Harvard and MIT chances - Any advice welcome!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I’m applying to both the schools this coming fall (MIT EA and Harvard RD)

Before I get started just want to say thank you for the chances and good luck to all.
Also, I know both of these are a crap shoot and it doesn’t matter if I have a 33 or 36 ACT when it comes down to it

Well here’s me

ACT (33 ACT)
SAT II (780 Math / 720 Chem)
PSAT(1450)

GPA-3.88/4.00
Rank 37/650

NASA High School Aero Space Scholar- Very selective program out of Texas to go down to NASA for a week and study astro. Competed Rigorous course over school year and actually going on site next week

Air Force Academy Summer Seminar Cadet- 1 of 500 kids to go during the summer and experience life as a cadet (7000 applied) national

Certification of completion and acceptance to the national guard engineering program. Selected as a freshman to complete the program

Senior Course Load: Professional Communications, AP Macro, AP Government, AP Physics, AP English 4, AP Calculus AB, Self studying astronautical engineering using MIT open course ware, Advanced Debate, Engineering Design and development

Job- Head Instructor (Only other ones are college grads) at Zaniac. Teach kids STEM fields such as coding, 3d Design, mathematics, etc. Worked extensive hours taking apart and reassembling the 3D printer after errors.

Computer Science Club- Co founder and VP, organize 20-25 people around projects and give guidance to them about how to fix errors and progress

Robotics Club - Treasure and Team leader: Led team of 5 people the entire year over the VEX challenge and went to states

Engineering Club- President, discuss and arrange projects for 30+ kids to work on, ie building a 3D printer out of an old projector and disk drive. (My design)

Varsity hockey team: We won regional out of 16 teams, and I was selected to participate by other coaches in our region in the State of Texas All Star game

Varsity Debate: Policy Debate Board member and 2016 debater of the year.

Natural Helper- Picked 1 of 12 biannually to participate in training to aide pears in case of extreme depression, anxiety, etc.

NHS obvi

JV Lacrosse Team Captain: Eh idrc about this one, was a very young captain but still its JV

I have communicated to the commander at the Detachment at MIT and Harvard’s ROTC program and she said she really wants me in the program and will push admissions for me. She said she estimates a boost of 20-40% acceptance rate with her push.

My essays will also be top notch, like not trying to be arrogant but I am a very good writer and have decent life crises

White - Male
Military Brat - never stayed in same state for more than 3 years
Single mother
<50k a year

THANK YOU ALL SOOO MUCH, WILL CHANCE BACK AND REPLY. ANY CRITICISM IS WELCOME AND ENJOYED.

2

I was about to ask if you are considering ROTC when I read your activities and Air Force Academy summer program. Are you also applying to Service Academies? You might want to post this on the Service Academy forums under AFROTC. I’d retake the ACT if MIT is a top choice. You have a few good hooks for Harvard and should get an ROTC scholarship. I think your best bet is to apply for the first boards (ROTC Scholarship) and then ED or EA to your #1 choice.

(PS you might want to edit your post and delete the personal communication from the ROO at the detachments.) Good luck!

3

Editing is not possible unfortunately:( Unless it is and i’m missing it haha. and what do you mean ROO? Some acronym I just am not getting for some reason. Thank you very much for the advice!

4

I kind of think of MIT and Harvard as reach for everyone haha… I don’t know much about Harvard but your scores are a tiny bit lower than MIT’s typical. However, your achievements outside of that are super impressive! Obviously you have some really unique experiences that I think MIT would like. And you have the push from the Commander. When it comes time, I will probably apply to MIT because it is probably my top 1 or 2 dream school and I know that I’ll regret it if I don’t take a chance. I don’t have anything close to your experience level and the unique achievements - people like you are honestly the people that make me very worried about my own chances. All in all, I think that MIT is probably a low, low reach for you, and I really think you should give it a shot. Sorry that I can’t help you with your Harvard situation, but I’d think that both schools share similarities in terms of what they’re looking for.

If you have the time, I’d appreciate it if you could chance me back :slight_smile:

5

@18college1111 For me to chance back just PM me a link of your post! And don’t worry at all, MIT cares about the person you are and personality! I bet you’ll have a great chance and for hecks sake, there was a minimum ACT last year of like 28. IF HE/SHE CAN ANYONE CAN! Just apply and hope for the best like all of us haha. Thank you for the reply.

6

@JasonMath ^^^ Sorry forgot to tag you in last response

7

You are one of the first people on CC (I’m my experience) to acknowledge the fact that when it comes down to it, increasing your score from a 33 to a 34+ will not really help you. In all of my chance threads with my 32/33 ACT, all of the comments include, “raise your ACT one point and you’ll be good.” Honestly, there isn’t really a difference between a 33 and 36. That being said, I think it is the ECs and essays that really make the difference. Your ECs are very good. I think you’ll have a better chance at MIT than Harvard, but I think your chances are above average for both schools.

Chance me thread:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903498-separate-my-college-list-into-low-medium-high-reach-match-or-safety-i-will-chance-back.html

8

ROO is the contact person at the detachment who handles scholarship winners/recruitment and works with admissions (or not!) And yes there is a difference between a 33 and a 34-36 for these schools. Look at their common data sets and the acceptance posts for class of 2020. For someone with your unique activities and hooks (ROTC interest and single parent household, lower income) it might not make as much of a difference (33) but if you have time and get a free waiver, taking it a second time can’t hurt. Everything else looks strong.

9

@JasonMath I know there is technically a difference, but it is so slight that in the end, they are going to accept someone with a 35 to a 33 just because of the score ya know? Anyways, yes I will be applying to the academies. Thank you again!

10

nvm

11

Even if your scores aren’t on par with the upper percentiles, your extra curriculars are quite amazing. I hope this isn’t boosting your ego or anything, but dang, I think you got a big shot of getting into either of your schools. You definitely have what it takes to make it in your schools. With stuff like this, why ask? :wink:

12

While all ACT scores above a 32 are in the 99%, there are 20,000 that achieved a 33, 14,000 a 34, 7,000 a 35, 1,500 a 36, not including superscoring, so at the Ivy research universities the cutoffs matter even more.

13

It looks like you are a competitive applicant but what’s puzzling me is that these are very different schools and it’s not clear to me why they would both be your top picks. What is your intended major–seems like you want Engineering. Harvard’s Engineering program is pretty small.

14

@mathyone I enjoy mechanical / electrical or aero / asto, luckily Harvard has a mech / electrical degree

15

If you really want to do engineering (hands on), forget Harvard. Your test scores are on a lowish side for the typical MIT applicant, but you may have a good story to tell from your ECs and military brat status. If you want to go Ivy for engineering, Cornell or Princeton would be a better choice. You should also look into Purdue, UMich, Georgia Tech, RPI, Olin, or Worcester Polytechic Institute.

16

^^What NoVADad99 said. When my son was looking for an engineering school, the consensus from working engineers was that engineers from Harvard and Yale tended to leverage their degrees into the business setting, working for Wall St. and so on. If you truly want to work as an engineer look at the schools he mentioned.

FWIW, our income is similar to your family’s. DS got into Cornell and RPI (the latter with the Rensselaer Medal) but RPI’s financial aid was much less generous. Princeton would give excellent FA too. Purdue gives little OOS FA, UM is working on improving on their OOS packages. Of course if you get into ROTC, some of the FA issues may be solved :slight_smile: . Best of luck!

17

Your awards and extracurriculars are amazing, as is your course load. You definitely have a strong chance at both of these schools. Self-studying engineering is definitely something you should highlight. Leadership is not even a problem on your application. Good luck!

Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1904474-chance-me-for-the-following-rising-senior-with-huge-upward-trend.html#latest

18

Thank you all for the amazing advice and criticism!

19

You’re an interesting applicant that I think will stand out. Be sure to capitalize on your unique experiences. Remember that the goal is to stand out and be memorable when you apply.

However, your dream schools are a dream school for many tens of thousands of other applicants. Hope for the best.

20

@Burdened Ya that’s always the underlined thing when you apply haha, how to make yourself look good to people who don’t know you.