Do you guys think..

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Engineers!!
I want to pursue my future in Engineering field...
but my concern is whether I should apply to top IVY schools, such as Harvard or MIT..
My stats are rather low without exceptional ECs but you know.. once in a life time chance..
Who knows? haha
Do you think I have at least 5% chance at MIT or Harvard?
My realistic dream college is Cornell...
What do you guys think?</p>

<p>GPA : A in regular is 4.0, A in honors/AP is 5.0</p>

<p>Freshman (3.8) - I came to the U.S. this year. I couldn't speak English..
Concert Choir A-
ESL A-
ESL US history 2 A
Essential biology A-
Gym A
Plane geometry A
Spanish 1 A-</p>

<p>Sophomore (4.1) (starting to speak English..)
Algebra 2 H A
Chemistry A
Gym A
Choir A-
English1 A-
Spanish 2 A
US history A</p>

<p>Junior (4.8) - speak almost fluently in English
AP Stats A
EMA honors A
English 2 A
Gym A
Spanish 3 H A
World Civ H A (since I took ESL US 2 when I was freshman)
Physics H A-</p>

<p>Senior (4.9 projected)
AP World
AP Lang & Comp
AP Calc BC
AP Physics
Spanish 4 H (Should I skip spanish4 and take AP Spanish if I can?)
English 3 H</p>

<p>My class rank and GPA were as low as they seem since I was unable to take honors classes in those two years. In my freshman year, I first had to adapt to the new environment and learn the languages at the same time. Since I was in Essentials and ESL classes, I had to go up to regular classes first, in order to place myself in higher courses.</p>

<p>As a junior now, I am finally in all honors classes except for my English class. Next year, four APs with two honors.</p>

<p>ECs
Winter Track 2 years
Auditioned Choir 1 (Men)
- performed in various places
Auditioned Choir 2 (Men and Women)
- performed in various places
Solos at concerts (insignificant, right?)
Multicultural Club (Vice President)
Chinese Club (maybe a vice president or an officer next year)
Model UN
Tri M - (Music honored group)
-Jazz ensemble
National Honor Society
Science League
Took AMC10 and AMC12
AIME Qualifier
Debate Club
Recognized word processor licenses level 1 and 2 from Korea
Volunteer at nursing home 100+
Teacher Assistant at Korean school 100+</p>

<p>During the last summer, I'm planning to do..
I formed an organization to contribute to the communities by having musical concerts with exceptionally talented friends. I hope this would go well!
Planning to do an internship.</p>

<p>I think my ECs are weak, so this summer is my last chance to bring up all my Extra activities. I'm trying to get officer positions from the clubs that I participated. Hopefully it will help me </p>

<p>Standardized test scores
PSAT 2007 147
2008 200
SAT1 Math Writing Reading
720 680 670 (2070)
760 690 620 (2070)
800 690 680 (2170) , M & R (1480/1600)
I think my TOEFL would cover for my low critical reading score.</p>

<p>SAT2
Math 2C 790
Math 1C 770
Chemistry 780
Physics June
Biology/World Civ maybe November for my last shot</p>

<p>TOEFL July (110+)</p>

<p>Other facts
3 years in the U.S.</p>

<p>I'm really hoping that the fact that I have resided in the U.S. only for 3 years would help me to get admitted with relatively low SAT score.</p>

2

<p>Advice: No one can say for certain whether or not you’ll get in, so you might as well apply to any school you would attend if you got accepted to, even if it’s “out of your league”.</p>

3

<p>Your ECs aren’t weak; it’s be a little better if you’d done more engineering related stuff but I wouldn’t call being an athlete that solos in jazz band, sings and is the VP of a club (assuming you actually did something in it) weak. Don’t kill yourself with getting leadership positions in things you don’t want to actually be a big part of; it’s not fair to the organization and it could hurt your grades. </p>

<p>Your scores are only relatively low relative to the rest of your stats (You’re in the top 2% of SAT scores if you didn’t already know that, and in the middle 50% for MIT students in all sections individually, AND overall) but is there any way you can take the SATs again in time for your scores to get reported? Normally I’d say that three times is plenty, especially with an exceptionally high score like yours, but since your english has been getting better and better and that’s the section that’s, well, not perfect, it could be worth a shot. Do you have a 5% chance at getting into an Ivy/MIT (MIT isn’t an Ivy, but for engineering it’s better) type school? I can’t tell you that for sure, but I can certainly tell you that you should apply to a few, since you do have impressive grades, impressive ECs, and impressive test scores. Make sure you get a couple safer schools, though, because even the best applications get turned down by the top schools sometimes, and you need to research enough schools that you find somewhere that you would be happy at and will almost certainly get accepted, even if it isn’t your first choice.</p>

4

<p>Try retaking the SATs again and focusing on reading and writing. I think that you can study efficiently for those sections. </p>

<p>I’d apply to a few top schools, but focus your applications on Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Duke, Hopkins, Cornell, and other schools at that level.</p>

5

<p>Thank you for the encouragements! the replies are really helpful to me.
Although both of you guys advised me to take SATs again, I am not sure if I’m capable of scoring 2300+ in October because I’m not gonna be able to study a lot through the summer.
I’m afraid of all the college applications that I have to prepare during the summer, internships, and TOEFL.
do you guys think it is really crucial to take SAT again and score higher?
well, I mean scoring high in writing would not be that difficult since I scored lower than how I had done on my practice tests, but there are always certain varaibles such as not scoring 800 on math again or getting an even lower score.</p>

<p>I’m a little reluctant to take the test again…</p>

<p>Once again, thank you for your advices, chuy and al6200, and I welcome more replies!</p>

6

<p>I don’t think it’s crucial. If you were anyone else I’d never advise it, I just thought that since you seem to be ESL and your english is getting progressively better you might want to give it a shot, but it’s totally understandable to want to focus your energies in different directions. </p>

<p>I know that some schools let you ‘cherry pick’ your SAT score, which means you get to pick your best Math, best Reading and best Writing instead of having to send in a score you got all at once. If the schools that you are looking at allow that I’d probably take it agian, but if they don’t I wouldn’t risk the 800 in math.</p>

7

<p>I don’t think you need to score 2300+. If you just manage to bring yourself to a 2200, I think that’s a significant improvement.</p>

<p>In reality, a 2100 puts you within the middle 50th percentiles at Harvard and MIT.</p>

8

<p>Thank you, and would you mind answering another question?
I don’t know how much I’m passionate about Engineering…
Could you give me some advices the facts that I have to take into consideration before saying Engineering is my thing?</p>