chances! :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>sorry some of my ec's are general, i dont want to specifically name them for privacy purposes....</p>

<p>chance me for Stanford SCEA, upenn, harvard, yale, vanderbilt, tulane, uconn, USC, umiami, MIT</p>

<p>SAT I: CR 720/W 800/M 760
SAT II: math ii 740 but im retaking in october. taking spanish also (should get over 750)
GPA: 3.99 UW
Rank: 2/330
AP: English Lang 5, spanish 5, calc ab 4.
Senior year: ap spanish lit, ap calc bc, ap english lit, ap physics, econ</p>

<p>ECs:
Spanish Honor Society President, NHS secretary, Model Congress president, president of local patriotic society, mentor for underclassmen, member of school club focused on supporting peers, long range planning team student member, columnist for local newspaper, board member of diversity club</p>

<p>volunteer:
local hospital - about 100 hrs since freshman year
NHS tutoring - probs 25 hrs
afterschool tutoring for 4th graders - 2 hrs/once a week since freshman year</p>

<p>summer activities:
after 9th grade... chilled
after 10th grade- 2 week homestay w. host family in costa rica
after 11th grade- 3 week homestay in argentina/attended local high school (mini-exchange)</p>

<p>Awards:
ap scholar
princeton book award
excellence in foreign language award (means i was one of the top 5 language students in my grade)
excellence in spanish award from national association of teachers of spanish and portuguese
harvard model congress participant
league of women voters book award
state poetry competition participant (lol)</p>

<p>Race: caucasian
Gender: female
income:
location: northeast
major: engineering/undecided & minor in spanish
recs: should be outstanding/ math and spanish whom ive had as teachers multiple times</p>

<p>im afraid to apply as an engineering major bc of my low test scores (hoping to raise math ii). but ive made A's in all of my math and science classes and ive always been one of the strongest students in the science/math courses ive taken in high school. do you think it would be bad for me to apply as an engineering major? specifically im afraid it would hurt my chances at stanford because they have such a great engineering school and my test scores aren't outstanding. let me know what you think. also should i even bother to apply to MIT with my math scores?</p>

<p>thank you so mucH! please be brutally honest</p>

2

<p>Unless money is an issue, you should apply to all these places, including MIT. Of course there is a chance you won’t get accepted at MIT, but that’s true for thousands of students with outstanding credentials, and yours are outstanding. Also, since engineering is what you really want, then you should apply as an engineering major if that is what it takes to do that major at Stanford. I am not familiar enough with their setup to know if going in as, say, a Spanish major means you cannot take all the engineering courses you need as a freshman.</p>

<p>No one on here can really tell you your chances at the most competitive schools like Stanford, Yale, Harvard, Penn and MIT. Certainly you have as good a chance as the vast majority of other applicants. UConn, Vanderbilt, USC, UMiami, and Tulane you should get into. Not sure what engineering you want, but be aware that Tulane only has Biomedical (which is a very strong program) and Chemical. For the other engineering disciplines, they have cooperative agreements with Johns Hopkins and Vandy where you spend 3 years at Tulane majoring in physics and then can go to either of those schools for 2 years and get a civil, mechanical or electrical engineering degree. You end up with a BS in physics from Tulane and a BS in XXX Engineering from the other. I mention all this because you would be a strong candidate for Tulane’s Deans Honor Scholarship, which is full tuition. Just letting you know.</p>

3

<p>Stanford SCEA - Mid Reach
upenn - Mid Reach
harvard - High Reach
yale - High Reach
vanderbilt - Low Match
tulane - Safety
uconn - Safety
USC - Match
umiami - Low Match
MIT -High Reach</p>

<p>You have great grades but nothing stands out from your profile. No awards or college classes taken, nothing significant. Best schools will all be reaches.</p>

4

<p>Those kinds of posts don’t really help much. Does eak325 work in an admissions office? Besides, it is easier to get into UMiami than Tulane on a few fronts, not the least of which is that Tulane’s admissions stats are higher than Miami’s. Miami reports a higher GPA, but they report weighted and Tulane reports unweighted, and Tulane has higher average SAT. So how can it be a safety and Miami the same as Vandy?</p>

<p>The only value would be if someone pointed out you were way off base, either aiming way too high or too low. You have a nice mix of schools, so that is not the issue here. Just apply and be prepared in case things don’t go as you hope at these most competitive schools. It isn’t always a reflection of the student’s talent, but often just the reality that there are a few thousand slots for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of bright, talented students like you.</p>

5

<p>fallenchemist: Thank you for your thoughtful response. I think im going to apply for Chemical Engineering, so maybe that will be helpful when I apply for Tulane’s Dean’s Honor Scholarship. I will do some research into Tulane’s Biomed E program.</p>

<p>In terms of money, I know my family will not qualify for financial aid anywhere. My parents have said they will only pay full tuition for an Ivy/Stanford/MIT. The only way I will attend USC/Tulane/Vandy/Miami is if I get scholarship money, because according to my father they’re “not worth paying for”. </p>

<p>eak325: I know I have a lot of reaches and haven’t done anything which you feel is significant, other than get good grades… but it’s hard for every smart kid to do research/take college classes/get awards and to still be happy and have lots of friends. All I can do is write my essays and hope for the best. Thanks for your input though, I do appreciate it, because it’s a reality that some of the schools I’m applying to accept 7-10% of applicants. Finally, I would be happy attending any of my safeties, I really love all of them, it’s just a matter of where I get scholarship money or I’m going to UConn.</p>

6

<p>Just to let you know, Tulane doesn’t make you apply to a particular school within the university, but instead all students are accepted into Newcomb-Tulane College, and the different schools (Science and Engineering, Liberal Arts, Architecture, Public Health, etc.) are all under that umbrella. So while they do ask on your application what you think your major will be, it really makes no difference if you say or not. It also makes it extremely easy to double major and change majors at Tulane. You don’t need permission or to transfer into another school within the university. You just tell your advisor and do it.</p>

<p>Please be aware that the DHS requires an additional application and that it is due by December 15, I think. Double check that date. BTW, not sure if your spanish proficiency also leads you to be interested in Latin American Studies, but Tulane has one of the strongest programs in the country in that regard. Since I bet you would go in with a bunch of credits from AP, you might be one of those engineering students that would actually have the time to double major, if you chose.</p>