Have a lot of questions, looking for a lot of answers

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm going to be a senior and am planning on majoring in Chemical Engineering next fall, and want to be accepted to the best school I can. Here's what my "stats" look like:</p>

<hr>

<p>Family Information:
Father - Associates Degree
Mother - Did not attend high school
Grandfather - High school degree
Grandmother - Did not attend high school
Number of Siblings - 0</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities:
Tennis - 10, 11, 12 Grade - Letterman
Science Olympiad - 11, 12 Grade - Letterman
National Honor Society - 11, 12 Grade</p>

<p>Community Service:
None</p>

<p>Work Experience:
None</p>

<p>Awards/Recognition:
NYLF on Law Nominee
NYLF on Medicine Nominee
National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist</p>

<p>Classes Taken:
(9th Grade)
English 9 Honors - A
Geometry Honors - A
Biology Honors - A
World Hist. Honors - A
Exploring Art - A
Intro to Tech - A
Health/PE - A</p>

<p>(10th Grade)
English 10 Honors - A
Algebra II Honors - A
Physics Honors - A
AP Euro Hist. - A
Spanish I - A
Web Design/Keyboarding - A
Economics/PE - A</p>

<p>(11th Grade)
English 11 Honors - A
Pre-Calculus Honors - A
Chemistry Honors - A
AP US Hist. - A
AP Physics - A
Spanish II - A
Study Hall</p>

<p>(12th Grade)
AP English
AP Calculus
AP Chemistry
AP Government
Spanish III
Accounting
Study Hall</p>

<p>ACT Score:
English - 34
Math - 36
Reading - 36
Science - 36
Composite Score - 36</p>

<p>Writing - 6 :(
Combined Eng/Writing - 29</p>

<p>Class Rank/GPA:
Rank - 1(t)/342
GPA - 4.154</p>

<hr>

<p>The colleges I'm considering applying to right now are:</p>

<p>MIT
Stanford
Delaware
Carnegie Mellon
Ohio State
Case Western</p>

<p>I would appreciate feedback on each of these choices, and also recommendations for other colleges I should think about applying to.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance,
Ray</p>

2

<p>The good news it that MIT won't care so much about your writin scores. The bad news is that you have basically no ECs.</p>

<p>That said, you're probably in to Case Western and OSU and probably Delaware.</p>

<p>Stanford, MIT, CMU are all still reaches, though. Especially Stanford, your 36 ACT score will not make up for your lackluster ECs.</p>

3

<p>MIT: REJECT
Stanford: REJECT
Delaware: In
Carnegie Mellon: Likely
Ohio State: In
Case Western: In</p>

4

<p>Just about anyone can dedicate their entire HS career to studying (with menial involvements in school activities). Not everyone can juggle great ECs/awards and come out with the top grades/test scores. I hate to break it to you, but a lot of what getting into a great college entails is centered around managing your time in a productive fashion and achieving the right balance between Academics/ECs. Think of it as a two-sided coin and top colleges are looking for a gold coin which always lands 50-50 on "Academic Merit" and "Extracurricular Success". I agree with the chances given by others but felt you deserved a good explanation.</p>

5

<p>i totally agree with Gaffe</p>

6

<p>MIT: High Reach
Stanford: high Reach
Delaware: Safety
Carnegie Mellon: Match
Ohio State: Low match/safety
Case Western: low match/match</p>

7

<p>Thanks for the feedback, guys. From what I've heard, MIT puts a lot of emphasis on the interview, so if I do really good with that, how much does that help my chances at getting accepted?</p>

8

<p>I'll suggest adding Caltech, Rice and Olin.</p>

9

<p>you'll make them all except Stanford and MIT. also can someone tell me what adcoms are?</p>

10

<p>Sorry to bump this week-old thread, but there's still something I want to ask.</p>

<hr>

<p>If you were in my shoes, what colleges would you apply to?</p>

<hr>

<p>I know that most of you will say "Well, it depends on what you want", so I'll try my best to tell you. </p>

<p>There are two main things that are very important to me. The first would be the quality of the university. I want to go to a college that's nationally recognized in my field and a degree that's impressive when applying for a job. As important to me is cost. My EFC will = $0, so I need a university that offers generous need-based scholarships. Some preferences of mine are a smaller campus (< 10k undergrads) with a good campus life/community. Location doesn't matter much, and neither does ethnic diversity, religious affiliation, gender makeup, or public/private.</p>

11

<p>i agree with Gaffe. Please chance me</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=380548%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=380548&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

12

<p>collegekid100:</p>

<p>I'm from a public high school in northeast Ohio.</p>

<p>And yes, I am low income - like I said, my EFC will be $0.</p>

13

<p>MIT and Stanford are your only reaches, the other schools will happily accept you. Your low income situation may help for lack of ECs, however it's not like your working for your family instead of performing ECs. You may benefit from applying to lots of good engineering schools (Caltech, Cornell, Olin, Harvey Mudd, Cooper Union etc.) hoping that one of them will forgive your lack of involvement. I wish you good luck, but I do fear that your lack of ECs will keep you out of colleges you could have secured due to your awesome test scores and val status. I'd nail the essays and make sure that '6' on the ACT essay does not truly represent your writing ability. Good Luck.</p>

<p>Please chance me at:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=361246%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=361246&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>