<p>MIT EA comes out this Saturday, and I'll probably get deferred, but I want to know what you guys think.</p>
<p>Applying to:
MIT - EA (submitted)
UC Berkeley, LA - Regular (submitted)
Caltech - Regular
Stanford - Regular
Harvard - Regular
Carnegie Mellon (School of Computer Science) - Regular
Illinois @ Urbana-Champagne - Regular
Purdue (backup, in-state) - Accepted with $44k in scholarship</p>
<p>I'll probably be majoring in Computer Engineering/EECS unless I go to CMU SCS, in which I'll probably just do CS.</p>
<p>Stats:
Gender: Male
Race: Chinese
Born in: Cambridge, MA (lol might increase chances for MIT/Harvard?)
High School: Carmel High School, Carmel, IN, very good and wealthy public school
Unweighted GPA - 3.86 before end of this semester
Weighted GPA - Not sure, just started weighting this year
Class Rank - Got rid of class rank b/c of weighting, would probably be top 5% with weighting (which is currently really screwed up)
SAT: 2290; 800 Math, 760 Writing, 730 Critical Reading
SAT II: 800 Math 2, 760 Chemistry, 730 Physics (just retook Chem and Physics in December, still waiting on scores)
PSAT: 223
APs:
- European History - 4
- Computer Science A - 5
- US History - 5
- Computer Science AB - 4
- Macroeconomics - 4
- English Lit and Comp - 4
- Calculus BC - 5
- Physics B - 4</p>
<p>Transcript (semester system):</p>
<p>Grade 9:
English (1st semester) - A
Honors English (2nd semester) - A
Algebra II-1, Hon - A-, B+
Geometry 1, Hon - A, A
Biology I-1, Honor - A, A
Spanish III - A, A-
Physical Educ. - A, A
Begin Orchestra - A, A
Interpersonal Relations (summer) - A</p>
<p>Grade 10:
English (Speech, 1st semester) - A-
Honors English (2nd semester) - B
PreCalc/Trig - A, A-
Chemistry I, Hon - A, A-
AP European Hist - A, A-
Spanish IV - A-, A-
Comp Sci A, AP - A, A
H. Orch Winds - A, A
Adv Orchestra - A, A (we get 4 credits for top orchestra because of extra rehearsals)
Library Media (Webteam) - A, A</p>
<p>Grade 11:
Eng Lit/Comp, AP - A-, A-
Calculus 1 BC/AP - A, A-
Physics I, Honor - A-, A
AP Macroeconomics - A
AP US History - B+, B+
Comp Sci AB, AP - A, A
H. Orch Winds - A, A
Adv Orchestra - A, A
Independent Study Music - A
Library Media (Webteam) - A, A</p>
<p>Grade 12 (current):
Multivariable Calculus/IB Math HL - A(-)?
AP Chemistry - A
AP Physics C - A
AP English Language and Composition - A/B? (I seriously have no clue)
AP US Government (1 semester) - A-
Physical Conditioning (next semester)
IB Film HL - A
Honors Advanced Orchestra (4 credits) - A
Library Media (Webteam) - A</p>
<p>Total credits by graduation: 68</p>
<p>Extracurriculars (only put down ones listed on app, too many):
- Piano, 10 years, ~8 hrs/wk
- Violin, 6 years, School orchestra, 4 years, ~9 hrs/wk
- Senior/Carmel Connects Club (teaches computer awareness and usage to old people/younger people), 2 years, Secretary (3 hrs/wk)
- Amnesty International Club - 2 years, Audiovisual Director (don't do much)
- Spread the Music (teach inner-city kids piano) - 2 years, ~4 hrs/wk
- Varsity Football - 2 years, Video manager (film and edit video for coaches, manage A/V equipment + systems, etc.), ~20 hrs/wk
- Varsity Track - 1 year, Video manager, ~15 hrs/wk
- National Honor Society (only senior year @ my school)
- Self-employed Computer Consultant - 2 years, ~2 hrs/wk
- Paid summer camp counselor/translator for Indianapolis Chinese Community Center - 2 years, ~50 hrs/wk
- Volunteering for Indianapolis Chinese Community Center (50 hours total irregularly?)</p>
<p>Awards/Accomplishments
- National Merit Semifinalist
- 48th Annual World Piano Competition - Level 11 Solo - Semifinalist
- Indianapolis Piano Teacher's Association Competition - 1st Place
- Indiana State Fair Young Hoosiers Competition - 2nd Place
- Midwest Conservatory Competition - Honorable Mention
- Symphony Orchestra - Concertmaster, 2 years
- Camerata Orchestra - 1st Violin, top orchestra, this year
- 3 Varsity Letters (2 Football, 1 Track). This is where I think it gets confusing because I doubt anyone has ever been in this scenario before. I do a bunch of film/computers/AV work to contribute to my school. I dedicate a ton of hours to this, and I'm the group leader in our 3-person team of video managers.
- 2007 IHSAA Football State Champions (first time since 1989), 2006 Runner-Up
- National AP Scholar
- AIME Qualifier (score - 2)</p>
<p>Recommendations:
APUSH teacher rec - Amazing.
AP Calc BC/Multivariable Calc teacher rec - No idea (She knows I'm pretty lazy and never to my homework though, which could be bad. But she's pretty nice and has known me for 1.5 years.)
Head Varsity Football Coach - Not too well written, but he's a football coach, not an English teacher. He details my work and invaluable contributions to the team.</p>
<p>Essays:
I'm writing about my football experience in my CommonApp essay, and it's going to be the main focus of my app. I don't think anyone's every done this before, so I'm hoping that I'll be considered unique. My MIT main essay blows though, since I wrote about math -_-; I'm hoping my interview will make up for it.</p>
<p>MIT Interview:
Just all around, pretty awesome. Probably the best interview between my school's 5 prospective EA candidates. Talked about football, Boston, etc, and I think we really hit it off.</p>
<p><em>Additional Notes</em>
To provide a general idea of the performance level of my school's graduating class, so far my friends have been admitted to:</p>
<p>1 Duke
1 Dartmouth
1 WashU
2 MIT guaranteed (USAMO qualifer, Siemens, etc, (known as stupidkid on CC), another really really smart kid)</p>
<p>Yale EA comes out tomorrow, and I'm expecting at least 1 person to get in. Overall, we'll probably send at least 30 people to elite colleges.</p>