Aviation Management)
Sophomore Year: AICE General Paper, AP Calc AB, AP Chem, AICE International History, AP CSP, AICE Thinking Skills, AP Psych, (DE Airport Planning), (DE Airline Management), (DE Statistics), (DE World Geography), (DE College Algebra), (DE Liberal Arts Math 2), half a semester of online AP Environmental and AP Statistics
Junior Year (CURRENT): rest of online AP Stats and AP Environmental, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Calculus BC, AP USH, AP Spanish Language, AP English Literature, AICE English Language, AICE Global Perspectives, (DE Survey of Calc), (Planning to add AP Bio and AP CSA online)
Senior Year: probably another 4 APs, and some AICE, along with DE

Extracurriculars: (also, if a certain club has a requirement that you can only join after a certain grade, do universities care?)
Key Club member (9th-now)
Mu Alpha Theta member (10th-now) treasurer
Science National Honor Society member (10th-now)
Science Olympiad (10th-now) + 2nd place in forensics in regionals
Class treasurer (9th)
and a few other clubs that I am a member of, but I don’t think is significant
Cross country (now, not that good)

Activities:
Harvard Pre-College (macro econ) - 10th-grade summer
University of Miami SSP (engineering) - 10th-grade summer

Awards: AP Scholar with Distinction, not much else
Recommendation letters: most likely from two of my math and science teachers, both of them would have had me for two years, with my math teacher having me for 2 years for 3 classes and study hall

Thank you for taking the time to chance me!

You’re in the worst demographic (Chinese male) for elite college admissions and your test scores are way below what the typical Chinese male will receive.

So forget about Ivies/CalTech/MIT/Duke. Chinese male applicants with perfect GPA/test scores are a dime a dozen at those schools and will get outright rejected. Focus on UF/FSU/UCF. And try to see if you are qualified for Bright Futures.

You don’t have ECs that really point towards an Engineering major. Your possible hook is Chinese student thinking about a History major/minor. Try applying to a school as a History major since you seem to have done well on History related APs.

And yet, 40 percent of Caltech’s undergrads are Asian, of which at least half are male.

And if the 1450 is the actual SAT, forget about CalTech. Especially for Chinese male with below average test scores and relatively few STEM ECs.

4 in AB is going to be a red flag for a CalTech applicant when most CalTech kids have 5 for BC.

OP has STEM AP scores of 4 for the tests he has taken. Which is good but we’re talking about a Chinese kid. And AP CSP is CompSci lite.