Hello:
I’m a junior currently looking to apply to college next year as a computer engineering major. Some schools I’m considering are Rice, Olin, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, WashU, Harvey Mudd, and RPI. Can you chance me to see if I stand a chance to which of these schools?
Mexican-American, low-income, divorced parents, Chicago area, Competitive high school in low-income area
GPA (UW): 3.97/4
GPA (W): 5.057 on a 6.0 scale (Honors is 5.0 and AP is 6.0)
SAT: 1360/1600
Math: 740/800 (Plan to raise to at least 780)
Reading: 620/800 (Plan to raise to at least 680-700)
Class Rank: 8/295 (Top 3%)
AP Scores:
-AP Human Geo - 3
-AP World History - 2 (Felt very nervous during the test)
Classes:
Freshmen Year (Both semesters)
-H English I - A
-H Geometry - A
-H Biology - A
-AP Human Geo - A
-H PLTW IED - A
-H Arabic I - A
-R JROTC I - A
Sophomore Year (Both Semesters)
-H English II - A
-H Advance Algebra with Trig - A
-H Chemistry - A
- AP World History - A
-PLTW POE - A
-H Arabic II - A
-R JROTC II - A
Junior Year (First Semester)
-AP Lang - A
-H Pre-Calc - A
-AP Physics I - A
-APUSH - B (Our teacher was a hard grader)
-H Computer Networking - A
-H Art I - A (Graduation requirement)
-H Arabic III - A (Forced to take it to stay in Scholars program)
Senior Year Schedule:
-AP Lit
-AP Calculus AB
-AP Physics II (Our school isn’t offering Physics C)
-AP Microeconomics
-PLTW Digital
-H Arabic IV (Forced to take it to stay in Scholars program)
-H Images (Photoshop class for graduation requirement)
Extracurricular Activities:
-Schuler Scholars Program: Scholars program for low-income minorities to help them with school. They are located in different schools across Chicagoland area. They send students to summer college programs and give them exposures to many different activities and disciplines. They have a good reputation among many universities that I listed.
-FIRST Robotics: Build and program robot; produce the mechanical design for robot, Scout Captain of the team (9th through 11th grade)
-Cyber Patriot X: Cybersecurity competitions where teams fix security issues in computer images. My team and I made it to the Gold Division State Finals which is the Second highest division you can make; (11th grade)
-Leave No Veteran Behind Project Innovation Internship: Learned and became more informed about solar panel technology through doing hands-on projects, listening to lectures, and presenting at Community Colleges about solar panel technology. Give stipends. (9th - 11th grade)
-Math Team: Practice mastering math problem that revolves around Pre-Calculus, Trigonometry, and Algebra 2 and compete in math competitions at the University of Chicago. Won various 2nd and 3rd place individual awards. (9th - 11th grade)
-Computer Science Mentoring: I teach students about the subject of computer science through hands activities and computer applications (11th grade during school on Wednesdays)
Summer Activities:
-American Indian Sustainability Project (2016): Summer program where we studied about different invasive plant species and herbs. We also plucked invasive plant species from gardens and conservation areas in outskirts of Chicago. Received stipend for work.
-Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation (2017) - Got a B for final grade. Summer engineering college program where students take a Johns Hopkins engineering course that is usually taken by undecided engineers. The program was very tough but somehow passed.
-Carnegie Mellon SAMS (2018) - Summer program at Carnegie Mellon where students take calculus, science, engineering/cs, and test prep courses for 6 weeks. Very similar to MITES and difficult to get in. They also help students a lot with college apps and choosing schools.
Essay:
-Plan to write an essay either about why I love engineering through narrating myself working on my tabletop arcade game from POE or dealing with an alcoholic mother and divorced parents and how it’s a problem I’ve dealt with and how it’s affected me as a person.
Letters of Reccomendation:
- I know my counselor very well
-I know my engineering teacher very well since he’s also my robotics mentor. He has written letters of rec for me in the past which helped get into SAMS and EI. He’s also a Rice alumnus which can help if applying to Rice. - I know my computer networking teacher well because of robotics and Cyberpatriot team