<p>If you have awesome reasoning and strategizing skills (eg.you got 36 in ACT Science section), you may find this thread somewhat intriguing. Just a warning, your brain may experience a slightly noticeable sensation similar to a headache. </p>
<p>Background: Chinese, came to US the beginning of junior year, transferred to one of the biggest Catholic high schools in TX in the middle of junior year and have been since. Math/Science/Engineering-oriented.</p>
<p>Academics:
i). When I was still in China, 9-10th grade:
National Math Contest, 2nd place
National Science Contest, regional 2nd place in chemistry, 3rd place in physics
Academic team
GPA-i don't know
ii). After I came to the U.S., 11-12th grades
32 on ACT (Will retake)
SATI: N/A
SATII:800s on SAT Chem, Physics, Math level2
5s on AP Chem, AP Cal AB, AP Physics C mechanics, a 3 on AP Physics electromagnetism, and thus received AP scholar with honor award. Self-studied AP Physics C</p>
<p>Extracurricular:
Model UN, English Honor Society, NHS, VP of Mu Alpha Theta, School Ambassador, Class Monitor(back in 9th grade), currently doing a research in computational chemistry under an SMU professor, no research publication yet. No long-term commitment to any particular EC, no major awards, because of my two transfers. I have to make it clear to colleges that I achieved most of what I listed within the second semester of junior year here in the States.</p>
<p>And without further ado, here's my problem, that is typical of every poor applicant like me:</p>
<p>Hell yeah, I want to go to the best school possible without paying big money! (30K/year is all I can pay, I'm destitute)</p>
<p>I sort of classified my prospective colleges into two types:</p>
<p>Type 1 schools:Elite, rich schools with generous aid, some even need-blind for international students, such as MIT, Princeton and Columbia. The competition would definitely be fierce. </p>
<p>Types 2 schools: right below the type 1 schools. Not so rich, need-sensitive for international kids, less competition, little bit higher admission rate (about 30% for Cornell and JHU's ED, even though their overall admit rare is below 20%) </p>
<p>And the common sense is, it won't hurt to apply early. ED/REA generally gives you a leg up.</p>
<p>So right now I'm still trying to decide where to apply ED/REA. Even though my credentials are not bad, I still think that these things are probably not good enough for me to get into type 1 schools. (or is it just that I'm not confident enough?) So I'm not going to "waste" my ED/REA at long shots like Princeton, Brown or Columbia, but instead I planning ED at type 2 schools, despite that applying for financial aid will potentially hurt my chance. That way, I can have EA@Caltech and bunch of other schools without the restriction of REA.</p>
<p>As a conclusion, I'm planning on:</p>
<p>A. ED@JHU/Cornell, EDII (Jan2 being the deadline)@Harvey Mudd, EA@Caltech, UT Austin(safety), UIUC(safety), and maybe WPI(safety), then RD@incredible reach schools like MIT Stanford Brown Columbia etc. </p>
<p>B. ED@Columbia(dream reach)/Brown, the rest is the same as plan A.</p>
<p>C. REA@Stanford/Princeton(dream reach also), EDII@HMC, RD@UT Austin, UIUC, maybe WPI for safety, and reaches like Caltech, MIT, Brown Columbia etc. </p>
<p>Congratulations! you read through my entire thread!!! </p>
<p>Any insight into my reasoning? Which would be the better plan?</p>