Happy Turkey Day! Final Chances before applying to few Ivies, UCB, UT, top schools)

<p>Hiya! Hope everyone is stuffing their bellies while watching the Philly Eagles get murdered by the Pats. Hopefully you guys can help me out before I send out my last chances. Thanks a million!</p>

<p>Hiya.</p>

<p>Senior attending semi-competitive HS in South-Central Jersey (sends one/two to Ivies, few to top schools)</p>

<p>Plan to major in Civil/Arch Engineering, if that doesn't work, it'll be architecture, and if not that, finance/business</p>

<p>SAT: Superscore 2060 (700M 660CR 700W 10 Essay)
ACT (good s**t): Composite 33 - 34 English, 33 Math, 31 Reading, 34 Science, 32 Writing
(Are some colleges on my list biased on which test to accept? If I only give 'em my ACT and they don't need SATII's, will chances be hampered?)
SAT II's: Physics 650
Math IIC 690
(Unrealistic because I realized I had to take them a week before the test date, don't think they accurately measure my skills and should I mention this in Addt'l. Info?)</p>

<p>GPA: Right around a 4 weighted, 3.8 unweighted.
Classes: Most rigorous curriculum: All honors and AP classes.
APs: Soph: AP Macroeconomics-4
Junior: AP Spanish Language-(Couldn't take test)
Senior: AP Physics (Well, it's not AP, but its the same coursework/load)
AP Calculus AB
AP USH
AP Microeconomics
Maybe AP Psych</p>

<p>EC's- National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Team, member of founding team as senior
designer/engineer. We won the NJ regionals and won a Rookie
all-star award, after which we went to the world champs in Atlanta.
Morning TV show, I created a lot of attractive, professional grade Flash
Intros which really got everyone talking!
Habitat for Humanity
Perhaps one or two more as the year goes by.</p>

<p>Work experience(significant!)</p>

<pre><code> Worked in a construction company all four years of high school. I started as skilled labor(electrics, plumbing, carpentry) and moved up to more professional jobs. I am now a project manager, sales consultant, in marketing, and I've created a website for our firm (G4S Construction, let me know how it looks!) It's a serious job in which I've used a lot of stuff I learned in school. I'm also given full-scale responsibilities, like some sales presentations and crew management, no easy stuff. I can run most machinery, including excavators and large tractors, and tools. I hope colleges look at this as a much more involved employment as opposed to something like working in a supermarket (nothing wrong with that, but my job's way more intensive!)
</code></pre>

<p>Special considerations, if any:</p>

<p>Come from a low-income family for where we live, I think. I'll do the EFC thing today with my folks, but I expect it to be at most $2,500. I work very hard to support it. I used to work around 30-35 hours a week before, now due to the housing slump, that has increased to near 35-40 hours, taking away some time I could've used to study, etc. for better grades. I heard the Ivies+top schools have a hard time attracting lower income kids, so I'm hoping mentioning this will help me. Where could I put it? The extra info sention on the common app? Do adcoms even read them?!?!? I really need to get this across, and might only mention a snippet in my essay. I'll tell my GC to write about it, but I don't know the order the colleges look at each piece of the app.</p>

<p>Colleges I plan on applying to:</p>

<p>ED Cornell (Already Applied, hope for the best)
Princeton
University of Texas at Austin
Stanford
Georgia Tech
Columbia Fu Foundation
University of California at Berkeley
Penn State
Rutgers
University of Maryland-College Park
NJIT</p>

<p>Any other schools you guys can think of would be appreciated. I want to apply to some other NE engineering schools that are tops. But I've already ruled out RPI,WPI, RIT and Rochester. Not happening. Kindly take a second to answer the questions I asked; I'm working till 10-11 ish nowadays and haven't had time to talk to guidance, etc.</p>

<p>Thank you very much!!!!! And fill up on turkey!</p>

<p>UT/Gtech - Match
Stanford/Berkeley - Reach/slight reach
Princeton - Reach.</p>

<p>Your GPA is kind of low for some of the top tier schools, but you have good ECs and an impacting background. Majoring in Engineering also makes it harder for you to get in.</p>

<p>Berkeley OOS: reach</p>

<p>Your SAT scores (I and II) are somewhat weak for OOS, though your ACT is very good. Your ECs are good. However, since you're applying as an OOSer from a competitive state and you're applying for a competitive major, it's a reach. Being a low-income student may help (diversity and all that).</p>

<p>Are you sure about your GPA? A 3.8 UW if you took all honors and APs is much higher than just a 4.0. For example, if you took half of your classes as honors and APs, then the weighted GPA would be 4.3. You might want to consider how many you took--or else post them here and we'll tell you a better estimate of these.</p>

<p>Thanks, and I hope you are having a great Thanksgiving meal also.</p>

<p>i think you have a VERY good chance for cornell ED- you seem to be a very strong applicant and the fact that you worked and balanced school/EC's shows u are very hard-working! good luck-- not that you'll need it, lol :)</p>

<p>I think you have a great chance at Cornell ED as well,
I wish you all the best of luck</p>

<p>Don't send in your other applications yet! You'll probably be able to save $300 when you get into Cornell ED.</p>

<p>Whoa , whoa, whoa! I'm so surprised to see everyone thinks I have a great shot at Cornell! That's very reassuring. Any special reason as to why you guys think I have a good shot there? I mean, am I specifically the kind of student they're really looking for?</p>

<p>Thanks guys, please keep them coming! I'd like to get some opinions of how I'd do in some of the other schools.</p>

<p>BTW, I forgot to mention recs and essays. My essay is on Green Building and I related it to Habitat for Humanity, my job and passion and stuff. I peeked at some of my teachers recs and they marked a lot in the "one of the top few" box, so I think I'll be good. My GC loves me so I assume the rec from her will be great.</p>

<p>Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!</p>

<p>bump................</p>

<p>bump. Other schools? And are you guys sure about Cornell?</p>

<p>El ultimo bump</p>

<p>El siguiente. Kindly just tell me my chances at the other schools!</p>