Hey everyone, third trimester Junior here looking for insight into my chances at several top schools for Chemical Engineering and the viability of my list- in order of my preference
1- MIT
2- Georgia Tech
3- Stanford
4- CalTech
5- Princeton
6- Northeastern
7- RPI
8- NC State
9- Alabama
I’m a student at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (extremely, extremely competitive junior/senior public residential STEM high school)
Gonna have a pretty long class list, will try to tailor it down to rigorous/relevant classes but I have a 4.0 UW GPA and a 5.5 W GPA (my school does GPAs kinda odd, your GPA resets when you come and all classes are honors+), and had a 4.0 / 5.113 W at my old school (9/10)
ACT: 35 C; 34 E 35 M 36 S 36 R 9 W
PSAT 740/750
taking the new SAT in may, and then Chem, Bio M, and Math II SAT II in June.
9th grade relevant classes-
Honors Math III
Honors Biology
AP Stat (4)
AP US Gov/Politics (3 somehow even tho the exam was like ez)
10th grade relevant classes-
AP European History (4)
AP Human Geography (5)
Honors Chemistry
Honors Physics
Honors AFM (school wouldn’t let me take pre-calc)
11th grade classes:
AP Bio
AP Chem (with advanced topics)
Precalculus & Modeling w/ advanced topics (intermediate b/w honors & ap)
Advanced Spanish (intermediate b/w honors & ap, mix of like spanish III/IV/V)
American Studies (honors class but it’s APUSH + AP Lang and I will be taking those AP exams)
12th grade classes (planned):
AP Calc BC (with advanced topics)
Differential Equations (“advanced college” level)
AP Phys C or AP Phys 1&2 (depends on how I do on placement)
Materials Chemistry (“ap” level)
Applied Chemistry & Engineering (“ap” level)
Polymer Chemistry (“ap” level)
Mechanical Engineering (b/w honors & “ap”)
Programming w/ Engineering Applications (“honors”)
British Literature (“ap” lvl)
Southern Literature (“ap” lvl)
probably Biomedical engineering (intermediate) or statics (“advanced college” level)
ECs: The ones I’m planning to use for the common app are:
Boy Scouts/ Order of the Arrow: my most significant and involved EC, got my eagle at 13 and earned 3 palms after that, involved with troop leadership (ASPL/SPL, junior assistant scoutmaster) and with OA (scouting’s honor society) i serve in leadership as well (vice chief of activities), and i work on summer camp staff
swimming- varsity swimming for three years, each year we’ve won the conference championship and I almost made it to regionals this year rip, probably will be captain next year
piano- played for like 12 years, got this “musicianship certification” thing from the local music teacher association
research- conducing research with my biology teacher into characterization of the role of g-alpha subunits in chemotaxis
scioly- did it in middle school and then up to 10th grade, 8 regional and 2 state medals, didn’t make S&M’s team lol
will be serving as an AP biology teacher’s assistant next year (would’ve done chem but it was offered to me instead of having to apply for it and I could only do one or the other and didn’t want to risk it)
help lead my school’s hiking club- plan outings and stuff like that, teach a WWII history seminar
served as a NC house page and will serve as a NC senate page
i do younglife which is pretty fun but idk if that will go on common app
awards and stuff- 15 under 15, a project of my local newspaper meant to recognize 15 future academics/leaders under 15 in our community; i scored well enough on the PSAT to at least get nat’l merit semifinalist, idk if eagle scout counts here but i’ll probably still put it; Ap scholar with honor (most likely with distinction after this year, don’t see how I wouldn’t be); likely to be my school’s pick for the renssalear medal (which is mainly a scholarship but also recognizes a top science/math student)
probably missing stuff but this is an enormous wall of text sorry