Chances at Cornell, Stanford, Caltech, Yale

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Yo.</p>

<p>I'm a junior, and I've been driving myself crazy with admisssions chance calculatoins at my top four choices (which I realize range in selectivity that's generally pretty high). </p>

<p>With 80% of the information:</p>

<p>GPA: (Assuming 9th till present, all classes, unweighted) 3.8
(Assuming 9th till present, core classes, unweighted) 3.7 ish
ACT: 28 from 10th grade, I'm taking it again this spring with the intent of 30+
SAT: I'm taking both the SAT I and Subject tests in a couple of months, my PSAT estimated I had a range of 2100 plus with a roughly even distribution in all aspects.
Class rank: Uh, I've gotten most of my Bs as of late in my HS career, but I'm most likely top 10 percent, as I was pretty high last I had the data.</p>

<p>Senior Schedule</p>

<p>Word Processing
AFJROTC AS-IV
Debate IV
AP European History
AP French IV
AP English IV
AP Biology II
AP Calculus BC</p>

<p>Past AP Classes:</p>

<p>AP World History
AP English III
AP US History
AP Calculus AB</p>

<p>I've taken accelerated versions of every other core class, as they don't offer AP till junior year.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars (by graduation):</p>

<p>ROTC (4 years, uniforms 1nce a week, drilling, air force education etc.)
Debate (4 years, over 120 debate rounds, tournaments at about twice a month)
Beta Club (3.5 GPA and 10+ volunteer hours a year to stay)
Play piano-3 years
Arkansas Commitment (state academic organization for high-ranking high school kids)
Student Congress (This was 11th grade, the work spanned about 3 weeks, with about 15 hours of activity in the event the weekend it was held)</p>

<p>Volunteer:</p>

<p>2004--94 hours of my summer at a hospital
2004--15+ hours in one weekend at a school debate tournament
2005--15+ hours in one weekend, same deal
2006--1) Race for the cure, 8+ hours
2) School "garage sale", check ins, 3 hours</p>

<p>Summer work:</p>

<p>3 weeks Cornell summer college
2 weeks Marquette debate camp
Planning on:</p>

<p>6 weeks Cornell, internship somewhere OR 3 weeks Cornell, 3 weeks Stanford debate camp</p>

<p>Question: Will it make that much of a difference if I end up in top 25 percent instead of top 10, and . . . </p>

<p>I gradually make more Bs throughout my career, but am well on my way to all As this semester, will that leap in performance counterbalance the seemingly declining performance? (I'm guessing it's cause my classes got harder)</p>

<p>I appreciate the time, I'll try to clarify anything that I left vague.</p>

<p>My parents are Nigerian, my first language is English.</p>

2

<p>I say maybe a decent shot at cornell or caltech. Your SAT's will need to be higher. Don't bother mentioning those one time 15+ hour things. Consistency is key.</p>

3

<p>Alright, I'll keep that in mind. How high do you recommend the SATs, 700 plus? And I take it by consitency, you mean how often/long? My last two were for the same organization.</p>

4

<p>I disagree with The.End -- you don't seem to have enough demonstrated science and math interest for Caltech. You're very strong in Congress/Debate and such, but Caltech will want to see those math and science competitions, awards, activities, or some other indication of burning love for science.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, that's a really good point. What would you think of my other choices; and would it make a difference if I took the 6 week engineering summer course at Cornell?</p>

6

<p>cornell you have a chance at, the other ones are reaches and really focus on ec's that make you look committed (and talk about them in essays)</p>

7

<p>Better question is, would you be really excited about taking it? Caltech is really not for everyone. Personality-wise, I think you'd do better at a school like Yale than Caltech -- and the feel of those two schools is so very different. Not many people apply to both (unless you're a freak like me). Have you visited?</p>

<p>Cornell looks decent. Which college in Cornell are you applying to? That makes a pretty big difference. Stanford and Yale will be pretty big reaches no matter what. (Unless there are major factors that we don't know about.)</p>

8

<p>I'm interested in the Cornell engineering college; since I don't have a terrible wealth of math/science EC's behind me, I thought the 6 week engineering course might be a good idea for me. Considering the reaches of the three, what type of college would you recommend? Engineering is what I'd like to major in; of any type. I know what you mean by CalTech not being for everyone, I heard from some people that they feel relieved when they go to graduate school, and I read the same thing at their website, I want to consider my list before this summer. (Also, my transcripts show the grades have a downward trend, but they go back to the max around the end.)</p>

9

<p>Look into Carnegie Mellon, UPenn SEAS, Columbia SEAS (Fu Foundation), Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, and Rice. There's a good list of matches and slight reaches.</p>

10

<p>You read my mind, if I'm rejected from my top choice (Cornell), I want to go to college in California. What do you all think of my odds at schools like Vanderbilt, and WashU?</p>

11

<p>Pretty good, I'd think, but I personally didn't do much research on non-coastal schools. Second opinion anyone?</p>

12

<p>The stats you list aren't even close for any of your schools. Try 750 in each area if all else is in plac
yes, as a urm you will get a break, but less so if it's clear you're affluent and can afford expensive summer programs.</p>

13

<p>When you say this, do you mean standardized tests, ECs, or both? GPA, I can't do much about, EC's I'm as committed as I can be, I think. On the URM stuff, I wasn't banking on that, but I didn't know it played a part in considering financial aspects, etc.</p>

<p>As for SATs and ACTs, I'm sure I can do really well and both, as I've been studying for them for a good while, what exactly can/should I improve on most?</p>

14

<p>for SATs, you can raise them about 200 points above your initial score if you work really hard. but then again, took me a year to raise my score that much.
focus on what you have.</p>

<hr>

<p><a href="http://www.admissionchances.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.admissionchances.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

15

<p>Cornell: Slight reach (with only a 2100)
Stanford: Big reach
Caltech: Reach
Yale: Big reach</p>

16

<p>Alright, that's more clear cut. I still have yet to take the SAT, but this April when I take it I'm sure I can do well, so I figure 2250 to 2400 is what I should be shooting for. btw, Thanks for the info.</p>

17

<p>Flippy's assessment is right on the nose here. If you score in the 2100 range, all the Ivies (save Cornell), Stanford, Duke, MIT, CIT and a bunch of similarly highly selective schools are reaches or big reaches. However, there is a bigger bunch of excellent, somewhat less selective schools for which a 2100 would be competitive. Here's a list:</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon
Tufts
Washington and Lee
Emory
Vanderbilt
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Bowdoin
Haverford
Macalester
Davidson
Colby
Univer. Of Southern CA
Colgate
Brandeis
William and Mary
Oberlin
Bates
Tulane
Hamilton
Grinnell
Bard
University of Virginia
Wake Forest
U of C Berkley
Kenyon
Connecticut College
Boston College
University of Richmond
Univ. of Rochester
NYU
Lehigh
Case Western
University of Michigan</p>

<p>The list is a mix. It includes big schools, small schools, univeristies, liberal arts colleges, state schools, science and technology oriented schools, etc. At the very least, you should include some of these schools on your list as matches or even safeties, depending on your SATs, GPA, and class rank.</p>

18

<p>That's a huge list of colleges to choose from, I appreciate the work on that. When I actually take the SAT then, I imagine I want to do much better than 2100. I imagine it would be much better if I got 2250 plus.</p>

19

<p>Cornell = maybe
Yale, Stanford, Caltech = reach</p>

<p>You need to show consistency and passion for your ECs in order for them to outweigh your GPA or SAT scores. However, if you can improve your GPA to a 3.9 and get around 2200 - 2300 on SATs, you'll be set for Cornell and even Caltech.</p>

20

<p>Do you think that the Official SAT guide from collegeboard would be good for that kind of improvement?</p>