Do I have any chance in hell?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Applying to CIT:</p>

<p>Asian Male Resident of Westwood, MA
GPA: 3.18 UW, 5.18 W (out of 6.0) - school does not weight AP's and honors differently
Rank: School doesnt rank
Competitive school (we send about 5 students to Ivy's every year)
Class size: 220
Most rigorous course load
- 9th grade - All honors classes
- 10th grade - AP Chem and the rest honors
- 11th grade - AP US History and AP Physics B and the rest honors
- 12th grade - Taking AP Stat, AP Calc, AP Physics C, AP Lang and Comp, Honors Spanish, Honors Psychology</p>

<p>AP Chem - 4, AP US - 3, AP Physics B - 4</p>

<p>ACT: 33 (34 M, 34 S, 34 E, 31 R, 9 essay)
SAT: 2080 (750 M, 680 W (8 essay) , 650 CR)
SAT II Chem: 720
SAT II Math I: 720
SAT II Math II: 760
SAT II Physics: 640 (screwed this one up...)</p>

<p>EC/Volunteer:
-Internship for two summers at Harvard Medical School in the New Research Building (Summer of 11th,12th)- Did mostly computer stuff (installed servers, software, hardware, etc.) to help in research for the Humane Genome Project
-Began a branch of Akshaya Patra in Massachusetts (11th, 12th) - Akshaya Patra is an organization which gives free food to underprivileged kids in India
-National Honor Society (11th, 12th)
-Academic Decathlon (10th, 11th, 12th) - won award for speech in statewide competition
-Science Team (10th, 11th, 12th)
-Key Club (9th,10th,11th,12th) - Recently elected as Vice President
-Percussion (9th, 10th)
-Religious (Jain - props to anyone who's heard of Jainism) Education (9th,10th,11th,12th)
-Created advertisements for nationwide Jain phonebook (summer - 9th)
-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (9th) – Educational Studies Program - I went to MIT every Saturday for 10 weeks and took classes in Economics, Debate, and How to start a high tech business
-Selected for and attended Boys State (11th)
-Leadership Development Program (summer - 9th) - I helped organize games and take care of little kids
-Minuteman Press School (Summer of 12th) - I learned about printing and marketing (my parents started a printing business and Minuteman Press is a franchise, so we all went to this school for 2.5 weeks and learned about how to start the business, how to price jobs, how to print on a press, etc.)
-National Honor Society (11th, 12th)</p>

<p>Sports:
9th - Soccer, Ski Team, Outdoor Track
10th - XC, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track (letter)
11th - XC, Indoor Track, Outdoor Track
12th - XC (letter), Indoor Track, Outdoor Track</p>

<p>Recommendations:
I'm definitely going to get good ones from my GC, my math/computer science/engineering teacher, and my english teacher
Also getting a supplemental rec from the guy I worked under at Harvard Med</p>

<p>Awards: Honorary Mention State Speech Competition
AP Scholar
Commended Student for National Merit Scholarship</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>anyone? please?</p>

3

<p>no worries, you definitely have a chance!</p>

4

<p>anyone else????</p>

5

<p>Your GPA is very worrisome, but other than that I'd say you have a great chance. Your ECs are what really make you shine.</p>

6

<p>I think it's a low reach. You still have a decent chance, but your GPA probably needs to be at least a 3.6-3.7 UW for serious consideration... Still apply though =]</p>

7

<p>You dont need a 4.0 gpa. You have a good shot though.</p>

8

<p>Also, is it easier to apply to H&SS and then transfer to CIT or should I just apply to CIT. Can I still get into CMU if i dont get into CIT?</p>

9

<p>If you want only to major in engineering, apply to CIT. If you're undecided between a major in H&SS and CIT, apply to both. While you can transfer to CIT, it's not wise to apply to H&SS and attend CMU for that if that's not the major you want.</p>

10

<p>yea my one and only choice is engineering but if I'm just wondering if its easier to get into H&SS and then transfer in after a year...</p>

11

<p>That's a bad idea - what if for some reason you can't transfer? You might have a really bad time adjusting to college, or get sick and have weak grades for first semester, and be denied a transfer. Then you'd be unhappy and in a major that you don't want. Plus, you might be behind on engineering courses or have difficulty registering for courses that CIT students might have reserves in (say, physics 1) but H&SS students don't have reserved places in.</p>

12

<p>yea that defintely makes sense. I'm going to apply to just CIT. Anyone know the admission rate for CIT?</p>

13

<p>You've got a chance. </p>

<p>CMU seems to play the numbers game a lot and your test scores are no better than average for CMU and your gpa is low (for CMU)</p>

<p>That being said taking hard classes always helps, which you've done, and you have excellent ECs. I wouldn't count out CMU.</p>

14

<p>For test scores, do you think they will take into account more SAT's or ACT's? Because I was really hoping they would weigh in my ACT's more</p>

15

<p>They'll take whichever is higher, so in your case the ACT.</p>

<p>I was primarily referring to your SAT II scores, which (no offense) aren't that great. I don't think CMU uses APs for admission.</p>

16

<p>My GPA is up to 3.27 UW/3.77 W woohoo!</p>

17

<p>by the way that weighted GPA is out of 4.5...I think my school realized how ridiculous it is to have a weighted GPA out of 6 so they changed it...however, my school still does not weight AP's and honors differently</p>

18

<p>just want a few more opinions...thanks!</p>

19

<p>You should have a decent chance you to get in, I certainly know people that didn't do as well and were accepted.</p>

<p>Also, as someone that has gone through CIT at CMU, I would never recommend going in through H&SS to try to transfer into CIT. The chances of this happening successfully are pretty slim, and you'll probably wind up losing a year due to how the CIT schedule runs. They require you to take two introductory engineering courses freshman year, and they're a pre-req for all higher level courses, so if you couldn't fit them in your freshman year along with all of your H&SS classes then you'll lose a lot of time (though at least your electives will be filled). Finally, if you're looking into ECE at CMU, then unless you actually get accepted into the ECE department within CIT from the start, I wouldn't recommending going unless you'd be perfectly happy with Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, or Materials (my department, which I'd have to say is the best in the world).</p>

20

<p>Right now Im undecided (between electrical and mechanical) but I'm definitely going to do the additional major program and do biomedical engineering, but Im not sure what I want my primary major to be. I dont understand why Carnegie Mellon doesnt have a seperate electrical engineering major..also...does anyone know how hard it is to get into ECE from undecided within CIT?</p>