Hey guys, I didn’t have any success with my EA schools, and I’m really considering applying ED II to Harvey Mudd. I have a few questions:
- On my second essay, about something they don’t know about me, I talked about my love for literature and reading. Could talking about love for something non-STEM hurt me any?
- How much does ED II increase chances?
- If I legitimately cannot afford what they’re offering, can I not go? Does it work like that?
- How would you compare Harvey Mudd to say, Caltech? From what I can tell, they are very similar.
- What are my chances? Lol
My stats are: 2360 SAT first try, 760 Writing.
3.9 unweighted, 4 of my 5 Bs are in math courses from middle school (which show up on my transcript), but I’ve since really cleaned up my act. 4.64 weighted.
Awards: First place overall in individual in Calculus at State Mu Alpha Theta competition.
First place overall in Calculus at State Rally competition (which has a very selective process which I explained on my Common App, it basically means I was the best in Calculus in my state in my year, if I’m going to abandon all pretense of humility).
President of Mu Alpha Theta, Science Club, Book Club, and Chess Club.
I think that’s basically all the relevant information, if you have more questions/I forgot something, let me know!
Thanks!
Oh, 800 Math 2, 760 Physics, for the SAT Subject tests.
As far as recommendations go, my math teacher who I had for two years and am really close with hasn’t said anything about it, but my history teacher who I also had for two years was raving about his rec letter.
Okay I’m coming back to this thread because I’m an idiot and left a lot out.
AP Scores: 5 on Calc BC, WHAP, APUSH, English Lang. 4 on Physics 1. Taking Physics 2, English Lit, and US. GOV currently, and though my school says they have AP Bio, Chem, and CS, that’s not true, so that might hurt me. They did offer them last year (not this year), but they only let you take one AP science.
For math this year, I’m taking Calc III and Linear Algebra at my state university.
@intparent Thanks for the response!
About my classes, it’s not actually every other year. My school is, to be honest, not very good. This is the first year I know of where they haven’t offered the other AP sciences besides Physics, but still. This is how the honors track in science works at my school:
9th: Bio
10th: Chem
11th: Choice of AP Physics 1, AP Chem, AP Bio or AP CS. They all take place at the same time, so taking two in one year is not possible.
12th: AP Physics 2 ONLY if you took AP Physics 1, and Physics Honors if you took anything else. And this year they aren’t offering AP Chem or Bio, and besides, AP US. Gov is during that time slot and I can’t get out of that.
So you think I should maybe add an explanation of this on my “additional information” section of the common app?
And I’ll ask my dad to run the calculator. I’m worried that we won’t get any financial aid, because in January he’s taking a job that, from what I can understand, he’ll be making over 200,000 dollars a year. He was making a little over half that before, so I dont’ know how much this new job will affect our Financial aid, but I do know he won’t pay 66k a year.
You may get FA the first year, as it is based on last year’s earnings. But if your parents aren’t prepared for close to $70,000 per year after that, it is a problem. Mudd is literally the most expensive college in the country. My kid got FA the first two years, but our salary went up, and we have been full pay for the last two. Ouch. 
Dang… Forgive me if this is too much, but when your family lost financial aid, were you around where my family would be? What do you think the cutoff is?
Yeah… maybe a little under that. Have your dad run the net price calculator with his 2015 numbers, and what he expects for 2016 to see how it looks.
Honestly, I don’t think I can ask him to do that. He gets very touchy when I presume to know things about our finances. He did it based off our tax returns from 2014 an hour ago and it estimated we’d have to pay like 28k, but he also said that was a “low year” for us. I don’t know the numbers. I do know that for 2015 my mom had a job, so that’s going to make our income shoot up for the 2015 taxes. She will quit when my dad starts his new job, though.
I’ll have to give this some thought.
You could suggest he run it for 2015 and what he thinks 2016 would look like. Tell him you are reluctant to submit ED unless he feels comfortable with the finances. Know that pretty much every highly ranked school is going to give you this issue, not just Mudd. Do you have affordable safeties?
Yeah, I do.
In the end, I don’t think I can apply ED. That’s a big commitment, and I just don’t think I’m ready for it. Thanks for your help though, and I will definitely be applying RD.
@intparent thanks! Serious question though, do you think making a comment on my common app about not having the chance to take AP Chem/Bio would come off the wrong way?
You could say something like, “For 2015-16, my high school cut all science APs except Physics, and in 2014-15 the science AP courses were all offered in the same time slot so only one could be taken.”