Extracurriculars vs Traditional Good Looks?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everyone!

I’m a senior at a public high school in Massachusetts, and I’m very confused about my chances anywhere. Traditionally, I’m not a very good applicant (GPA and SATs). In terms of extracurriculars, I think I can stand on my own. Will colleges completely glance over at my resume once they see my sub-par GPA?

I’m applying for Computer Science and perhaps Business at good schools. I specialize in robotics, augmented and virtual reality development, website development, and memes.

Schools I’m applying to:
Early: MIT, Northeastern, Umass Amherst.
Regular: UCLA, UC Berkley, Harvard, Olin, Columbia, RPI.

Am I aiming too high? What do you guys think?

Here’s a quick breakdown: (you can see a much prettier version of my extracurriculars at my website, amanjha.me)

Old SAT: Composite 2210; Reading 720, Math 780, Writing 710 (with an 11 on the essay).
SAT Subjects: Physics 800, Math 2: 800
GPA (UW): ~3.4-3.5 :frowning:
GPA (W): 4.24, which is approximately 40% in my class profile :frowning:
Last year, I self studied 3 AP’s: Psychology 5, Computer Science: 4, Physics 2: 4. This earned me the AP Scholar.

Senior Year Course Load: AP BC Calculus, AP Chemistry, AP Government, English Honors and Senior STEM Capstone.
Senior STEM Capstone is a class where I make my own project. I’m developing a obstacle avoidance program for a drone using optical flow on ROS.

Sports: I joined the wrestling team my senior year to compliment years of martial arts training at a local studio.

Academic Extracurriculars:
Speech and Debate:
Participated in Congressional Debate for all four years of high school. Served as debate captain for junior and senior year. Placed at a variety of national invitationals. Semifinalist at Nationals in 2016.
Robotics:
Participated on my First Tech Challenge team as a coder, I was elected one of the top 3 captains (Software Manager) during my junior year - which also happened to be the first year we made it to Eastern Super Regionals in PA :slight_smile:

Other Extracurriculars:
I develop on my own time, making apps, games, and websites. I specialize in robotics and augmented/virtual reality devices, but I also make games for mobile devices.
I attend hackathons, and frequently win them:
Metrohacks: 2nd place for customizable drone simulator to help hobbyists construct drones.
LIHacks: 1st place for autonomous self-driving car simulator to help researchers develop algorithms. Demoed with a machine learning algorithm built at the hackathon.
LexHacks: Tied for 3rd place for PC replacement for LEGO digital designer
MIT Reality Virtually Hackathon: Microsoft Hololens application for virtual LEGOs, can view project at https://youtu.be/TlT6amMaN_w
HackRPI: Made a augmented reality E-Commerce store, allowing users to preview and purchase groceries, cars, and furniture as holograms.

Work Experience:
Internship at Agira Photonics (solar panel startup): designed optical arrays in Matlab and Zemax, assisted PI in grant writing to the DoE, developed company website.

Internship at Top Flight Technologies (drone manufacturer startup): fixed drone communication problem using Mavlink and ROS.

API Developer at Tactai Inc (virtual reality hardware startup): developed their haptic feedback device for Microsoft Hololens and HTC Vive, helped create demos for the company to present at conferences.

I have very good specifics for certain colleges I’m applying to:
MIT:
I took a month long course called MIT Beaverworks this summer, which represented MIT course 6.141. 50 students were selected across the US to participate. My team won second place in the final course competition.
I have a recommendation from an MIT professor in computer science.
I organized a high school hackathon at the MIT Stata Center, and worked closely with MIT CSAIL’s director to create the event.
I made a Maker Portfolio, where I talked about my history in coding - creating apps and attending hackathons. I talked about some of my most successful hackathon projects.
Participated in the MIT Reality Virtually Hackathon - I was one of the only competitors under 18, the rest were industry professionals, PhD candidates and graduate students. I developed a successful application for Microsoft Hololens.

Harvard:
Opened a business at Harvard Innovation Labs, currently signing up for the 12 week incubator course.
Organizer of a graduate student club at Harvard, the AR/VR Club. It has 463 members.
Developing an application for the Harvard Department of Psychology to help explore and confirm the counterclockwise mindfulness theory by Ellen Langer
I’m helping make a Harvard grad student’s final project for his first year course. I’ll be presenting the final with him on December 14th in front of his class.
Recommendation from Harvard graduate professor (for the above project)
My dad works at Harvard :stuck_out_tongue:

Cornell:
Specific recommendation from Cornell alum, who now attends Harvard Business School.

Olin:
I live in their town.
I know my regional admissions officer personally.
Recommendation from one of their engineering professors.

Other:
State: MA
School Type: Regular public school
Ethnicity: Indian (born there, here on green card)
Gender: Male
Hooks (Athlete; first generation college, etc.): resume!

Thanks for helping me out everyone! Good luck to all of you too :slight_smile:

2

I think your recommendations are stellar, and so are your extracurriculars, and I agree with you that they speak for themselves. Definitely worth applying to all of them, but keep in mind other applicants who may have a higher GPA. I don’t think that will keep you out of the running, however. Many MANY schools are now saying that it is not as much of a factor. I think you have a great chance at Northeastern, MIT, UMASS Amherst, RPI, and maybe UCLA. UC Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, and Olin are still strong contenders, but not as definite as the others.

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1939686-chances-at-emory-uncch-vu.html#latest

3

Still waiting to hear about your traditional good looks!

4

Those schools are not “definite” in any way for anyone.

Your GPA is a very weak point .Most of your schools are reaches.
You need one or two safeties.

Also the UC’s offer no financial aid at all to OOS students. Can your parents afford to pay $60,000/year for four years there?

5

Harvard, Columbia, and MIT are definitely high, high reaches (solely as a result of your relatively low GPA), but I imagine that you have a somewhat good shot at the others.

6

They might overlook you gpa given how angular you are.

7

That cleft chin will make a difference!

8

@Multiverse7 What do you mean by angular?

9

@TomSrOfBoston If I get into a university like UC Berkeley, then most likely I’d take the crippling debt that comes with it. Thank you for your honesty. Is there any way I can persuade or push admission officers to overlook my GPA when considering my application?

10

@TheCrimsonBulldog do you think there’s any way to get Harvard, MIT and Columbia to overlook my GPA and pay more attention to the other parts of my application?

11

@oceanblue92 Thank you so much! I looked at your post, but unfortunately I know NOTHING about your intended majors or about your target schools, and I don’t want to give any misleading information. Im sorry :frowning:

12

You will not take on the crippling debt, your parents will.

Also you cannot “get” admissions counselors to do anything. They will look at you application without any pressure from you. If you try and explain away your low GPA it will reflect poorly on you.

13

Top schools accept unique. You are definitely unique. Your extracurriculars are stellar, and I’m sure adcoms will see that.

Chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20074357#Comment_20074357

14

Wow those ECs are incredible. The most impressive that I’ve ever seen!! Don’t even bother putting your academic ECs on your Common App. Just focus on your amazing technical ECs.

I think you will be successful regardless of where you end up going to school. I’m fairly certain that colleges will acknowledge that. If you really want to go to MIT or Harvard, you could probably have an easy time getting in transfer or grad school if you do well in undergrad.

I think you have a great chance at Olin. You sound like the perfect fit. Personally I think your chances at getting into Harvard and MIT are better than UC Berkeley because Berkeley is very stats oriented with admissions. Your SAT scores are good so that might compensate for class rank.

Like you, I’m in a similar situation where I have incredible ECs (published scientific research, issued patent, entrepreneurship), and somewhat mediocre class rank. Only difference is my SAT scores are a tad lower and I’m hooked (URM/low income/first gen to college).

Chance me back: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1936788-predict-my-results-stanford-mit-princeton-cmu-and-others.html#latest

15

Just another question, should I mention my specifics to all my colleges or just those specific colleges?

16

I mean its not like they just throw out people who have bad GPA’s without reading their apps

17

@YomanAwe Those are some very impressive EC’s. Go specific on your EC’s to your top choices and I also agree with @TomSrOfBoston your GPA is a weak point and unfortunately I doubt you have chances at top schools like MIT, Cal, UCLA, and Harvard. However, I think you have enough for schools like Northeastern and UMass.

18

What is your UC GPA? There is a hard minimum of 3.4 for out of state applicants.

19

seven

20

@YomanAwe So what schools did you get into?