Will be applying to these colleges, and I would appreciate any feedback/comments on the school list in particular. I’m not sure whether it will be too top-heavy and whether I should have more safeties. Run-down of stats on the bottom.
Thanks!
Schools:
MIT (Possibly EA)
Cornell (possibly ED)
Stanford
Princeton
Caltech
Rice
Northwestern
UC Berkeley, UCSD, UCI, UCSC, etc.
Georgia Tech
WashU
UIUC
Duke
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 760 CR 800 M 790 W (Comp: 2350)
ACT (breakdown): n/a
SAT II: Math(800), Biology M(790), Chem (750)
PSAT: 230
Unweighted GPA (if available): 4.0
Weighted GPA (if available): N/A (school does not weigh)
Rank/percentile (if available): Top 10% of ~400 (school does not rank, but 4.0 is typically within 10% at my school)
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Biology(5), AP Language and Composition(5), AP Calculus BC(5), AP Psychology(4), AP Chemistry(4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C:Mechanics, AP Compsci, AP Lit, AP Government, French 4 H
Major Awards: FBLA Nationals Top 15 Finalist, TEAMS Nationals Top 10 Finalist (7th in US for Prepared Presentation), USABO Semifinalist, AIME qualifier, some awards at regional science fair, etc.
Junior Engineering Technical Society (JETS) (3 yrs, Secondary Events Manager)
Science Club (4 yrs, Science Olympiad Member)
Future Business Leaders of America (3 yrs, Member)
French Honor Society (1 yr, Member)
Choir (outside of school) (10 yrs, Group leader)
Job/Work Experience:
Biomedical Engineering Research Intern at Cornell University (Summer 2015, 2 months)
BME Research Intern at UIowa (Summer 2014, 2 months)
Volunteer/Community service:
Red Cross (150+ hrs)
Essays: Didn’t write yet but hoping 9/10
Teacher Recommendation: Math Teacher, French Teacher (believe they will be good)
Counselor Rec: n/a (have to interview to decide who writes it)
Additional Rec: possibly my Cornell mentor/professor
Other
Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major: Engineering
State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant): n/a
School Type: Competitive Public School
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Male
Notes:
Go to a competitive high school where students regularly get accepted into top schools
6 years of Trombone
Taking college course in Social Psychology over the summer, Research course at Uiowa
Hey! I was also a National FBLA Top 15 Finalist! Were you at the national conference in Chicago this past month? Anyways, as for your schools, your SAT score is plenty good. Your subject tests are all good. Your GPA, obviously, is as good as it can be. Your class rank is excellent and AP’s/course load is appropriate. As for your extracurriculars, there is a little bit of a lack of leadership (maybe that is just my gripe about having a 4-year extracurricular with leadership), but it should be okay. Your job work experience is okay, as well as your volunteer service. I would highly recommend that you start writing your essay as most of your schools have supplements that will take up an extreme amount of time to write. I started my common app essay in April and I thought it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Start the essays ASAP. I would say you are a fairly competitive applicant. As for your list, I think its too heavy and filled with too many reaches. I think it’s fabulous that you would like to go to Cornell ED because of all of the Ivies, you have the best chance of getting in there both because historically it’s the least competitive, but also because you interned there one summer (which isn’t as significant but still shows interest). I think more than adding safeties you should remove 2-3 of your reaches. I think it’s honestly too much. I have 5-6 low-high reaches in my list and I think that is a good number. You have about 8-9. For your individual schools: MIT - high reach (lack of engineering enough to warrant a likely admission), Cornell ED - Low reach/High Match (I think this is a wonderful choice and I think you have a very good shot), Stanford - High Reach (Not likely in my opinion, sorry), Princeton - High Reach, Caltech - High Reach (same reasoning as MIT), Rice - Reach, Northwestern - Normal/High Reach (I would say normal reach but Northwestern I learned was a medically-dominated school and you have medical background, but you do say that you want engineering so i don’t really know), UC Berkeley - Reach (sorry I don’t know anything about the other California schools other than that they are easier), Georgia Tech - Low/Normal Reach, WashU - Reach, (If UIUC means the University of Illinois at Urbana-champaign or something like that I have no idea how difficult it is so I can’t chance you for that), Duke - Normal/High Reach (they often accept mostly in-state students, so there isn’t much you can do about that). Please chance me back! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1796275-what-do-you-think-of-my-chances-are-at-these-universities.html#latest Good luck!
Thanks for your comment! I’ll definitely look at my list again, and I really appreciate your advice!
I went to Nats last year in Tennessee, but I didn’t go this year in Chicago since i qualified for the TEAMS Engineering Competition (exact same days unfortunately). For college apps, I started them at the beginning of summer, and I’ve been working on drafts (although none are finalized yet).
I’d be glad to chance you back! Good luck to you too!
@MBVLoveless Is that UNC then? I’m pretty sure I heard from someone that there was some school in North Carolina that does that. My bad for the false info about Duke.
Hi All,
Also, in the post above I specified that I might apply to Cornell for ED. However, since this is binding, do you think that I should instead apply for ones like MIT EA and Cornell regular to keep my options for colleges more open in the spring? Would I have a chance for Cornell during regular admission, or do you think it would be more advantageous to apply ED?
Cornell ED for sure would be my recommendation. Though your SAT score is good, I don’t believe you have enough engineering background to warrant a viable MIT admission. Your chances are much improved with Cornell ED, and if you didn’t get in, you’d still be able to apply to MIT RD. In reverse, maybe your chances improve a little bit for MIT EA, but your chances decline much more for Cornell RD. Also, if you are getting a rec from a Cornell professor, then ED will be yet another way to demonstrate interest.
I don’t understand how you can be qualified as a reach with almost perfect scores and perfect gpa. Your ec could be better but I think you have a good chance at every college on that list.
@jarrett211 Thanks for your suggestion! I think that there’s a good chance I’ll go for Cornell ED then @schoolisfunforme In my experience, I’ve found that after a certain point perfect scores and perfect gpa don’t really matter anymore since most of the applicants have them. Since my school is pretty competitive, I’ve seen people with 36 ACT and 2400 SAT get shafted from many of the schools that they have applied to, so I am kinda disillusioned about the real impact that academics hold. However, thanks for the comment!
Your academics truly are fantastic, so that’s definitely not what’s going to hold you back in the admissions process. At this point, it’s about differing yourself from the crowd of high overachievers that you’re going to be competing against. Your leadership is great, but below average for Ivy-level acceptees. If I were you, I would consider starting a club at your high school that is in line with your intended major. This way, you show leadership, entrepreneurship, and interest for your intended major. These are all qualities that will set you apart from other applicants. If I were to chance you based on your résumé now, this is would I would say:
MIT (Possibly EA) reach
Cornell (possibly ED) with ED, high match, without its a low reach
Stanford reach
Princeton reach
Caltech reach
Rice low/reach
Northwestern low/reach
UC Berkeley low/reach
UCSD low match
UCI safety
UCSC safety
Georgia Tech match
WashU low reach
UIUC match
Duke low/reach
Get some engineering experience on that resume of yours and your chances will be increased for every school
Thanks for your response! I think that in terms of engineering experience I’m fine (placed in multiple engineering competitions, research, etc). For clubs, it’s a good idea although I’m not sure how good it would look to colleges senior year. A lot of people try doing that at our school and it gets kinda lame; there are clubs at our school made up of only officers who start the club just to get leadership but don’t actually do anything.
I’d be happy to chance you back!
I think you have a great chance at a lot of these schools, esp. with your internship at Cornell. I say go for Cornell ED and get that recommendation from your supervisor! Obviously, the Ivies/MIT/Stanford are reaches for everybody, as you know, but most of your other schools are pretty comfortable. Good luck!
Currently deciding between Berkeley EECS and Cornell University for Engineering! I ended up applying for Cornell as RD, and I think that was still a pretty solid decision. Thank you all for your input, and good luck with everything!
