Hey, chance me for ivy league please! (Brown, Carnegie Mellon, and JHU in particular)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>GPA (Weighted): 4.15
GPA (Unweighted): 3.7 (idk converting weighted to unweighted)</p>

<p>Rank: ~60/645</p>

<p>Personal Specs:
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: Korean
Father: Ph.D- Aerospace Engineering at U of Michigan, Undergrad at Occidental
Mother: Masters- Violin Performance at U of Michigan, Undergrad at Seoul University</p>

<p>Test Scores/Classes:
-SAT: 2280 (780 R, 770 M, 730 W)
-PSAT: 236
-ACT: 35 (with writing)
-AP (so far): Calc BC (5), English Lang (5), European History (5), Chemistry (4)
-SAT Subjects (so far): MathII (800), Physics (670 RETAKING)
-9th Grade: Honors Algebra2Trig, Honors English, Honors Biology, Concert Strings, Applied Technology 1, Honors World History
-10th Grade: Honors Precalc, Honors English 2, Honors Chemistry, Symphonic Strings, Chinese 1, AP European History
-11th Grade: AP Calc BC, AP English Lang, AP Chemistry, Honors Physics, Chamber Strings, Chinese II
-12th Grade: Calculus III (Multivariable calc through U of Illinois), AP Environmental Science, AP Physics, Chinese IV, AP English Lit, Chamber Strings, </p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-JV Scholastic Bowl (2 years) winning 4th place at Masonic Tournament.
-Tri-M Music Society (2 years) leadership opportunities in setting up and helping out at concerts and aiding the music program.
-Orchestra Executive Board Member (1 year) a lot of leadership and organizing events/concerts.
-JV tennis (2nd place doubles at conference)
-Tech Crew (2 years) building sets for plays and musicals
-Church Youth Group: piano and guitar (2 years)
-Environmental Science and Leadership camp at Brown University (2 weeks in 2010 summer)
-Engineering Innovation class at Johns Hopkins University for college credit (1 month in 2011 summer)</p>

<p>Volunteer/Community Service Work:
-About 150 hours total
-Key Club at school (3 years) organizing volunteer opportunities
-Volunteering at a nursing home
-Medical Mission trip to Cambodia, providing supplies and medical checkups and treatments (I worked as a secretary working with a translator to find out what each person needed and sending them to the right doctor)</p>

<p>Awards/Honors:
-Probable National Merit Scholar (with a PSAT score of 236 and SAT of 2280)
-1st place at North Central Sonata Festival (Piano)
-Accepted into school’s top orchestra (in a Grammy-award-winning music program) junior year (Violin)
-PTA Reflections (Arts) Competition: Honorable Mention at State level for Composition (2 years in a row)
-Piano/Music theory AIM test (level 8)</p>

<p>Recommendations: N/A (but hopefully will be good)</p>

<p>I feel like my test scores are alright, but I wish my gpa was higher. Also, I probably need much more for my EC and other awards/honors.
Please give me your honest opinion!! (and dont be afraid to be as blunt as you need to be)
Thankyou! I appreciate it!</p>

2

<p>Carnegie Mellon and JHU are not in the Ivy League.</p>

<p>Brown is a reach. JHU and Carnegie Mellon are borderline matches/reaches.</p>

3

<p>bump~ please reply with any opinions at all!</p>

4

<p>Respectfully disagreeing with prior poster.</p>

<p>CMU should be a solid match.</p>

<p>JHU-Brown (and a host of other schools) – it’s impossible to say. Your ACTs, are clearly above average for everywhere, unless required, consider not even sending either the SATs or the SAT IIs.</p>

<p>Grades – we’re dealing with schools where 85-90% of the class is in the top 10% of their class, so your grades will be average-slightly below average. So, overall, put the whole package together and … average to slightly below average chance of acceptance at either.</p>

<p>Now – consider that these schools generally accept <20% of their applications. So, here’s the good news and the bad news. Good News – a number of people with your stats will be accepted the bulk of the class is chosen from people with numbers similar to yours. Bad News – a bigger number people with similar stats to yours will be rejected.</p>

<p>What does it mean for you? Apply to any school you want to attend. Given the intensity of the competition, you’ll probably need to apply to at least 8-10 schools total, and one or two should be safety schools, just in case. You will most likely get into an elite top tier school – but there are no guarantees these days.</p>

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<p>(and this is why i’d love to have as many opinions as possible, cuz quite a few of them will be conflicting)</p>

<p>Why not send SATs? Besides physics, others are all above average.</p>

<p>I see…well I do hope so. Would doing EA or ED (binding and nonbinding) affect admission chances enough to make a difference? I’m thinking of doing a binding EA with Brown and nonbinding with UPenn, Duke, and U of Michigan.</p>

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<p>Oops. Nonbinding with U of Chicago, U of Illinois (UC), and U of Michigan. Upenn and duke are binding :P</p>

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<p>sjkim </p>

<p>It’s a close call for you as to whether to send both SAT and ACT. Your SAT scores are equivalent to a 34 on the ACT vs your actual ACT of 35. The biggest advantage to not sending your SAT (at least to some schools) is that many schools do not require you to submit SAT IIs, so the Physics SAT II (which is significantly lower than your other scores) would not have to be sent.</p>

<p>ED-EA – Most top schools have a higher ED acceptance rate than for the RD pool. In most cases, it’s thought of as being an advantage. The biggest disadvantage is that with binding ED, you are required to go to the school if accepted (with limited exceptions), so essentially you can’t shop aid packages.</p>

<p>EA – is generally thought of as having a higher admit rate than RD, though I don’t know whether the advantage is as large as with ED programs.</p>

<p>Of the schools you mentioned – I think Brown, Penn and Duke only offer ED, so you’d have to choose among them. U. Mich definitely had EA last year. (I see you figured this out already (-: )</p>

8

<p>

One exception is if the financial aid offer is not enough to support attendance, you say thanks but no thanks, and apply elsewhere, without being able to compare FA packages.</p>

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<p>Wait so even if it is a binding ED, and I get accepted, if I can’t afford it, that nulls the binding?</p>

10

<p>sjkim – if you genuinly can’t afford it, they won’t (to be honest can’t) force you. And it says this on the ED form.</p>

<p>Von:</p>

<p>We were led to believe (from GCs and College Admissions Officers) that the exception is rather more limited than people might think. In other words, the amount that your family would have to pay would have to be both (i) SIGNIFICANTLY more than the ED school to have a chance to get let out and (ii) the ED school would not have met your needs. </p>

<p>In general, if the ED school doesn’t let you out of your commitment, MOST other schools will honor this (assuming the ED school was within the realm of reason). The burden of proof to show that you can’t afford it is on the student. This being said, many schools let out a couple of people a year from their commitments, but I think it’s rare.</p>

<p>In other words, if the formulae show that your EFC is $35,000, and your need is met by the ED school, you go. The fact that School B gives you a $10,000 merit scholarship (so your family would only have to pay $25,000), probably won’t fly. Also, to the extent the ED school has met your need, you wouldn’t be free to accept an in-state school at half the price.</p>

<p>Am I incorrect about this?</p>

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<p>Ah okay. Another point I’m not clear on: would it be worth sending in a recording of a piano performance, for example? Or a composition or something that supports my EC? How much impact would that have?</p>

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<p>And I know I’d like to do engineering, but I have no idea what kind, even with research and information. I’m hoping to decide that in college so I have to apply for an engineering school. Is not deciding on a specific major detrimental to my admission or should I not be worrying about this…</p>

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<p>Some schools would encourage this. Call the Admissions Offices at the places you intend to apply to to ask.</p>

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<p>try EA/ED. But your chances are OK. Your ACT score is good enough, your GPA is OK but not excellent. As for your extracurriculars other than your music performances (which are not exactly in the national range) they’re strong in comparison to other applicants but since you’re planning to apply to BROWN, they’re a little weak. </p>

<p>But privates always do something weird. so write a good essay :)</p>

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<p>Engineering</p>

<p>It’s not uncommon for students not to know what kind of engineering they want. (D applied to engineering schools last year and this was commonly discussed at information sessions.) Many schools either have first year curricula that cover the different branches of engineering. Others (Cornell, for example – offers semester-long introductory courses, and doesn’t require you to declare your major until three semesters in).</p>

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<p>Re post #10: I think it would be helpful to others to document the cases where schools don’t abide by the stated Common App rules pertaining to ED and financial aid, by web site reference or personal experience.</p>

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<p>As far as I can tell, JHU and CMU should offer identical chances - both at the borderline between match/reach, both slightly on the match side.</p>

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<p>re ED/financial aid.</p>

<p>I agree that finding documented cases is best. My advice is always – talk to your guidance counselor before applying ED. They’re the experts here.</p>

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<p>First of all, I think you have a decent/fairly good shot at JHU and CM. Your test scores are excellent (even great for Brown). However, your GPA is a little… well…low. Even though you may be in the top 10% of your class, you just barely are, so Brown may be tough. Nonetheless, I still encourage you to apply there. Good Luck!
Chance me for my top schools!</p>

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<p>Time for a more detailed answer:

The school either meets your needs or lets you out; there’s nothing in the rule about significantly:

</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/docs/downloadforms/ED_Agreement.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note that the student may decline; only the family knows what is affordable. Schools use standard formulas to determine their offers, and standard formulas don’t apply to everyone.</p>

<p>

What does school B care if school A’s endowment doesn’t support as high a FA offer as school B can make? It’s school A’s loss and B’s gain if only B can offer an affordable education to a top candidate (one that a school wants so badly that it’s willing to take a financial “loss” at ED time).

The rule doesn not say this. Please name the schools that say this so kids can avoid those that don’t follow the ED FA rule.</p>