Chance me for UChicago, Caltech, and MIT please

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Ill copy and paste what I posted to reddit.

I know all this stuff is guesswork and admissions can seem completely arbitrary… But I’ll still post one for fun.

SAT: 2360 (800 M, 800 CR, 760 W) SAT II: 800 M2, 760 Physics

GPA: 3.9ish, unweighted. 4 of my 5 B’s are from 7th and 8th grade. Other one is from 9th.

Classes of note: WHAP (5), APUSH (5), Calc BC (5), Physics 1 (4), AP Lit (5). Everything else was honors. Im in Ap Lit,
physics 2, and U.S. gov right now. Taking calc 3 at local uni because school doesn’t actually go past calc ab. Hardest possible schedule, and in case of math, even harder.

EC’s: currently: Math Club president, book club president (2nd year in a row), chess club president (3 years) and Science Club president last year. I’m also a member of the science research team but there are no officer positions. And of course, national honors society. 100 hours of community service.

Essays: I put a lot of work into them, and frankly I think they’re good. But that’s subjective, so I can’t really say.

Awards: national merit semi-finalist, and I got first place overall in two statewide math competitions in calculus with hundreds of competitors (Mu alpha theta state convention and LSU state rally). Several other small time awards in clubs. Harvard Book Award.

Recommendations: won’t read them, but I had very close relationships with the teachers.

Info: white male, Louisiana, 150-200k bracket. No work experience.

Questions: how much do you think my younger years Bs will hurt me? I’m hoping not much at all.
What do you guys think? Also if I left out key info let me know

2

Colleges don’t count 7th and 8th grade grades… why did you count them?

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Did you do anything non academically related in your ECs? Sports? Hobbies? I ask because I know that Caltech and MIT want to see what you do OUTSIDE of the classroom/bookish environment. It would distinguish you to have a hobby that is not related to an academic team.

4

@basedchem my school counts my grades from algebra 1 and geometry (both honors) in my gpa. They’re on my transcript.

@“aunt bea” I do a chess club outside of school, and I built my own computer. I don’t do that much outside of school though. Also I’m not sure where I could factor those into my common app or MIT app

And do you think having sister/father who went to these schools would mean anything?

5

If your father went there, you are a legacy and probably receive a little bit of a boost.
Activities section.

DS is at Caltech. Waitlisted at MIT, but decided not to pursue it once he got into Caltech.
His app included sports (varsity captain) and non-academic activities (Eagle scout, food bank/homeless shelter volunteer, rap music aficionado, Carnival chair, etc). Those non-academics show some kind of balance with “fun” stuff. The schools don’t want someone who will sit in the dorm room all day, but one who will go out and participate in on-campus activities. Is this helpful?

Good luck!

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@“aunt bea” I am interested in Caltech’s clubs, especially the chess and anime clubs, and I expressed this in one of my essays. I also talked about how I’d like to start a book club there. But yes my sister from MIT said the same thing, my application is a bit one-sided.

7

At Caltech and MIT? Do you not know how little time you will have left over for recreational reading? Have at it; it should be interesting!

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@“aunt bea” there’s an anime club and a chess club. If people can attend those for an hour they can read for fun for an hour, or am I wrong?

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Even if just one average-sized book every two months or something. Better than nothing!

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Doing anime and chess is WAY different than the type of reading you will be doing. <:-P

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@“aunt bea” I didn’t have Finnegan’s Wake in mind…

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I mean of course it’s really hard to find free time at these schools but I don’t want to give up on a book club idea that easily

13

Both MIT and Caltech do not consider legacy and they really mean it. I have seen highly qualified double legacies be outright rejected in the early rounds.

Hopefully, you have more to show for your free time than just chess club and building a computer. All the adolescent kids I know who have assembled their own computers have done so purely for gaming reasons.

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When I get home from clubs at about 5:30 I do homework, eat dinner, and walk my dog. That’s about 2-3 hours. In the rest of my time before I go to sleep I read, watch tv, or play video games. In which part of my daily schedule am I going wrong? I’m not being defensive, I just genuinely don’t know.

Edit: I mean I do academic stuff for fun too, but nothing I can really put on an application. For instance I’m reading Spivak’s Calculus and I sometimes look at my dad’s copy of Rudin’s Analysis, but that’s not an extracurricular that I can list. I did talk about this in my MIT essay about which department I’d like to study at, and now I’m obsessed with math.

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And Don’t get the wrong impression. I’m not relying on legacies, I just thought of it. Besides my dad actually went to UChicago.

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^^ I don’t have any advice on what you should be doing. Good luck!

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@Falcon1 thanks! I figure it really is just a crapshoot. Anything can happen!