Chance me?

<p>I am extremely excited about going to college, and Carnegie Mellon appears to be my dream school. Unfortunately, my chances are looking fairly grim. I want to be a computer science major and am extremely interested in robotics, but unfortunately Math is easily my weakest subject. I am, however, very good at writing essays and doing interviews, which hopefully should help me.</p>

<p>White Male from Dallas, Texas</p>

<p>Rank:33/487
GPA (unweighted): 3.76
GPA (weighted): 5.26</p>

<p>SAT (retaking this one!): Math: 650, Reading: 780, Writing: 740
SAT subject tests: Physics: 760, US History: 780, taking Math I and II this fall.
ACT composite: 33. (36 reading, 33 math, 33 science, 10 essay)</p>

<p>AP scores:
World History: 5
US. History: 5
English Lang.: 5
Compsci A: 4
Compsci AB: 4
Microecon: 5</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities (sorry about formatting)</p>

<p>GHS Marching Band/Drumline Pit Marimbist<br>
Rachel’s Challenge<br>
National Honor Society<br>
National Junior Honor Society Elected Publicity Chairman
German Club Elected President
Robotics Club Founder
Math/Science Team<br>
Young Texas Democrats<br>
White’s Chapel UMC Usher
Narwhal (garage band) Drummer
SHM (garage band) Keyboardist
Klingensmith(garage band) Frontman/Guitarist
Habitat for Humanity<br>
GHS UIL team Computer Science Team
NASA Aerospace Scholars One of 362 selected
Mustangs, Inc. Principal’s Advisory Committee
Mensa Member
GHS Theater Volunteer Technician
NASACASI(NASA subdepartment) Intern</p>

<p>Here are some things I think make me unique:
I write my own music and have published 2 albums.
I like to write literature and have written one full novel and several short stories.
I like to travel and have been to several countries in Europe and the Caribbean
I have been active in the Math/Science team and won 7th in state in my 7th grade year and 3rd in state in my 8th grade year, but my highschool doesn't participate.
I enjoy programming and together with a friend coded an arcade game called Zaxar which we distributed among the Compsci students. I also build, program and test my own robots.</p>

<p>bump.
no chancing love?</p>

<p>I'd say increase your Math SAT scores and you have a good shot. If your book is published on a real publisher, and not just a vanity press, then I'd say that's a big plus. </p>

<p>If the albums were published on a real label, than I'd say that helps quite a bit too. </p>

<p>The SATs in reading are superb and are by far good enough, the AP scores are excellent, and the SAT 2 scores are great. </p>

<p>The only blight on your application is your "low" score (relative to the rest of the application) on the SAT Math. </p>

<p>If you can do well on the SAT Math, and nail the SAT Math Subject Test, then I'd say you have a really good chance. </p>

<p>I'm a prospective CMU student, and everything on your application except the Sat Math kills my application, or the average student's AP for that matter. </p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

<p>Heh, the novel is unpublished and I self published the albums, so no luck for me there.</p>

<p>I don't know why my math scores are consistently so low. I find the math to be technically easy but I'm never fast enough to finish it.</p>

<p>Practice should probably help with the speed. Your Math scores are good, well above average, they're just not up as high as CMU. </p>

<p>As for the albums and the novel, I think you can still count them as positives. But since their self-published, they'll probably be seen more as determination rather than anything suggesting the quality of your writing or music. </p>

<p>If you can get any of your stuff published with Random House or a major publisher / record label, that would be a huge boost.</p>

<p>Thanks, currentley trying to get a few of my short stories published in literary journals.</p>

<p>Are you more interested in the linguistic aspects of Computer Science or are you more interested in the concept of problem-solving? Your AP scores suggest a lot of ability, but a robotics engineering degree or a computer science degree is a lot of math, and you seem to be more of a language/arts kind of person. But then again, I hear a lot of people complaining about how engineers don't know how to write and can't express themselves, so maybe your English skills could be real selling point. </p>

<p>All I can say is, if you get your SATs up, Carnegie Mellon would be a good target. Maybe consider Olin (free, very hard to get into), or WPI (has a robotics major), or RIT (pretty easy to get into, 5 years BS/MS program), or Rose-Hulman (ranked #1 in USNEWS for Computer Engineering, and engineering overall for schools that don't offer PhDs)</p>

<p>GPA - 3.86/4.0 in year 12. Actually its 96.4%..but converted to GPA
Was the college topper for year 12. class size 200 members.
Was the school head boy in year 10
Played Cricket at inter City level for 4 years
Played Football at Inter School level for 3 years
Won many Debates nd Elocution competitions at School level
SAT II - Mathh- 780, Phy - 780 , Chem - 750
SAT I will be writing dis October
Currently doing Research in Micro COntrollers with IET, Institute of Electricals and Telecommunications
Started an awareness Campaign abt Environmental Pollution and created a team.
I am the acting Head! Wrote articles on the same ..!!
Have more than 100 hrs service at a local Hospital nd 50hrs at LEPRA!</p>

<p>wt r my chances??
wt SAT I scores do i require for an easy access into Carnegie Mellon Engineering Dept?</p>

<p>You research is awesome and your math SAT 2s are well up to par with CMU. Given your SAT 2 scores you should do really well on the SAT 1. </p>

<p>Colleges, in my experience, will look mostly at cumulative GPA, and not at individual years. But if 3.86 reflects your cumulative GPA, you're in good shape. </p>

<p>IDK what "easy access" means, but look at the colleges middle 50th percentile for SATs. If you fall below it, you'll probably need some boost (like nice ECs, or pwnage GPA), and if you go above it you can probably compensate for a bad GPA or weak ECs. </p>

<p>Reading: 610-710
Math: 690-780
Writing: 610-700</p>

<p>Given your other background, I'd say you'll probably get in the middle 50th percentile or better, so CMU should be your target. </p>

<p>Maybe look into Franklin Olin College of Engineering as a reach...</p>

<p>Theotherguy--I'd second the Olin suggestion.</p>

<p>thanks for ur reply ....i'll work on see to it that i'll achieve those scores!!</p>