Chances at MIT & other top schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm applying to MIT; Caltech; UC Berkeley/LA/Davis; Cornell; U Mich; Duke; Rice; Carnegie Mellon;</p>

<p>So what're my chances? Also should I consider NOT applying to any. Not because I wouldn't get in mind you, but because you don't feel I'd be a match there. The college admissions process absolutely sucks.</p>

<p>Already got into Georgia-Tech, but the way they seem to have handled the admissions process really turns me off them despite having a good ranking in engineering. I hate rankings now.</p>

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<p>Prospective Major: Mechanical Engineering; Second choice: CS & EE; I'd double major if I could....</p>

<p>Background. Low income family ~$10,000; North Charleston, SC;
Asian/White, however despite a genetic advantage in DDR I consider myself caucasian. (Don't let the scholarship people hear that.) Also genetically superior because I was born without wisdom teeth.</p>

<p>I go to Bishop England which is arguably (depending on how you argue) the best parochial school in SC, if not the best school. I'm fairly certain someone dropped out running AI in BE and graduated with an IB diploma somewhere else.</p>

<p>SAT: 700CR 800M 640W;
SAT II: 800IIC 790Phys 740Lit
GPA: ~4.7 on a 5.0 scale
Rank: 9 of 197
APs: US Hist 4; AB Comp Sci 4 (We didn't have the course in school so I took it on my own. +2 brownie points for intitiative.)</p>

<p>Course Load:
AP American Gov.
AP BC Calculus (Class of 5 people, heh)
AP Physics II
AP Bio II
AP English IV
H Theology
H Econ.</p>

<p>Top few ECs:
Wrestling 4 years; I suck, and plan to say I suck;
Karate 2 years; Red belt, quit a few months before Black Belt to wrestle because wrestling was harder for me and there was a schedule conflict between the two;
NHS: 3 years;
Math Meet: 2 years; Scored 2nd place team competition for state. Missed Junior year due to mono;</p>

<p>Track 1 year: This is good. Description includes quitting because most of the team joined because it was the easiest sport that we had and they wanted to add an EC.</p>

<p>Awards:
National Merit Semi-Finalist with a 222;
Honor Roll/Various Departmental Awards;
Math Meet^
Wofford Scholar (Schoolwide award)</p>

<p>Hobbies:
Potato Gunning (Pretty darn involved too.)
Web Design/Web Programming/Normal Programming
Origami
Crochet (Here's an interesting hobby for a guy.)</p>

<p>Essays:
Darn good in my opinion. My writing skills aren't great though. Topics include:
1)Construction of a potato gun (unintended pipe bomb). Don't laugh, serious engineering can go into these things. Check out the hybrids at spudtech.com.</p>

<p>2)Why Engineering?: Being poor my family has to fix everything ourselves => Therefore I grew up as MacGuyver => I'm glad I grew up poor.</p>

<p>3)Discuss an Issue of Local Concern (Education): Half of my friends are dropouts. (The other half includes someone who swears he could make sarin if he wanted too. They get mentioned to show I don't just hang out with dropouts. Great guys though.) Gives me a nice discussion on the state of SC's public education. How some schools are bending the rules to fake achievement under pressure from the gov.</p>

<p>3b) Longer versions also include how studying for the SAT is encouraged through SAT competitions is bad, and how my school doesn't prepare for the math meet so a win better reflects on the actual school, not the team. Also mentioned is how I never bothered studying for the SAT.</p>

<p>Lastly on my Rice Application on the fill this box with something that appeals to you, I taped a collapsible origami box containg a insect made out of a computer chip with two resistors as antennae. Writen outside the box is a small note whining about how a 2D box really isn't a box, but a square. I seriously like Rice just for that box.</p>

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<p>Anyway what's got me concerned is the lack of clear leadership: president, chairman, etc. as well as the lack of quantatative awards/achievements, and also the lack of work experience. Also my class rank might be an issue especially at MIT.</p>

<p>I've also got a few ugly grades. High C in U.S. History, Medium C in English, Low C in Econ. Econ. I can explain because I missed 2 weeks of the class at the beginning of the year (switched courses) and another week later (sickness).</p>

<p>Also for the UCs, I didn't have the requisite art course, so one of my essays was about how I'm active in digital art. I actually qualified for admission by exam alone, but at the time I didn't have my SAT II's. I've make a couple of nice 3D renders if anyone wants a look. Check them out on my yet to be finished site: <a href="http://www.phoenixlabs.info/index.php?id=art%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.phoenixlabs.info/index.php?id=art&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My last concern is the writing score. Thank goodness collegeboard made this section controversial with the ignore all factual errors aspect. I actually considered writing about the significance of the recent invasion of the US by albino pygmies from Madagascar on my life.</p>

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<p>I'm relying on the sheer randomness of the activities I have done well in and/or consider important. I mean, MIT's a reach for everyone, so after a point it's just making yourself unique that gets you in. Honestly, how many people have used a tropical plant as a christmas tree (while near a small pine forest) and are happy to get PVC as a present? Besides, if a school can't accept a person who likes potato guns I don't want to go there.</p>

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<p>I seem to have rambled on a little, but since a lot of you actually enjoy reading these I figured: "Why not?" It's not like you get paid. Unless you do, then I want in.</p>

<p>Happy Christmahanukwanzaka everyone.</p>

2

<p>
[quote]
I'm relying on the sheer randomness of the activities I have done well in and/or consider important.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Everything I've read indicates schools are looking for "passion". Your numbers put you in play but your list of schools is tough. If you can't see yourself happy with Ga Tech, you might want to add some more likely schools to the mix.</p>

3

<p>You should do well at most, but I don't think there are enough mat/science achievements for the ITs, and you'll have a hard time with weak ECs at Duke.</p>

4

<p>Well, to be honest I'd be happy anywhere I go, so I'm fine with going to GA-Tech. I just don't like their admissions department. But thanks for the advice guys; I'm more than just a little paranoid right now. <em>cry</em></p>

5

<p>UCLA/UCB: Safe Match
UCD: Safety</p>

6

<p>cross MIT off your list</p>

7

<p>I like your essay idea on how being poor, you had to fix everything yourself. That's really cool and unique.</p>

8

<p>Paulus, why on earth are you telling him to cross MIT off his list? He totally has a fighting chance there!</p>

9

<p>I dont' think he stands a chance.</p>

10

<p>God, there are perhaps at most 2 other schools i would take for engineering over Georgia Tech. You cant miss with tech engineering.</p>

11

<p>I don't have wisdom teeth either.</p>

12

<p>MIT; 15-30%
Caltech; 25-40%
UC Berkeley/LA/Davis; Accepted
Cornell; Probably Accepted
U Mich; Accepted
Duke; 30-50%
Rice; Probably Accepted
Carnegie Mellon; Probably Accepted</p>

13

<p>hmm ok... i'm not sure unlike many people on here that UCB or LA would accept you. they can be pretty random sometimes. they have a way of overlooking things on the application and sometimes accept underqualified people. so i can't guarantee acceptance for you.</p>

<p>i would say, some of your hobbies are rather interesting... the potato gunning and the origami. i must admit your Rice origami thing is very impressive.</p>

<p>i'm not sure the potato gunning would help you.</p>

<p>the lack of leadership will definitely hurt you. and i think the fact you are from a low-income family will help you, but if you overwrite it all over your app, it might be a negative.</p>

<p>good chances at CMU, Cornell and UMich. i can't guarantee some schools like the UCs, because as i said before, they are a bit unpredictable (even though you are qualified).</p>

<p>i think your Cs will hurt you from getting into MIT or Cal Tech. I'm sorry but i think you don't have a chance at MIT or Caltech. Just my opinion.</p>

<p>good luck!!</p>

14

<p>If finances are an issue for you, I'd consider not applying to UCB and/or Duke.</p>

<p>Also, I think you'd have a better chance at MIT than Caltech because MIT weighs your academic record and your personal qualities/characteristics most heavily.</p>

<p>I think UCB will be a reach because you're out of state and you don't have the strongest scores/GPA.</p>

<p>Finally, Duke will be difficult because your location (unlike in the case of the other schools) won't give you an advantage.</p>

15

<p>Wow, thanks a lot for all the help. Why would UCB/Duke be bad, do they just not offer good financial aid?</p>

<p>Paulus, I actually think I stand more of a "fair" chance at MIT, which is why I'm applying. Granted it's still a reach, but it's worth a shot.</p>

<p>Anyway, I'm probably going to reconsider Duke. As I would rather go to most others, the Duke app. stemmed more from a fear of being rejected from the others. My final decision will pretty much be based off of college visits, and financial aid offered, though I wouldn't mind taking out even a sizeable loan to pay for a school I like.</p>

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<h1>The following is about why potato gunning is an excellent topic for Mech E.</h1>

<p>The potato gunning will help, trust me. Despite the bad vibe the name gives off, safely making a hybrid gun demands an awful lot of work, and combines a lot of skills. Because PVC isn't designed to be used in a gun you've got to do an awful lot of testing & design to make sure you don't die. </p>

<p>Besides the guns don't have to be used to shoot potato's. They can be used to lob T-Shirts at baseball games, used as a net launcher, antenna launcher, etc.</p>

<p>Here's a short list of stuff that was involved:
Design/construction of a high voltage generator;
Estimating maximum pressures/velocity via chemistry;
Calculating fuel/air mixtures;
Construction of a ballistic pendulum;
Construction of a low pressure vacuum pump;</p>

<p>Then after that comes the actual testing:
Destructive testing of the chamber; (Mwahaha!)
Testing of various rupture disks;
Comparison of the benefits of evacuating the air from the barrel, and lubrication of the barrel;</p>

<p>And because the construction of a gun is limited to available materials with the goal of making everything as cheap as safely possible, almost every aspect of the gun is unique in some way. The one I'm actually writing about took at least a year of designing and collecting free/cheap parts over time.</p>

<p>Does the passion/dedication seem to seep through yet?</p>

16

<p>i do see your dedication. but the problem is:</p>

<p>you have to seep that passion through to your application reader WITHOUT confusing/boring them.</p>

<p>sorry if that sounded mean, but many of my friends who do very specialized things tend to go off on a tangent and confuse many of us (people who have no idea what he's talking about).</p>

17

<p>hmm maybe now i don't think you should cross MIT or Cal Tech off your list.</p>

<p>they would be interested in that kind of engineering type of things.</p>

<p>just make sure to explain it well.</p>

18

<p>hmm the thing that really concerns me right now is that you don't have much about science in your ECs. sure you have math league, but do you have any medals other than the state one?</p>

<p>and i think it would've been more helpful if you took more AP stuff in your junior year and taken the AP test then.</p>

<p>and i don't think wrestling or track will help you with Cal Tech or MIT people. i think they would need to see more math/sci olympiad things.</p>

<p>but hey, i think you have a pretty good chance.</p>

19

<p>(refering to the first post), you have to remember that these people aren't all scientists. (the admissions people) i mean.</p>

<p>i hope i didn't sound too harsh.</p>

20

<p>xXPhoenixFireXx:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Match (Engineering, out of state)
UCD: Safety (out of state)</p>