Chance me for competetive schools, please?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, thanks for looking at my post. I've been lurking around the forums for a while now, but this is my first post.</p>

<p>First I'll say I'm a white male from a small suburban town in Minnesota, and am currently a junior.</p>

<p>This is a list of some schools I'm thinking about applying to for engineering, as I hear all of these are good schools for it:</p>

<p>Northwestern
Cornell
Columbia
MIT
Carnegie Mellon
Caltech
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Princeton
Harvard
Berkeley</p>

<p>GPA: 3.992 Unweighted (All As except one A- from Spanish 2 in 9th Grade)
Rank: 3/191</p>

<p>ACT: 35 Composite (36 Reading, 35 English, 34 Math, 33 Science), 10 of 12 in Writing</p>

<p>AP: So far I've only taken the AP US History exam, which I got a 4 on. I'm taking the AP Stats test in two days, which I'm expecting a 5 on, the AP World History test, which I'm expecting a 4 maybe a 5 on, and the AP Spanish test, which I'm expecting a 1 or 2 on (Let's just say Spanish isn't my strong suit, probably won't report that score, lol :-))</p>

<p>I've taken the most rigorous course load I could, the one exception being that I didn't take Honors English in 9th grade.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-Quiz Bowl, from 10th grade on (Our A Team, which I am a member of, qualified for the State and National tournament, if that counts for anything)
-Science Olympiad, from 10th grade on (I got 1st in my regional event, and placed relatively well in the state tournament)
-Math League, from 10th grade on
-NHS
-Fencing for 5 years (Although I quit a couple months back, it was just taking up too much time and I've been very busy lately)</p>

<p>Awards, etc:
-National Merit Semi-Finalist?(I haven't been told yet, but I got a 219 on the PSAT and last year's cutoff for Semi-Finalist in MN was 214-215, so I think I have a very good shot)
-Member of MENSA(Not sure if that means much)
-Boy's State Delegate
-Distinguished student in Biology, A Honor Roll, blah blah, more of the usual filler stuff :-P</p>

<p>Community Service:
Not much of this, unfortunately.
-Several hours of helping out in various things at church
-maybe 10 hours of various community service with NHS(Raking leaves for people who wouldn't be able to themselves, will be cleaning up trash along the streets, helping with recycling)
-Helping a local organization, 4EverGreen, clean up the streets around town for several hours</p>

<p>Well, that pretty much sums up the last 3 years of my life(hehe). Anyway, as you can see, the community service/awards/ECs seem pretty lackluster to me. I'm sure you people will say I've got no chance, but I'm hoping that if I applied ED to Northwestern, for example, I'd have a chance.</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this, and I'm ready to be chanced up :-D.</p>

2

<p>Dude, you're sick,</p>

<p>I say that if I got into schools like Dartmouth, Notre Dame, and the U.S. Naval Academy with a 1410 SAT, you're good with those ACT scores alone.</p>

3

<p>1 a-? that's pretty amazing.</p>

4

<p>Hehe, thanks :). Anyone want to tell me my chances?</p>

5

<p>I'm honestly not saying this to offend you, but please don't put Mensa on your application! It would make you look pretentious and it's the sort of thing that colleges dislike-- they want to see ECs/honors that involve work, not just innate intelligence. That's why grades count so much.</p>

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<p>Thanks, I'm not offended. I was debating whether to list it, because I just wasn't sure if a college would want to see that. It's good to know that colleges don't like that kind of thing, so I won't put it on my applications. </p>

<p>I just thought colleges might want to know something like that along with knowing the applicant works hard. But I suppose they use test scores for that, in a way. And it's not that I don't trust you about the Mensa thing(I accidentally capitalized it earlier, I wasn't trying to emphasize it :P), but I'd like to hear the opinions of some other people as well about putting Mensa on my application, just because it surprises me.</p>

<p>Also, I'm still looking for someone to give me some chances :P. I particularly want to know about Northwestern, because out of the schools that I really want to go to, it seems that I'd have the best chance of getting in there.</p>

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<p>whats mensa?</p>

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<p>Obviously, you're a great, qualified applicant. But so much is a crap shoot that it's really hard to give chances at top schools...</p>

9

<p>Thanks, although some people seem to be comfortable chancing people for these schools like Northwestern :P.</p>

10

<p>what did you get on your SAT?
sorry i missed it in the opening post</p>

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<p>QuantamLight</p>

<p>Mensa is a a group or society in which its members all have extremely high IQ scores. Usually, the members score in the 98th percentile or better on the IQ test, making it very tough to be considered in the Mensa population.</p>

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<p>yihan.zhu - Well, I didn't take the SAT; I thought the ACT would be good enough, since these colleges accept the ACT and don't prefer either one.</p>

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<p>Someone please give me some chances. If not for HPS, at least give me chances for Northwestern and/or Johns Hopkins.</p>

14

<p>Soo many Minnesotans on this site..!</p>

<p>Hmm, stats are very impressive, ECs aren't.. but I think NU ED is realistic.</p>

<p>Northwestern: 30%, maybe 50% ED? not sure
Cornell: 25%
Columbia: 15%
MIT: 15%
Carnegie Mellon: 40%
Caltech: 15%
Johns Hopkins: 35%
Stanford: 15%
Princeton: 12%
Harvard: 12%
Berkeley: 45%</p>

<p>Good luck :)</p>

15

<p>Thanks :)</p>

<p>Got any ideas to help me improve my chances?</p>

<p>Also, do you think I should put Mensa on my applications?</p>

16

<p>you look like a great candidate to all these schools. the one thing i would do in addition to what you are doing now is independent research. you do a lot of team science stuff (quiz bowl, science olympiad), while that's great, colleges may view individual research or the likes more positively because they are sure its your work. Although you may do a lot for your team, other people can just go to the meetings and not contribute much doing matches and on paper would look the same as you.
perhaps you could do research during the summer and enter sts or siemens. more substantial volunteer work- organize a concert or something to help poor kids in africa (;P just an example). leadership positions would be good as well. you have great test scores, but there is still more you can do to be a stronger applicant. good luck :D</p>

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<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Still looking for more chances/advice. :)</p>

18

<p>are you there right now?</p>

19

<p>Bump, bump, please help me.</p>

20

<p>Bump, bump, bump.</p>