Chances at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Tufts?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Junior now,
Lower Merion HS, PA (top 100 public in the country)
Weighted GPA: around 4.0, unweighted 3.1 (Freshman and sophmore year grades were fairly poor around 2.8(UW), junior year i have improved to almost all As)</p>

<p>Classes: All Honors except spanish, Calc AB AP, Stat AP, Lit AP, Physics E/M AP, Gov AP, Comp Sci AP
PSATs: 80 math 69 verbal 70 writing
Havn't taken SATs yet (will be taking new version). Guessing 1400 on old sats, not sure how the new ones will play out</p>

<p>ECs:
Started technology and engineering club freshman year (TSA): officer all 4 years
TSA: 1st place nationals electrical engineering and design (built and programmed a heart rate sensor w/ LCD and computer syncing)(individual event), medaled in every state and regional competition </p>

<p>Science olympaid all 4 years, officer, team placed overall 7th nationally last year
National individual awards</p>

<p>Chess club all 4years</p>

<p>Helped start Math club (MuAlphaTheta) junior year: officer</p>

<p>Oriental cultures club: sophmore year and on</p>

<p>Designed and built combat robots (battlebots) since 7th grade, recieved awards from east coast competitions</p>

<p>starting FIRST robotics at my school senior year, president</p>

<p>I also plan to do some type of research over the summer, hopefully PGSS at CMU.</p>

<p>What are my chances (engineering major) at CMU, MIT, and Tufts?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

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<p>Forgot to mention, i'm a white jewish male.</p>

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<p>With that SAT you are in CMU and Tufts. MIT is tough since you never know what the admissions officers are thinking. Truthfully, their decisions are so random its hard to predict. But you still got a shot at MIT with your ECs, only thing that could hurt is your GPA. Since you appear to have gone upward in grades, it shouldn't hold you back too much. Best of luck!</p>

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<p>I agree. It's only MIT that's up in the air. However, if you don't express interest in Tufts they may reject you on grounds that you may not attend. It's not exactly the coined term "Tufts Syndrome," but it makes sense that the university might not look as favorably towards those that demonstrate a lack of interest, no matter how stellar the applicant.</p>

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<p>Thanks, do you think i may appeal to MIT because of my broad ECs, even if i only get a 2100-2200 on the new sats.
So even though i got very poor grades freshman/soph year, As junior and senior will look good to MIT/others even though my avg gpa may end up at only a 3.1 uw?</p>

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<p>Yes. I'd say you have a decent shot at MIT even though you had a rough start.</p>

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<p>Thanks again- sorry if i sound new, but is it advisable to try early decision at MIT? Does it improve my chances significantly?</p>

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<p>starbot
approx class rank?</p>

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<p>class rank worries me- lower merion is really competitive, i'd say top 30% (300 class)</p>

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<p>I think you probably know the answer for MIT.
You'd have to make a convincing argument for why your gpa was low those first years and I don't know how you would do that.
Unfortunately, although your record is extremely impressive, you have to wonder how many 3.1 uw and 30 percentile kids MIT takes each year regardless of strength of the high school. My guess is not many. I hope I'm wrong, certainly can give it a shot though. CMU and Tufts better chances of course but even there remember 70-80% are from top 10% of their class.
btw MIT is extremely difficult EA (did they switch to ED?) they seem to defer even the strongest applicants to the regular round.</p>

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<p>I meant EA, sorry, I really have no idea of my rank- that was a guess. The high school is top 100 in the nation so the ranks are skewed.<br>
I was thinking ED CMU?</p>

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<p>also regarding tufts- both my parents attended tufts (and my cousin) and my mom is currently a trustee there. does this help a lot? a little?
thanks again:)</p>

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<p>Trustee, I don't think it can get much better than that. Do you get free tuition as well? Or is that only for professors?</p>

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<p>I don't get free tuition, but i get free ebay clothes from Pierre Omidyari;)
How would you rate tuft's engineering program when compared to CMU's? Specifically mechanical and electrical.</p>

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<p>CMU >>>>> Tufts anyday, esp for Electrical Engineering.</p>

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<p>MIT>>>>>CMU :-p</p>

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<p>Ewwwww. Don't even consider Tufts if you are thinking about engineering. CMU and MIT are obviously good. Take a look at Northeastern, BU, WPI, and RPI.</p>

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<p>"Northeastern, BU, WPI, and RPI."</p>

<p>I'm going to RPI next year. Although the school is rated a little bit under Carnegie Mellon, it is an outstanding engineering school offering a lot.</p>

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<p>From what I hear and what I've researched, RPI has an excellent EE program. I wasn't a big fan of the location and the m:f ratio. Otherwise, its a great school, especially for EE/CS.</p>

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<p>You will have a better shot at schools that do not look at your freshmen grades. Other then that, you seem to have some pretty good stuff going for you.</p>

<p>Good Luck</p>

<p>Jerod</p>