Chance me? rising senior

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Applying to Tepper school of business!</p>

<p>Uncompetitive high school in North Jersey
Top 10% out of around 400
GPA (on a 4.0 scale) 3.7-3.8
SAT: 1900*
Math: 680
Reading: 610
Writing: 610
SAT Chemistry - 800
SAT Math 2 - 680** (curiously the same as my SAT math reasoning score)
SAT Lit - 610**</p>

<p>AP's taken Junior Year
Chemistry - A (most likely a 4 or 5)
Lang& comp- B+ (most likely a 4)</p>

<p>AP's enrolled for Senior Year
Statistics
Calculus
Lit& comp
U.S Gov</p>

<p>Self Studying AP's
Macro & Micro Economics
Comparative Gov
Psychology</p>

<p>All other classes taken in high school are Honors classes</p>

<p>Activities:
Community service - Volunteering at local hospital for month, many few-hour volunteering activities facilitated by clubs i am involved with (totaling upto about 100 hours, doing more this summer)</p>

<p>Looking long and hard for a job to carry me from now till november, if i can't find one soon, i will be training underclassmen throughout the fall for my highschool swim team</p>

<p>Starting a JSA at my highschool this year
National Honor Society
Swim team 4 years (Going to be named captain this year 99%)
Rowing Team 3 years
R.E.A.C.H. (peer to peer group) 3 years
Consumer bowl 3 years
Club Swim team 1 year
E.R.A.S.E 2 years
International Festival - tables for 2 years</p>

<p>Honors:
National Merit Nomination, the only one in my school to receive it in the past few years
Academic excellence 2 years</p>

<p>Misc:</p>

<p>Nike Summer Swim camp 2011
Lead For Diversity summer camp 2011
6 years of annual, week-long summer youth retreat at my temple in upstate new york (atheist, but i go for the quiet)
People to People Ambassador to Aus, NZ, and Fiji, 3 weeks summer '08
National Youth Leadership Conference summer 2012</p>

<p>Great Rec's from 2 teachers and 1 coach
Experienced enough in writing with good essay topics to have very good essays</p>

<ul>
<li>SAT reasoning test was taken with 2 hours of sleep and killer headache, aiming for 2200+ in october</li>
</ul>

<p>** Absolutely no prep for Math 2 and Lit subject tests, aiming for 750+ in both</p>

<p>Please be honest, maybe giving some reccomendations to having a stronger app</p>

2

<p>Will your counselor state that you took the most rigorous course load at your high school? Make sure your Math II subject test and SAT reasoning test math scores are above 750 and you should be competitive.</p>

3

<p>Close to no chance currently. Rank is ok, but your test scores are sub par. You need a 700+ on the sat iis and a solid 2200+ on the day to be competitive.</p>

<p>Tepper is pretty competitive, your best chance right now is to seriously increase your sat scores. Chances are a higher if you apply early decision, but Tepper will still be unlikely.</p>

4

<p>Perazziman - I hadn’t thought about that, but I’m sure if I ask him to highlight the rigor of the course, he’d do it. </p>

<p>cortana431 - Once i can retake the sat 2’s and the reasoning test, i’m more than confident i’ll have those scores. Other than that, do you have any suggestions?</p>

5

<p>“Close to no chance” is totally untrue.</p>

<p>I got into both CIT and MCS (both of which are pretty competitive) with an unweighted GPA of ~ somewhere between a 3.6 and 3.8 (definitely wasn’t a 3.8 though, I don’t think). My SAT score was a 2070 (640 Reading, 650 Math, 780 Writing). Class rank was 32 out of 467 and I had only taken one AP as of the end of Junior year (APUSH, got a 4 on the exam). Senior year courses were AP Calc BC, AP Spanish, AP Bio, Anatomy/Physiology, Theatre, Ceramics, Shakespeare, & Expository Writing.</p>

<p>I would, of course, take the SATs again, but the essays and interest in the school really are important. If you really want to go here, show them that. That’s what got me in. Show them you’re willing to take risks, work hard, and that you will take advantage of a spot there. If you aren’t passionate about the school I really wouldn’t apply.</p>

6

<p>dom42094, Did you have any hooks, such as rural community, urm, legacy, athlete, gender etc?</p>

7

<p>Dom42094 is also an African American female so not only did she get a significant advantage from her race but her gender as well for applying for engineering. It’s not a big wonder she got in with those stats, with all due respect.</p>

<p>OPs sat scores are below the 25th percentile for teppers average sat score ranges. Unless you get your sat up to a solid 2200+ (including near perfect in math) you really have no chance. This, coming from someone who actually knows how admissions work at highly competitive schools</p>

<p>And there isn’t much you can do besides raising your sat score and working hard on your essays and getting great recommendations</p>

8

<p>I concur with those who are concerned with your SAT score, particularly the 680M. The middle average (25-75%) of incoming Tepper freshmen is 760-800. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply, just consider it a reach school for you. Another option is to also apply to CMU’s Dietrich College. The standards aren’t quite so high but you can major in economics, which goes through Tepper. And, if you do really well, you can try to transfer into Tepper after your first or second year (though, fair warning, that is extremely competitive).</p>