Engineering Hopeful... need some mid-low range schools as well....

<p>Hey Guys. Thanks for helping me out. I'm looking to go into engineering (Electrical or Computer Science) and your help will be much appreciated.</p>

<p>Grade: Junior
Sex: M
State: NJ (Private)
Race: Asian (Indian)
Financial Aid: Probably
Annual Income: 350,000 - 400,000</p>

<p>School: Private Prep School- extremely competitive school... had kids go to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, U Penn (like 4-5 every year), Cornell, and Columbia last year alone... Stanford, West Point, and Brown as well in the last 5 years. </p>

<p>Class Rank: Top 10% if not top 5% (school doesn't "believe" in ranks... but they nominated me for Governors School of NJ so means I am top math/science student or something?)</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT (as a Junior, I haven't taken the official ones yet, but I have taken a Kaplan course and here are the highest scores from each section I have gotten so far):</p>

<p>Reading: 750
Math: 750 (I feel like I can do much better)
Writing: 720</p>

<p>SAT II's
Physics: 710 ( :( )</p>

<p>ACT: plan to take? good idea? I'm a strong math/science student...</p>

<p>Classes: school only does weighted gpa which is 4.1 including 1st semester junior year. 2nd semester is going much better... A+ in Calc AB :)</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Alg. II Honors- A+
French II Honors- A
Biology I Honors- A-
Modern History- A
9th English- A</p>

<p>Freshman Year Summer
Precalculus Honors- A
Chemistry I Honors- A
Physics I- pass (just had to take previous year's final)</p>

<p>Sophomore Year
Geometry Honors- A
AP Physics B- A-... got a 4
French III Honors- B+
US History- A
10th Grade English- A-</p>

<p>Sophomore Year Summer:
Participated in an 8 week long internship with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) called the Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program. This paid internship was at the Naval Air Research Center in Lakehurst, NJ. I had to apply for this program and was told it was highly competitive. I may return to this program this summer. </p>

<p>Junior Year (so far... 1st Semester):
AP Calculus AB- A
French IV Honors- A-
AP Chemistry- A-
Honors English- A-
AP US History- A-</p>

<p>Junior Year Summer plans:
I was nominated for the Governors School in Engineering and Technology for NJ by my school and hope to attend, if accepted. I also hope to work out a plan so that I can also re-attend the internship that I attended last summer. This will provide me with a bit of extra cash ($3750 :) ) and a great experience.</p>

<p>EC:
- Captain of schools FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics Team for 2 years, member for 3 years- lead programmer and builder for all 3 years
- Winner of many awards through robotics
- Attended FTC World Challenge in 2009 in Atlanta, Georgia
- Played piano for 11 years now, winner of numerous awards through NJ Music Teachers Association, Greater Philadelphia Suzuki Teachers Association, and my music school's own private competition
- Member of school's science olympiad team, attended state competiton 3 years in a row
- Member of school's quiz bowl team
- Member of school's Model United Nations Team, won best delegate award at The College of New Jersey Conference (only one my schedule has allowed me to attend so far)
- Participant in Office of Naval Research Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program during 2010 summer (ONR SEAP 2010 at Lakehurst, NJ... see Sophomore year summer for quick blurb)
- French National Contest ranked winner: (also ranked in middle school, but that doesn't really matter)
- 9th: 4th regional, 6th national
- 10th: 4th regional, 6th national</p>

<p>School List: Really long so far, and imo filled with too many schools that are reaches:
-Boston University
-UC Berkely
-CalTech
-Carnegie Mellon
-Columbia Univ.
-Cornell Univ.
-Duke
-George Washington Univ.
-Georgia Institute of Technology
-Harvey Mudd College
-Johns Hopkins Univ.
-Lehigh Univ.
-MIT
-University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
-Northwestern Univ.
-Notre Dame
-Univ. of Pennsylvania (looking at dual Wharton-Engineering program... if anyone knows about that)
-RPI
-Rice
-Stanford Univ.- TOP TOP TOP CHOICE- IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME
-Tufts
-U. of Virginia
-Washington Univ. of St. Louis</p>

<p>Yes this list is way too long but I haven't visited half of these schools yet and that will let me cross some off. If you have any suggestions for safety/relatively easy schools or any schools to take off please let me know.</p>

<p>Thank you so much in advance!</p>

<p>oops forgot:
- ~230 hours of service (changes every week) so far from:
- Robotics education
- Science Olympiad education
- Tutoring (still have about 70+ hours to report here)
- President of Math Club and Computer Club
- Member of School's Honors Program: competitive program which requires student to complete certain number of course, gpa, and ec. requirements and requires a capstone project to be completed by end of 1st semester Senior year. currently working on mine which is a robotics education and outreach program involving LEGO NXT Robotics systems and students from numerous schools near my school, esp. in Camden, NJ (impoverished area).... should make a good essay
- recs:
- robotics coach/ physics teacher: teacher i am extremely close with, he has been an amazing mentor for me
- science department head/chemistry teacher: my other mentor, recommended me for both SEAP program and Governors School. Thinks very highly of me
- math department head/ calculus teacher: another teacher i am very close with... involved with robotics program and very good mentor to me.</p>

<p>In at pretty much all of those. make a very convincing case for Stanford as well.</p>

<p>thanks i sure hope so…</p>

<p>any idea on whether or not i will be a shot for financial aid? my parents make quite a bit of money but due to private school expenses (23-28k EACH a year for me and my sister) will probably be unable to pay for school in whole…</p>

<p>You look good on academics and extracurriculars and think you’d have a good chance at the top schools including MIT and Stanford. </p>

<p>I would narrow those schools down further though. </p>

<p>In the meantime, try getting consistent scores on the SAT on all sections. Some schools also look at highest single testing rather than highest composite scores. So, the difference between 700 and 800 isn’t much and that can be the difference between a 2100 and a 2400. That could have an impact at top schools and scholarships.</p>

<p>Well it’s been a while and a TON has changed.</p>

<p>First off SAT Scores:
Math: 790 (05/2011)
Reading: 780 (05/2011)
Writing: 800 (10/2011)</p>

<p>SAT II’s:
Math Level II: 800
Chemistry: 770</p>

<p>AP’s:
AP Chemistry: 5
AP US History: 5
AP Calculus AB: 5</p>

<p>Latest GPA:
weighted (school only reports weighted): 4.04</p>

<p>Junior Year Summer:
I got into the NJ Governor’s School of Engineering and Technology!!! That was amazing!
Did the internship again as well and worked on a project using computer vision to check if aircraft are ready to launch on the aircraft carriers… it was awesome haha i could talk about it for hours</p>

<p>EC’s added:
-Mentoring Middle School Math Counts! team at my school
-Member of school’s ethics bowl team, won 3rd place at Steven’s Institute of Technology Technology Ethics Bowl

  • French National Contest ranked winner:
    -11th: 6th regional, 8th national
  • Now at ~ 250 hours of service</p>

<p>College list changed:</p>

<p>Applied early/priority:

  • Stanford (top choice… visited and LOVED it)
  • Rutgers (got in already thanks to Governor’s School!)</p>

<p>Applying:

  • CalTech
  • MIT
  • Harvard
  • Princeton
  • UPenn
  • Duke
  • Cornell
  • Carnegie Mellon
  • UCal Berkeley
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
  • Georgia Tech
  • Lehigh</p>

<p>Any thoughts on revised chances?</p>

<p>THANKS!</p>

<p>Any thoughts?</p>