Chance Me for Top STEM Schools!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Would appreciate a chance for the following schools:

  1. UC Berkeley (dream school)
  2. UCLA
  3. Stanford
  4. Harvard
  5. Carnegie Mellon
  6. Caltech
  7. MIT
  8. U of I Urbana-Champaign (safety)
  9. U of Wisconsin-Madison (safety)
  10. Georgia Tech (safety)

Intended Major: EECS at College of Engineering for Berkeley, assume Computer Science for all other schools

Gender: Male

Ethnicity: White

Residency: Chicago suburb, out-of-state

Weighted GPA: 4.71
Unweighted GPA: 3.94

Unweighted UC GPA: 3.95
Weighted and Capped UC GPA: 4.32
Calculated using RogerHub’s calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

APs: Physics (5), European History (4), US History (5), Biology (5), Calculus BC (5, AB sub-score of 5), Spanish Language (5), English Language (5), and Computer Science A (5)

Anticipated Courseload for Senior Year: AP Physics C (both Electricity and Magnetism), Calculus 3 and Linear Algebra, Symphonic Band, AP Chemistry, AP English Literature, AP Microeconomics, AP Government, and AP Computer Science Principles

ACT: 35 composite (36 english, 35 math/reading/science)
SAT: 1530 (780 math, 750 reading/writing)
SAT Math II: 800
SAT Physics: 790

Main Extracurriculars:

  1. Volunteered at local book bank for urban children over the summer before 11th grade (somewhere close to 100 volunteer hours registered)
  2. Three year varsity track and cross country team member (1 year varsity track/cross country co-captain)
  3. Two year member of Computer Science Club
  4. Three year member of marching and symphonic bands
  5. Worked at a 4 week overnight summer technology camp before 12th grade as a counselor-in-training (would assist counselors with managing kids and teaching courses)

Anticipated Letters of Recommendation (UC schools don’t accept these though):

  1. European History teacher (known him since 10th grade, have had very good personal relationship with him and learned a lot in his class, was very active and attentive during his teaching)
  2. Calculus BC teacher (known him since 11th grade, was a former track/cross country coach so we bonded over that, struggled in his class at first but then improved over time)
  3. Track/cross country coach (can provide a personal insight to my dedication and give my application another layer)

Thank you for reading, and please don’t hold back if my application is lacking. I want an honest opinion on my chances for these schools.

2

Also would like to mention that my school doesn’t do class rank for some reason, though I’d assume that I’m at least in the top 5% due to the average ACT being around 30 (Adlai E. Stevenson is my school, rated #1 public high school in America by Niche.com). Would the fact that I go to an exceptional school limit my chances of getting into these top STEM schools, even though my stats appear decent on paper?

3

UC Berkeley (dream school)- Low Reach
2. UCLA- Low Reach
3. Stanford- Reach
4. Harvard- Reach
5. Carnegie Mellon- Low Reach
6. Caltech- High Reach
7. MIT- Reach
8. U of I Urbana-Champaign- High Match
9. U of Wisconsin-Madison - Match
10. Georgia Tech- Low Reach
You have no Safeties on your list.
Public schools have obligations to their constituents so OOS students are a harder admit.

4

Lol, OP I wouldn’t say Georgia Tech is safety. Georgia Tech’s CS and Engineering have gotten very challenging to get into. GT acceptance rate this year was sub-20%

(check sprayurpets’ post at http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1944094-college-admissions-statistics-class-of-2021-early-and-regular-decision-acceptance-rates-p64.html)

5
  1. UC Berkeley [low reach]
  2. UCLA [high match/low reach]
  3. Stanford [reach]
  4. Harvard [reach]
  5. Carnegie Mellon [reach]
  6. Caltech [reach]
  7. MIT [reach]
  8. U of I Urbana-Champaign [match/high match]
  9. U of Wisconsin-Madison [safety]
  10. Georgia Tech [high match]

I put 3,4,5,6,7 as reaches b/c it’s really unpredictable. Also, I disagree with VANDEMORY1342 in that you have no safeties on the list: you have one safety, UW-M. University of Wisconsin-Madison’s CS undergrad program is not as good, so I wouldn’t recommend going there tho; however, its CS grad program is very outstanding.

Since you wanted to be picky, I’ll say that your ECs and community service hours don’t shine as much as other stats of yours.

I recommend removing some reaches from the list and adding some more safeties/matches:

University of Maryland-College Park [low match]
Purdue [high safety]
The Ohio State University [high safety]
University of Massachusetts - Amherst [safety]

6

You are gonna end up some place amazing. There’s no doubt about that. Apply to your schools and see what happens. You are a white male, so there’s gonna be a measure of unpredictability.

7

Your stats look good, so best of luck. One suggestion is that you should try to tour as many of these schools as you can. While they may all be good fits on paper, many of the schools on your list are quite different. This list is very similar to my sons initial list. After touring (just about all) 2 of them dropped off his list entirely, and the priority order was quite different…