Chance me for Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton... Honest Feedback PLEASE

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I’m a senior from Iowa and plan on applying to schools these schools

Caltech (EA)
MIT (EA)
Stanford
Columbia
Princeton
Carnegie Mellon
Yale

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1570
ACT (breakdown): 35
SAT II: 800 Physics, 800 Math 2
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0UW
Weighted GPA: School doesn’t weight
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School dosent rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5’s in Physics 1, Calc BC, World, USH, Lang
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit, Calc 3, APCSA, Geology, Internship, Engineering 4
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semi, multiple medals at Science Olympiad State, FRC Dean’s List Semifinalist, Community award from Robotics Team

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): FIRST Robotics team (Co-Captain, Programming lead, Outreach Lead) 200 hr+ of outreach. Science Olympiad (Student Leader for 2 years) Mu Alpha Theta member, orchestra member (9-11), martial arts (4 years)

Job/Work Experience: C++ Internship at local college and software engineering engineering at local company
Volunteer/Community service: 200+ hrs of community outreach through robotics
Summer Activities: Internships,
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App (9/10), wrote about my unique interest and how i discovered the humanities side of technology
I think my supplements have been going really well, they are unqiue about me and my teachers said they were great.

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):
Teacher Rec #1: probably 8/10, I asked Calc teacher who liked my unique ways of thinking. Had him 11th grade
Teacher Rec #2: 8/10 again, I asked 10th grade english teacher, talked him occasionally after having his class

Counselor Rec: standard i guess? Don’t know him too well
Additional Rec: Expecting a good one from Robotics Coach, known me for 4 years.

Intended Major: CS
State (if domestic applicant): Iowa
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Large, public (~2000)
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 100000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): No

I really want to get into a top 20 school, and I especially want to get into Caltech or MIT (in applying EA haha) so PLEASE give me honest feedback!!!

Thanks guys!!!

2

Geographic diversity, great stats, and being female (and non-Asian) will help you at CalTech and MIT.

Would have been nice to see additional AP science courses if offered, but you do have great scores in non-fluff AP subjects. Science olympiad and MAT should help as well.

No one can give you an accurate prediction, but I think you stand a pretty good chance. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t submit the ACT score. SAT is stronger, and with the great subject test scores there is no need to hit them over the head with your testing, and thereby risk looking like a test drone. Good luck!

Edit to add: of the other schools besides CalTech and MIT, Yale would probably see the fewest applicants with your profile. You wouldn’t be able to apply SCEA there though and still go EA at CalTech/MIT. I’m not sure SCEA helps too much anyway…

3

Grades/test scores are good plus the applicant has the geographic diversity for admittance to some of the schools.

The only concern is what the previous poster mentioned. I see a Physics AP score mentioned, but nothing about Biology or Chemistry. Most of the elites expect completion of 3 lab sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics).

If neither science has been taken or taken at a non-AP level, take it instead of Geology. Most high school geology classes are fluff anyways.

Best chances at the big tech schools are at CalTech as they love raw scores. Although Pasadena is quite different from Iowa. MIT has a significant number of students who have some sort of national/international recognition.

To the OP, do you think you can fit into many of the schools you are applying to? Iowa is way different culturally than the schools on your list.

CalTech/MIT are almost majority Asian. Columbia is big-city New York and Stanford is in the liberal Bay Area.

Academically there will not be issues, but be prepared for something different from the Midwest.

As all the schools are going to be reaches in spite of your grades/scores, have some matches as well. I am assuming that Iowa is your academic/financial safety.

I might consider some OOS public schools as matches/high matches. Examples being UW-Madison, Illinois, and Purdue. Try a couple of realistic reaches like Michigan COE or Georgia Tech.

4

Caltech certainly places greater emphasis on academics than almost all other colleges, but test scores are meaningless at that level because they can’t be used to differentiate among its applicants, which are the most self-selected group of applicants anywhere. It looks holistically at an applicant’s academic record for academic potentials. It’s one of the few schools with professors heavily involved in admissions partly for that purpose. Most students with academic potentials tend to have high test scores, unsurprisingly.

Asians aren’t majority at MIT or Caltech. The acceptance rates of Asian Americans at MIT has been kept in the range of 25-30% for years (until last year with the Harvard lawsuit). At Caltech, that percentage has been increasing to just over 40%, as racial consideration isn’t a factor in its admissions.

5

All of these schools have an admit rate of around 3-5%. It comes down to mostly dumb luck. Also, there’s nothing that these schools offer that an ABET accredited school couldn’t offer you as well. The accreditation is identical. Have you thought about scholarships?

6

Your stats seem really good, and as a female white student from Iowa aiming at CS, you may have better chance getting into Yale.

Can you elaborate what you did in “Summer Activities: Internships”?

Have you visited any of those colleges?