Chances at MIT, Princeton, etc

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Currently a rising Junior (class of 2016), I'd like advice on my chances on getting into:
MIT
Princeton
Yale
Harvard
Stanford</p>

<p>I'm a math guy, so most of my EC's are centered around mathematics.</p>

<p>Freshman year (4.0uw/4.67w)
AP Calculus BC-5
AP Physics B-5
AP Chemistry-4
Honors English
Spanish 2
Varsity Baseball</p>

<p>EC's that year:
Varsity Baseball, California State Science Fair- 4th in Mathematics & Software, Published paper in Undergraduate Math journal written under chair of mathematics department at UCR, AP Scholar with Honors, Scholar Athlete</p>

<p>Sophomore year (4.0uw/4.5w)
AP world history
Honors English
Spanish 3
Varsity Baseball</p>

<p>Multivariable Differential Calculus-A
Multivariable Integral Calculus- A
Abstract Algebra-A</p>

<p>Taken at Harvey Mudd College:
Linear Algebra- A
Differential Equations-A</p>

<p>EC's this year:
Member of two Professional Research groups at UCR for post-docs and professors, named the "Fractal Research Group and the "Mathematical Physics and Dynamical Systems" research group. Only high school student in 25+ years of existence</p>

<p>Invited/attended AMS (American Mathematical Society) Sectional Meeting held at UCR by math chair. </p>

<p>Taught AP Calc BC- (I know this sounds strange, but I literally would teach the course for our calc teacher on days he wasn't there. He'd excuse me from class and I'd teach for him for the day)</p>

<p>Tutoring of Harvey Mudd students in Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations</p>

<p>Collaboration with recent UCR post-doc and MIT student on mathematics paper, completed last month.</p>

<p>Professional Seminars given:</p>

<p>"On the theory of Lures with Dynamical Action on Manifolds and Fractal Strings" part one. Fractal Research group, UCR, hour seminar</p>

<p>Part two, Fractal Research group, UCR, hour seminar</p>

<p>Varsity Baseball, Captain as sophomore</p>

<p>Intel ISEF regional sweepstakes award- given to the best overall project in the high school division.</p>

<p>Mu Alpha Theta award for excellence in mathematics- International award given on the basis of individual research in mathematics.</p>

<p>Intel Award for Excellence in Computer Science- Given to a research project in mathematics or computer science.</p>

<p>Intel ISEF 2014 finalist in Mathematics</p>

<p>European Award for CERN Exploration: Given to 12 international students on the basis of their STEM research at Intel ISEF. Includes all-expenses paid trip to Geneva, Switzerland to tour CERN for a week. </p>

<p>Self Studied: Topology, Analysis, Algebraic Topology, Differential Topology</p>

<p>Junior Year Courseload:</p>

<p>AP Language
AP Environmental
AP Bio
AP U.S. History
AP Spanish
Varsity Baseball</p>

<p>Real analysis, Complex Analysis, Partial Differential Equations</p>

<p>At harvey mudd:
Advanced Linear Algebra and Differential Equations
Discrete Mathematics</p>

2

<p>Expected to publish second paper sometime this year, in professional journal.</p>

3

<p>I presume this is all real…with so many very specific details. But why on earth is such a fantastically accomplished young person asking random strangers on the internet? I would expect your contacts at Harvey Mudd would know who at MIT/Stanford/etc to put you in touch with and that you would be highly competitive if not “recruited” by their math departments. It also seems that you would be better served by asking your current mentors where your talents would be best nurtured - as you appear to have incredible potential in mathematics and getting into college should probably not be your primary focus. Instead you should look for the scholarly community which can propel you toward important contributions in your specific area of interest.</p>

4

<p>Agree with above poster</p>

5

<p>I understand. I just wanted some opinions on how to diversify my CV, and make myself more presentable to the elite universities. For example, I seem to lack community service besides tutoring. </p>

6

<p>Passion and focus >>> Diversification. Sure, you could add some community service to your experiences, but your other qualifications appear on track to overshadow community service as a decision factor.</p>

7

<p>Well if anyone has any additional critique to add, I’d be happy to hear it.</p>

8

<p>That 4 in AP Chemistry is going to kill you.</p>

<p>In all honesty I wish I had the drive and opportunities you had. I would be surprised if you didn’t get in. To not get in, you’ll have to mess up the interview and essays badly.</p>

9

<p>Well not to mention I haven’t taken an SAT yet…</p>

10

<p>You are pretty much golden if you score 2300+ on the sat and solid 750+'s on the subject sat’s. My advice to you is to go to Harvard via its adv. standing program and graduate with a ms in 4 yrs. After all you seem to be the type that is willing to accelerate through the coursework. Best of luck!</p>

11

<p>Make sure to take the PSAT in junior year and try to do really well on it! Colleges will be drooling over you and practically flinging money at you to come to their schools!</p>

12

<p>Wow. I’m simply amazed. I’m a math guy too, but holy crap, you’re practically the next Feynman.</p>

<p>Anything you can do to better your chances. Nope. You love what you did, and your application is dripping with passion. You’ll definitely be at the head of the mathematics field in the world if you continue this path you’re taking.</p>

13

<p>Trolllllll Last year you said you had a 2270 on the SAT lol. Try to at least make sure your lie is consistent in all your threads.</p>

14

<p>I considered that a projected score, arse. </p>

15

<p>If anyone else has any <strong>productive</strong> feedback, I’d be happy to listen.</p>

16

<p>How could anyone give productive feedback when this is all fabricated. You are only a sophomore. You can’t possibly expect someone to believe you accomplished all of this. Not even you believe this. But i will remove myself from this thread. I don’t need to waste time here. My verdict? Very far out of reach.</p>

17

<p>If you are being honest, and you really are a sophomore in high school giving lectures to college students, then you wouldn’t even make this thread. But have made this thread, rendering you completely unbelievable. Oh and btw, the fact that you are insulting me is not only warrant to be banned, but it also shows that you are in fact lying because someone who is telling the truth about it wouldn’t get so defensive. I wish you the very best though. Bye.</p>

18

<p>Well kind sir, I haven’t been giving lectures to college students. I’ve been giving seminars to professional research groups. If you’d me to provide you with physical evidence (Harvey Mudd Transcripts, UCR papers, etc) I’ll gladly do so. I’m amazed that you think someone would fabricate information such as the names of research groups, titles of talks, etc. The second seminar was given from 11-12 pm on May 9th, 2014, in room Surge 268, second floor in the math department. Heading the research group is Dr. Michel Lapidus, with organizer graduate student Tim Cobler. The colleague from MIT, his name is Colin Aitken, he’s a sophomore. The recent post-doc from UCR, Michael Maroun. </p>

<p>Will that be all?</p>

19

<p>Get a 2200+ (2300+ even safer) and write a good enough essay and I believe you’re in to any of those colleges. I won’t throw any of that “reach for everyone” BS because you’re clearly qualified enough for those institutions. </p>

20

<p>@PurePhysics Look, just continue what you’re doing. As long as your academics are above a certain standard, universities will be happy to look at your application. After that, it’s just all about finding your passion and focus. You clearly don’t have any motivational problems, and you’ve done a lot already. Just a tip - please don’t think of it as “doing things for universities”. There are more important things in life than university applications. If you want to diversify to try new things, by all means do so and have fun. But if you feel like you’d be better off just sticking to your guns, then <em>do you</em>. What’s the point of becoming another person in order to impress unis?</p>

<p>As a rising senior, I had been stuck with the mentality of “doing things for universities” for a long time around freshman / sophomore year, and thus lost my focus and passion in things I genuinely loved doing. Forget universities for now. Like other posters above, I’d recommend you find better real life mentors to help you with university options, but let that be a minor concern, <em>not</em> the thing that guides your actions. You’ll have more fun and will probably become more successful in HS, anyway. Work hard, play hard, and I wish you a very good junior year!</p>