<p>SATII:
650 US History
taking math level 1 soon</p>
<p>AP:
5 on APUSH, did not take AP US History</p>
<p>Awards/Honors:
several school awards:
Excellence in Biology (1 per class)
Excellence in Introduction to Engineering Design
Excellence in Global History I H
Achievement in Italian I (4 per class)
Achievement in Physics
National Latin Exam: Magna Cum Laude</p>
<p>Classes:
Mostly honors courses, no AP's</p>
<p>EC's:
United States Army Cadet Corps
-Co-founded a unit, leadership position in, attended Basic Cadet Training (2.5 weeks in hell)
50 hours of community service
Relay for Life
Online Computer Science course (majoring in CS)
Special circumstance: Oldest of four siblings, dad often travels for work, required to help out with children a lot of the time</p>
<p>Applying to:
University of Texas at Austin (out of state)
Texas A&M (out of state)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Illinois at Urbana
Bentley University
George Washington University
Northeastern University
Carnegie Mellon University (high reach)
NYU (reach)</p>
<p>Decent essays, great teacher rec's</p>
<p>Chances appreciated! I know my EC's are very weak but hopefully my special circumstance and grades make up for it.</p>
<p>Your EC’s are fine. I’ll let you in on something: large public universities really don’t care about your EC’s unless you’re an amazing athlete or oboe player, or [insert anything] equally outstanding. At smaller colleges, EC’s do matter more, but they are “soft factors” and far less important than your SAT or ACT scores/GPA. Universities just want to see that you’ve done something with your time and you have. Here would be my predictions:</p>
<p>UT- Austin: Good match. I think you’re in. I’m not sure how much more competitive admissions are for out of state applicants, though. I would think Texas’ “10 percent” rule for in-state applicants makes it more difficult for those applying from out of the state.</p>
<p>Texas A&M: In. However, same concerns as UT about applying out of state…</p>
<p>UW- Madison: Your stats are within their range. If you are an in state I’d say you’re in, out of state would obviously be more difficult but still a good shot.</p>
<p>UIUC- Match. Good shot at getting in. As with the other public schools, it depends on your residency.</p>
<p>Bentley- In. They’d value EC’s more than the publics but your stats are a good bit above their range.</p>
<p>GWU- Another good match and another good shot at admittance. </p>
<p>Northeastern- Safety. In. </p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon- Well…you know this is a reach. Your stats are just outside their range so while I don’t think an acceptance is likely, it’s not out of the question (though slim).</p>
<p>NYU- I think you have about a 50/50 shot. </p>
<p>Have you thought about applying to a few more safeties especially for financial reasons? You have a lot of matches and for the public universities this may a bit of an issue since you’re not an in-state applicant.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. That’s good to know about EC’s and I feel a lot better about that now.</p>
<p>Yeah UT Austin is 92% in-state so I’d imagine it would be more competitive. That’s my first choice, however, so naturally I’ll spend more time on their essays and such. Sorry I forgot to mention that all of the public universities listed were out of state, so I’ll consider that as well. It turns out I don’t even have the SAT II requirement for the CMU CS department so I’ll probably just forget about going there.</p>
<p>I’m applying to Clarkson and Rochester Institute of Technology and probably Uconn (in state), so I do have some more safeties. I think my family will be okay financially but thanks for pointing that out it, it hadn’t crossed my mind.</p>
<p>Thanks again! I really appreciate it and I’m less stressed about lack of EC’s now.</p>
<p>No problem. Now, on your applications, still try to “play up” your ECs, especially for CMU NYU and UT. I just think some posters on CC are only applying to insane schools like HYPS where ECs will matter. At most schools, though, admissions have to go through so many applications a year that they are not going to sit and nit pick like “oh sh-t, this person has only 50 CS hours and not 75! And no varsity letters! Rejected!”. I would still explain the situation with your siblings though, because it can’t hurt. </p>
<p>I’m glad you have safeties under your belt. You’re golden for those. And I still think you have a good chance at your out of state matches. As far as CMU - if you are really passionate about the university and have time to take the SAT II, don’t give up on it! It’s always good to have a reach that would be amazing to get admitted to as long as it doesn’t create undue stress or financial burden. And honestly, with CMU you are not that much below their SAT/GPA medians. </p>
<p>Good luck with everything and just try not to freak yourself out too much!</p>