How competitive am I?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, I'm a Vietnamese male from Massachusetts and I would love it if you could tell me where I stand on the "competitivity scale". I know I'm not like the most of the CC students with extraordinary statistics. Thanks in advanced!</p>

<p>Computer Science Major</p>

<p>SAT's
M:740 CR: 640 W: 660 (1390 // 2040)
Math I: 740
Math II: 730
Physics: 710</p>

<p>AP's
Computer Science A: 5 (school doesnt offer AB, actually, was the first year it even offered A)
Physics B: 4 (once again, school doesnt offer C)
US History: 4
Currently taking Calculus AB (BC isn't offered)</p>

<p>GPA
9th: 2.88
10th: 2.65
11th: 3.92
12th (1st term): 3.89
class rank: 74/219 (9th-11th)
4 honors (3 are in math)</p>

<p>EC's
*2 summer internships (1 for IBM)
*around ~150 hours volunteering
*currently work for hire (leader of a team) as a webdesigner by small businesses
*self-taught: html, css, php, javascript, visual basic, c, c++, perl, and vbscript
*learned java in class, but have gotten MUCH better with it than i had been taught; i would consider it my best language
*am webmaster of the red cross club</p>

<p>Others
*essay has recieved mainly positive reviews, still am revising though
*recc from guidance should be decent, i guess, i dont trust her too much
*2 reccs from AP teachers from junior year, i exspect both to be good/very good</p>

<p>Colleges
MIT (one can dream...:-P)
WPI (EA)
Boston U.
Northeastern U. (sort of legacy, my sister graduated from here)
Clark U.
UMASS Amherst
UMASS Lowell
(if you can suggest any more that are relatively close to MA that has a strong computer science program, that i have a chance of getting into, i would very much appreciate it)</p>

2

<p>MIT--Big Reach
WPI (EA)--Slight Reach
Boston Univ.--Reach
Northeastern U.--Slight Reach
Clark U.--Match
UMASS Amherst--Match
UMASS Lowell--Safe Match</p>

<p>Upward trend in grades plus great test scores help, but that 2.65 GPA in sophomore year hurts a lot. You might have a shot at WPI if you can explain what you learned that helped you move from that 2.65 GPA to a 3.92 GPA the following year.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the info, in case it affects the chances at all, I showed A LOT of interest to WPI. I went to an information session, an interview, an open house, etc etc. That is probably my favorite school that I at least have a chance at; I would have done ED had they offered it. And as for the explaination, is the essay the only way to do this? Because i already have a prety good essay and i dont have enough time to completely do another essay, well a quality one anyways. Not to mention i dont really know what to say, since it wasnt exactly a momentuous event or anything. I was just a young and immature kid back then, but during my summer job at one of the programs thats sponsored by harvard, i got very close with a lot of harvard students (who are obviously very hard-working) and i guess i just saw the light. Well that and the fact that I never really thought about college until the end of Sophomore year, when it was too late for that year, but then i pulled myself together from then on.</p>

<p>On a side note, does this statistic raise my chances as well? (from CollegeBoard):</p>

<h1>Number of early action applications received: 918</h1>

<h1>Number admitted under early action plan: 865</h1>

<p>WPI has a 85% acceptance rate on RD anyanyways, but on EA they have a 94.2% acceptance rate.
I'm hoping that my pretty good test scores, my incline towards the later years of my high school career, my pretty good EC's (especially in computer science) and my level of interest can pop me out of the 5-6% that get rejected/deferred</p>

4

<p>Sorry for the double post, but I've heard from seminars and stuff that WPI put more weight/empasis on math/science courses so ill list them out, incase this affects my chances at all:
9th: Biology Honors: B+, Algebra Honors: B+
10th: Geometry Honors: B+/A-, Physics: B/B+
11th: Physics AP: A, Computer Science AP: A+, Precalculus Honors: A-
12th: Calculus AP: A-, Chemistry Honors: A</p>

<p>Also some possible hooks/disadvantages:
*I'm an immigrant, though i came at a very early age
*low income family
*public school (considered an "exam" school)
*parents didnt go to college, though all older siblings did</p>

5

<p>bump...anyone else has anything to say?</p>