Chances at Stanford REA or MIT EA -- both tied as my first choice--which should i go for?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Leaning toward MIT EA (unless i bomb the Chem SAT) since I can apply to other top schools early also. What do you all think?

GPA UW: 3.98 (screwed around in damm studio art class sophomore yr and got B lol)
No Rank, but I’m guessing top 1-2% if we did
SAT: 800 Math, 780 Reading, 750 Writing (10 essay)
SAT II: 800 Math Lvl2, 790 USH, 770 World History, 740 Spanish
Gonna take Chem SAT this fall (expecting mid-700s)

AP Classes with Scores (no score means I’m taking it for senior year)
AP Calc BC: 5
AP World History: 5
AP Lang: 5
AP USH: 5
AP Spanish Lang: 4
AP US Gov: 5
AP Chem: 5
AP Music Theory (self-studied): 5
AP Physics C E/M
AP Physics C Mech
AP Lit
AP Microecon
AP Macroecon
AP Stat
AP Comparative Gov
Also doing dual-enrollment in multivar calc at a comm college near my house

EC’s:

  1. Clarinet: All-State 2x (from the big state of TX), All-district 3x, regular participation in volunteer ensembles

  2. Boy Scouts: Eagle Scout with 1 palm; several intense high adventure treks (won’t ID for security reasons, but impressive IMO and were featured in a neighborhood newspaper for doing these); Senior Patrol Leader for 12 months (Scout-aged leader for entire troop); regular community service

3a) Varsity XC 4 years: random regional awards
3b) Varsity Track 4 years: random regional awards

…then some random club memberships that prolly won’t matter

Work Experience:
-Worked at Music Store near house as cashier after soph year
-Interned/Shadowed at private equity company for 8 weeks after junior year (learned basic accounting and corp fin as well)

Planning on majoring in chemical engineering with a business-related minor/certificate. Ultimately, I wanna go into either management consulting, private equity/venture capital, or some type of job that combines science/engineering and business (and pays well lol).

Recs: Gonna go to Calc BC teacher for 1, AP Lang Teacher for 2nd, then additional supplemental rec from either clarinet teacher or scoutmaster

Essays:

  1. Common App: Gonna talk about my experiences in Boy Scouts and how they led to my interest in business
  2. Supplements: Talk about my passion for music and how it has evolved since I was ~7 years old
2

Your baseline academic credentials are impeccable. Your ECs are ok, but not outstanding, unless your music is really, really good. I could see you getting into either place, or neither. They both have a 9-10% early admission rate, though MIT defers a much larger percentage than Stanford.

Are you going to apply to Jerome Fisher M&T as well?

3

Chances look good - but don’t count on anything too much (I’m 3.9 gpa, 35 act, x2 all state bass clarinet, x3 all district clarinet, research experience, and rejected MIT, waitlisted Harvard/Yale, but in retrospect I’m a much better fit for Northeastern, who gave me a nice scholarship)

In re. picking between MIT and Stanford, I strongly encourage looking at the campuses. do you prefer San Francisco or Boston?

4

These are distinct colleges and you should apply to the one you prefer. I don’t know why you have to post your stats, two top colleges, very difficult admissions.

5

I’m leaning Stanford.