Chance Me for MIT/Ivies... will sports help for MIT?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hello fellow collegeconfidential users,
Im a rising senior and im hoping you guys can give me some insight on what my chances are for colleges such as MIT/Cornell/Georgia Tech/Carnegie Mellon/Johns Hopkins/Univ of Penn/Lehigh Univ. I plan on majoring in Biomedical Engineering so i know johns Hopkins is a promising choice but id still like to see about the others. Please make the critique helpful in a polite manner, bashing never helps anyone (:</p>

<p>Not sure if this matters with chancing but i am from PA - please let me know if this will help with admissions at Univ of Penn or Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>Freshman Year: Okay so i am not to sure if freshman year matters so much as ive heard its sort of "looked over" by most colleges from students at my school who were accepted to Princeton ect. ... Nonetheless the only Honors class that i took was Math, i got an A in every single class. </p>

<p>Sophomore Year: </p>

<p>Honors Alg 2 - A
Honors Biology - A
Honors AM History - A
Honors Java Programming - A
Honors English - A
Sports and Retail Marketing - A
Spanish 2 - A</p>

<p>Junior Year :</p>

<p>Honors Chem - A
AP Bio - A
AP Computer Science - A
AP Composition - A
Honors History - A
Honors Trig/Calc - A
Spanish 3 - A</p>

<p>Senior year (planned courses):
AP Stat
AP Physics
AP chem
AP Calc
AP Lit
AP Econ
Spanish 4</p>

<p>SAT Scores : 2230 (regular test)/ Sat Math 2 - 750 /SAT Biology Subject Test - 780</p>

<p>Race - White -Male</p>

<p>Class Rank - 22/ 596 or top 4%</p>

<p>GPA - UW - 4.0 / W ~ 4.5</p>

<p>My school generally sends students from the top 5% to ivy league schools, the only reason i know this is because i had a few senior buds that i know applied to ivies and were excepted to princeton, cornell ect. There may have been more students but i have a fairly large school so i don't know everyone.</p>

<p>ECs:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Founder of my own community service association in my local town - me and other kids from school go around and clean up the town, do fund raisers and visit other known assoc. such as meals on wheels to help out.</p></li>
<li><p>400+ hours of community service most of which was at my local hospital where i had to apply and be accepted into their community service program. Could get a recommendation from the leader of it.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>3.Co- President of key club which is a community service based club at my school.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Received the green chord award at my school 4 times for every 100 hours of community service i have done (plan on doing more). </p></li>
<li><p>Play lacrosse year-round for my school and various club teams. Last year my team went to nationals in Florida and took 4th out of 16 teams (ill add that i was the top scorer - not trying to boast just thought it may help?) and we are an alternative for this years nationals.</p></li>
<li><p>Love to play the piano - ive played for a few years now and have gotten very good at it. Its become a love of mine that i plan on continuing throughout my life and especially in college. </p></li>
<li><p>Im not too sure if this counts but ive tutored kids in school in mathematics and science and also an elderly citizen in my community to help get her GED. Shes 60 years old and even though i found the idea of going for her GED at that age peculiar, i found her determination extremely motivational to me and it reinforced the reasons for why i do community service so often(:</p></li>
<li><p>Went to states for the science Olympiad</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Well i know that colleges (specifically MIT) look for passions in their applicants and not just great grades. I have a many passions in my life such as my obsession with videogames, especially pokemon - yeah i know im a nerd ;p But since i was about 6 i could just not get over this game, ive literally done everything with it, beaten every single generation dozens of times, completed everything in every single game drowning hundreds of hours of my life into the games digital time tracker , and ill try to keep all the details general for those of you who dont really know much about the game. I've even gone to physical events for the game where tons of pokemon nerds gather together to get all the super cool exclusive stuff that you can get nowhere else besides that specific event(:Although pokemon is a burning passion of mine i feel as if my passion for community service is much stronger, i just thrive on the feeling of helping others who were left less fortunate in life, the feeling that comes over me when i see a smile being drawn on their faces is unparalleled in my mind by anything else. The hours of community service i have done range from working at soup kitchens, to taking patients in hospitals to the east wing or running a science camp at my local YMCA. Hopefully this paragraph has given you a little insight on my life and what my passions are as a person. I appreciate all the feedback and would like to thank you before hand. </p>

<p>Please disregard the various spelling errors and grammatical mistakes for i wrote this in a few short minutes and am in kind of a rush.</p>

<p>P.S. - Oh yeah! Sorry one last thing, i heard that playing a sport isnt really "sooo" important when applying to MIT - do you guys know or think it will help me at all? </p>

<p>Thanks,
Mitch</p>

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<p>I’m going to answer your “P.S.” question because I’ve adopted a new principle of avoiding chance threads. Chancing for a school like MIT is pretty much all subjective and there’s really no way to tell even if you have perfect scores, ec’s, etc. </p>

<p>Anyway, being a recruit for a sport does not help THAT MUCH with MIT, compared to other schools. This is a result of MIT’s being a D3 school and not having a renowned sports program. On the other hand, if you’re applying to an Ivy, they’re D1 and care much more about recruited athletes.</p>

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<p>bump bump bump</p>

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<p>You can probably scratch MIT from your list. They want to see demonstrated interest in math and science through participation in research or success in competitions such as the AMC. MIT also does not have a BME major mostly because it is not based on a foundation scientific discipline such as electrical, mechanical, biological or chemical engineering. It has the largest BME lab in the world (the Langer lab) but it is located within the department of chemical engineering. </p>

<p>Also sports does not boost admissions more than any other EC such as music or arts at MIT. There are no spots reserved for athletes and coaches have limited influence. It is not because MIT is mostly D3 (many D3 schools give a big boost to recruited athletes) but because their focus for admission is academic merit. There is also no legacy preference.</p>

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<p>Slim chance at MIT, but you have a great shot at the other schools :)</p>

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<p>Any chance you can be recruite for lacrosse? Have you talked to any coaches?</p>

<p>In at Georgia tech and lehigh
Probably at Carnegie Mellon
Low reach at Cornell and JHU (college of engineering)
Mid reach at UPenn
Very High reach MIT</p>

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<p>thanks for all the advice guys! i knew that MIT would be a long shot but one girl at school got in off of her passion for dancing with no science/math related ECs whatsoever so im still going to try !</p>

<p>bump bump bump!</p>

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<p>bump !!!</p>

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<p>531 views… only seven posts most of which are replies from me… ? BUMP!</p>

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<p>You have perfect grades and a great sat score, as well as good rigor. I think MIT will be hard…the people from my school that got in are geniuses at math (ap calc in 8th/9th grade) and became semifinalists in intel or something similar. That being said I don’t think it is impossible, but it will be a high reach. I think you will make it into ga tech and carnegie. I think it could be a high match at cornell and jhu, and maybe a low reach at upenn. I think you are a very competitive applicant!!!</p>

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<p>The 4.0 will definitely help, as well as the influence your lacrosse team has. Your emphasis on community service is your “hook” - just be sure to do it in a unique way(: I think that you have a match at Cornell, Pen would be a slight reach with MIT as a mid-reach. Overall, with all of your great EC’s I think that you have a good chance at almost any Ivy. But hey, it’s all practically random right?</p>

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<p>Well, I think MIT might be a bit of a reach for you but not by much. You have a chance as long as you do well with the essay. Maybe go really in depth with the whole thing about the elderly woman and her GED. I found that to be pretty interesting and unique. Definitely apply because you have a decent chance at getting in.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1374018-chances-jhu-cornell-uchicago-more.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1374018-chances-jhu-cornell-uchicago-more.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>thankyou very much veryone for the great criticism! im appreciate it greatly! to all future viewers whod like to chance me i will chance back!</p>

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<p>State Science Olympiad? They do know it is a team competition right?</p>

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<p>Bump!!!</p>

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<p>Why wouldn’t you apply to Duke if you are interested in BME?</p>

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<p>I say go for it! Go for MIT! I know someone who got into MIT because of her passionate work with choir, not emphasis on STEM. You have great grades, and great service.</p>

<p>Besides, even if we tell you no, you’d still apply anyway, right?
One great skill you’ll NEED is writing. Writing professionally, personally, any way. They will judge you not by your extra-curriculars, but how you’ll present them.</p>