Chance me to these schools! Er, please.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey guys! I’d appreciate it if you could chance me to these schools:</p>

<p>MIT (and chance for Early Action)
Stanford (and chance for Early Action)
Harvard
UPenn
UC Berkeley
Caltech
Olin College
Rice</p>

<p>Information (sorry if it's a bit lengthy, but it gives a better idea):</p>

<p>-Ethnicity: Mixed White/Asian (Is this considered a minority since it’s a mix of majority and over-repped minority?)
-Sex: Male
-State: Texas
-Grade: 11
-Major: Undecided; probably materials science or chemical engineering
-School: Extremely competitive mathematics and science magnet boarding school, state-funded so it’s “public” but you have to apply to be accepted (10+ early acceptances to MIT this year for ’08 from a class of less than 180, ~5 accepted to Stanford, + more)</p>

<p>-GPA: 4.0
-Rank: School does not rank</p>

<p>**SAT: 2250<a href="Might%20retake%20to%20improve%20math%20and%20CR">/b</a>
-Math: 760
-Critical Reading: 730
-Writing: 760 (11 essay)</p>

<p>**SAT Subjects:<a href="Will%20take%20in%20May">/b</a>
-Math II: ?
-Chemistry: ?
-Biology M: ?</p>

<p>**AP:<a href="All%20taken%20in%2010th%20grade,%20will%20not%20take%20any%20more%20since%20now%20my%20courses%20are%20college%20courses">/b</a>
-Calculus BC (AB subscore): 5 (5)
-Statistics: 5
-World History: 5</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-Academy Ambassadors<a href="club%20in%20charge%20of%20organizing%20preview%20and%20interview%20days%20for%20the%20school’s%20future%20classes,%20largest%20club%20in%20school%20with%20%7E280%20members%20out%20of%20the%20entire%20school’s%20%7E340">/b</a>: Interview Day Coordinator executive
-Chinese Youth Society of Houston<a href="Red%20Cross-affiliated%20youth%20service%20organization">/b</a>: Secretary
-Boy Scouts of America: Eagle Scout, Order of the Arrow brotherhood, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, Historian, Boundary Waters trek, Keys Adventure trek)
-Virtuosi of Houston Youth Chamber Orchestra: Performed jointly w/ Houston Symphony
-SFAHS Symphony Orchestra 1st violin: Performed in Austria and China, competed in state UIL competition and local UIL competitions
-Sugar Land String Quartet: Started string quartet with friends, helped fundraise for charities and performed at weddings
-Mu Alpha Theta: 1st in school for 2007 AMC10, AIME qualified, 4th place for Statistics in University of Houston Competition 2007
-JETS: 1st place junior division UTD TEAMS competition (still being judged for state and potentially nationals), Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams competition (ongoing)
-Academic Challenge<a href="like%20Quiz%20Bowl">/b</a>: Varsity Team Captain
-Academic WorldQuest<a href="Geography%20and%20current%20events%20competition">/b</a>: Varsity Team Captain</p>

<p>Awards:
-University of North Texas President’s List (I'm considered to be both a high school student and a university student, so I'm on the university list)
-Alpha Lambda Delta Honors Society, UNT Chapter
-Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science Dean’s List
-AP Scholar
+More…</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
-ESL Tutoring: I tutor students who don’t speak English as a first language at a disadvantaged middle school, 2 hours/week</p>

<p>Sports:
1st place Junior Team Division, Houston Dragon Boat 2007 (competitive team rowing)</p>

<p>Hooks:
-I’ve already taken multivariable calculus, linear algebra and vector geometry, and will take differential equations next semester (can this be considered a hook?)
-MIT multigenerational legacy: Father and older brother (I know the father legacy doesn’t count for much other than one more review before a rejection, but I heard the older sibling legacy helps)</p>

<p>This summer I’ve applied for research programs at Rice and the University of Houston for nanotechnology. If I don’t get that I’m going to try and spend the summer in Germany either going to a language school in a major city, or volunteering in a small town in Brandenburg while going to language classes. It’s something that I’d enjoy doing, and it would differentiate me from the crowd.</p>

<p>Also, do you guys have any suggestions for me as to what to do/take in the upcoming year, or as to which schools I should consider? I appreciate your feedback.</p>

2

<p>Bump</p>

<p>Anyone? I’d appreciate any comments/suggestions/constructive criticism.</p>

3

<p>Bump for late night crowd</p>

4

<p>wow! those are deff. good stats! better than mine… I feel sucky now…</p>

5

<p>Your stats are very good, and you have some unique ECs that will hopefully set you apart. </p>

<p>Right now I’d say you’re in at Rice, Olin, and maybe UC Berkeley (very selective for OOS). </p>

<p>If you get really high SAT II scores that would certainly help you out at MIT and Caltech. You’ll be competing with many many applicants with perfect SAT IIs and Math scores on the SAT. </p>

<p>Harvard, Stanford, UPenn are all crapshoots. If I had to guess I would say rejected or waitlisted at those three, but you never know. Try to raise your SATs so you can be more competitive.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the advice!</p>

<p>Yeah, I’m going to study really hard this month for the SATIIs because they’re not where I want them right now when I take practice tests.</p>

<p>I might take the October SAT, but I’m not sure. I read an MIT Admission (Ben Jones’) blog, and he brought up the story of a girl who came up to him and said that she had a 760 in math, and she thought it was horrible so she was going to retake it. He then noted that 760 is competitive and at that point they don’t differentiate between that and an 800, so they look at ECs.</p>

<p>An SAT retake might help for Stanford, though.</p>

<p>Haha, I can’t wait to look back upon this thread in a year.</p>

7

<p>Anybody else?</p>

8

<p>MIT (and chance for Early Action) 60%
Stanford (and chance for Early Action) 40%
Harvard 30%
UPenn 40%
UC Berkeley 65%
Caltech 40%
Olin College 45%
Rice 75%</p>

9

<p>Not much advice I can offer: from my perspective there is little much you can improve upon other than your test scores…More volunteer work maybe? I’d be willing to wager that you’ll probably get into Rice and Berkeley, although MIT is really hard to predict…Everyone hears the horror stories of hopefuls with perfect math SATs and math related SATIIs and they still get rejected…Who knows how it works?
…ugh, you shame me by comparison…Good luck with all your applications, and hope you get into your top choices! :)</p>

10

<p>Hey, thanks ham + AceClark.</p>

<p>Okay, so I have another award to add. Yesterday I found out that I won the University of North Texas Outstanding Freshman Chemistry Student Award. It’s given to UNT’s top freshman in chemistry, determined by nominations by professors then the highest scorer on a test taken by all nominees wins the award.</p>

<p>(I hope this doesn’t sound ridiculous or pretentious. :/)</p>

11

<p>good for you! that will help for MIT
just don’t take my hopeful spot there…!</p>

12

<p>wow, you have a colorful list of extracurriculars!</p>

13

<p>dude you have some impressive math under your belt. how do you manage to do multivariable, linear algebra, vector geometry, and differential all in high school? Does your school seriously offer that stuff!??!</p>

14

<p>at what age/grade did you take calculus?</p>

15

<p>wow you have really impressive stats
but yeah if you got a 5 on calc ap you could probably get 800 in sat math?
seems like you’d easily get into MIT with ur stats and legacy..</p>

16

<p>Here’s how my high schooling has worked out:</p>

<p>9th and 10th grade I went to a competitive public high school in the southwest Houston area. For 11th and 12th grade, I’m attending a boarding school that’s funded by the Texas state legislature on a college campus north of Dallas.</p>

<p>In 7th grade, I was in the 7th grade gifted and talented math class. I decided to take the SAT for Duke TiP, so I learned algebra by myself for that, then took a credit-by-examination test to skip algebra. Then in the summer between 7th and 8th grade, I attended TiP on the Davidson campus and took geometry, so I received credit for that. So, basically, I skipped from 7th grade math to Algebra II in one summer. I took Algebra II in 8th grade, then in 9th grade I took Pre-Cal, and in 10th grade I took Calculus BC (everything GT or honors), so to answer your question I was 15/16. The school I’m at now lets me take any course in the university’s catalog, so I started in multivariable calculus last semester, then took linear algebra/vector geometry this semester. Next year I’m going to take diffy-q then see if I want to take diffy-q 2 or something.</p>

<p>Haha, if I get into MIT, they may as well name a building after my family since all our money is going there. xD</p>

<p>Anyway, SAT II’s in 2 days . . . bit nervous about that. Not doing too hot on those practice tests.</p>

17

<p>dude, you are very impressive. asian rules. lol
On the other hand, I think you need to improve your extracurriculum a bit. You are good at math, but not that good. You should attend some math camp and get into USAMO. 5th place in the state is good, but still not perfect - you know, you should make it to regional or national.
anyway i think you will have 50+% for colleges like MIT.
but for harvard, I don’t think you have any chance because Harvard need some students that are well-rounded. and you should take AP history or econ in your junior year if you want to get into harvard. btw, haven’t you taken ap bio or chem?</p>

18

<p>Half-asians half rule (haha, one of my jokes).</p>

<p>I’ve taken AP biology and chemistry twice, actually (once in my old high school, then I was required to take it again here). I just haven’t taken the AP because I have actual college credit for it, so I don’t see a need to take a test to get a college credit-equivalent.</p>

<p>Heh, I’m already done with my junior year (done next Friday), but I’ll definitely take your suggestions into consideration. I’m taking American government and US history next year (and receiving college credit), but maybe I’ll look into economics, too.</p>

<p>As for math, I’m not sure I’d want to do USAMO. I know it’s like automatic admission into some colleges, but right now I’m focusing more on chemistry (it’s interesting and I’m much better at that than math . . . or at least that’s what I think until I take o-chem) and German.</p>

19

<p>So, what colleges could I get a full scholarship to? I’m looking more at the
$ than getting in… MIT, Caltech, and Georgia Tech are my top 3.</p>

<p>User Name: ekb242
Gender: F (white)
Location: Evans, Georgia
College Class Year: 2012
High School: Public
High School Type: sends some grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 4.00
GPA - Weighted: 4.00
Class Rank: top 5 students
Class Size: 511</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Critical Reading: 800
SAT I Writing: 800</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Model UN,
BETA club,
NHS,
piano,
volleyball,
church youth group (band/participant),
drama (musical theatre)
Leadership positions: Vice President, Model UN
Treasurer, NHS
Volleyball team captain, 3 seasons
Academic team captain (middle school)
Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Volleyball, 6 seasons, Junior Varsity and Power-level club
Volunteer/Service Work: Tutoring
Soup Kitchen
Vacation Bible School
Honors and Awards: Valedictorian
1st place GA History Fair (8th grade)
Honorable Delagate, 2008 MUN
STAR student
National Merit Semi-finalist
NHS Meritorious member
2nd place in the state, PAGE Academic Team (capt)</p>

<p>Taking AP Lang, AP Lit, AP Calc (AB and BC) AP Chem, AP Physics, and APUSH.</p>

20

<p>ekb, first of all ,why don’t you have your own thread??? lol
But here is what I will say- I think you have a decent chance at some top schools, but you don’t really stand out with your ecs.</p>