Chances for top engineering schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m currently an Asian male junior from a public PA school, wondering about what some of my chances would be for:
Princeton, MIT, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Caltech, UPenn, Georgia Tech, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Harvey Mudd, Dartmouth, Columbia

SAT I: 1580 (M: 800; R&W: 780)
SAT II: Chem (800), Math II (800)
GPA: 4.04, Class Rank: top 2%

AP: Chemistry (5), Computer Science* (5), European History (4), Psychology* (5), Statistics* (4)—Scholar
…as a junior: Art History, BC Calculus, Biology, English Lang, Environmental Science, Macro*, Micro, US History,

  • self-study
    Courses are most rigorous offered.

Coursera: Algorithms Design and Analysis, Machine Learning
…taking: Robotics

Extracurriculars (tests):
USA Computing Olympiad: top 50 nationally (Platinum)
AMC 10 and 12: 97.5 on both (qualified for AIME this year)
Science Olympiad: medals at invitationals, regionals, and states (Astronomy, Game On, Invasive Species)
FBLA: 1st in regionals for Cybersecurity

Extracurriculars (other):
Congressional App Challenge winner
FTC Robotics (1 year), programmed robot
Hackathons (1 year), working with new people and otherwise programming
Harvard Summer School, took Database Management and Fundamentals of Website Design and got A’s on both
Math Club (3 years), Vice President
Science Olympiad (3 years), (likely) President next year
STEAM Club volunteering, we promote STEAM across our school district and host a night for elementary to high school students including science-based activities and student/professional speakers, President next year
Varsity Tennis (3 years), #1, captain

Sorry if I did anything wrong, I’m the eldest and my family doesn’t know a whole lot about the American college system… additionally, if any of you could give me tips on how to spend my last few remaining months, they would be greatly appreciated!

2

Budget? A couple of those will be really expensive, like $55k/year or more.

3

We will be able to pay for just about anything, so I’m not really concerned about budget… also my list is not 100% refined yet.

4

Your record is impressive. Having said this, I will say that MIT, CalTech, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, and Columbia are long shots for anyone. In your case, as an Asian (male) with ECs heavily oriented towards STEM, you may not be able to stand out or distinct yourself sufficiently. What do you want to major in? Dartmouth may not even be a good college for most engineering disciplines. I don’t have a good feel for Harvey Mudd’s admission process.

As long your essays are good, you should have an excellent chance at other schools you have listed (Cornell, CMU, Rice, Berkeley, Georgia Tech etc) . UPenn should also be good if you apply for engineering.

5

Looks like an all reach list if you applied for CS, though it may depend on your unweighted GPA (no one can tell what your weighted 4.04 means since weighting methods vary).

Do you have any safeties? You have a nontrivial risk of being shut out of this list.

6

@astrocs Honestly I think Dartmouth and Yale are not really great choices for students deeply interested in engineering & tech. Your stats are very strong but of course most ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech are reaches for anyone. You will have a better chances at Yale than one would otherwise expect since Yale does not get as many students really passionate about engineering & technology and the same goes for Dartmouth to an even greater degree.

7

@ucbalumnus Sorry I made it unclear, 4.04 is my unweighted GPA; my school’s weighted system is really weird and not even I know my weighted GPA. As far as safeties, I’m applying to Penn State, and a couple other local colleges. Also, how does applying for something else and then switching to CS later on work out? Would that be a better option for me?

8

How do you have an unweighted GPA greater than 4.00? Does your high school give a value higher than 4.00 for an A+ grade or some such?

Perhaps easier to answer would be, do you have all A grades in your academic courses (English, math, history, social studies, science, foreign language, art, music)? If not, how many and what other grades do you have?

Usually a bad idea if CS is a more selective major at the school in question.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1947599-faq-does-intended-major-make-it-easier-or-more-difficult-to-get-into-a-college.html
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19854939/#Comment_19854939

9

@ucbalumnus I don’t know why it’s greater than 4.0 because they say they don’t give higher than 4.0 for A+, but they must have; I do have all As in my courses. Additionally, thanks for the advice on applying to a major, it was helpful.

10

With all A grades (4.0 unweighted) in rigorous courses, UCD (engineering or CS) may be closer to a match than reach.

11

I think Berkeley would be the best shot for you. Berkeley is race blind and your transcript is impressive, so you have a great shot. It is also a wonderful school. Good luck!