Chances at Harvard, Yale, Princeton

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, I would appreciate your evaluations of my chances of being admitted to one of these schools. My test scores are somewhat worrisome, but I'm hoping that my EC's will help me.</p>

<p>SAT: 2280 (740M, 740R, 800W) - when top scores used from 2 test administrations</p>

<p>SAT II Chemistry: 730
Biology, Math IIC to be taken</p>

<p>AP scores:
World History: 5, US History: 4, Biology: 5, Statistics: 4, Spanish: 4</p>

<p>PSAT: 229</p>

<p>GPA: unweighted 4.0</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
2005 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Arizona: Best of the Microbiology Category (top 1st place) from an initial worldwide pool of millions of science fair competitors
- to compete I had to win school, regional, and state fairs</p>

<p>2004 Intel ISEF in Oregon: finalist in Biochemistry
- to compete I had to win school and regional fairs</p>

<p>2005 Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in California: 1st presenter representing Virginia
-to get there I had to win 1st across all categories at the VA state symposium</p>

<p>-MIT will name a comet after me in recognition of being a top young scientist</p>

<p>-Many smaller science and math awards
-webmaster of county-wide United Way website
-Working with geneticist at NIST (paper soon to be submitted for publication, but probably won't be accepted by time of application to colleges)
-Volunteer for a program for which I take care of disabled children to give their parents a break
-Collected thousands of fossils (donated several to a museum, participated in digs with another museum)
-Chairman on the Executive Board of SGA
-Clubs at school include Environmental Club (member since sophomore year, will have leadership role in school and the town), Science Olympiad Team (member of 2nd ranked team in the state, 2 silver medals in state finals), Envirothon Team (won some awards), math league (won 1 of 2 awards for top performers at my school)
-play the violin for personal enjoyment, but not as a member of an orchestra
-used to work at Friendly's Ice Cream Parlor</p>

<p>Thank you</p>

2

<p>
[quote]
-MIT will name a comet after me in recognition of being a top young scientist

[/quote]
</p>

<p>are you serious? why's your chemistry sat II score a 730 if you're a top scientist? are you sure it wasn't a scam?
does MIT even have the right to name comets?</p>

3

<p>10% chance.</p>

4

<p>Your awards are great! However, it seems kinda awkward that a person who advanced to ISEF in biochemistry would score only a 730 on the chemistry SAT II.
By the way, ISEF is not an EC, its more of an award.</p>

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<p>I counted 77 grant awards in Microbiology at Intel. What was your topic?</p>

6

<p>My question to you is: why go to school?</p>

7

<p>
[Quote]

does MIT even have the right to name comets?

[/Quote]
</p>

<p>I WAS GONNA ASK SAME QUESTION!!! MIT is a good science school not NASA. How the hell someone would pick a young scientist with your scores, no offense but if a comet was gonna name with your name that means you're really bright and the perfect number on tests would not be enough to give you as a reward.<br>
Also I don't understand you if MIT admires you so much why the hell would you want to go to Harvard, Yale Princeton when MIT is as good as them and way better in science ?</p>

<p>PS. Chances? If the comet is right which I doubt it is not, then every school would want you because when they name the comet your name will fly through the papers and so the name of the school, however if that is not true then I would say 15%</p>

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<p>Thanks for the posts. I'm not happy with the sat 2 chem score, but I hadn't taken ap chem in school or anything. I might retake it when I take the other 2 sat 2's this october. MIT's Lincoln Observatory has discovered several comets and decided to name them after students with the best projects at the ISEF.</p>

<p>The ISEF category of biochemistry is quite inclusive (my project focused on genetics and computer science). My 2004 project was a study of the human genome using Java programs. </p>

<p>My 2005 project was the development of a viral genome identification application to ID unknown strains of viruses. It's value is in speeding up the development of vaccines. For instance, if a strain of the flu begins killing people very quickly in the US, the virus' genome can be sequenced and run through my program, which might determine that there was a very similar strain in Japan 2 years ago. Maybe the vaccine for that strain could be modified slightly to work against the current strain, saving time and lives. That project won the top prize in microbiology in the ISEF.</p>

<p>Here's the news release of the prize if anyone cares (my last name is schwank):
<a href="http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20050513edu.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20050513edu.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I'm more interested in HYP because I get the feeling that MIT's biology program isn't very good, and my brother goes to Yale if that is considered a minor legacy.</p>

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<p>"I get the feeling that MIT's biology program isn't very good"</p>

<p>. . . really. you're judging by feeling?</p>

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<p>You Are In!</p>

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<p>I would be surprised if you were rejected.</p>

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<p>just checked the website..thats a great achievement!!<br>
congrats, !!</p>

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<p>if im reading this (<a href="http://www.ss.astro.umd.edu/IAU/csbn/cnames.shtml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ss.astro.umd.edu/IAU/csbn/cnames.shtml&lt;/a&gt;) correctly, MIT can't name a comet after you.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I get the feeling that MIT's biology program isn't very good

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Maybe you should do a little more college research. MIT has one of the top biological departments in the nation along with top notch research and laboratory facilities. It is strong in all sciences. US News ranks MIT as tied for #2 with Harvard and Berkeley in biological sciences. One of the top biology researchers/professors, Philip Sharp, who won the Nobel Prize in 1993 conducts research at MIT. But the point i'm trying to get at is that MIT's biology dept is comparable or even better than those of HYP's.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the input everyone. I probably should do some more college research. I guess I always thought of MIT as an engineering/physics school and Harvard as a school that does more in biology, but maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure that MIT will name a comet after me.. unless they were lying :0( , which I don't think is very likely.</p>

<p>This summer I had been planning on doing more scientific research for contests like the Intel Science Talent Search. But if top schools care more about standardized test scores, maybe I should devote more time to studying for those. I'm starting to get nervous about college admissions, and applications don't go out for several months.</p>

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<p>Research is your niche. Pursue it. Tell Harvard you couldn't spend time memorizing the equation for osmotic pressure because you were busy winning the most recognized international science fair for youth. They'll understand.</p>

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<p>congrats dude</p>

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<p>I heard Princeton won't admit you unless you've discovered a disease, had it named after you, contracted it, and then found a cure for it.</p>

<p>Anyway, about comet nomenclature, check out what Wikipedia has to say: Comet</a> Nomenclature. It gets interesting towards the end, where it says "Halley's Comet, the first comet to be identified as periodic, has the systemic designation 1P/1682 Q1". Unless your name is actually "23P/2005 Q3" or something like that, I don't know if they'll name a comet after you.</p>

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<p>I think they name an asteroid not a comet after you.</p>

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<p>Here is the link where MIT describes the comet naming.</p>

<p><a href="http://web.mit.edu/annualreports/pres02/05.00.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/annualreports/pres02/05.00.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>"Lincoln Laboratory joined with the nonprofit Science Service to begin the Ceres Connection activity that honors students in fifth through twelfth grades and their teachers in the naming of minor planets. The students and teachers are selected through the Science Service competitions, the Discovery Youth Science Challenge, Intel Science Talent Search, Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and Intel Excellence in Teaching Award. "</p>