Chance Me for ED/EA

Hi, some of you may remember my earlier post about early graduation. I decided against the offer (thanks for your suggestions, though!) Instead, I’ll be applying this year to colleges, hopefully giving me a greater range of possibilities. Without further ado, here are my current stats. I’d really appreciate any help and comments/criticisms!

Applying to: Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, NYU

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2270 (760 W, 730 CR, 780 M)
SAT II: 780 Math II, 750 BioE, 730 Chem
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Euro (4), Bio (4), Enviro (4), Psych (4), Chem (3)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Spanish, AP Physics C, AP Macro, AP English Lang, Multi/Diff, PE, Advanced CS (post-AP), Band, Math team (Also enrolled in Stochastic Calculus and Data+Algorithms at Columbia University)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Scholastic Gold Key, AMC 10/12 Achievement and Honor Roll, Google Science Fair Regional Finalist, Presidential Volunteer Service Award, NCWIT National Award, Imagine Cup International Finalist, NGV International Winner, $5000+ awards from hackathons, Grace Hopper Scholar, MIT Scholarship, Qualcomm Scholarship, TD Bank Scholarship, AP Scholar with Distinction, iD Tech National Scholarship, Panelist for 5 international conventions, Spoke on national television 5+ times

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Computer Science Team (President), Research Team (President), Key Club (State Officer), TSA - Technology Student Association (State Officer), ProjectCSGIRLS (National Officer), eSTEAMed Students (National Officer), Newspaper, Science Olympiad (Media Officer), Math Team (Varsity/Trainer), Golf, Yearbook (Editor), Executive Editorship for 4 National publications, Quiz Bowl (Varsity), NHS, AspireIT (Program Leader), School Hackathon (Organizer), VEX Robotics (Captain), Columbia SHP
Job/Work Experience: Internship with Senator, Internship (2 summers) with NYU Lab, Internship with CERN, Internship with startup tech company
Volunteer/Community service: Key Club (400+ service hours), Buddhist Temple (~100 hours), Red Cross Club (200+ hours), Chinese School (~100 hours), National magazines (300+ hours) [Note: These were compiled from middle school to high school, so hours are approximations]
Summer Activities: [Freshman] Debate Camp, TSA Nationals, Internships with Senator, Research, CTY [Sophomore] GWC Summer Immersion Program, Television/Press apperances, Hackathons, Youtubing, Acting for small films/projects, Webmaster for Math Circle/Service organizations/CodeNow/Hackathons, Open Source Dev for Rails, Research

Other
State (if domestic applicant): NY
Country (if international applicant): Nope
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F
Income Bracket(mention if FA candidate): Lower Middle
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First gen immigrant (probably not a hook)

GPA: Stellar. Nothing wrong with a perfect 4.0. Unless you could have taken more APs (My school only allows APs starting in Junior Year) during freshman, sophomore, and junior year, your GPA is perfectly fine.

Rank: 5% is very good. Although Ivies and Tech schools love having the 1%, this shouldn’t be a problem.

SAT: A 2270 is the 98-99% so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Although, it wouldn’t hurt to take an ACT or boost the 2270 to the 2300 range if you have the time.

AP Scores: Don’t worry about them. It does help but don’t worry about the 4s and 3s.

Awards/Achievements: Beautiful achievements. Most of these are very asian achievements, but very good.

EC: Great leadership. At least 4 is great overall. I see a lot of passion in Tech stuff which is awesome.

Overall (Remember, even 2400 and great ECs get rejected from these schools):

Harvard: Low Reach/Reach
Stanford: High Match/Low Reach
MIT: High Match/Low Reach
Caltech: High Match/Low Reach
UC Berkeley High Match
NYU: Safety

If you ED to any of those schools excluding Harvard, I say High Match, especially the Tech Schools (Female helps)

Only thing that can help you now are SAT/ACT, Essays, Recs, and God’s Will. Good Luck!!

I have to disagree with the poster above, sorry @Klee16. MIT, Stanford, Caltech, and Harvard (a low reach? ha!) are high reaches FOR EVERYONE, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Unless your name is Malia Obama. I say you amass at least one or two more safeties, one or two more matches that you’d be happy to attend, and you’re golden. I wish you the best of luck OP, and even though admissions are crapshoots, I really hope a student as stellar as you will get into one of those schools. If not, remember that 95% of the country’s higher education institutions would love to have you.

:slight_smile: