Chance me for CMU please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

I’m applying to CMU with these majors in mind: Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering. I’m thinking about doing ED to CMU and I do realize that you must go once you’re accepted.

School: IB
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender: Male
Income: 100K

Unweighted: 3.82
Weighted: (My school does it really weird where you get 0.16 for a full AP course and 0.08 for a full honors course added on to your unweighted): 6.53

I estimate this to be around 4.5 or 4.6 on the 5.0 scale

SAT new: 1430 (I was really sick that day but never retook it)
ACT: 35 (34 reading 35 writing 35 math 35 science)

SAT Subjects:

800 Math II, 790 Physics

AP’s

AP Euro 5
AP Calc AB 5
AP US History 5
AP Macro 4
AP Stats 4
AP Lang 4
AP Physics 1: 3

Class rank: 137 out of 13,018

I take 4 HL’s and 2 SL’s:

IB Math HL, IB Physics HL, IB Chemistry HL, IB English HL, IB French SL, IB History SL

EC’s

I’ve played violin for about 8 years now, I’ve won a couple medals in Solo and Ensemble. One superior and another superior with distinct

Mu Alpha Theta. I’ve placed individually twice (6th place individual + 13th place indiv in a march regional) and have several 1st place team round trophies (3-4 1st place team trophies and 1 3rd place team trophy)

I was also an officer in 11th grade for Mu Alpha Theta

FBLA. I placed 4th in states for intro to computers, 2nd in district for intro to computers, 6th in districts for computer problem solving, 1st place districts for computer game and simulation programming

SNHS: I placed 3rd in astronomy on two occasions

I’m the VP of SNHS and was treasurer last year

I’m the coordinator of my library’s chess club as part of TAB (Teen Advisory Board). I supervise and direct the event and I’m responsible for the entire event.

I was on the swim team in 9th grade

Founder and President of Physics Club

Essays

Common app essay 7.5/10. I talked about my failures during freshman year for mu alpha theta and how I learned from them and ended up winning some trophies.

Recs

Teacher 1: 9/10 Calculus Teacher. He’s known me since freshman year since he is one of the sponsors for Mu Alpha Theta. He’s seen me struggle very hard and improve a lot over the years.

Teacher 2: 7/10 Chemistry Teacher. He’s known me since 10th grade. He doesn’t know me on a very deep level but he does know that I’m a hard worker. He’s good friends with the physics teacher so he also knows about my performance in Physics.

Counselor Rec 8/10. I’ve met with the counselor several times. The counselor knows me on a deep level since she was the one that ended up approving 4 HL courses for me (I am the only senior at my school taking 4 HL classes).

That’s about it.

Thanks in advance guys!

-shumpu123

2

How did you do on the HL Physics and Math?
You seem to be strong for CIT (including ECE), but a little on the low end for CS. It seems you’ve taken AP Calc AB, but not BC? Also that 3 on Physics is a bit worrisome.
Most CS majors have already finished Calc/parts of matrices, so your math is just a tad on the low end.
But overall strong

3

Keep in mind that for ED you are allowed to apply only to one college. If any of those majors are in more than one college and you can’t make an absolute choice you should apply RD.

4

Have you decided what major you are going to ED? With that information, we could give you a better estimate of your chances.

5

Nevermind the 790, I got an 800 on physics. I put 790 as an estimate at the time

Also I want to ED Electrical Engineering + comp sci integrated

I haven’t taken my IB exams yet, I’ll take them in May.

6

I don’t see a lot of people doing EE and CS integrated. Not saying it is impossible but it is very hard. You should check out MIT or Berkeley because their CS program is integrated with EE. CMU CS is very theoretical. Therefore, you are subjecting yourself to a hell lot of work doing ECE and CS (there is no just EE at CMU). I highly recommend somewhere else if you want to do EECS. I think for what you want to do, you want an ECE major at CMU.

7

Whoa, you have 13000+ kids in your graduating class??? Google doesn’t even come up with schools with that many across all four grades!
Sorry, that just jumped out at me.
I agree with those above, I think you’re overall a really strong candidate, especially since you’re going ED.
Only thing, I’m not sure swim team in ninth grade is entirely relevant, unless something really significant made you stop…

8

My bad, by 13,000 I meant in my entire county including all the IB schools with the traditional programs.
They never gave me the rank within my graduating class at my school.
I should probably specify these details more :slight_smile:

Also I am doing EE + CS integrated because it would be for the college of engineering wouldn’t it?
I feel I have a better chance there instead of at the college of computer science.