After looking at the admission stats for MIT for asian male applicants and from my state… :(( ~X(
My question is should I try to risk it on MIT EA (and possibly not get admitted to any Ivy/MIT/Stanford/Caltech tier schools in RD) or go with something a bit safer but still really competitive like Columbia (will be legacy there). However, my #1 choice is MIT and if I get in ED somewhere else I will probably wonder if I could have gotten into MIT.
For some context, I come from a terribly ranked public high school that has sent 4 kids to MIT in the last decade and every last one of them was a URM or had some other kind of hook. Also, I won a 4th place grand award at ISEF in a bio category and have some other minor science competitions but I’m not some genius who’s medaling in USAMO.
Scores: 2300 SAT (750 math), 35 ACT (35 Math, 35 Science), 800 Chem, 800 Math 2
Rank: top 10% but nowhere close to val
GPA: 4.00 unweighted, 4.55 weighted
APs: so far got a 5 on six AP exams including Calc BC, chem, and bio
Clubs: Math team, CS Club, Mock Trial, Science Olympiad
Essays: Haven’t even gotten started…
Basically: should I even try for MIT EA or apply to Columbia instead because I have no chance at MIT?
you’re really going to need to provide some more details on ECs here if you want to be chanced. And chances apparently aren’t that informative either, but as your post stands right now I don’t think anyone can really chance you at all.
Columbia’s website says a choice to apply ED should be driven by ‘a true passion for Columbia and a certainty that should you be admitted, you would attend’ right here: https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/first-year/early-decision
I don’t wanna impose, but what you’ve said suggests you’ve got neither.
Putting all your reach-eggs in the basket of one high-caliber school is a fair decision, but ‘no chance’ isn’t a good reason not to apply for MIT EA.
Furthermore, I’m worried about your chances for Columbia ED if you’d greatly prefer attending MIT.
~X(