Try to be as harsh as possible on me, since I live in (1) California, and (2) in an upper middle class neighborhood. I am Asian as well. Some T20 examples would be UCB, UCLA, Northwestern, and the standard Ivy+s.
Major: Materials Science and Engineering (or something chemistry related)
Residence: California (top ~1000 high school), upper middle class
Ethnicity: Asian, Taiwanese
Sex: Male
Class rank not released.
GPA: 3.95/4 UW, 4.44/4 W (1 honor/AP limit freshman year) (No IBs offered, unfortunately)
SAT: 1520 (RW 720, M 800) (just retook August)
ACT: 35C (35/36/34/36)
SAT subject Tests: Chem 800, Math II 800
APs: Calc AB (5), European Hist (5), just took Lang, USH, Chem, Physics, CSP, BC, and Bio this year
Extra Curriculars:
- run chemistry blog, do amateur chemistry at home (have a lab), been doing this for 6 years
- marching band 3 years (will be 4th year next year, leadership position 1 yr)
- student teacher in an advanced elementary math class, 3 years (will be 4th year, 60+ hrs)
- Science Olympiad club, 3 years (will be 4th next year, will be 3 years in a leadership position)
- mgh Physics club, 2 years (run physics competitions, will be second year in leadership position)
-Science Fair, 2 years (awards listed below)
-USNCO, 2 years (awards listed below)
-intern at a local science museum, 2 years (40+ hours total work)
- UC COSMOS this summer
-Physics Bowl #1 in school, 2years
-AMC, F=ma, participated (no award)
- CSF 3 years
-NHS member (this year joined, junior year limit)
Awards/certificates:
- USNCO qualification 2 years in a row
- USNCO National Finalist (honors), 2 years in a row
- Regional fair 1st place (2018) in physical, 2nd place (2019) in biological
- California state science fair qualification
- 4 medals from Science Olympiad regional (1 - 2017, 3 - 2019)
- basic academic awards such as AP Scholar, school honor roll, etc.
If any additional information is needed to make an accurate judgment, I will be glad to provide it.
Why do you need to ask when you know that the answer is that they are reaches?
Be sure to include some likely/safety schools on your application list, such as UCR, UCM, SJSU (all of which have materials engineering).
Is there any chance you can still make ISEF? That would make your application much better. BTW doing Amc and f=ma without getting a good score does not help you very much. I would say you have a good shot for most of the t20s. Its going to come down to essays.
I assume that you are a rising senior. In that case, Intel ISEF is out of the question since it took place last month. Have you consider submitting your projects to Regeneron or Siemens? The application dates are coming up soon. The results are generally announced in the fall, in enough time to add to your application as an update.
All of the top 20s will be a reach for you. Unfortunately Asian Male in a STEM field is incredibly competitive. Many of the successful applicants will have recognition at the international/national level (Gold medal or ISEF, etc). You have solid state level accomplishments.
If I were you, consider applying binding ED to a college in the bottom half of T20. You’ll have your best shot of acceptance during ED. The RD round will be brutal for T20 schools.
I would suggest a school along the lines of WashU since they tend to be more score driven than most of the Top-20s and are just a bit less holistic than most highly rated schools. They also have a very highly rated Chemistry program.
Rice and Vanderbilt are also high score driven schools that might be more reasonable reaches than Ivy/NW.
Your best bet Ivy based on your profile is likely Cornell.
Your test scores, gpa and the list of ECs have earned you a good chance at the UCs, but these numbers and list by themselves, will only afford a closer look of your application at the Ivies-plus schools, but not much of a boost beyond their acceptance rates. You need to write good essays to convince the AOs (especially those at the Ivies plus schools), of your other fine qualities that they seek. Highlight your intellectual curiosity and demonstrate that the breadth and depth of your interests and knowledge are not confined to math and sciences alone. For an essay topic, I would pick one that is not outwardly STEM related, for example, your marching band experience. When as a leader with the marching band, did you help to build trust, resolve conflicts for others? Did you learn to enlist help from others? Did you share the credit of the accomplishments? The attributes of bridge-building, being respectful of others and empathy are very valuable for the making of a successful citizen, even for an engineer or a chemist.
@ucbalumnus I was simply asking as I have heard a wide variety of opinions from those close to me and wanted an opinion of someone who didn’t know me well and just had my stats/ECs, which would be a situation similar to what the admissions officers will be doing.
@sgopal2 I do have some national recognition (USNCO National Finalist), but yes, I will consider submitting some of my projects to Regeneron, Siemens, etc. More national/international recognition would definitely help.
Anyway, thanks for the input. I indeed will be putting a lot of effort into my essays, as being an Asian male shooting for STEM is going to be highly difficult. I know most of the Ivies will be some sort of reach one way or another, and that I have a good chance for the top UCs. I’ll consider y’all’s advice as I go through the college application process.
Don’t get me wrong. Qualification for USNCO is an impressive feat. But the people you will be competing against will have stellar accolades. Like being gold medalist for the international math olympiad. Go back and lookup what happened to previous IMO gold medal winners. Most of them ended up going to Ivy+ colleges. I don’t know much about how the USNCO works, but I assume it is similar.
While these schools will be reaches, I disagree with the comments that you always see floating around CC that you need to have national or international level recognition, that your chances are no better than the admissions rates. First of all, of the tens of thousands of applicants to the elite schools, at least half are what I call lotto cases. In conversations I have had with senior AO’s at Yale, there are about 10,000 truly competitive applicants, who then get whittled down to about 6,000 for Committee. With your stats, EC’s and awards, I can’t imagine you won’t be in the top 10,000, which numerically already puts your odds at slightly over 20%. Decent LoR’s and essays will be required to get you to Committee at that point, and truly outstanding LoR’s and/or essays will be required to seal the deal. Major international or national recognition will of course be a distinguishing point in an applicant’s favor, but T20 campuses I guarantee you are not only filled with these winners. There are just not that many them to go around.
I agree that you will need a good mix of match and safety schools as part of your final list. I see no reason though why you shouldn’t choose your favorite T20 and apply early. I would not however choose a school that while is T20, but lower on your list, and apply ED. Say your top pick is Stanford and Cornell is not even a close second. I’d apply SCEA Stanford and see where the chips fall in December rather than apply Cornell because you might get an admissions boost, especially if FA is a factor for you. If Cornell were your clear first choice and FA is not a factor, ED would be the right choice. If it is in a tightly packed group of your top 2-5, then it becomes a more difficult choice.
Good luck to anybody trying to do Siemens this year.