Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Background:
Hispanic male (Colombian)
New Jersey
competitive public school</p>

<p>sat's:
math-760
critical reading-760
writing-790
total-2310</p>

<p>sat ii's:
math ii-800
chem-650</p>

<p>weighted gpa:
freshman-4.26
sophomore-4.04
junior-4.05
cumulative-4.1</p>

<p>and A is 4.3, A- is 4.0 so i'm in between</p>

<p>Freshman year I took regular English because I didn't qualify for honors, and took honors geometry and honors physical science. I also took 4 semesters of academic electives instead of study halls.</p>

<p>Sophomore year I took honors English, honors Algebra 2/Trig, and honors bio instead of AP bio. I took 4 semesters of academic electives.</p>

<p>This year I'm taking AP chem, honors english instead of ap, and honors pre calc. I'm taking a year of study hall and an year of academic electives.</p>

<p>Every year I took regular history (I didn't qualify for AP last year and you must take AP sophomore year to take AP this year) and regular Spanish (no AP or honors offered). I'm in Spanish 5 this year.</p>

<p>Next year I will have AP Physics, AP Calc A/B, AP Stat, and AP English. I will be not be taking history. I will continue to take academic electives.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Lacrosse-4 years
Newspaper-4 years (copy-editor this year and maybe editor next year)
Drama Club-2 years
Involved in 4 productions
3 Math competitions each year for 4 years
People to People Student Ambassador 1 summer</p>

<p>I had an after-school job in the fall this year.</p>

<p>Top 15% in my school. (We don't do exact rank)</p>

<p>Please reply and help me. If necessary I can get more info (specific grades, more info about my school, etc.)</p>

2

<p>Well your SATs are through the roof for Mellon unless your going into comp sci. Explain the ranking system or lack thereof at your school. What school of Mellon are you applying to?</p>

3

<p>my school ranks deciles and i'm borderline top 10%
i was most considering the college of humanities and social sciences but was also considering comp sci and tepper</p>

4

<p>Well H&SS you are pretty much in, as it is the least competitive school of Mellon and you are a URM, but you would have to explain why you want to go into this college. You ECs don't really give you a rhyme or reason to your intended feild. And History is a Social Studies so the lack of these course should seem strange.
Comp Sci is the one of if not the best programs in the country and even with those scores, it would still be a reach.
Tepper is a business school but I dont see and business classes or outside business interest (other than you work). Do you have an intended major?
I believe you need 3 SATIIs aswell and that chem does not look very good. (funny this is the 4th person I've seen with a 650 in chem, what a random score?)</p>

5

<p>i'm retaking chem and i'm taking us history on the first sat ii date</p>

6

<p>Nactor 329, your chances would be excellent for any school at CMU. Tepper or SCS would be a little tougher, but I would say your chances for those two would still be strong.</p>

<p>I think you can improve your chem score, but I'm not sure whether you really need to retake it. I highly doubt a 650 Chem (coupled with all your other great stats) would sink an application unless you are applying to somewhere like Caltech or MIT. </p>

<p>Best of luck and feel free to ask anymore questions.</p>

7

<p>I think you definitely have a good chance for all schools; SCS and Tepper are harder to get into, but you certainly have a chance. The only thing that bothers me about your stats are the AP/honors classes you didn't take since you couldn't get into them, but it's not like you can do anything about that.</p>

<p>I suggest doing a bit of thinking about what you want to major in and why because CMU is not the best choice for a completely undecided person. While you can change between schools, you do have to turn in paperwork, and it can be difficult to transfer into SCS and Tepper. Make sure you look at the IS program (in H&SS) if you're interested in CS and business. Computational finance might also interest you (interdisciplinary major).</p>