Early Action Dilemma - What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>So basically here is my problem. My number one school would be Stanford but because it's restrictive early action that means I only have one chance to get into a school early. If I did non-restrictive EA for other schools I'd at least have more chances to get in early and remove some stress from senior year. So here is my question to all you CCers, Do you think I would get into Stanford EA? Also, chance me for these other schools as well: </p>

<p>Harvard
MIT
Caltech
Columbia
Duke
Princeton
Yale</p>

<p>(Kinda goes without saying, but I will chance back 100%)</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>I go to a relatively competitive IB School (that's why the GPA is so high) and as a candidate for the IB diploma, I'm taking the most rigorous course load. </p>

<p>UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.6154
Class Rank: 8/355</p>

<p>SAT I:
(1 take)
800 M
800 CR
760 W</p>

<p>SAT 2:
(1 take each)
800 Math 2
800 Physics
800 Chemistry</p>

<p>I have no AP test or IB test scores yet, those will be coming in a month. But the tests I have taken are AP Calc AB and IB Econ SL and IB Spanish SL.</p>

<p>ECs:
- I did UC Davis Young Scholars Program last summer and I'm continuing my research from the program in hopes of lead authoring a paper
- I have done Robotics for the past 3 years (I'll go into more detail below)
- I have played tennis on our school's varsity team the past 3 years. We made it to sectionals this year
- Speech and Debate (2 years) (didn't ok, broke at a few league tourneys)
- FBLA (Regional: 2nd in Business Math and 3rd in Public Speaking) qualified to states
- I have 100+ hours of volunteering</p>

<p>Robotics:
- FLL (Freshman year)
o #1 team in the Nor Cal Championship qualifying us to the European Open in Denmark
o Won the Teamwork award in the European Open
- FTC (Sophomore year)
o Finalist Alliance (played in the finals) in the Nor Cal Championship
o Won the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award in the Nor Cal Championship (best robot design)
- I also build a robot for my personal project for my school that year
- FTC (Junior year)
o Finalist Alliance Captain/#1 seed team in the Nor Cal Championship
o Inspire award winner (best overall team) in the Nevada Championship
o Finalist Alliance Captain/#1 seed in Nevada as well
o Winning Alliance Captain in the Montana Championship
o Set the highest score in the world for the game that year
o Qualified to the World Festival (essentially world championship) (~120 teams)
o Nominated for the Think award (engineering process) in the World Festival
o Quarter finalist in the World Festival (semi-finalist for our division)
- VEX (Junior year)
o Founded the school robotics team/club; President of club; Captain of team
o Excellence award, judges award, finalist alliance, finalist alliance captain, programming skills challenge winner at qualifying tournaments
(Interesting: We went from dead last in our first qualifier to winning the excellence (best overall team) in the next tournament)
o Went to the World Championship (~360 teams)
o Won the Think award (best autonomous programming) in the Math Division (1 of 4)
o 17th (got same score as 15th but the prioritize people who have multiple attempts) in the world in the programming skills challenge</p>

<p>Information on my role on FTC and VEX (robot build):
FTC: Main programmer, little bit of designing, and act as coach during matches
VEX: Autonomous programmer, Lead designer</p>

<p>Senior year I will be doing FRC</p>

<p>Awards:
I talked about the FBLA and Robotics stuff under EC's but I also got an honorable mention in the Sacramento Science and Engineering Fair last year (1st time I did the fair)</p>

<p>So that's about all the information I remember, if there is anything else you need to chance me, please let me know!</p>

2

<p>My school also sends lots of people to top schools (at least last year)
we got ~10 people into stanford</p>

3

<p>Your scores are beautiful, and your consistency with robots makes you a good looking candidate to me. I say you’re still high reach because of the level of competition and nothing else stands out other than robotics. Do you have safeties? </p>

<p>I feel like your class rank should also be at least top 3 considering there are less than 400 kids at your school. From my experience, MIT likes its top 2 students because the only kids from my school that get in are top 1 and 2s even if they are…not that smart, if I might say so. </p>

<p>MIT seems to be reach if you get your rank up, Harvard is high reach, the rest are medium reach, imo. Please chance me back! Link: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1166509-breakdown-my-chances.html#post12823950[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1166509-breakdown-my-chances.html#post12823950&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>Unfortunately it is impossible for me to raise my class rank unless the people above me get B’s. Essentially everyone above me got to take AP Calculus in sophomore year and for some reason I decided not to take precal over the summer so I could do the same. In junior year, the IB diploma candidates are taking all IB classes so taking AP Calc this year doesn’t really help me because everyone (if they get all A’s) will get a 5.0 for the semester. Also, community college classes can’t increase our GPA so there is really nothing I can do except keep getting A’s and hope that someone above me trips up.</p>

5

<p>Well, your rank won’t kill you, it’s just not ideal. Just really really focus on the robotics aspect because you seem both passionate and accomplished at that. Again, my estimates are just that-my estimates, and im still a little new at this. Best of luck nonetheless and please chance me! :)</p>

6

<p>LIke everyone said, you have amazing stats and EC’s, but those schools are somewhat of a reach for everyone.</p>

7

<p>Any more opinions?
Does anyone think I should go for Stanford SCEA or should I just stick with schools that have EA
(by the way, for the people talking about safeties, the UCs are my safeties)</p>

8

<p>Anyone want to chance me?
I will chance back 100%</p>

9

<p>I think Stanford REA would be great for you. Your research, if published, will certainly give you a solid chance of getting in. They love research from what i’ve heard.</p>

<p>These schools are reaches for all, but:</p>

<p>Harvard-High Reach
MIT-Reach (Apply early, youll have better chances)
Caltech-Same as MIT
Columbia-Reach
Duke-Match/Low, low reach
Princeton-Reach
Yale-Reach </p>

<p>Apply to Rice, JHU, USC, UChicago, and/or Northwestern for your good level.</p>

<p>Have great, fantastic essays, you can get into a lot of these.
Good luck!</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1167842-chance-me-top-tier.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1167842-chance-me-top-tier.html&lt;/a&gt; :D</p>

10

<p>D’oh you didn’t do FRC!?!?! </p>

<p>Anyways, I’d say you have a great shot at Stanford EA. My only qualm is that your ECs are not as varied as those of people i have seen get in. However, you have a streamlined focus and thats great. In my opinion, you should be focusing on MIT and Caltech. They’d give you a higher shot at getting in AND they’re rated better overall in robotics/engineering programs IF you take the right courses. Stanford has the ranking, but if you look at hiring, anybody with Caltech and MIT gets snatched up.</p>

<p>Harvard: reach
MIT: low reach/match
Caltech: match
Columbia: reach
Duke: reach
Princeton: low reach
Yale: reach</p>

<p>The reason some of those are reaches is that Ivies want more multi-faceted ECs too. </p>

<p>Good luck! Mind chancing me back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1167916-too-high-just-right-chance-me-please-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1167916-too-high-just-right-chance-me-please-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Honestly they are mid-high reaches for anyone but at schools like Columbia, Chicago (not on your list but still applies), MIT and I think Stanford (correct me if I’m wrong) they all love science research and science extracurriculars, so I would be slightly surprised if you didn’t get into at least one school on your list. I would avoid restrictive Early Action unless you LOVE Stanford, but seeing as how your app is really science based I would think MIT is more for you, albeit still a reach.
They are all reaches but I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into at least 1 on the list.</p>

12

<p>Any more opinions?
I will chance back!</p>

13

<p>Academics: Strong. Good SATs, good gpa. Yes, class rank could be better, but it’s evident that your school is competitive so it will be taken in that context. What’s your ethnicity/gender? If you’re an asian male, strong academics will not help you as much, but it will def. keep you on the playing field.</p>

<p>ECs: It would be helpful if you narrowed down all your robotics competition awards to only a couple of your major accomplishments. It seems like some of the accomplishments are non-important/redundant. It seems like you don’t do much outside of robotics which is not necessarily a bad thing, but would help propel you. It’s good that you have a special talent for something which is always a plus. Use it to your advantage during your essay. Granted your success has been limited to the regional level, it’s not too stellar and you fall short in terms of other ECs, though if you get the paper authoring, it would help. I say ECs are OK, but not stellar just b/c of the lack of involvement/leadership in other activities.</p>

<p>HYPM are gonna be reaches. They have no hesitation rejecting high academic applicants, especially if you are a cali asian. Stanford is a tough call…you have the in-state adv. and people with similar rank as you have gotten in. Probably a mid reach, which is good for Stanford. If you’re asian though, even tougher. Caltech prob. mid reach, but still good shot. You should be fine for Duke. </p>

<p>My chance thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1162768-chance-some-ivies-top-schools-chancebacks.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1162768-chance-some-ivies-top-schools-chancebacks.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>My chance thread:</p>

14

<p>Fantastic robotics ECs, but I’m not quite sure about your others - they’re a little pale in comparison. I’m sure you know that most of these schools are reaches for most people, but here’s my opinion.</p>

<p>Harvard - reach
MIT - high match or low reach
Caltech - high match or low reach
Columbia - mid reach?
Duke - reach
Princeton - reach
Yale - reach</p>