<p>As admission decisions are coming, I need to make sure that I prepare necessary backup apps in the case that I don't get admitted to where I want to go. While I'm sure that MIT is the right school for someone like me, I would like to make sure that my app has a decent shot at being accepted so that I could possibly relax the next few weeks as midterms approach.</p>
<p>Profile: Male (Caucasian)
College Class Year: 2014
High School: Private; sends many grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>
<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.40 (I'm not book smart, but I do have great intuition)
Course Rigor: Most Difficult
Class Rank: No Rank
Class Size: 90
APs: Bad; I did take the Calc BC AP after self teaching (just a genuine love for math), but got a 3 (possibly due to not showing enough work on the FR); Now actually taking the class to get the 5.</p>
<p>Scores:
SAT I: 2100 (630/800/670/ Essay: 12)
ACT: 29.5 (28/35/26/29)
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 800
SAT II Chemistry: 650
Math Competitions: Never taken; I am against making math into a competition; I see it more as a communication tool to relay different ways of thinking.</p>
<p>Other:
MIT Interview: Excellent (Spent a total of 3 hours meeting over 2 separate days; Found each other very interesting; Said that I would make a very good candidate for MIT)
Essays: Pretty Good (Side Note- Character Counts of Short Essays: 666 characters; One Longer one was 1,666 characters long)
Recs: Absolute Best (This, of course, is completely a guess, but an educated one at that)</p>
<p>Significant Extracurriculars:
- Student Government (3 years)
- Varsity Lacrosse (2 years)
- French Horn (~6 years)
- Co-Organizer for school wide fun day event for mentally challenged students from other schools in the area (this is incredibly tedious and stressful; The event has improved tenfold ever since I started)</p>
<p>Yeah, I know my scores are completely crazy and non-uniform; however, that just adds to the fun and mystery :P</p>
<p>In terms of “backup apps” at a place where your “app has a decent shot at being accepted”, you might consider other engineering schools like Virginia Tech or Georgia Tech. In the University of California system, you might consider UC San Diego or UC Irvine. Both admit students with your profile, and both have strong engineering/science departments. Where besides MIT are you planning to apply?</p>
<p>When it comes to any admissions into top notch schools. The two most important things is your academic record and test scores.</p>
<p>Your GPA indicates that your aptitude is a bit lacking. you basically got mroe B’s than A’s with a GPA of 3.4. It could mean that your school is just uber tough, but seeing your ACT and SAT scores, that doesn’t seem to be the case.</p>
<p>Yes great rec letters might help you, but they certainly are not solid hooks.</p>
<p>U of M and Carnegie Mellon are essentially safeties given the context of my academic career. While they are excellent schools and decent matches for my personal tastes, they don’t quite fit with me the way MIT does. With the assumption that I do get into U of M, I was planning on also applying to Harvey Mudd, but I want to sort of stay away from the west coast (too far away).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The GPA calculation at my school is very odd (I should have noted this). My grades were, for the most part A-'s and B+'s in various AP and advanced classes (the school is rather difficult). All A’s (regardless of +/-) get counted as 4’s while all B’s get counted as 3’s. Since I have so many grades that are borderline B+/A-'s (more B+'s than A’s), I feel that my GPA does not accurately reflect my aptitude. I will concede that it is indeed not one of my strongest traits (as demonstrated with my standardized test scores).</p>
<p>are you in-state for UofM, and have you already applied or no? I think 3.4 is a little lower than what I’ve seen for UM, but my experience is limited and I know UM is a little more lax on the in-staters. And if you haven’t already applied for UM, it may be difficult to call UM a safety this late in the rolling process?</p>
<p>To give you context, 50/60 people that apply to U of M from my school get accepted immediately (class size of maybe 85). The lower bound of the selection that get accepted is about a 3.0 with no course rigor or ECs, though this is mostly because of the self selection process.</p>
<p>I applied for U of M before November 1st; however, they weren’t able to process my transcript until 11/24 (they’ve had it since October 30th; I’m not alone with this problem though). I imagine that I will get my acceptance within the next week or two as just about everyone else I know has gotten in.</p>
<p>As for CMU, my college counselor insists that its on par with U of M in regards to getting accepted. Perhaps he’s optimistic, but judging from the past classes, this does not seem to be the case.</p>
<p>Based on this information, the University of Michigan appears to admit many students with your profile; Harvey Mudd is far more of a reach, simply because 94% of admitted students are in the top 10 percent of their classes.</p>
<p>I didn’t cut & paste CMU’s CDS here, but the school does admit some students with profiles similar to yours. On the other hand, CMU also admits students with higher scores and GPA, so I’d characterize it as a possible match, rather than as a safety school.</p>