Chance me for my list of colleges!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Here's my stats:
• Objective:
o SAT I (breakdown): CR-770 M-770 W-770 (total-2310 first time)
o ACT: did not take
o SAT II: Math II - 800, Chemistry - 800, World History - 800
o Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 [weighted; 4.81]
o Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 5% [probably #1]
o AP (place score in parenthesis): Computer Science A (5), US Government and Politics (5), Calculus AB (5), Chemistry (5), English Language and Composition (5), World History (5)
o IB (place score in parenthesis): none
o Senior Year Course Load: Biology AP, AP Calculus BC, Differential Equations GT, AP Physics C Electricity & Magnetism, AP Human Geography, French Language and Culture AP, AP English Literature
o Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none… :(
o Minor awards: AP scholar with distinction, Academic letter award, honor roll
• Subjective:
o Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 4 years varsity tennis (captain 2 years, #1 player 3 years), 3 years Computer Programming Team (We placed 13th out of 30 in 2013 at the University of Maryland), 2 years Math team (on A team), 2 years NHS, 1 year NAHS, 2 year FHS, 4 years homecoming committee, 2 years MHS (involves tutoring), 2 years gaming/manga club
o Job/Work Experience: 2 years job at Papa John’s pizza (~15 hr/week)
o Volunteer/Community service: 2 years volunteer at library (2 hr/week), 1 year girl scouts
o Summer Activities: Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation program (counts as college credit - 3 transferable credits), 2 years JTT (Junior Team Tennis – we qualified for the sectional championships), some USTA tennis tournaments
• State: Maryland
• School Type: public (around 1400 students)
• Ethnicity: White
• Gender: Female
• Income Bracket: middle class?
• Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): my dad graduated from JHU with an undergrad degree in physics
• Intended major: definitely engineering (probably chemical, with a minor/focus in biomedical, or bioengineering)</p>

<p>Here's my list: MIT, Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, Rensselaer (RPI), Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, Purdue, WPI, Case Western Reserve, UMD - College Park, Rose-Hulman
Which of those would I have good chances at getting into? Am I applying to too many? Which ones would I have no chance at? Which would be reaches, matches, and safeties?</p>

2

<p>You’re applying to a few too many schools. Try to narrow it down.</p>

<p>I’m going to be very blunt with you; if you’re smart enough to do that well in school, then you probably have the common sense to figure out which schools you have have a chance at getting into. Also, if your school doesn’t rank, don’t put down your rank. Top 5% is good enough, especially since there are probably other students who have straight A’s but a lower weighted GPA because they took fine arts all four years of high school.</p>

<p>I’ll help you out with one, and if you can narrow your list down to 8 or fewer, then I would be willing to chance you for some other schools.</p>

<p>UMD College Park in state: low match (safety if you apply by the priority deadline)</p>

3

<p>Let me just start by saying you’re EXTREMELY qualified. Any school that I list as a reach here would be a reach simply because of how many applicants they get. You can’t really get much better than your SAT scores, and your UW GPA is literally perfect. You have interesting ECs, most of which you’ve started early/stuck with.</p>

<p>THAT SAID:</p>

<p>MIT: Reach
Cornell: Low Reach/Reach
Princeton: Reach
Stanford: Reach
Johns Hopkins: Low Match/Match
Columbia: Reach
Rensselaer (RPI): Low Match/Safety
Carnegie Mellon: Low Match
Northwestern: Match/Low Reach
Purdue: Safety
WPI: Safety
Case Western Reserve: Safety
UMD - College Park: Safety
Rose-Hulman: Safety</p>

4

<p>I think the common app says “activities” now, so you can put curricular activities if you have any that you think would help your chances.</p>

5

<p>Reaches:
MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell</p>

<p>Matches:
Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>Safeties:
RPI, Purdue, WPI, Case Western, UMD, R-H</p>

<p>You’re such a qualified applicant, kudos! :slight_smile: I recommend you narrow down your list to 6-10 schools; start by removing 4 safeties, since you don’t need more than 2 AT ALL. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Definitely keep UMD as a safety because it’s a financial safety too. My school college counselor said that two safeties, two matches, and two reaches are a good place to start, but due to the volatile nature of applying to reach schools, if you want to apply to 4 reaches, and you have the time to write thorough essays, that could be a good idea. Definitely cap the number of apps at around 8 especially since you’re applying to UMD College Park which is not on the common app.</p>

7

<p>MIT: reach
Cornell: low reach
Princeton: reach
Stanford: reach
Johns Hopkins: high match
Columbia: reach
Rensselaer: safety
Carnegie Mellon: match
Northwestern: high match
Purdue: safety
Case Western Reserve: low match
UMD: safety</p>

<p>you’re applying to way too many safety schools in my opinion</p>