chance me for top engineering schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi guys! I’m applying to lots of top engineering schools for mechanical/computer engineering and I’m pretty nervous about whether my ECs are strong enough for the TOP tier/ if I just read like a typical asian student.
I’m applying to Columbia (ED), MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, Northwestern, Harvard, Princeton, Caltech, UPenn, and UIUC

State: IL
Gender: F
Ethnicity: Asian

SAT I (breakdown): Superscored: 1560; 800 math, 760 reading
Sat II: pending
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Not ranked
AP (place score in parenthesis): School doesn’t do AP’s; self studied: US History (4), English and Comp (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: 2 college courses, physics , calculus, bio, english history,
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing major, but small awards at robotics competitions, Science Olympiad, French National Exam, Illinois WYSE competition, NCWIT, small international french poetry competition.

Extracurriculars:
Girls Who Code (leader)(4 years) - coded app for science museum, random outreach events
Robotics (summer outreach leader)(2 years)
Microanalysis Lab at respectable university (1 semester, 50 hours)
Science Olympiad (2 years) - small awards
Violin (6 years) - no HS awards
Tutoring (3 years)
Hospital Volunteering/Health Advocacy Club (100 hours)
Bioengineering Cancer Research at top 10 engineering school (300 hours), nothing special accomplished
Work with grad group at top 10 engineering school - drones/robotics, nothing special accomplished

Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None at all

2

You do have decent chances to get into some of these reach school. UIUC should be a match at least for undecided engineering. Some engineering majors are very competitive although you still a good chance from in state.

3

All of these schools (or their engineering majors) should be considered reaches for all applicants.

4

update: got into Columbia, UIUC computer engineering with honors – didn’t apply to any other schools

5

Congratulations!!!

6

Congratulations!!!

7

Congratulations!! :slight_smile: I’m Asian, female, also live in IL, and am planning to apply to those schools as well once I’m a senior (I’m a sophomore right now). I’m in a lot of the same activities as you are (WYSE, NCWIT, GWC, Robotics) and have some questions regarding them - would it be fine if I pmed you?

8

Yes, feel free!

9

How wonderful!!! Could you share any thoughts or insights about why you think you got in? Essays? Your research? Recommendations?

10

Yes! I’ve looked at a few chanceme’s and was feeling kinda down so I undersold myself in mine a bit. A more accurate and expanded one for EC’s and awards, based on what I actually put on my app:

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): robotics competitions: at least five top 8 regional spots; Science Olympiad: placed 3rd in all my events in regionals, placed top 10 in state; French National Exam, Illinois WYSE competition: placed top 3 regionals + sectionals, NCWIT, international french poetry competition (80+ countries, i got 2nd).

Extracurriculars:
Bioengineering Cancer Research at top 10 engineering school (300 hours) – i got my own project in a pretty prestigious lab, did well, presented at a symposium, received recommendation
Girls Who Code (leader)(4 years) - coded app for science museum, taught 3 programming languages, did outreach in my community, organized talks from facebook, state farm, etc
Robotics (summer outreach leader)(2 years) – mechanical team, organized summer camp for 30 underprivileged kids, pretty good team (not amazing though)
Hospital Volunteering/Health Advocacy Club (100 hours) – basic volunteering, but also hospital student representative
Microanalysis Lab at respectable university (1 semester, 50 hours) – basic job
Varsity Science Olympiad (2 years) - small awards (see above)
Violin (6 years) - no HS awards, but active player
Tutoring (3 years)
internship with grad group at top 10 engineering school - drones/robotics, nothing special accomplished but cool
Food pantry club – some volunteering, raised $1000

Recommendations: probably both 8/10
Essays: common app 9/10, supplements 8/10

In terms of insight of why I got in: (CS at Columbia, CE at UIUC)
My engineering/ computer science extracurriculars were good, if not great (I had an internship, did research, coded app, robotics, taught others), and my Columbia officer told me that. I didn’t specify time on all of these, but I spend 20+ hours a week on my extracurriculars and have been involved in most of them since my freshman year. I don’t think that my research was THE thing that got me in, but it was pretty cool and I did submit a research supplement and I assume my professor wrote me a good recommendation, considering this was work for grad students.

I think my essays cemented my admission. I worked really really hard on them and it conveyed mostly leadership, ambition, but also PASSION and drive. My supplements showed that I really researched Columbia.

My awards seem irrelevant, maybe the poetry competition was impressive.

If I were to give advice, I’d say:
-do things you love and try to put in words why you love them, spend time on them
-write an essay you mean – I thought about writing something cliche and what AO’s would want to hear, but I couldn’t get myself to do it. I wrote about something that I meant from the bottom of my heart.

11

also I had an interview for columbia: my interviewer told me it didn’t matter but it went really well because we had tons in common, and she really liked me