Hey everyone. I’d like to get some feedback about my chances for these universities EA:
Georgia Tech, Stanford, U of Michigan, Purdue, Berkeley, U Penn, U of Kentucky (safety)
Intended Major: Industrial/Systems Engineering
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1530 (790 math, 740 Critical Reading/Writing)
ACT (breakdown): 33 (might not submit)
SAT II: none
Unweighted GPA: 4.00
Weighted GPA: school doesn’t calculate, will have had 8 AP classes by senior year
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): co-valedictorian (class of ~500)
APs: AP Stats (4), AP Chem (4), AP English Comp. (4), APUSH (3) <- pretty rough overall
Senior Year Course Load: most rigorous available
Awards/Honors:
-NHS, SNHS
-AP Scholar with Honor
National Merit Commended Scholar (small chance of SF with 1450 PSAT in my state)
Several regional Science Olympiad awards
Several regional and state FBLA 1st place awards
Local Chess Tournament Champion for 4 yrs. in a row
Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
4 years of school soccer (top 25 nationally ranked team) - 2 yrs. JV, 2 yrs. Varsity
3 years club soccer
4 years of Engineering Club (2 yr. as president) - large time commitment, did things like rocketry, battlebots, design work for local business, aquaponics work for community organization
4 years of Chess Club (4 yr. team captain) - placed at team regionals and participated at state every year
Math Research at Local University with senior math major (supervised by 2 professors) - presented work at small research symposium
Established engineering partnership with disadvantaged school abroad and maintained Skype communication for 2 years to teach STEM + aquaponics skills, went on international trip to school to build original residential aquaponics system prototype out of cheap, locally available materials so that it can be replicated there, travelled alongside company (with system experts) and college student translators
Boys State
4 years of Science Olympiad (1 yr. as president) - got first as a team at Regionals twice
4 years of Environmental Awareness Association (1 yr. as vice president) - chapter has won national awards
4 years of Student Government - one of 8 representatives in grade
3 years of FBLA - some individual awards
Essays: Still working on them - should be pretty strong 8.5+/10
Teacher Recommendation: Very strong rec. from engineering teacher and fairly strong recs from Chemistry and English teachers
Counselor Rec: I’m slightly worried. Difficult to maintain relationship with counselor in public school with class of ~500. Should be decent though.
Other:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes, but won’t get much
State (if domestic applicant): KY
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Ethnicity/Gender: Asian Male [in engineering] yep…
Extra - Bilingual, Intermediate Ukulele Player (fr though)
I think you’ll get into U Michigan and definitely Purdue. Berkeley and Georgia Tech are good choices. I’d say you have about a 70% chance of getting in there.
Stanford is a crapshoot for everyone. You need EC’s which really stand out. Also your SAT is good but not great. That converts to about a 2230/2240 on the old SAT scale. At Stanford admissions that will put you at a disadvantage.
The engineering partnership with the disadvantaged school is great. Did you pay to go on the international trip with a travel group/student volunteer summer program? If so it’s not as impressive since basically anyone who has the means can do that. However if you independently reached out and started this program, now that’s impressive.
I wouldn’t discount your soccer component as a hook. Have you talked to your HS coach and coaches at your target schools? Are you registered with the NCAA?
@upwardss12 I didn’t pay for a volunteer program. The partnership was organized by me alongside a couple fellow students. For my SAT, do you recommend retaking it? I checked Stanford’s range (1450-1590) and it looks like I’m a little above 50th percentile. I’m really not in the mood (applying EA this fall) but would be willing to retake it if looks that bad for Stanford/U Penn.
@Helen13 Unfortunately I’m not at the recruitment level, other than maybe some subpar D3 schools. I was hoping to pin it as a “I’m on the high-ranked team” sort of thing.
SAT - It’s honestly up to you. It would definitely boost your chances. If it were that you had a 1570+ I wouldn’t recommend it but given you’re at a 1530 it wouldn’t hurt to boost your score just a bit IF you study super hard (Khan Academy or paid prep programs if you have the means).
Keep in mind many accepted students at Stanford have stellar extracurriculars so you kind of need to be at the top of your game in all areas to stand out as much as possible.
I’ve given this some more thought. I don’t think you should retake the SAT. Work on your essays, have fun, read some books. You’ve worked really hard so far and I don’t think the minimal score increase is worth it. Just my opinion though, if you want to retake it then by all means do so.
OK. If we’re talking about Stanford, overall your stats are compelling, but…your SAT is good, not great. Have you started work on your essays? Hint, if you have not you should do so. Your essays will help you greatly in your quest. Good luck.
The simple truth is that getting admitted to Stanford is tough. If you scan though the Stanford Admitted Students threads over the years you will see that is marked by many, many students with perfect SAT, SAT II, top class rank, and amazing ECs that were not admitted. However,…if you continue searching these threads you will see many with stats very similar to yours that did get in. So, I believe - yes, chance.
Now, could your SAT score be better? Yes. Should you re-test? Not sure. Up to you - could be a gamble. You don’t have any SAT II listed. Should you take a couple? Couldn’t hurt, and might help. Your experiences look like you have much that you could write about in your essays. Make sure they know who you are!
In the end you might get admitted, and you might not, but don’t let the outcome be influenced by a lack of trying.
Should I withhold my 3 on APUSH? Additionally, I don’t know if this will help… but I live in a small town that has sent ~5 people to Ivy League/Stanford/MIT in its 50 year history. Most students simply stay in-state.
The general trend I’ve been getting from these replies is that I have a good shot at most of my choices other than Stanford, where it will be difficult unless I have especially compelling essays.
I also have U Penn (SEAS) on my list - I know its easier than Wharton but I haven’t had anyone mention it specifically yet. Does it share the same uncertainty as Stanford or is the difficulty of admission comparable to Georgia Tech or U Michigan because it’s the engineering college at U Penn.
You need to check this for yourself, but I don’t think Stanford requires that you submit AP scores.
I do think you should spend some time on prioritizing your entire list (the reach, match, safety thing), knowing that many are “reach” no matter what stats you have.
Also you should consider some campus visits because (for instance) Stanford is much different than UPenn (for instance). If you are able to make some visits, you might find that some schools might simply fall off your list because they don’t feel right to you.
Once you have a solid list you can turn to choosing one for ED,EA, SCEA (or what ever)
Great stats. Just be careful where you apply EA - a lot of those schools are EA and Stanford might limit you to apply yo places like Tech, UMich, etc. with it’s SCEA policy. Good luck!
@Rivet2000 Stanford and Penn are very different on a superficial level (in terms of campus look and location), but actually many people find them very similar in terms of campus vibe, student life, academic philosophy etc.
@rscool45 Penn engineering is only slightly easier than Wharton. The difference is comparable to the difference between Harvard/Stanford vs Yale/Princeton. In fact in the last 2 years it has had a lower acceptance rate than Wharton (but still I would say Wharton is def a bit harder to get in).
The undergrad admissions difficulty of Penn Engineering is ofc less than that of Stanford but definitely quite higher than GTech or UMich engineering, I would put it closer to Stanford than UMich or GTech. The reason is that for undergrad the ranking/strength of a specific department is not the only factor people base their decision on. In fact for undergrad admissions the overall prestige/strength of the school tends to matter just as much if not more. This is why you see a huge number of even engineering cross admits choosing places like Harvard, Penn, Columbia etc over places like Umich, GTech, UIUC etc.
Agree. OP should compare the details between the two to identify academic differences. Setting and environment also play a part. At least it did for my S.
Purdue should be a match to low match. UMich CoE is a reach for any OOS students. You are slightly above the admission average though. So your chance should be a bit higher than ~20% admission rate from OOS.