Chance Me: FL South Asian Senior Applying for Mat Sci In Most Top Colleges [Rank 1/872, 4.0 UW, 36 ACT, NMSF ]

Yes. As I noted above, these 4’s and 3’s put you below the top 20%-50% of test takers. It looks like a real head-scratcher, tbh. Breadth vs depth is not generally believed to be a good message to send. Yet you have a perfect high school GPA in rigorous courses. You may want to explain the causes of this very obvious discrepancy in your applications.

Now, I won’t feign knowledge of the inner workings of adcoms, but to put some awards above in perspective:

  • AIME qual puts one into approximately top 6,000 math competitors nationally: 4/10 on the crowdsourced CC list below
  • USNCO qual = approx. top ~1,000 chemistry competitors: 5/10 on list below
  • UF SSTP is what is considered a “regional award”: 3/10
  • NMSF adds little for someone with a perfect ACT

just want to point out in my favor that uf sstp itself is a 5/10 according to that list and thats just attending the program and this paper award was for being one of the top students in it

Should have also pointed out that I didn’t submit all my AP scores, yes I was basically obliged to submit some of my 4 AP because they are important science classes but those ones have a lower 5 percentage

do you think i should put the honor of presenting at the cmu sports analytics conference as a top 5 award? i didn’t because it really was only a poster but maybe its niche and better to put

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You were not obligated to submit ANY of your AP scores…at all. This was your choice.

Could you please answer my question above. How is it that you can take 26 AP classes and 16 DE classes?

Did you do any of these as self study courses?

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Ah. I did miss that UF SSTP seems to have a degree of name recognition on that CC list.

obliged meaning i felt like it was necessary because they are science classes. no i didn’t self-study any, but for reference, there are many kids in my school who have done as much. i took a lot of these APs online in addition to my classes and same goes with DE’s

Sure. Why not. I would definitely put that on the CMU application.

Perhaps someone else can comment…but really…why all these AP courses? Is this some kind of contest at your school…who can take the most?

Your resume for college applications is fine. It really is. Just apply and see.

Except for UIUC, Purdue, UF and your acceptance already to UCF (congratulations), the rest of your list is very top heavy. You might get accepted and you might not. These are reach schools for most applicants as the acceptance rates are low.

So you have transcript from various schools?

This does not seem believable with an 36. And ‘many’ kids do this raises a red flag.

I just read an article today about schools who you can pay, not attend, and get credit.

I’m not saying this is you but the #s don’t add up - not with the rest you’ve done and perfect ACT.

I’m not an AO but I’d put you aside as something that smells fishy, requiring further investigation.

It’s highly unlikely one person could do all this and when you say many do - something is not right in my mind.

That said best of luck to you.

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what? i have taken all these classes and they are all on my school transcript but florida virtual school and seminole county virtual school are free external ways to take classes, you can search them up. the second ranked individual in my grade basically has same class statistics and top 5 have all done around 20 aps or more. this is pretty representative of my school, i would prove it if not for the doxxing rule

i guess it is for valedictorian, its a goal i set out since 9th grade so i wanted to live up to it

If this is what you have done…fine. Just get your applications done and wait and see.

You did all this and more than 10 impactful ECs.

You have a strong profile. It’s not for me to say whether believable but you have UCF and you’ll have more.

Best of luck.

Edit - you yourself write your ECs don’t have impact or tenure. Yea it’s an issue.

And I understand Florida virtual is real but u so many. Your top schools won’t give credit for AP or DE.

As I said you’ll get more and nothing wrong with UCF on BF or NMSF. And many other schools including a fine small one like Tulsa would want you (full ride).

Good luck. You’ll have answers soon enough.

If you applied to materials engineering (in the college of engineering) at UCLA, you probably have a good shot. Engineering admits by major, and usual mat eng has an admit rate 3 times higher than UCLA at large.

i did apply to ucla, forgot to include, i decided last day cuz i was submitting to berkeley

i meant impact in terms of like contributing to some cause because im not really interested in doing that and prefer working towards my professional career with things like sports analytics or research

Do you have an arts course in your courses? Required for Cal and UCLA, I believe.

ap art history should count right

Surprised Syracuse isn’t on your list given the interest in sports analytics. Many consider it tops in the field. Miami too since you are in Florida is another top program.

If this is your desire then why materials engineering ? Both have fine engineering programs too.