<p>Giving up applying FA will increase your chance at Caltech/Stanford , but has no impact on HYPM</p>
<p>@ Herunar: I guess I’ll give a try to John Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon. How about my chances for these universities?</p>
<p>CMU (my ED school) is pretty difficult to get into for engineering, but to be honest, it’s a better shot than you have at the other schools.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what these people here are talking about – Caltech is all about the perfect test scores. They only accept like 200 kids per year as undergrads, so they can safely reject students who have sat scores less than 2300 without even feeling remorseful.</p>
<p>I think that applying to Hopkins and CMU are better, but I know for CMU at least international students are not viewed need-blind. (Thus, not applying for Financial Aid will increase your chances.)</p>
<p>IMO is your biggest stand-out.</p>
<p>Even so, the top colleges are looking for well-rounded students and from your application, all your standouts are in math and science. You might want to try playing some sports…</p>
<p>How are you so good at IMO with such a bad score on Math SAT</p>
<p>Guys, this thread was from last year. And he ended up getting into Caltech, so he must’ve been all right in the end :)</p>
<p>Ugh, I hate people that necro old threads.</p>
<p>Of course he was accepted at Cal Tech. He is Chinese and not a native English speaker. The CR section of the SAT was designed for a meant to be taken by native English speakers. For a native Chinese speaker who does not live in the U.S. to score a 700 in CR is an incredible intellectual achievement. I can not fathom what you people who said that score would hurt him were thinking. The 750 in Math is a little low for Caltech but is still a very strong score and since there are many word problems on the Math section of the SAT not being a native English speaker may have cost him a few points on that section of the exam as well. Besides, there is not that much difference in Math skills between someone who scores 750 and someone who gets an 800. The awards he has won in math competitions clearly demonstrate superior Math skills and the ability to succeed at CalTech.</p>
<p>MIT, CIT are your safer bet out of those reach schools. However I suggest you to also apply to safer school like, Tufts, BU, The UC’s, Carnegie Mellon. Also from my pass experience with Hong Kong student in my area, their ability to adept to the English environment is much stronger then other Chinese people. But I say don’t just limit your self to those schools, apply to other school to open up new possibility. You might even get lucky and get a full ride. </p>
<p>Best of Luck for the schools you applying.
-Jay</p>