Hi, I was looking for people rate my chances for admissions at the ivies and top engineering colleges. I plan to major in mechanical engineering and will be graduating next spring.
Stats: 4.0 GPA, 36 ACT - without much test prep 
Upon graduation I will have 3 semester of full-time classes at a local college with a (hopefully) 4.0 GPA still, along with advanced math (Calculus 2) and science courses.
EC’s: 3 yrs cross country, 4 golf, 4 in speech, 4 in robotics
-Moderate success in speech, but was unable to compete at state due to scheduling. I will also be senior captain this year.
Volunteering: Food shelf, 50 hrs/yr
My main concern is that besides great test scores and great grades in actual college classes, I dont have much for outstanding achievements that ivies look for. I come from a very small town (3k) that has very little to offer for academics and opportunities and I havent been able to do things like joining organizations, science research or internships. Where i live, high school teachers/counselors are more concerned with getting kids into college at all than getting anyone into top schools.
Anyway, I’d like some opinions on my admissions chances, taking into account my excellent profile (and my essays are quite good) despite a lack of any amazing achievements
Thanks,
High school senior
Your grades and test scores are definitely outstanding! Congrats! But for HYPS so are a lot of other students. Its all about standing out. Strong extracurriculars are vital. You should still apply and try your luck because youre definitely academically well qualified. Work on your essays etc. However definitely look into safety schools and your local state school where you’ll be basically guaranteed outstanding merit scholarships because of your stats. Good luck!!
My S got into one of those schools with lower scores. He did not do speech but 3 years model UN which is similar, 1 year robotics, some art awards and wrote great essays. You don’t have to cure cancer in HS to get in, but there is a hell of a lot of luck. Recommendations and essays are the key at this stage of the game, if you are already a rising senior.
If you’re majoring in mechanical engineering I don’t know why you would want to go to Harvard or Yale, whose engineering programs are virtually nonexistent. Honestly engineering doesn’t require you to go to an “Ivy league” - the good engineering schools like Carnegie and UIUC are definitely match schools or even below for you. Honestly if you go to a good state school with a reputable enough engineering program, you’ll be fine if you apply yourself in college. You’ll have a lot more opportunities to get good resume boosters once you’re there, and someone with your clear level of talent will do just fine (if you don’t get lazy).
But if you really want chances for HYPSM, to be perfectly honest, even though your scores and grades are perfect, you sadly don’t have the ECs on the level of some, to no fault of your own. Maybe in your essays you should emphasize the fact that you were from a small town with said qualities - don’t be too overt in just using it to excuse that, but do plant that in their head, and then make it a moving picture of how you overcame the constrained roots of your background or whatever.
Cornell is a possibility.
Thanks for the honest opinion. On Harvard and Yale i didnt mean to include those, just forgot and used the whole acronym.