Chances for Caltech, CMU SCS, Cornell, Harvey Mudd

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>(Also applying to MIT and Stanford, but those are complete crapshoots...)</p>

<p>Basic info</p>

<p>Asian male from CA, parents' income ~150k, at a competitive public high school with ~500 per class (lots of NMSF, five 2400s in my class, 20+ valedictorians per year, and so on). Many AP classes offered.</p>

<p>Major: Computer Science (or Mathematics/Computer Science)</p>

<p>GPA (UW up to 11th) - 3.95 (B+ in honors chemistry and 11th grade honors English)
GPA (UC) - 4.25
Class Rank/Size: Unranked (UCs say top 9%), class of ~500.
Most rigorous courseload.</p>

<p>SAT I - 2360 (790 CR/800 M/770 W)
SAT II - 800x3 (Math 2, Physics, Chemistry), 780 (US History)</p>

<p>17 AP exams by the end of high school. Highlights:</p>

<p>10th - Physics B (self-study) (5)
11th - Chemistry (5), Computer Science A (self-study) (5), Calculus BC (self-study) (5), Physics C: Mechanics (self-study) (5), Physics C: E&M (self-study) (4)
12th - Biology (self-study), Physics C: E&M (retaking)</p>

<p>Senior course load:</p>

<p>AP English Lit
Government/Economics (required)
Finite/Discrete Math (college credit)
Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra (college credit)
AP Japanese
AP Physics C</p>

<p>Predicting B/B+ in English and Japanese, A for the rest.</p>

<p>Activities</p>

<p>Computer Science Club (Co-President, cofounder) (2011-2012)
TSA-TEAMS (engineering competition) - Varsity Captain (2011)
FIRST Tech Challenge (robotics) (fall 2011)
93 AMC 12 (2011), 102 AMC 10 (2010)
Miscellaenous math/science competitions (2008-2012)
Piano (many years)
Administrator of unofficial school web portal (2009-2012)
AwesomeMath Summer Program (summer 2010)
SSTP (research program) (summer 2011)
Stanford - Machine Learning (fall 2011) (online class)
Introductory CS sequence at local community college (2011-2012)</p>

<p>Honors</p>

<p>National Merit Semifinalist
National AP Scholar
USA Math Talent Search Honorable Mention (2010-2011)
NACLO (North American Computational Lingustics Olympiad) - Invitational round qualifier (2011)</p>

<p>Concerns</p>

<p>1) My grades this semester are lower than they might expect. This is my Japanese teacher's first year of teaching a class with multiple levels (3+AP), but that's not much of an excuse. Will my Bs in English and Japanese make that much of a difference if I want to pursue CS/math?
2) My ECs look sort of weak because I only started to come out of my shell as a junior... Will starting the Computer Science Club this year be viewed as something done just for college apps? (It's not.)</p>

2

<p>bumpin’ it up</p>

3

<p>Test scores great, EC’s are better than ok, although the competition results are about ok-ish for your circumstances. Courseload is also above average, but not stellar for say, MIT or Caltech.</p>

<p>You’re basically in at Harvey Mudd. You’re probably going to get into at least one of Cornell, CMU, Caltech, and MIT, in order of acceptance rates. Reject Stanford, too homogenous of an application with regards to your ethnicity.</p>

4

<p>Stanford does not discriminate against race</p>

5

<p>Match: Harvey Mudd, CMU
Low Reach: Cornell
Medium Reach: CalTech, MIT, Stanford</p>

6

<p>“Stanford does not discriminate against race”</p>

<p>Deferred or Rejected Applicants (with 2300+ and 3.9+) from Stanford REA</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1251082-official-stanford-rea-decisions-class-2016-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/stanford-university/1251082-official-stanford-rea-decisions-class-2016-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>2310: 800-800-770: 4.0UW: Asian Male
2340: 800-790-750-750: 3.9UW: Asian Male
2380: 800-800-800: 4.0UW: Asian Male
2360(35): 800-800-770: 3.9UW: Asian Male
2300: 800-750: 3.92UW: Asian Female
2380: 800-800-790-780: 4.0UW: Asian Female
2380: 800-750: 4.0UW: Asian-White Female
2380: 800-790-710: 4.0UW: Asian Male
2310: 800-770: 3.9UW: White Male
2320(35): 800-800: 3.9UW: Asian Male</p>

7

<p>You have better stats than I do, and my selectivity ratings for the schools we are both applying to, on a scale of 1-5 (5 is hardest) are:</p>

<p>CMU 2 (varies on program, though)
HMC 3
Cornell 3</p>

<p>Since your stats are better than mine, I’d say you have a pretty good chance at all of those schools. I don’t know much about CMU or Cornell, but I’d say you seem to be a pretty good fit for HMC.</p>

8

<p>You say that you have a very rigorous courseload and that your school offers many APs, but then almost all of your APs are self-study. What classes did you take in school(as in not self-study)? It may reflect strangely in your transcript and school profile. I would make sure that it’s clear as to what you did in high school in your applications.</p>

9

<p>Sorry about the late response.</p>

<p>@people who chanced for CMU: Do consider that CMU SCS admissions is harsher than admissions for the math/science/engineering schools.</p>

<p>@caroline: Here’s my course load.</p>

<p>9th
Honors English
Honors Geometry
Honors Biology
Health/Geography
Japanese 1
PE</p>

<p>10th
Honors English
Honors Algebra 2/Trig
Honors Chemistry
World History
Japanese 2
PE
(self-studied precalc)</p>

<p>11th
Honors English
AP Statistics
AP Chemistry
AP US History
Japanese 3
AP Music Theory
(self-studied Calc BC, got a 5)</p>

<p>12th
AP English Lit
Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra
Finite/Discrete Math
AP Physics C
Economics/Government
AP Japanese</p>

<p>Rigorous enough, I think. (The math self-studies are there to explain how my classes went from Algebra 2 to AP Stats to Multivariable Calculus.)</p>