Chance me for Stanford, MIT, Brown, Harvard, Caltech?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Profile: Asian-American male, middle-high income, excellent suburban public school

Family: Parents obtained Bachelors and Ph.D. from Chinese universities, Sister attended Duke for undergrad and UChicago for business school

GPA: Unweighed - 4.00; Weighted - 4.76

SAT: 1600

Subject Tests: Chemistry - 800; Math Level 2 - 800

AP Scores: Calculus BC - 5, Chemistry - 5, US Gov - 5, Comp Gov - 5, Environmental - 5, Lang & Comp - 5, US History - 4, Physics 1 - 4

Leadership Roles: Captain of the varsity tennis team, WYSE (science competition club), Math Team

Notable EC’s: Top 100 nationally ranked tennis player, team state tennis champion, state 2nd place in Chemistry (WYSE), multiple team + individual top 10 state finishes in Math Team, 100+ hours volunteering for American Cancer Society

Awards: National Merit Scholar, 4th place Chicago ACS competition (Chemistry), AP National Scholar

Additional Question: Would it be better for me to apply as a Chemical Engineering major or undecided? My credentials point towards me having a strong interest in Chemistry so applying with that major would make sense, but I’m really not sure I want to study it in college

2

Maybe Brown, depending on if you write a decent essay. If you make the admissions officers shed tears with your writing you might be a 50/50 toss up at the other schools. This is, of course, you nail the interview. Have you begun to think about how you are going achieve this tall order?

3

Getting recruited for tennis is probably your best bet.

4

Your stats are great. Perfect in fact. Steer yourself towards the colleges that are stat focused (Caltech)

5

OP needs to understand “holistic” and that great stats get you to the door, not necessarily through it. Only 3 ECs? Do you know what those colleges look for? It’s more about depth and breadth, than titles or awards. They like a shown willingness to go past your own narrow interests. What do you do for the ACS? Good is working directly for the needy, not just some count of any old hours.

And it never is about mising key components and then writing a good essay. Have you even read the MIT blogs? Miles to go. Be informed.

6

Just a comment - you are not yet a National Merit Scholar, or even a Finalist, since you would need to be a Senior for that. If your SSI is high enough that you are certain that you’re a semifinalist, you are also almost certainly a finalist. From there to Scholar is a much less certain path.

However, until you are notified that you are a semifinalist in early September, you cannot put anything on your resume, and, if you are applying ED or EA anywhere, you will only have Semifinalist on your application.

In any case, as others have written, your stats are excellent, but your ECs are as you described them. So, while you are competitive for these schools, your chances are in the single digits for all. There are all reaches for anybody, including kids who have excellent stats. So you should be looking for matches and a couple of true safeties at this point.

Apply to your reaches by all means, but assume that you will be rejected by them all.

7

Caltech is your best bet as they are more score centric then the others.

8

@The1AndOnlyJZ Your tennis won’t help you at Stanford or Harvard. As a 4-star, it may help you at Brown depending on your UTR. Your tennis should help you at Caltech and MIT. Have you reached out to the coaches?

9

Having been through the recruiting process for both Caltech and MIT, the athletic recruiting hook is not as great as for Ivies. Coaches do not receive slots but a set number of support letters that supercharge the sport EC. It still is a valuable hook, but not the same as Brown, Harvard or Stanford. For our kid, 34+ACT, 4.0 UW, the coaches (and the Caltech AD) would only say it would be 50/50.

Your chances are above single digits, which is the rate for all applicants. Stanford must have recently taken down the page that provided admissions rates for different levels of scores. If I remember correctly, an “800” in any one of the 2 components got you into double digits. A 1600 is pretty rare, especially if it was from 1 sitting. With your stats and EC’s, can’t see you not making the first cut down to about 10,000 (so now a 20% chance) and then further to Committee (6,000 in the case of Yale), putting your chances then at about 33%. It will be down to your LoR’s and essays. This is not to say though that you should not have matches and safeties selected as well. I would also apply early to your top choice. Brown is ED, so you would be committed if you got in barring some surprise in financial aid. Then see where the chips fall after the EA/ED decision comes in.

It would be better to identify one or more majors you might be interested in than “undecided”, especially if your EC’s and LoR’s point you in a particular direction. All these schools understand that majors and interests may change, but all things being equal, they probably like applicants who are a little more focused. Undecided is fine if you have multiple divergent academic interests that can be demonstrated, but don’t choose “undecided” if you are trying to game a less competitive major.

10

Caltech places greater emphasis on overall academics, but not the test scores. The tests are simply too easy to differentiate among the applicants, but they can certainly disqualify an applicant. You AP Physics 1 score of 4 (and no other physics courses) could raise a red flag. Physics runs in the veins at Caltech and it also forms the foundation for chemistry and other sciences.

11

As an Asian (esp. Chinese) male student, you unfortunately are in the most competitive group for most if not all the schools listed here for a STEM major. Agree with some posters above, have you tried the recruited athlete route? That might be your biggest hook. I think Duke considers sibling legacy and I wonder whether Chicago does also. But these two seem not to be on your radar. Congratulations on great performance, good luck!

12

Caltech is no less holistic than the other tippy tops. It’s not about being more stats focused. It’s that they focus on stem abilities and accomplishments. " You are more than a GPA and a set of test scores!"

Any applicant to a tippy top really shouldn’t need adults to point him or her to what the college says. Your own drive should lead you to find the right info.
http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/apply/first-yearfreshman-applicants

Same goes for the other schools.

13

@yucca10 @shuttlebus Have already contacted around 40 different coaches - MIT and Caltech are definitely interested but thank you for the heads up anyway!

@lookingforward Why so much animosity? I never said I expected to get into those schools… they’re obviously extremely hard to get into and it would be a great privilege to be a part of any of them. My EC’s obviously aren’t mind-blowing but I don’t think they are terrible as you seem to imply. EC’s are about “depth and breadth” like you said, and I have decent accomplishments in each of the things I’ve done, especially in tennis. I really don’t appreciate the tone I’m getting from these posts. Again, I think most people on this site have done enough reading about elite college admissions to know that stats aren’t everything – don’t try to patronize me, please.

@1NJParent Do you think getting a 4 in Physics 1 is really that big of a deal for Caltech? I still got As both semesters in the class, and the rest of my application shows I’m still relatively strong in STEM. I don’t think that 4 will disqualify me academically in the Caltech admissions process, seeing as it’s holistic and it’s only one AP score, but I could be wrong.

14

You asked for chances. One of the attributes all tippy tops look for is initiative. For that level, it does mean digging deeper, understanding more about what they want.

You may want an engineering major, but a sport, WYSE, and math team are not the depth and breadth these “most competitive” colleges look for. The competition will be stiff. And, holistic isn’t hierarchical- more or better awards, titles, etc.

If you have more in your record, we do not know. Everything to be gained by looking for this understanding, from what the colleges say and show.

You have time to fine tune. Your choice.

Holistic, for a tippy top, means it all matters. Not that something great can cancel out something weaker. Especially when that 4 is in physics and you’re considering an engineering major.

15

I think that the depth that has been accomplished in tennis is the depth these colleges are looking for.

@The1AndOnlyJZ , I would take the SAT Physics Test to help counteract that 4 in AP Physics, especially since Caltech and MIT are on your list.

Good luck.

16

Caltech is holistic in the evaluation of your academic record as well, so no single score necessarily disqualifies you but it could certainly raise a red flag and become a problem if there’s no strong ameliorating evidences. Caltech has the most demanding and rigorous course requirements than any other college (MIT included), so unsurprisingly its adcom places greater emphasis on academics than any other school to make sure its students will succeed. This is also one of the main reasons Caltech doesn’t consider hooks (or anti-hooks) in admission. Its coaches have the least amount of influence in the admission process but your tennis achievement will still be a very helpful tip, assuming you pass their academic admission hurdles. You will face one fewer hurdle at Caltech than at any other elite college, however, as the demographic group you belong to isn’t an anti-hook as it is at other super elite colleges.

17

@1NJParent I agree with you re. Caltech. But don’t you think MIT is very similar? MIT’s coach might not have strong pull but their “support” might up OP’s chance of acceptance to 30-50% if he is being recruited (assuming OP had a positive “pre-read” by MIT tennis coach)?
OP, I would ask the coaches from the schools that are recruiting you whether you should take the physics SAT. My DS20 was told to retake a 750 math II by the MIT coach.

18

@makemesmart Caltech and MIT are generally very similar but with a few minor differences. MIT, being a much larger school, can set aside seats for athletic talents with lesser academic qualifications, while Caltech can’t. Being a smaller school, Caltech also can’t offer multiple levels of the same courses in most instances so it has to be more careful in selecting its students. Consequently, Caltech’s student body is a little more uniform than MIT’s.

19

@1NJParent I appreciate your analysis and it makes perfect sense.

20

@1NJParent @makemesmart I will definitely ask the MIT and Caltech coaches about taking the SAT Subject Test. However, I don’t mean any disrespect, but I really never thought my 4 in Physics 1 was a big deal. I’ve been told multiple times that a grade in an AP class is far more important than the AP score, and that AP scores are generally considered important for their potential use for college credit, but that they’re really not major factors at all in actual admission. I also got a 4, which is still far above passing. Do you think having gotten A’s in every AP science other than Physics C (taking AP Bio next year) and my SAT subject test scores would make up for this one score?