<p>Hi, I was just wondering what my chances are for top engineering programs (Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Michigan, Wisconsin, etc)</p>
<p>I am an adopted asian female living in Washington DC</p>
<p>GPA: 4.4 W/3.97 UW</p>
<p>Class Rank: Top 5%</p>
<p>AP's Taken: So far 8 (AP Spanish Lang, AP Spanish Lit, AP World History, AP US History, AP Chemistry, AP Econ (micro/macro) AP English Lang) Passed them all
To take this year (senior): AP Physics C, AP Calc BC, AP English, AP Government, AP Psychology</p>
<p>Standardized test scores: Haven't taken them yet! What scores will I need to get in? Also, how important are these?</p>
<p>ECs: Musical Theatre, Varsity Cross Country/Track, Robotics, Full year research internship at NIH</p>
<p>Community service: ~60 hours volunteering as assistant director for elementary school musical, ~500 hours for internship (unpaid, therefore volunteer), ~50 track related community service</p>
<p>Are there ways in which I can improve my application?</p>
<p>Congratulations on your hard work! This is very impressive, a great mix of hard classes, good grades, and varsity sports and a few extracurriculars.</p>
<p>The obvious things (other than test scores) that I don’t see on your resume are academic competitions (science competitions, district or state academic competitions, AMC/AIME, USABO) but even without these - your list demonstrates great work and you have opened up some wonderful possibilities.</p>
<p>The 75% percentile ACT scores are 34 for Johns Hopkins and Cornell so for those who don’t have an unusual “hook” (URM, recruited athlete, first generation college, big alumni donor, or some great compelling essay) - they should shoot for at least a 33 ACT composite for colleges like this and those that are similarly selective to strengthen their application. Note that acceptances at schools like Johns Hopkins and Ivy league schools like Cornell are notoriously unpredictable and some with much higher scores and 4.0 GPAs will get denied admission (adding a few slightly easier schools that offer academic merit aid to your list probably makes sense) - but even so, your hard work has opened up some great possibilities. Best of luck in the college application process.</p>
<p>Top women engineering candidates are in high demand – good for you! Your first goal is to get either SAT/ACT under your belt. You should apply Early Notification to Mich, Purdue, Wisc.</p>
<p>Also consider RPI, Olin, Ga Tech, UIUC, CMU – if your scores are stellar, Cornell, MIT, Caltech, Stanford.</p>