Hi everyone! any response is greatly appreciated!
I am currently looking to apply to universities through both the QuestBridge application (I am a college prep scholar) and the Common app.
My top Questbridge schools are: 1. MIT 2. Yale 3. Columbia 4. Brown 5. Upenn 6. Rice 7. Duke 8. Stanford 9. Vanderbilt 10. Notre Dame
My top Common app (or all the other schools I will be applying to alongside the QuestBridge schools if I do not get matched) are: Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon Georgia Tech UT Austin
Intended Major: Computer engineering
Race/location: one of the poorest parts of Texas, Hispanic Male, First Generation student
(Freshman and Sophomore years in regular high school, junior and senior year at a college prep academy)
GPA: 4.0/4.0 unweighted GPA, I attend a high school where I take university courses. I have a 104.84/100 and around what I estimate to be a 5.0/5.0 weighted GPA (My transcript shows all final average A’s only a few high B midterm grades)
Class rank: 20/172 in a highly competitive school (we do not have a national rank
though) and it should go to the teens hopefully single digit next ranking cycle.
Test scores (In my opinion the weakest section of my application): 1250 (Top score 660 Math 590 reading), 1240 (2x) and 1100 SAT’s. 29 (Top score, 34E 28M 30R 24S) and 28 ACT’s. I am hoping to get a 32 next test with 700 on Math 1 + 2 and Chemistry SAT subject tests.
Coursework includes dual classes (Introduction to engineering design, principles of engineering, aerospace engineering, Spanish, alg 2) 1 AP, world history (Did not pass AP test, should I include the score anyways in my apps???) and over 12 college courses which include Precal, calc 1, gen bio, gen chem, US hist 1 and 2, rhetoric and comp 1 and 2, US Pols and Texas Pols, Statistics, and I will be taking calc 2 and calc 3, differential equations, physics for scientists and engineers 1 and 2 and a few computer engineering courses
Extracurriculars/awards and accolades: (most of them, I left out a few to keep it concise)
Science Fair sophomore year: 1st place Robotics and Intelligent Machines Regional level Office of Naval Research Award and Airforce Award
Science Fair Junior Year: 1st place Regional Science and Engineering fair
Technology Students association sophomore year: 1st place Regional Systems Control Technology 4th place Regional Animatronics 3rd place Regional VEX Robotics
3rd place State Systems Control Technology 4th place State Animatronics
9th place State VEX Robotics 9th place Nationals Animatronics
2019 QuestBridge College Prep Scholar
Junior year chess club member (Taught by national collegiate champion coach)
Summer Programs:
2017-2018 Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership Delegate
2017-2018 Code @ TACC Connected DesignSafe
2018-2019 State of Young People National Delegate
2018-2019 Code @ TACC Cybersecurity
2018-2019 Youth Leadership Institute at the University of Chicago
Leadership experience includes Student council president, sophomore webmaster, HOSA reporter, Youth board member for a city cleaning organization
Volunteer work: around 120 hours
Work experience: Unpaid internship refurbishing desktops and laptops (around 200 hrs)
I’ll be working on my essays and making them very personal to me (Some potential topics include how bad my classmates’ mentality are(partying etc) using the Da Vinci Surgical System what got me into engineering and what motivates me)
Thank you, any reply means a lot, please be 100% brutally honest!
If Rice is on your list, you should also apply for the Rice SOAR fall fly in program. https://admission.rice.edu/soar
It seeks out talented under represented minorities and first generation students. Application is due August 5. See this thread for more discussion of SOAR. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/rice-university/2149631-soar-2019.html#latest
If your tests scores don’t come up substantially this is an unrealistic list of schools.
If you are a Texas resident with your class rank, are you an auto admit for UT Austin? It may be only the top 6 percent are auto admits now. Do you have other safety schools?
FYI: UC Berkeley does not use the Common App. All UCs use a separate UC application instead.
You have good grades in hard classes, why don’t your test scores match? Do you have test anxiety? You might also consider UChicago and go test-optional route. And disparaging your classmates in an essay is a no-no.
Ah yes, I will be applying to SOAR! I think it should give me a good opportunity to see Rice and determine how it feels in person, thanks!
That’s what I was afraid of, I will be taking the ACT’s again in September looking for a 32, would that increase my chances at getting into these universities?
Because my school only has 172 students, top 6% is around top 12 students, I am currently top 11% and I hopefully will have increased my gpa enough to meet that requirement. I haven’t checked so much into safety schools, though I think I meet the average act for university of illinois at urbana-champaign and I am 1 point below Georgia Tech, are there any engineering focused (or any schools with a good engineering program) you reccomend?
Uchicago, though how much I loved the campus on the tour I took, does not have my major, per why I listed most of the schools I did. I am not too sure on what the best route for improving my test scores are. I really cannot pay for a tutor or online service, so I have tried taking practice tests (Act mainly). I can meet the September 14th act deadline (As I am applying through Questbridge) and the August Act subject tests (Math 1 and 2 and Chemistry). I think what is limiting my test scores is making illogical mistakes. On practice tests, I was averaging 30s on the math section and high 20s on science yet I got a 28 math and 24 science. Do you have any recommendations on how I should go about raising my test score?
OOS flagships are very competitive, especially for engineering. Generally speaking, engineering stats are much higher than the school’s overall averages, and even more so for out of state applicants. Look in state for safeties.
Would raising my scores to a 32 give me a shot at getting into a few schools on my list? I’ve tried studying (Though it proved ineffective) by reviewing concepts etc.
When taking my ACT’s again (July 13th) I tried taking a ton of practice tests (As I only had a week to prepare due to procrastination) and I was able to improve my score by 1 . I think with almost 2 months I should be able to raise it up by 3 points to a 32, hopefully, better. Any recommendations?
Test score-wise I will try to get a 32 by taking practice tests and trying to find my typical mistakes. What are my odds with Ut Austin and Rice in your opinion? I don’t meet UT’s ranking instant admit as I am top 11% (Hopefully it will go lower when they release my next rankings)
Berkeley is 65,000 a year for OOS and no financial/merit aid.
Try standardized test review via Khan Academy. Right now those SAT/ACT scores are not going to pass muster with the majority of schools on your list.
If SAT was slightly higher I would add Rochester and Case Western to your list.
Khan Academy ACT/SAT prep is free BTW.
Also agree with the previous post about not mentioning your classmates. You could mention your own circumstances and how you overcame them, but it’s bad form to point out individuals.
Work with the free Khan academy program on-line and try to pull up your test scores. Procrastination is your enemy. Put in the work every day if you want to raise your scores. Here is a breakdown of Rice’s stats for the Class of 2022. The other schools on your list probably have similar or better stats. You need to add some affordable safety schools to your list that will accept you with your current scores. Many Texas state schools have rolling admissions so you could have some safeties in your pocket as process unfolds. Look at University of Houston, Texas State, UTEP, UT Dallas, UTSA, etc. https://admission.rice.edu/apply/freshman/admission-statistics
Update: Proud to say I was QuestBridge Matched to Columbia University!