Do I have a shot at MIT?

<p>Hi I'm currently a senior and thinking about applying to MIT for EA. I'm a pretty typical Asian male (>.<) and go to a very competitive and pretty large public high school (a little over 500 in my class). A couple questions, I'm from MA, so would that give me a bit of an advantage? Also, how much of an advantage does applying early give you?</p>

<p>On with the stats:</p>

<p>SAT: 2270 (800 R, 770 M, 700 W)
SAT II: Biology E, Chemistry, US History, Math II (all 800's). MIT only cares about 1 math and 1 science, so I'll send them the Math II and Biology.</p>

<p>AP:
Chemistry 5
Biology 5
Stats 5
US History 5
US Gov. and Politics 4</p>

<p>APs that I will take this yr: BC Calc, Physics C: Mechanics, English Lit, Euro History, French</p>

<p>Most rigorous classes taken, all honors and APs. The reason I don't have that many APs is that my school insists you take a class for 2 years before taking the AP for US history and bio/chem. For example, you can't take AP bio without honors bio...</p>

<p>GPA: 4.49 weighted where A+=5, A=4.75, A-=4.5 etc. at honors/AP
Unweighted is 3.8-3.9, but my school does it like (any A=4, B+=3.7, B=3.5 etc.) I don't think most other schools are that generous. But after freshman year, all my non A's were in English, since it's almost impossible to get even an A- in english in my school unless you're actually really good at it.</p>

<p>My GPA is a bit low because my freshman GPA was only a 4.15. I got it improved to 4.64 and 4.61 my sophomore and Jr years. My school doesn't rank but I'm definitely in the top 5% (again not higher because of freshman yr). Sophomore/Jr GPA would put me at or close to the top 1%.</p>

<p>Contests:
US National Chemistry Olympiad Study Camp participant (top 20 nationally), 2011
US Bio Olympiad Semifinalist, 2011
Avery Ashdown Exam (chem olympiad for eastern MA and NH), 1st place, 2011
AIME Qualifier in 2009 and 2011, but pretty low scores
MA Science and Engineering Fair, 2nd place (but not really 2nd place since there were a lot of 1sts, 2nds, 3rds, honorable mentions etc.)
MAML (MA math tournament) 28th place, 2010
Hopefully something from Siemens this year
Also participated in HMMT/HMNT but didn't win anything</p>

<p>Other stuffs:
Math Team (#1 New England in 2011)
Science Team (does very well in competitions)
Summer Research at UMass Boston in 2010 and 2011, entered into Siemens and hopefully publish, although publication result will likely be after applying to MIT
Summer job at industrial company that develops sensors, 2011
Played violin at random orchestras and Senior Districts
Applied for and got accepted to a high school research program at Broad Institute during spring of sophomore year
Minor community service award some random time</p>

<p>Teacher recs should be adequate, at least, but realistically I can't expect a super amazing rec since the teachers have to take care of so many students.</p>

<p>Essays: I'll try my best to not write something completely fail and stupid, but I've always sucked at writing personal essays, so it's doubtful these will be amazing.</p>

<p>So as, you can see, I'm mainly a science person, so MIT might be a good fit for me. There are obviously some spots I'm weak in. Chance me please, and I hope I'm not wasting your time that everyone else's profile looks just like mine.</p>

<p>You might really enjoy MIT, so apply. But this board doesn’t like “chance me” threads, because they’re impossible to answer. Apply to a range of schools and wait for the result.</p>

<p>If you have any specific questions about the school, some current students and alums will probably take the time to answer.</p>

<p>Everyone has a ‘shot’. The only ones who don’t are the ones that don’t apply :)</p>

<p>There is no advantage for being from MA.</p>

<p>Your record is solid even without the chemistry olympics training camp. With it, you stand a very strong chance (though it’s not automatic–I’ve heard of one chem olympiad person get rejected.) </p>

<p>You should send all your SATIIs (why not? they’re 800s.)</p>