Chances for UVA, VTech, Carnegie Melon, UIUC, Cornell, a few others...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi. I'm a high school junior and as the year is coming to an end I'm starting to consider my stats for college applications. </p>

<p>Ethnicity: Mixed (Indian/Caucasian)
Gender: Male
Location: Northern Virginia
Income Bracket: > 250k
Academic Interest: Mathematics, physics, engineering, statistics
Prospective Major: Undecided. Either a discipline of engineering (probably electrical), physics, applied physics, or applied mathematics.</p>

<p>School Type: Public school in the suburbs. Not highly competitive. High percentage of minorities and students of low socioeconomic status.
Class Rank: N/A (top 5%)
Class Size: ~350</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 4.22
Unweighted GPA: 3.87
(Note that these values are as of the end of my Sophomore year. Currently taking all IB courses with perfect marks. By the end of the year, it should be closer to a 4.4 weighted, 3.9 unweighted.</p>

<p>PSAT: 214 (probable National Merit Commendation, but did not reach the VA cutoff for semifinalist).
CR: 66
M: 72
W: 76 </p>

<p>SAT: 2090 (1440 M+CR)
CR: 710
M: 730
W: 650 (8 essay)
I didn't prepare very much for writing because I took it for granted that I would do well since I got only one or two wrong on my last PSAT. In math I just made stupid mistakes, like always. With some practice, I may be able to push 750-800 in math and 700-750 in writing for a superscore of 2160-2260.</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests: (taking in June)
Biology (M): TBD
Math IIC: TBD</p>

<p>AP Exams:
AP US Government: 4</p>

<p>IB Exams:
IB Chemistry SL I: TBD (not very confident about this one, there is a new teacher this year for this class who has had a high number of complaints and will likely not come back next year, this exam is not going towards my diploma).
IB Math SL II: TBD (probable 5-7, will take the HL II exam at the end of senior year also).</p>

<p>Academic Rigor: Most Demanding (Full IB Diploma Candidate)
Classes taken:
Grade 7:
A - Algebra 1 Hn
Grade 8: (awful year, over 2 weeks absent)
B - Geometry Hn
B - Spanish 1
Grade 9:
A - Algebra 2 Hn
A - English 9 Hn
A - Biology Hn
A - World History/Geography 2 Hn
A - Spanish 2
A - Computer Graphics
A - Health/P.E.
Grade 10:
A - IB Math HL I
A - English Hn
A - Chemistry Hn
A - AP Government
A- - Spanish 3
A - Business Law/Mgmt
A - Health/P.E.
Grade 11 (Current):
A - IB Math HL II
A - IB English HL I
A - IB Biology HL I
A - IB Chemistry SL II
A - Physics Hn
A - IB History HL I
A - IB Spanish SL I
Grade 12 (Prospective):
? - Multivariable Calculus/Linear Algebra
? - AP Statistics
? - IB English HL II
? - IB Biology HL II
? - IB Physics SL II
? - IB Theory of Knowledge
? - IB History HL II
? - IB Spanish SL II
Only non-A grades in Spanish 3 (A-), and Geometry (B)/Spanish 1 (B) pre-highschool. I have had 11 straight quarters of all A honor roll. </p>

<p>Honors:
- AMC10 School Winner - 9
- 4.0+ Honor Roll - 9, 10, 11
- Full IB Diploma Candidate
- Bronze medal in a science olympiad event at states.
- (Probable) National Merit Commendation</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities:
- Science Olympiad - 10, 11
- Math Honor Society - 10, 11
- Math Team - 10, 11
- FBLA - 10, 11
- National Honor Society - 11
- Science National Honor Society - 12
- Class of 2013 Treasurer - 10</p>

<p>Work Experience:
- Naval Research Laboratory SEAP Internship - 10 - Paid internship, 40 hours/week for eight weeks in the summer. Work relevant to the synthesis of certain liquid crystal material. Gave a talk on it to other SEAP students and several NRL faculty.
- This summer I will be interning at another laboratory, but it will be for only two or three weeks. </p>

<p>I plan on applying to:
UVA
Virginia Tech
Carnegie Melon
UIUC
Cornell
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
William and Mary
UCB
UCLA
UCSD</p>

<p>If my SAT score improves, I may apply to some top tier schools (HYPSM, CalTech, Columbia, etc.)</p>

<p>Chances/advice to improve my application?</p>

2

<p>Other information (this won’t be on my application): </p>

<p>I’m not extremely motivated, but I get my work done. In my free time I play a lot of video games, watch movies/television, play table tennis, and go out with friends. </p>

<p>I don’t do a whole lot of activities outside of science olympiad (preparing for events, and the competition itself… I won a medal!) and math honor society (tutoring), but I guess it is kind of late in high school to really get into anything new. I am not at all athletic, so sports are pretty unlikely. I am also not very involved in FBLA or NHS, but I am a member of both… not sure if I should list these two on my application.</p>

<p>I like mathematics a lot and enjoy working out problems and doing calculations (unless they are very tedious). I especially like calculus. However, I don’t want to major in pure mathematics because the more abstract concepts are not as interesting to me (proofs, group theory, combinatorics, etc.).</p>

<p>I may want to pursue a degree in physics, even though my current physics class is pretty dull. The physics class I am taking is very basic and I hardly do any work for it but still have a high grade. Since it is IB, there is no calculus involved, so it is sometimes boring because it is almost entirely conceptual.</p>

<p>My dad has a PhD in physics and his work sounds interesting, but he is basically an engineer. I’m not really interested in doing pure research anyways. I liked my internship at NRL and learned a lot, but some days it could be kind of dull. I would rather do work to innovate with already known phenomena, so an engineering major is perhaps more appealing.</p>

<p>Current plan is trying to get into UVA for engineering undergrad. Then going elsewhere for an engineering masters or MBA or both to eventually work in a managerial position in some kind of tech company. However… I’m staying open-minded.</p>

3

<p>UVA
Virginia Tech
Carnegie Melon
UIUC
Cornell
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins
William and Mary
UCB
UCLA
UCSD</p>

<p>In at UVA and Virginia tech. Dont know too much about UIUC. Probably in at UCSD and UCLA, slightly lower but still good chance at william and mary</p>

<p>Carnegie mellon, cornell, northwestern, UCB, and johns hopkins are all mid-high reaches unless you can get your SAT up to 2200+ (1500+ for Cornell).</p>

4

<p>I think I would most like to attend UVA, so that is good news. </p>

<p>Any ideas if bad junior year IB exam scores can have a big impact on admissions? My IB chemistry exam is in 2 weeks, and I’m worried I will get a 4 or even a 3 because we have a new teacher this year that doesn’t know what they’re doing. My math teacher, however, is confident I will get a 7 on the math SL exam (I do pretty well in HL math).</p>

<p>… Also, how do my EC’s look?.. and does my application as a whole seem strong or weak?</p>

5

<p>Bumping this up…</p>

6

<p>I guess my application doesn’t look very interesting.</p>