Chances for Top Engineering?

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>My top choices for college are:
-CalTech
-Harvey Mudd
-MIT
-UC Berkeley,
-Stanford
-Cornell
-Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>My top choice, and the college I really want to go to however, is CalTech.</p>

<p>My un-weighted GPA out of 100:
9th grade: 91 ( 0 AP)
10th grade: 93 ( 1 AP)
11th grade: 95 ( 3 AP, 1 college level)
12th grade course load:
AP Economics
AP English
AP French
AP Biology
Calculus 3 ( 1/2 yr, college level )
Linear Algebra ( 1/2 yr, college level )
Symphony Orchestra
I am also going to be taking AP Physics C after school in a small group with my physics teacher from last year in a special arrangement.</p>

<p>My SAT I ( I will be retaking )
Math: 710 (missed 3 questions >.<)
CR: 730
Writing: 650 </p>

<p>SAT IIs
Math 2: 800
Physics:800</p>

<p>APs:</p>

<p>World History: 5
US History: 5
Physics: 5
Calculus BC: 5
Computer Science ( self-taught ): 5</p>

<p>I am almost certain I will get an 800 on the SAT I in math next time I take it, the Calculus BC exam was cake for me, I just was too confident when I took it the first time and made stupid mistakes because I decided to sleep instead of checking answers ( yes I know that was stupid, but I was really tired).</p>

<p>I am taking the maximum possible number of AP classes allowed in my school a year, and then also taught myself AP Computer Science Junior year and got a perfect score on that.</p>

<p>I've been two years advanced in math since 7th grade, but my grades have not been that great until Junior year. In AP Calculus BC however, my GPA was a 96, top 5% in class. I finally learned to concentrate on school work =P.</p>

<p>Outside of school/EC:
-College level courses from CTY ( center for talented youth) since 7th grade in computer. science. (These did not prepare for AP exam however, they were using a different language and were non-object oriented).
-Violin (6 years), perfect score at highest level on solo at NYSMMA.
-Piano
-Science Bowl ( 5 years )
-Science Olympiad + Robot building for competition, 1st place in technical problem solving Junior year (3 years)
-Philosophy Club (3 years)
-Model UN ( 3 years)</p>

<p>Sports:
-Swimming both Varsity and Club
-Qualified for state championships, relay was top 20 in the state Junior year</p>

<p>Work:
-Taught swim lessons 8th, 9th,10th grade summers
-Lifeguard 10th grade + 11th grade summers
-Programmed an Android application with friend and released to market under company name IDKJava. Over 30,000+ downloads, rating of 4.5/5 stars on average on falling sand like application. Application is now open source and I manage the project team of 4 members.
-Programmer for 1st Playable summer of 11th grade.</p>

<p>Not sure where to put this, but I am also building an autonomous UAV using the arduino platform this summer with friend. Designs have been set off to be laser cut and this week work starts on assembly. Most of the stuff I do with friend is documented on our blog at [url=<a href="http://idkjava.blogspot.com/%5DIDKJava%5B/url"&gt;http://idkjava.blogspot.com/]IDKJava[/url&lt;/a&gt;].&lt;/p>

<p>I feel like I have pretty strong extra-curricular activities, but I don't know if my GPA will make the cut.</p>

<p>What are my chances of getting in to CalTech and the other schools?</p>

<p>Bump bump bump bump</p>

<p>Sure -you have a shot at all the elite schools. Nobody here can give you much more of an idea than that. You need to visit as many of them as you can to decide which ones are a fit for your goals and personality. They are all very different sorts of places in terms of size, location and culture.
You’ve got a solid chance of getting into one of them, but you need to find a safety as well. Think about Case Western, Northwestern, Rice, URochester, as a start.</p>

<p>-CalTech- reach
-Harvey Mudd- reach
-MIT- reach
-UC Berkeley- high match if in-state, low reach if OOS
-Stanford- reach
-Cornell- low reach
-Carnegie Mellon- high match/low reach</p>

<p>You’ve got a solid chance of getting into one of them, but you need to find a safety as well. Think about Case Western, Northwestern, Rice, URochester, as a start. </p>

<p>nemom, it sounded like you were suggesting Rice and Nortwestern as safeties?</p>

<p>I would add Purdue for a safety.</p>