Thanks for the feedback!
I’m aware of the differences, but what drew me to them was that they all have incredibly strong math departments.
Will definitely also apply to some public schools early.
I’d apply MIT early in this case. Best of luck!
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You might also consider applying for math at Oxbridge (Cambridge is rated more highly by most), as the outcome would be more predictable and not impacted by legacy, ethnicity etc. For a full pay student it is also a lot cheaper than US private schools.
Cambridge in particular loves math Olympiad students and Trinity has stated in the past that IMO qualifiers are for all intents and purposes auto admits (they host and train the British team each year). But they hate to be treated as a backup for US schools.
I also think that not having gone far beyond Calc BC in high school might make the UK course structure more attractive since everyone takes the same classes (following a very rigorous first principles proof based approach).
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I think MIT will be the hardest to get into but maybe the USAMO will do it. I think Princeton SCEA would give you your single highest chance to get into 1 of the schools listed without Athletic backing from MIT. If you take it as absolute that applying to MIT EA doesn’t give any advantage over applying RD then you might consider applying SCEA to Princeton (or REA to Stanford if that is your preferred school).
As for other schools not mentioned take a look at Carnegie Mellon. I believe you can get a BS/MS in 4 years and/or maybe look at a minor in CS which won’t hurt if you decide you don’t want to pursue a PhD.
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Yes, I plan on applying to Oxford as well, but I did not mention it in this thread as the application for UK schools is much more objective than US schools.
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The OP said MIT is his top choice, by a wide margin, so applying anywhere else REA or SCEA doesn’t make much sense. EA to MIT, maybe along with UM and Rutgers (financial safety) would be the best, and then RD the rest.
“there are only going to be about 250 domestic USAMO qualifiers applying in any given cycle, but unfortunately for your application about 150-175 of those are Asian males (girls are generally less than 20% of USAMO qualifiers). My very rough guess is that half will apply to MIT.”
Good point on the numbers, I think most, if not all will apply to the four colleges along with Harvard. But the OP has shown he’s one of the top math/science students in the country, and they do really well in admissions, even among the colleges being discussed. Stanford would be the longest shot because of their other institutional priorities (athletes, urms et al.), but it would be surprising if OP didn’t get into one of the four on his list.
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But along with MIT, the OP can also EA to CalTech, and if desired, UChicago as well (and of course Michigan). I have a child finishing up at UChicago and was going to extol its virtues in a separate post, but @leftcoasthope stole most of my thunder.
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I’ll also advocate for the private T20 schools in relationship to opportunities. The private schools just have more, DD at our public flagship (which was a T20 in Chemical Engineering) worked at one of the labs at the University. Nice opportunity but DD that went to UChicago (Molecular Engineering) had worked at a National lab, had two published papers and a patent (patent was submitted by the company their team worked with on the project) by the time she graduated.
But if applying to MIT EA doesn’t give you a boost it is statistically advantageous to use your EA at a school that does give an advantage. Of course it may require more work and more finances because you won’t know if you are in your prefer school until 3/14 but if your goal is to go to one of those 4 schools then playing the odds says EA at PU or Stanford and ED at MIT.
Edit: Typo - meant to type ‘RD to MIT’
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MIT doesn’t have ED.
No, but you cannot apply EA to MIT if you apply REA to Stanford or Princeton
I thought OP favors MIT, so they weren’t going to apply SCEA to Stanford or Princeton?
Princeton does provide the biggest admission boost for early applicants among the four schools OP listed. However, by OP not applying early to the other schools. they would likely assume that OP was deferred or rejected from his first-choice school (or he was accepted by his first-choice school but wanted to have more options so he may be less likely to matriculate if admitted). If OP has a clear favorite, he should apply accordingly.
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You have a good chance at all four schools listed; in fact, I would be surprised if it does not work out with Princeton. As you noted, hone the essays. For the Princeton one, perhaps demonstrate your expansive world view with an emphasis on being “In the nation’s service and the service of humanity”.
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That’s a lot of schools to apply early, typically kids apply to one of MIT/Cal Tech and their flagship early, in this case Rutgers, as a financial and admissions safety. I only suggested UM because OP expressed interest and it would be an easier school to get in than Cal Tech.
“I do not think that your chances are much different than the overall acceptance rate at each school, and your chances are probably slightly lower.”
I think they’re higher than the 5% for sure, there is an MIT adcom blogging from ISEF competitions, he noted meeting a Harvey Mudd adcom as well. 25% of recent ISEF winners are at Harvard, which are the best odds you’ll get for an Asian male, outside of an athlete. The IMO finalist will be the thing that separates the OP as well.
I will disagree with some of the people here. Since you are interested in math, rather than CS or engineering, I would recommend that, rather than Caltech, you look at U Chicago or Harvard (which I rarely recommend). If you want to attend a smaller college, Harvey Mudd, Amherst, or Carleton colleges may be worth looking at.
I also agree with @hebegebe that Princeton, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Cornell are worth looking at.
NYU admissions can be weird, though, and their admissions rates are dropping, so I wouldn’t consider it a match, even for the OP.
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I know the Harvard litigation data indicated that SCEA at Harvard provided a statistical boost controlling for a variety of other factors, notwithstanding Harvard saying there is no boost. The other SCEA schools (YPS) may be similar. However, I wonder how much of that is correlation vs causation. Setting aside strong hooks, the AO’s at holistic T20’s are looking at a pool of academically equivalent “finalists” that are still many times the size of the number of students that they will admit. The differentiating factors are in the LoR’s, essays and EC’s. It is certainly not a stretch to imagine that the essays written for a truly first choice school will be more genuine and tailored than a school further down the list and therefore will be more effective. Most essays, including school specific, are probably derivative of a base essay. The other advantage of EA is that if you are the proverbial “tuba player”, better to secure that spot earlier. So as far as EA is concerned, I would still use it for my first choice school and focus my time and attention on that app late in the summer and early fall before things get crazy.
How much is in the bank account? And if not almost 300k can they pay the rest out of their income without taking out loans.
I find it impossible to believe that applying early does not confer an advantage at MIT. I know they say it doesn’t. Pretty much most of the top schools say that as well, and yet we know that isn’t the case. An early app at MIT does have signal value, and that should be a positive factor in the admissions process.
Early action at MIT is not quite the strong signal that a binding early decision option would be, but in the context of MIT applicants - whose other “dream” schools are often HYPS - the EA applicant to MIT has signaled a willingness to forego any advantage (real or perceived) that would have been gained by applying SCEA to one of HYP or REA to Stanford.
Even granting that EA at MIT might not confer much of a - or perhaps any - strategic advantage, what would OP be losing by foregoing the option at Princeton or Stanford? Perhaps not much. The institutional priorities of both are extreme compared with those of MIT. Legacy (especially at Stanford), URM, low income/first gen and athletic recruits mean the unhooked are competing for much fewer than 50% of the total spots available.
If MIT is the first choice anyway, this seems an easy choice to go EA, and add EA apps at Caltech, UM and possibly U Chicago as well if that is an interest.
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“are looking at a pool of academically equivalent “finalists” that are still many times the size”
The OP is not academically equivalent to other finalists, the ISEF and AMO are good enough to distinguish, as others have also posted. If you look at the Harvard ratings as an example, may be the OP is not an academic 1 (supposedly only 20 or so get those) but a 2, most Harvard applicants get a 3 or lower.
Typically MIT applicants dream schools are Cal Tech which also has EA, and Stanford as posted. However HYP are not really dream schools, maybe if it’s a math/science for Harvard. Unless there are other factors (costs, wanting to stay local), MIT accepted students will not choose a college outside of Cal Tech, Harvard, Stanford over MIT.
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