<p>hey guys, I'm a junior from NJ who is wanting to know how his chances stand for some schools I've been looking at. A list of schools I have compiled so far...</p>
<p>GPA: 104.5 or so weighted
Rank: 1st out of approximately 250 students
High School: Mid-size public in NJ
Ethnicity: White
SATs: 2280 on first sitting (760 on three), retake in Oct. to hopefully get at least one 800
Subject Tests: Taking US in May, Chem and Math II in June, hoping 800 on at least two, predicting 780 or higher on all three based on practice tests
APs:
10th grade - Macro 5 US Gov 5 self-study Human Geo 5 self-study Psych 5 self study
11th grade - Taking Chem, English, CS, Micro, US History, Comp Gov, predicting all fives, maybe a 4 on one
Senior Year Courses:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics C
AP World History
AP Art History
AP Lit
Advanced Software Engineering (post-APCS class)</p>
<p>ECs:
Class President freshman year
Quiz Bowl all four years, captain junior senior
Math League all four years
Science League all four years
Spanish Club
Co-founder/Treasurer of History Club
FBLA, president junior senior
Columbia Science Honors Program
NJ Governor's School in the Sciences this summer
Placed 3rd at Nationals for FBLA in Business Math
AP National Scholar (hopefully)
National Honor Society
200 or hours community service, majority at local hospital
Lead Guitar in my band, has played benefit concerts, etc.</p>
<p>probably some other stuff i'm leaving out, but this is all the major stuff. letters should be very good, it seems like my teachers like me. essays should also be good, I've been brainstorming ideas for a very long time. i hope to do a double major in computer science and economics/management. let me know what you guys think my chances are! also, if there are any comments on things I can improve on, etc., definitely let me know!
thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Great academics & test scores. You should show passion for your ECs and for community service through your essays. I would say it’s overall a solid application, but as anyone will tell you, those schools are crapshoots. However, as you’re applying to so many of the top ones, I bet you’ll get into at least one, as you’re the type of student that can get into those schools.</p>
<p>thanks a lot inaweoflacs! i’ll definitely take a look at your information. texaspg i’m attending the New Jersey Governor’s School in the Sciences, to which I was recently admitted</p>
<p>yes I was looking at a few LACs but I feel I’m not very suited for the liberal arts education or the overall feel of smaller schools. my school generally does not do too well for college acceptances, but that is generally the result of low sat scores. the valedictorian this year was waitlisted at five ivys including Princeton, same thing for the salutatorian. however, we normally have at least one or two go to top schools, off the top of my head I can think of Brown, MIT, and Penn.</p>
<p>It has some impact although people who are seriously interested do seem to overcome the odds. You should talk to the guidance counselors to see how to get these schools interested in you and how they can help. Sometimes the top students may not be applying could be a reason no one is getting admitted?</p>
<p>Do any of the adcoms from the schools you are interested visit your school?</p>
<p>Yeah, hopefully that’s the case. Honestly it seems my guidance department does not have much experience with upper-level schools and as a result has very little knowledge/contact. I do not believe any of the schools send adcoms to my school.</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and the rest of the other elite schools love national awards/something that really sticks out. There are thousands of applicants with great ACT scores, GPA, etc., so how would you differentiate between the masses of somewhat equal students? You’d have to show great dedication in a particular extra-curricular activity that has actually made a difference in your community/state.</p>
<p>Good grades, Decent EC’s. I listed the chance you will get into the schools you listed, provided that you write very good essays and obtain very good recs. Keep in mind that I’m pretty much assigning arbitrary percentages… but w.e.</p>
<p>MIT - 20%
Wharton - 40%
HYP - 20% at HY, 25% at P
UChicago - 60%
Cornell - 90%
Northwestern - 90%
Johns Hopkins - 85%
Carnegie Mellon - 99% (80% for CS)</p>
<p>Thanks guys! Greenenergykid I’d like to think that my volunteering has made a large difference in my community, which I will definitely be able to convey in an essay</p>
<p>also, for the LAC, although I haven’t done much research, I was under the impression most either don’t offer CS as a major or have programs that aren’t particularly good. does anyone have any experience with any LACs that have good programs for computer science?</p>
<p>just got my AP scores back, all 6 5s, bringing it to a total of 10 5s. also, I was elected National Honor Society president and am in the process of building a website and database with the adviser (also APCS teacher) to hold information on all members/keep track of events each member does/update members on events of the club. would these two things help my application? I feel I would be able to write a good essay about how I’m using my interest in computer programming to help both the school and community</p>
<p>hey, I was confused by this thread at first because you made very high predictions and I didn’t look at the dates so I thought you were at the end of sophomore year haha.</p>
<p>I’d give you good chances at most of these schools. Though I recommend you still apply to a few safeties, mainly RPI since you’re looking at CS too. Also I don’t believe it matters how the “top 10” in your school did, but rather how people did as a whole. I know several people from my school who got into Harvard, Brown, and Columbia in the past 2 years while not even being in the top 50. Meanwhile, this year, not a single member of the top 20 got into an ivy other than cornell. Anyway, </p>
<p>MIT - 20% mid/high reach
Wharton - 30% (if you apply ED), 20% (if you apply RD)
Yale - 20% mid/high reach
Princeton - 20% mid/high reach
Harvard - 20% mid/high reach
UChicago - 60% high match/low reach
Cornell - 60% high match/low reach
Northwestern - 65% high match
Johns Hopkins - 70% high match (though i don’t think JHU is good for CS or economics as far as I’ve heard)
Carnegie Mellon - 70% high match</p>
<p>oh yes, I’ll definitely apply to several safeties. I have looked at RPI, I have a few friends from the CS program at my high school who go there and have good things to say about it. my school is generally very generic as far as high schools go, normally 1-2 students go to Ivys every year with most just going to Rutgers/TCNJ (state schools). thanks again! I’ll definitely take a look at your thread</p>