Chances and general advice

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>What are my chances for UT Cockrell School of Engineering, UC Berkeley L&S, MIT/Caltech/UChicago EA? Given my situation, do you have advice for me?</p>

<p>Stats:[ul]
[<em>]SAT: 800 M 760 CR 730 WR 10 essay (not submitting... or should I?)
[</em>]SAT II: 800 Math IIc 780 Physics
[<em>]ACT: 36 (36 E 36 M 36 R 35 S, essay is not here yet)
[</em>]GPA: 3.88
[<em>]Rank: 82/618 at a reasonably competitive public high school (due to a blip when transferring from CA to TX between ninth and tenth grade... I climbed from rank ~200 since the beginning of tenth grade... I think I'm getting my counselor to mention this, and I'm noting it as a special circumstance)
[</em>]Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AIME x2. 5s on Computer Science, Calc BC (AB subscore too; self study), English Language, Microecon (self study), Physics C Mech/EM, Statistics. 4s on World History and Biology. I'm currently in AP English Literature, AP Chemistry, Multivariable Calc (it's an independent study class that I designed... I'm following the MIT OCW curriculum), AP Government/AP Macroecnomics, and AP US History. I also am a National Merit Semifinalist.
[/ul]Subjective[ul]
[<em>]Essays: I'm working really hard on them. Hopefully they're decent :P
[</em>]Teacher Recs: I got my math teacher to write me a rec. I'm hoping to get another one from my gov teacher. I feel like we know each other quite well, so this should be good.
[<em>]Counselor Rec: Counselor knows me very well. I've already talked to her about the recs and special circumstance stuff. I'm expecting a good rec from this.
[</em>]Supplementary Material: Not sure what this is.
[<em>]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): Math? I'm working on a research project (math/cs) that I can hopefully enter into science fairs. Would it be useful to upload my progress to these schools?
[/ul]Personal[ul]
[</em>]Location: Houston, TX
[<em>]High School Type: Large public (5A UIL designation in TX)
[</em>]Ethnicity: Desi!!! (Indian)
[<em>]Gender: M
[/ul]Other[list]
[</em>]Extracurriculars: I was a MATHCOUNTS (middle school math contest) coach in ninth and tenth grade. I put well over 200 hours into this. In ninth and tenth grade, I was on a FIRST Robotics team. The summer between ninth and tenth grade, I volunteered (40 hours) as a camp counselor to teach math, science, and engineering fundamentals at a summer camp for underprivileged minorities in San Jose. I participated in Business Professionals of America (BPA); in 10th grade I got 6th place national software engineering team (we had to design a computer game from scratch according to given specifications); in 11th grade, I got 4th place financial analyst team (we had to complete financial statements such as balance sheets and income statements from given data and perform some rudimentary valuations given these documents). During 11th grade, I participated in an independent study mentored project with a robotic scientist. Over the summer between eleventh and twelfth grade, I worked as a tour guide at Space Center Houston. I worked approximately 8 weeks and spent 30 hours per week at the facility. Currently, I'm working on a research project (see hooks). I also helped start/am on my school's Zero Robotics Team (see zerorobotics.mit.edu; it's pretty cool!), and I'm studying really hard for math competitions this year (I decided to take them seriously way too late, though I'm doing them only for a personal sense of gratification and not for anything else. However, I should make USAMO 2015.).
[li]Leadership: I am some sort of officer in my math club (I write problems and make handouts about cool topics), but my position doesn't have a real name (yet). I was treasurer of BPA last year and captain of all teams I was in.</p>[/li]
<p>If you need clarifications, please reply, and I can hopefully clear them up.</p>

<p>Thank you so much! I might chance back ;)</p>

2

<p>I think you have a good shot at those schools. Your scores and ECs are on point. I would definitely submit both ACT and SAT to show them of your excellence on both tests. </p>

3

<p>Thanks @viphan!</p>

<p>A la StudiousMaximus, let’s make this a different type of chance thread: a predict thread.</p>

<p>"Here are the rules:

  1. For each school I list, you must choose “Accepted,” “Waitlisted,” or “Rejected.” Do not choose “Deferred” for early schools; predict what you think the final result will be.
  2. Once I receive all of my results, I’ll post them here. You will receive 1 point for a correct response and 0 points for an incorrect response. Whoever gets the most points wins.
  3. Only initial results matter. If I’m waitlisted and later accepted at a school, the outcome is still “Waitlisted.”
  4. Feel free to be as harsh or as generous as you’d like. If you think your best shot at winning involves predicting that I’ll be rejected from every school, go right ahead!</p>

<p>My hope is that this type of thread will lead to a lot more honest, specific predictions (instead of just “I think you have a great shot all around! Chance back!”) and will be more useful to future applicants (since these threads will naturally contain results as well)."</p>

4

<p>I would think you’re in at all, except maybe Caltech. Excellent job. </p>

<p>Chance back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1689784-final-chance-me-cmu-cornell-washu-others.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1689784-final-chance-me-cmu-cornell-washu-others.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>lol same SAT scores! Rank might hurt, but not too much if you mention the issues. Your focus is math, but you didn’t make USAMO so emphasize the coaching and research project.</p>

<p>UT: accepted
Berkeley: accepted
MIT: deferred, accepted/waitlisted
Caltech: accepted
Uchicago, deferred, rejected (you don’t seem to fit…idk)</p>

6

<p>UT Cockrell School of Engineering: accepted</p>

<p>UC Berkeley: accepted</p>

<p>MIT: waitlisted</p>

<p>Caltech: waitlisted</p>

<p>UChicago: deferred</p>

<p>Chance back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1687837-what-are-my-chances-cornell-early-decision.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1687837-what-are-my-chances-cornell-early-decision.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;