Chances for ED? How about RD?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>I need some serious suggestions as to whether apply ED to Princeton (versus EA to both MIT and Caltech, and then RD to Pton)</p>

<p>Background
Location: New York State
School: Suburban and pretty decent public school (2 valedictorians in a row went to Pton)
Background: the typical female Asian immigrant (moved to US a decade ago)</p>

<p>Stats & Scores</p>

<p>GPA & Rank: 4.0 UW, 4.8 W for junior year (beat school record XD, yeah grade inflation!!!), 1st in class of 250
SAT I: 2310 - 800V 780M 730W in 2 sittings (retake was a disaster, barely helped)
SAT II: 790 Physics, 800 Math II, 800 US History
APs: 5 European (10th Grade), 3 French Lang (nevermind...), 5 BC Calc (AB Class in school), 5 Physics B, 5 Physics C:Mech (self-study), 5 US His, 5 Psych (self-study), 5 Environmental Sci (self-study), 5 Human Geo (self-study)
Next Year's AP Classes: Physics C:E&M (self-study), English Lit, Chem, Bio, French Lit, Economics, US Gov't, Statistics, and maybe Computer Sci AB
Other Classes: Have been in a math program @ local uni for "gifted" MS/HS math students since 7th grade, so racked up a sizable amount of college credits. Quit it this senior year to pursue Calculus at a quicker pace. Taking Calc 2 this summer at uni. (pales in comparison to sophmores who get 5's on BC calc )</p>

<p>EC's and Awards</p>

<p>**Volunteering<a href="10,%2011,%20%5B12%5D">/b</a>
175+ hrs w/local volunteer program in 2005, still doing a lot this year
"Volunteer of the Year" Award
President's Volunteer Service Award - Silver (175 ~ 249 hrs)
Advisory Board (11, [12])</p>

<p>**Music<a href="9,%2010,%2011,%20%5B12%5D">/b</a>
Concertmistress of Chamber group (11, [12])
Concertmistress of HS orchestra next year
President of Orchestra Board
A+ Solo Evaluation in Violin level 5/6 with different organizations (9-11)
All-County Music Festivals (9-12)
[Fingers crossed, Conference All-State Orchestra this year]</p>

<p>Science & Math
Science Olympiad (9 (MS Team), 10, 11, [12])
- Regional medals, and States 2nd place in Physics Lab in a very competitive SO state
Lab Assistant w/Physics Dept next year
Bausch&Lomb Award (highest sci award in school)
AIME Qualifier, highest AMC score in school</p>

<p>Other Important Stuff
Editor-in-Chief - School Newspaper (9-Contributor, 10-Editor, 11-EiC, 12-EiC), plan to convert into bi-weekly next year
Steering Committee - Youth Court (11, [12])
Treasurer - French Club (9-12), Co-President next year (what irony, with an AP 3)
Treasurer - FBLA, Bookstore Manager next year
President - NHS
Super Teen Award - NextStep Magazine
Varsity Tennis Team (9-12)
[National AP Scholar w/current AP scores]</p>

<p>I plan to go either engineering or medical (neuroscience), with some philosophy on the side. I'm simply not sure of my chances at my target schools and I need to know my early chances. Will ED for me make a difference for acceptance? Thanks for your input!!</p>

2

<p>Your chances ED will be better than RA, if only because in ED, they can take you if they like you, while in RA they have to start worrying about the composition of the class and running out of available slots.</p>

<p>Princeton is trying very hard to increase the number of women faculty and students in the sciences and engineering. See </p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/president/pages/20031105/index.xml%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/president/pages/20031105/index.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>and</p>

<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/reports/sciencetf/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.princeton.edu/pr/reports/sciencetf/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You ought to be able to spin this to your advantage. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks, hbarns, for your advice! I'll put down "mechanical engineer" as my future major then ;)</p>

<p>Would my ethnicity hurt me in the application process?</p>

4

<p>My question is, which is your first choice school? You should choose your top school first, then decide whether or not to apply early because especially with Princeton ED, if you are accepted, you must matriculate. It might be tempting to apply early solely to improve admissions chances, but really, with ED you have to truly truly know Princeton is the school for you. Princeton, MIT, and Caltech are all vastly different. That being said, it may help to apply ED to Princeton, which fills around half of it's incoming class ED. MIT though, has a cap of 30% on the incoming class being accepted early so its EA acceptance rate is lower than its overall acceptance rate! Here are some ED/EA stats from the high school graduating class of 2006 below that you might find useful. I couldn't find Caltech's easily, I apologize.</p>

<p>Princeton University</p>

<p>Up 9% with 2,236 early decision applicants this year (2039 last year), offering admission to 599 students (26.8% acceptance rate).</p>

<p>Overall, Princeton offered admission to 1792 students out of a record 17,563 for a 10.2% acceptance rate (down from 10.9% last year). For regular decision alone, 1193 students were accepted out of 15,327 (including deferred students) for a regular decision acceptance rate of 7.8% (8.4% last year). </p>

<p>MIT</p>

<p>Up 10% from last year early action. 377 admitted out of 3098 (admit rate of 12.2%). 2,502 applicants were deferred and 216 were denied admission.</p>

<p>A total of only 13% of MIT applicants were accepted, a record low for the admission office. A total of 11,373 applicants applied, 1474 of whom were accepted. The acceptance rate for international students was only 4% (107/2575). 52% of the admits are male, 48% female.</p>

<p>And good luck! You look like a strong candidate who worked hard to get to where you are. Congratulations.</p>

5

<p>I'll love to go to either school, but obviously, I need to get into one of them. So you recommend Princeton then? Thanks!</p>

6

<p>Princeton's rank 1 in US News.</p>

<p>Princeton > *</p>

<p>apply!</p>

7

<p>Wow. That looks exactly like my future stats, other than the fact that I'll never be able to qualify for the AIME because I'm too bad at math...
good luck!</p>