Chance me (help me decide reaches, matches and safeties)?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Note* I am a junior right now. I am currently working on improving my GPA.

STATS:
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian American (Indian)
State: TX
School Type: Public (Magnet)

Rank: School does not Rank
GPA: 3.8/4.0
SAT: 2320 (800 math, 740 Reading, 780 Writing) [not official, just an average of what i’ve been getting on practices. I will definitely try to improve]

Courses:
9th grade: Honors Bio, Precalculus, Spanish 2, Drawing 3, World Geo, English 1, Engineering Elective
10th grade: AP Chem, AP World History, AP Calc BC, Differential Equations, English 2, Spanish 3, Geology
Expected 11th grade: AP Physics Left (Combo of 1 and 2), AP Physics C, Multivariable Calc, Linear Algebra,
Organic Chem, AP Studio Art, APUSH, AP English 4, Advanced Biotech

AP Taken: World History (4), Calc BC (5), Chemistry (5)

AP Taking: Junior Year: Physics C and Physics 1 & 2, APUSH, AP English Language 4, AP Studio Art
Senior Year: AP Stat, AP English, AP Euro, APES? others haven’t decided

SAT II’s: Chemistry (800) Math II (800) (Will take US History and Physics in June)

Awards:
-AIME 9th and 10th grade (max score 8) (hopefully this year and senior year)
-AMC 10 and 12 Honor Roll
-Intel ISEF finalist
-Intel ISEF 2nd Place
-International Eco Hero Award
-TSA TEAMS Nationals
-TSA TEAMS 2nd Place State
-1st place in Regional and State Science Fairs throughout (9th and 10th grade)
-At&t Mobile App Competition top 20 in state
-VASE State Honorable Mention
-ISWEEEP Gold Medal
-Genius Olympiad Finalist
-TAME State
-Science Bowl 2nd Place Regionals

(Aiming for chem and physics olympiads this year)

EC’s:
-Lots of Research under a professor (300 hours+) (still going on)-Intern
-Art (Drawing and Painting)
-Lot’s of clubs (Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, Math Club etc)
-NHS? (idk if this is even that significant)

Speaker (I spoke at these events):
-Invited to speak at ACC
-Invited to speak at Texas Earth Day Festival
-Invited to speak at Wild Rice Festival
-Invited to speak at SXSW Edu
^^all speaking about environmental activism^^

Leadership:
-Founder and President of Engineering Club (Brought the team to national competition wins in it’s first year)
-Treasurer of Math Club
-(Most likely going to be President of Math Club in senior year)
-City Block Leader

Volunteering:
-Community Environment Activism
-Official Volunteer for Research at state university
-Tutor students in Math and Chemistry

Want to apply to:
Stanford (SCEA) OR MIT/Caltech (EA) (need help deciding best chance) (definitely will apply RD for the one not picked)
UT Austin
UC Berkley
UCLA
Georgia Tech
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
UPenn
Vanderbilt
UMichigan
TAMU
UIllinois
UChicago

2

Without an SAT score can’t judge.

You are very smart, you come from a huge state and will be lumped in with fellow applicants with profiles like yours.

Think about what will make you stand out, and make you memorable to the admissions committee.

3

@ClarinetDad16 can you assume that I get a 2320?

4

You seem like a very competitive applicant due to all your awards and such but it’s still early. You are definitely on the right track but junior year is the most important year in determining where you stand so we can’t accurately chance you without the stuff you did this year.

HYP, Chicago, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, UPenn are all reaches no matter what. I would advise that you cut your list down a little as with so many schools (and so many reaches), you’ll have a hard time dealing with all those essays senior year. Those 8 schools alone could have about 15 essays depending on your major.

5

I think that you are a competitive applicant anywhere. There are some schools are your list that I don’t know enough about to judge, but here is what I think of the ones I know:
Tamu- safety
UT, Georgia Tech - low match
UCLA, Berkley, UChicago- highish match
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT-- always a reach but you seem competitive. Raise your gpa like you said.
I don’t really know much about any of the others sorry

6

@047pusapatys no one can assume they will score well within the top 1% of test takers.

How many are in your graduating class / how many Win NMF?

7

@ClarinetDad16 about 200 kids in my class. About 35 get NMF every year in our school.

8

BTW, I got my recalculated GPA (for now) from my counselors. It has risen to 3.96 UW and 4.5 W

9

@daman12356 Intel 2nd place? Double Aime max score? Dude, as long as you get that 2300+ SAT then you’re golden.

I don’t see you getting into less than 3 of the HPYMS even if you’re asian. Check out caltech while you’re at it.

Ivies are a reach for 3.9/2300 kids with ECs like varsity soccer and president of a club or two. What you have on paper is on another level. Anything not HPSYMC are low-mid matches.

10

Need the SATs, GPA is at 3.8.

The UC’s are full fees, can you afford that?

11

Seems like you are a strong candidate for top schools. Yale? why? Stanford is Restricted Early Action; MIT and CAlTech are just Early Action. So you could apply to those 2 EA but not Stanford. Or, Stanford but not any other private school. It is non-binding for each.

12

For UMich CoE, bring up your GPA although it would not be possible to go beyond the admission average by next year. It is a reach right now due to the low admission rate and your GPA.

13

Your extracurriculars and course rigor are very good, but there is NO way to “assume” that you’ll get a certain SAT score. I took 10 official practice tests and got 2400s 9/10 times and I scored 50 points lower on the real thing

14

ok, so i am confused, how to you go from precalc to calc BC without calc AB, how are you diving directly into multi and linear without 3rd semester calc, and sorry, but taking phys 1,2 AND C just doesn’t make sense (assuming your C is mechanics, which is phys 1, just more in depth, or C is E&M, which is 2 in depth). there just seems to be a lot of inconsistencies in your curriculum… BUT if all you say is true, then DAM*! while all ivies are reaches, to nearly everyone, several of my friends got waitlisted with not nearly as good scores as that, so I’d say you have a pretty good shot to get into most of those schools. (and darn, If only your science bowl team won regionals, then we might have faced each other at nationals (;

15

@justin7473 Yeah the classes are kinda weird, but to answer all your questions:

I have never heard that Calc AB is needed before BC. (I go to a magnet school, so maybe they waive that rule if it exists). Same thing for multi and linear (it’s simply just offered in my school for those who finish Calc BC and Differential Equations).

Lol, the physics 1,2 and C thing. Yeah, my school has a kinda stupid rule that physics 1 and 2 are mandatory NO MATTER what. So i thought that the class by itself would be too slow, so I decided to take C as well (I’m trying to get competitive for Physics Olympiad).

Thanks for your input!

16

@supercilious Dang, really? If so, then better get back to raising that score!

17

^raising my score

18

@justin7473 & @daman12356 Regarding Calc BC, it depends on the school. Many, if not most, schools would go from pre-calc to CalcBC or there is not enough time to cover the whole Math track. In that case, the first semester would cover the Calc AB material and the second semester for the remaining. It basically parallel the AP CalcBC syllabus and exam. In some other schools, they would split the Calc BC course into two years that they would cover AB in one year (Calc AB) and then the Calc BC in another year long course. In that case, Calc AB would be the pre-req for Calc BC.

19

ok, cool, that clarifies a lot, although that is strange that they don’t require AB, considering it is the class that you learn about derivatives and integrals, and BC is where you apply them more in depth… but yeah! i definitely think you have very good chances, although no one can guarantee anything.

20

@billcsho ok, didn’t see your previous comment, my school we did one year for each, and i had never heard of doing both in a year