<p>I'm going into my senior year in public school, interested in either a computer science or engineering major.
Cumulative UWGPA: 3.94 -Two B's in gym freshman year lol
Cumulative WGPA: 4.4
Top 5% of class
SAT Scores:
Math: 760
Reading: 690
Writing: 650
2100 cumulative
^^Have only taken SATs once and winged them w/o studying (probably unheard of on this site). Taking them again in October, already started studying so these will most likely go up a good amount. Taking 2-3 Subject tests in Oct.
Taken after senior year: AP->[Government, Calc AB, English lang/comp, Computer Science, USHistory, Spanish, Physics, Calc BC, English Lit]
^^All other classes have been honors except for dumb required courses
Sports: 1 year JV Lacrosse, 2 years Varsity Lacrosse
1 year JV soccer, 2 years Varsity Soccer
EC's:
Logged over 300 hours of community service, mostly comprised of mission trips and local service.
2 Years of Appelachian Service Project, spent weekends during school year and 1.5 weeks each summer doing service for poor.
Volunteered at special olympics
National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
Mu Alpha Theta
Math Team for 4 years
Have 300+ work hours</p>
<p>I'm sure I'm forgetting plenty of things but this is the bulk of it.
School suggestions are definitely welcomed, especially some sure-thing type schools that will offer money.
Thanks in advance for your replies!</p>
<p>You should have practice the SATs before you took them. There is plenty of time. Practice, practice and practice some more before you take them again… Brown is a reach - for everyone, but especially for you because you " just winged" the SATs. You are solid for UMCP, strong for JHU and Cornell.</p>
<p>I expected to get scorned for that, but I thought I should be truthful since it definitely has room for improvement. I just find it hard to have any motivation to study hard for such an arbitrarily-judged test, but I guess my opinion doesn’t really matter anyway. Like I said, the SAT scores will come up. Not to be too confident or assuming, but I expect 2200+ on the next go. Thanks for your reply.</p>
<p>You can get in brown with. 2100? My high school Valedictorian got in with 1720. After grades it really comes down to your uniqueness with Brown and your essay. Some kids get into Harvard and denied brown, brown actually has a very selective admissions, but they don’t require all of their students to have super high scores like HYP does. I say your good for all of the schools, as long as you produce a strong essay</p>
<p>Yeah but I’ll be ok considering apps for Brown and Cornell are both due December or later, so I will have time to take the SAT’s one more time in October and I’ll take the subject tests in November. Thanks for the heads up, though. Any other possible matches for me? Preferably top 20 engineering schools.</p>
<p>You certainly have a shot at Ivies other than H,Y, & S, but I’d include a range of schools. What sort of environment are you looking for? Brown is known for greater curricular flexibility, in a medium-sized city. Are those priorities, or is a strong engineering program your primary requirement? Since you are looking at U.MD., you obviously don’t object to a large university. In addition to Carnegie-Mellon, you should consider some of the colleges in DC (G’town, GWU, and American), if you want an urban campus. Otherwise, Lehigh is supposed to have strong engineering, as a match/safe school. Are you committed to New England and mid-Atlantic? If not, consider Rochester Institute of Technology or RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic), if you don’t mind upstate-NY winters; Georgia Tech or Vanderbilt (reach), if you’re willing to head further south.</p>
<p>Thanks guys, I’ll definitely look into Carnegie-Mellon. And you are right Stagemum, I would prefer a larger school but wouldn’t mind looking into smaller ones as long as they aren’t tiny. I like the northern weather and I would rather go to school in the Mid/North east. I like Lehigh, but might not be able to afford it without a large scholarship. Money is a factor, but I’m willing to go through some debt if I make it into an Ivy.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply MisterK. To me, UMD is more of a safe than a match. I looked at some of the statistics for JHU, Cornell, and CMU and I actually ended up around or a little bit above the middle range. I know it still has to raise since I’m a white male with minimal hooks, but hopefully I’m not too far off. Brown is definitely going to be a big reach, though. Thanks again.</p>
<p>It’s hard to tell by looking at the overall scores, you need to dive into the college-level stats. Check out CMU for example - they have detailed breakdowns by school. For CIT (engineering), you’re in the middle for SAT. For SCS (comp sci), you’re at the 25th percentile. Cornell engineering is pretty tough as well. I think JHU might be a smidgen easier, but not sure.</p>
<p>To be really confident without hooks, I’d think you want to be at the 75th. So blast those SATs/Sat IIs!!</p>
<p>Like with many students you’re “stats” will get you in the adcoms conversation but your esseays, letters of rec., leadership & excellence in EC’s, & intangables that are out of your control of knowledge will determine whether you get in.</p>
<p>Your stats are consistent with 2 groups for the schools you are interested in:</p>
<p>1- the profile of accepted students</p>
<p>2- the profile of rejected students</p>
<p>My point is that for these highly competitive schools it’s a tossup whether any one candidate gets in; many - into the 80-90% range - highly qualified students are rejected. Evidence: Brown’s information about the stats of those rejected: 82% of those with an 800 on the Math SAT; 85% of those with high 700s Critical Reading; 84% of Salutatorians and 79% of Valedictorians. </p>
<p>So, Go For It wth the realization that those schools are a stretch for everyone, including you . . . and Love Thy Safeties.</p>
<p>P.S. Do you need Financial Aid Safety schools?</p>
<p>I’ll be fine safety-wise, I can afford UMD with or without money since I’m in state and I have some decent local schools that I can get into easily. Any good ideas for EC’s that I can squeeze in late that will not be meaningless? Is it too late to look into doing research at local schools or starting a project?</p>