Chance me for MIT! (and others)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a Hispanic male from a lower middle class family who attends an elite public HS in NYC. I'm planning on applying to MIT (and maybe CalTech too) EA. If I don't get in, I'll apply to the following RD:</p>

<p>MIT
Cornell Engineering
Yale
Stanford
UPenn
Cooper Union
NYU (safety, pretty much)
CalTech
Macaulay Honors@CCNY</p>

<p>Chance me for all of them! Or just MIT.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities:
FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Team President (avg 10hrs/week, year round- 40 hr/week 6 week build season in February)
I was also on the presentation team for our FIRST Robotics Competition division's Chairman's Award this year. We won the award and went on to compete in FIRST World Championships.</p>

<p>Key Club: Webmaster
Rowing Club: Coxswain
Photography Club</p>

<p>Major Projects:
(I'm planning on making a website to display these and my photographs more effectively)</p>

<p>Statistics Paper: On the Holism of College Admissions Processes
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8ysm1y5oump85p/On%20the%20Holism%20of%20College%20Admissions%20Processes.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/s/y8ysm1y5oump85p/On%20the%20Holism%20of%20College%20Admissions%20Processes.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Bio Research Paper- I presented this at the U.S. Naval Academy NCSSSMST Research Conference:
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/5h8npdas6m9ij2y/NCSSSMST%20Paper.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/s/5h8npdas6m9ij2y/NCSSSMST%20Paper.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Particle Simulator- final AP Computer Science project video demo:
<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwawxb4mlkgschx/projectdemo.avi%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/s/zwawxb4mlkgschx/projectdemo.avi&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I helped fit a pneumatic cannon onto one of our competition robots in Summer 2011. This is the result:
Vectorbot</a> side shoot - YouTube
We've done demonstrations of the robot for a number of organizations, including NASA and Makerbot.</p>

<p>In my sophomore year, I needed a more powerful computer for video editing/animation/gaming, but had a limited budget, so I built one myself. </p>

<p>In my free time I enjoy biking and reading; this summer, I'm working as a Software Developer at Brainlink International. I may end up doing computer science research with an NYU professor.</p>

<p>Standardized Tests:
SAT I: CR 740, M 750, W 700, total 2190
SAT II: Chemistry 790, Math II 800
AMC 12: 81 (not too good, but I was invited to apply to Math Camp and a few other programs because of it, so...)</p>

<p>Transcript:
<a href="http://speedcap.net/img/26646dfc6d78286b2af1d12121468b0a/56843d47.png%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://speedcap.net/img/26646dfc6d78286b2af1d12121468b0a/56843d47.png&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I know there are interviews, essays, recommendations, and so on, but this information paints a pretty good picture of me. What do you guys think? Any advice? The EA deadline is November 1, so...</p>

<p>I'm not sure if I should include Udacity courses when self reporting a transcript, either.</p>

2

<p>You look like a great candidate for those colleges. Except I think your sat is a little low for MIT. I think you should throw in more safeties to your list because a lot of those schools, MIT especially, reject tons of kids with better sat scores and gpas. MIT is all about passion and not just a list of activities that you didn’t put 100% into</p>

3

<p>Great, but don’t bother including “built a computer”, you may be able to impress your friends but MIT realises it’s really easy to build one.</p>

4

<p>Chances don’t look good at Cooper Union, Cornell Engineering, MIT and Caltech. Your transcript does not show the advanced math and science classes that the vast majority of applicants to those 3 schools have besides AP Computer science and statistics (i.e AP calculus, ap physics b/c, chemistry etc) unless your school does not offer those classes</p>

<p>What is your class rank or estimated percentile?</p>

5

<p>@cortana431
Perhaps you misread my transcript- I’m taking AP Calculus BC and AP Biology senior year. I’m also taking a Neurobiology course at Harvard this summer and a college level Organic Chemistry course during my senior year, and have done extensive biological research. Systems level programming and Software development are also considered college level mathematics courses. My school does not rank its students since we all fall on the higher end of the distributional curve for academic achievement (elite exam school). A student ranked 500th out of a class of 900 students might easily be valedictorian at any other school. However, I’m fairly confident I’m in the top 25%, if not the top 10%. I’d also like to point out that the Honors Physics course I took is equivalent to an AP Physics B course.</p>

<p>@Phlegm
Hm, I wasn’t aware of this. Could you substantiate your argument? I’m not going to take your statement at face value. You might assume that it’s easy to build one but that may only be true in the small sample of people from which you’re basing this conclusion on.</p>

<p>@conniebear17
Not really worried about safeties, that’s why I didn’t really list them here. Also, according to statistics on the MIT site, my SAT scores fall within the middle 50% for accepted students. An admissions counselor from Yale told me that once you’re in the middle 50% they really don’t care about standardized test scores, so I’m not too worried about that.</p>

<p>Thanks to all for the criticism/comments.</p>

6

<p>OK, im going to be harsh,so don’t take it the wrong way. First of all, I agree with conniebear that your tests score are relatively low for MIT. Retake if at all possible. Being in the middle 50% range means little when you consider the numerous applicants that are given preference due to legacy/female engineer etc. Take a look at this thread that backs up whatever I just said: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/865226-addressing-few-concerns.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/865226-addressing-few-concerns.html&lt;/a&gt;
Second of all, I would not include that you built a computer or your AMC 12 score. To be frank, neither of these is very impressive and it makes you seem as if you are simply trying to add lines to your resume. Especially dont mention that you built the computer so that you could game more. Your EC’s look all right, but your chances seem slim at MIT/Caltech/Cornell imo.</p>

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<p>OP, “not really worried about safeties”? You should be. NYU is not a “safety,” it is probably a match. Is your aversion to safeties because you are so supremely confident about your listed choices that safeties are, to you, largely irrelevant? </p>

<p>You seem rather smugly dismissive of all who have raised questions or concerns. Given that, there is little point in my weighing in on your viability as a competitive applicant to these schools when you clearly know more than we do. However, let me advise you of the following: rank of top 25% is NOT going to cut it at the schools you have listed (except NYU). Perhaps not even top 10%. With the exception of NYU, you need to be a TOP student in your school, not merely someone in the top 25% who built a robot.</p>

<p>What really was the point of this thread, anyway, if you are going to argue with those who have raised questions or concerns? This kind of arrogance suggests a potentially ill-informed and mis-directed application strategy against which you probably cannot be disuaded. So…good luck!</p>

8

<p>Its great your Hispanic and all, but MIT is not Yale. Your GPA is too low. Again building a computer is not impressive, tons mit kids do it. Schedule isn’t that rigorous. Alot of mit kids too BC sophomore or junior yr. Grades are weak. Listen to these suggestions. You are not the best, tons of people are better than you.</p>

9

<p>I’m so tired of reading threads written by people who have too high of an ego to listen to the opinions they asked for! </p>

<p>Building a computer isn’t that difficult. You want proof? I built one in 6th grade. It wasn’t hard then, I doubt it would be hard now. I, just like virtually everyone has said, wouldn’t put it on your resume. Put some safeties on your list. Having an ego too big for safeties may result in you not even getting into college.</p>

10

<p>Once again, building a computer is a great achievement and not everybody could it. However, the people who are applying to MIT are the type of people where it’s not impressive.</p>

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<p>Thanks to all for pointing out that building a computer is not impressive (that’s plenty of proof), I won’t mention it (or my AMC score, for that matter…).</p>

<p>The Addressing a Few Concerns thread is quite unsettling, but even so, according to the chart on page 8 in the paper (<a href=“http://www.infogoaround.org/CollegesChinese/RevealRanking.pdf[/url]”>http://www.infogoaround.org/CollegesChinese/RevealRanking.pdf&lt;/a&gt;) a 2190 (98.7th percentile) puts my theoretical odds of being admitted to MIT at approximately 35%, which is far more than I would expect. A 2400 would up those odds to 50%, which quite an appreciable increase, though. Hopefully my ACT score will be a higher percentile than my SAT score. Thanks for that, poseidon007.</p>

<p>Sorry if I come across as arrogant, I’m just getting a bit defensive here. I’m not looking for outright criticism, which is completely unhelpful. For example, @kiddo64, you tell me to listen to your suggestions, but you have not made a single suggestion. I’m trying to figure out what I should emphasize and what I should not mention, and maybe what I should focus on during my first term senior year. I didn’t make this thread to show off, I made the thread to help me show my best side in applications. Now I know that I shouldn’t mention building a computer or my AMC score, so I’ve learned something.</p>

<p>You’re right, swingtime, NYU is probably a target, not a safety. I was probably thinking Polytech when I wrote that. If my school doesn’t report class rank, then I don’t see how colleges can consider it, though. There are plenty of kids from my school not in the top 10% or even the top 25% who have been admitted to HYPSMC.</p>

<p>The reason I don’t list safeties is because they are safeties. Don’t get me wrong, Lagging, I’m applying to them. I just don’t really need an idea of my chances of getting into a state university or a community college and I don’t want to waste anyone’s time.</p>

12

<p>You seem like a decent applicant. Your math and science activities are impressive. However, you have not yet taken calculus, which is very unusual of an applicant to these schools.</p>

13

<p>@Descartes1</p>

<p>Wait, this is a thread about undergraduate admissions. I think you might be better off posting your credentials in a graduate-school centric thread. I imagine the posters there would be more helpful.</p>

<p>@ImSoAmbitious
Hm, so it would seem a lot of applicants take Calculus in their sophomore and junior years. What do you think I should do to make up for not having taken Calculus yet? At my school, the vast majority of students take Calculus in their senior year, although there are a handful that take it earlier, sometimes even before high school.</p>

14

<p>Your grades in math classes are a little low for MIT, but your SAT II math score is great! I would say it’s a bit of a reach for you but you certainly have a decent chance. Maybe take the SAT again and do well in Calculus this year.</p>

15

<p>Your grades are weak for MIT, and if you think that admission is a science, you are wrong. The people that got in with low SAT scores were either legacy that donated alot of money, or had extenuating circumstances.</p>

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<p>^ I think MIT said they do not do legacy. But then we never know.</p>

17

<p>I don’t mean to be a stalker, but what school do you go to? Abbreviations would be fine, I could probably figure it out xD</p>

<p>I too go to a school in NYC. <em>cough</em></p>