Chance please :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hello, I'm a rising senior and I'd like you to chance me for some schools. :)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.82 (not wonderful I know, but Junior year was my best so far; all my classes were honors or AP, more or less always the hardest courseload possible). I calculated this GPA by making A+/A=4, B+/B=3, etc. My school does it differently, with B+=3.5 (we don't have minus grades) but my understanding is that most colleges recalculate your GPA this way.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2290 (800 Math, 730 CR, 760 W).
SAT II: 800 Math IIC, 790 Chemistry, 800 Physics, 760 US History, 740 Bio-M
NMSQT semifinalist.</p>

<p>APs: Biology 5, Computer Science AB 5, Calculus BC 5, Statistics 5, Chemistry 5, US History 3 ( ;_; ), English Language 4, Environmental Science 5, Physics C Mechanics 5, Physics C E&M 4.</p>

<p>I self-studied for Biology, Env. Sci. and both Physics C's, so I think that looks kinda cool.</p>

<p>EC's:
Junior Engineer Technical Society (an exam that teachers in my school invite students to participate in, the team I was on came in 1st in our division in NJ and 2nd in our division nationally both times).
TechXplore team leader - 5 years (won nationally once in middle school).
Computer club: I was the president for 2 years and counting, we ran a drive where we collected old handheld game systems like GameBoys and donated them to the local hospital.
Math league - "Most valuable player" in my school at the end of 11th grade
American Math Contest - never quite qualified for anything as I never really took it seriously, probably shouldn't mention this
Junior Statesmen of America - 2 years and counting
Guitar - three years and counting (outside of school)
Volunteered at the library for 40 hours and worked at a local grassroots business for a total of 40 hours, paid under minimum wage so I guess I can call this volunteering as well.</p>

<p>I'm probably going to major in math, maybe in computer science as well. What do you think for the following schools?</p>

<p>MIT
CalTech
UC Berkeley
Cooper Union
Northwestern
Harvey Mudd
McGill University
U Chicago
Columbia
Brown
NYU
Carnegie Mellon
William and Mary</p>

<p>Thank you for your time.</p>

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<p>I think your SATs and grades are impressive and you took a lot of APs!
Maybe retake the SAT I to get it up to 2330 or something</p>

<p>for the ECs: I wouldn't inlcude anything you did in middle school and I wouldn't include clubs where you don't have leadership roles. Unless you did something amazing with the guitar, I wouldn't really mention it (i don't think it counts for much). I also wouldn't mention the AMC thing because many many students who get accepted into MIT pass the AMC 12 and AIME to go to the USAMO.
Getting paid does not equal volunteering so I would put that under work experience which is also valuable to colleges.
I think your ECs are a bit weak so maybe try for an internship?</p>

<p>MIT: High Reach
Caltech: High Reach
UC Berkeley: Low Reach
Northwestern: Reach
U Chicago: Low Reach
Columbia: Reach
Brown: Match
NYU: Match
Carnegie mellon: Safety to Match
William and Mary: Safety to Match</p>

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<p>i think the way peachsnapple has marked your schools is pretty good, as are their recommendations -- itd also be great if your gpa could continue to rise a bit, to give you more assurance at your matches and a better shot at your reaches.</p>

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<p>Cool, yeah. I know my EC's and GPA are a little weaker than they ought to be. </p>

<p>Any other thoughts are welcome.</p>

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<p>I think the guitar playing is interesting -- if there is anyway to work that in without forcing it, it shows that you have a creative as well as an academic side.</p>

<p>Also, the self-study for the AP exams is cool. Why? Did your school not offer these? Did you take these in addition to a regular courseload? </p>

<p>I would consider Brown a reach, CM a match.</p>

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<p>Brown, Caltech, and MIT seem to be reach schools. I think that for computers your best matches are UC Berkeley and CM. Good luck and chance me if you can. Thanks</p>

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<p>"Also, the self-study for the AP exams is cool. Why? Did your school not offer these? Did you take these in addition to a regular courseload?"</p>

<p>Well first my school likes to schedule all of the AP science classes for the same timeslots for some reason. So going into eleventh grade I had to choose between chemistry, biology and physics. I knew it would be impossible to take all three of these with two years remaining. I took a very very hard honors biology course in 9th grade, so in 10th grade I decided to self-study for the AP test.</p>

<p>Then in 11th grade, I tried to convince the science supervisor to let me take AP Physics based on the calculus I had taught myself (I like math) but she wouldn't let me (I was taking Calculus BC in 11th grade as well, but they wanted me to actually complete it). So I took chemistry and initially self-studied for physics B, but I found it to be easy for me so I switched to Physics C.</p>

<p>Then I also threw in environmental science so I could meet the requirements for Siemens AP Scholarship (doesn't come out until next May); this wasn't too hard as env. sci. seems to be one of the relatively easy APs (and we don't have it in school).</p>

<p>And yes, this was done in addition to my regular courseload (dunno how brilliant that was in retrospect, I probably could have had a 4.0 if I had just concentrated on my actual classes. But I think this is cooler. ;o )</p>

<p>Edit: Anybody have any thoughts on the schools not mentioned? ^_^</p>

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<p>Also do colleges really care about National AP Scholar? I just remembered I have that.</p>

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<p>Great test scores, good GPA, great ECs.
MIT: High Reach
Caltech: High Reach
UC Berkeley: Low Reach
Northwestern: Low Reach
U. of Chicago: HIgh Match-Low Reach
Columbia: Mid Reach
Brown: Mid Reach
NYU: Mid Match
Carnegie Mellon: High Match
William and Mary: Mid-High Match</p>

<p>Peachsnapple said Carnegie Mellon and William and Mary are possible safeties for you, which I disagree with. These are both excellent schools and are not safeties for the top applicant. </p>

<p>I'm applying to Wharton. Could you chance me?
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/534608-applying-wharton-there-any-chance.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/534608-applying-wharton-there-any-chance.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>McGill - low match
Mudd - high match/low reach (if male), match (if female)</p>

<p>Also, Peachsnapple and aairzoom34 are being a little too harsh with their chances. For example, there is no way NU is a reach or low reach for you...</p>

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<p>atomicfusion now that I look back at my chances, I probably was being a little too harsh. But I still think Carnegie Mellon and William and Mary are not safeties</p>

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<p>Alright guys, thanks for your input. </p>

<p>So you think if there's one thing I could bolster it would be EC's?</p>

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<p>
[quote]
So you think if there's one thing I could bolster it would be EC's?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I don't think you can bolster your ECs very much at this point. Colleges aren't going to care if you join a few clubs in senior year; they want to see long commitment in non-competitive ECs and achievement in competitive ECs.</p>

<p>If you think you can improve your SAT scores, take it again. Your application looks pretty solid to me at this point. Spend a lot of time on your essays and you should get a lot of acceptances.</p>

<p>
[quote]
atomicfusion now that I look back at my chances, I probably was being a little too harsh. But I still think Carnegie Mellon and William and Mary are not safeties

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I agree -- those schools are definitely not safeties.</p>

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<p>Alright, cool. Thanks to those who have posted.</p>