HYPSM hopeful? chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Well, before we start, i'd like to thank you for taking the time!</p>

<p>DEMOGRAPHICS:
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Chinese (first gen immigrant, came here when i was 9)
Location: Northern California
High School: Public with about 600 in my class pretty decent
HS graduating year : 2011 (senior right now)
Class Rank: School only ranks in deciles, so officially top 10%, possibly top 1% (2nd highest gpa in my class as far as i know, but our school doesn't have official "ranks")
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>ACADEMICS:
GPA - Unweighted: 4.00
GPA - Weighted: 4.66
*note my years of music dragged down my gpa by a noticeable amount, pretty much the highest amount of ap/honors classes allowed at our school.
City college courses, Currently taking UCD classes during summer session.
Honors and AP classes</p>

<p>10th--
Chem AP
Art history AP
English honors
Calc AB
World Civ (honor)</p>

<p>11th--
Chinese 4
Calc BC
Physics (honors, barred from AP class due to school budget cuts and senior priority, self-studied for AP and got 5)
American Lit honors (no ap English till 12th :( )</p>

<p>City college
US history 310
US history 311
UCD
Linear Algebra
America Government</p>

<p>All classes A, no A- so far on transcript.</p>

<p>Test scores:
SAT I: M(770), CR(770), W(730) Essay(10) Total: 2270
SAT II: Math II(800) Chem(800) Bio (800)
*next year physics pending (idk lol, kinda want to get 800 on physics)
APs:
sophmore: Chem (5) Calc AB(5) World History (5) Art History (4)
Junior: Bio (5) Calc BC(5) Physics B (5) Environmental science (5) European History (5) Chinese (5)
Senior: ??</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Piano: Cm branch honors, random other stuff
Oboe: school symphony principal chair, UCD summer symphony 2009 principal chair
Tutor: volunteer tutor
Couple other random stuff, (ie robotics, cross country, debate. mostly did them for fun, time consuming, but not really that important i think.. just wanted to experience what HS had to offer)
Research: UCD biomed engineering (research on solid lipid nano-particles)</p>

<p>LEADERSHIP:
Science bowl: Captain
Math team: A-team
Chinese club: president
Csf, NHS: members</p>

<p>COMMUNITY SERVICE:
Local hospital volunteer: ~50 hours
Various other community services since 10th grade ~200 hours</p>

<p>WORK EXPERIENCE:
Freelance Tutor 10th-present
couple other random jobs (ie house sitter, photo researcher etc, not that much time on these projects)</p>

<p>HONORS & AWARDS:
Nor-cal ARML team (10)
NSL Chemistry champion school, silver individualist (10)
Science Bowl 3rd place regional (10)
AP Scholar with Honor (10)
U.S Chemistry Olympiad regional 3rd , National semi-finalist (11)
Sac Math tournament 1st in individual and 1st in team (11)
High school contest in Math Modeling national outstanding (11)
U.S Biology Olympiad national semi-finalist (11)
F.I.R.S.T robotics regional semi finalist (11)
CPMTA (Piano) Go for the Gold Excellent Medal (11)
NSL chem, bio, physics, silver individualist (11)
UCD teen biotech challenge grand-prize (11)</p>

<p>additional information/hook?:
-Grew up low-income, though not anymore through my hardworking mom. (QB pre-college scholarship denied)
-single parent household, dad passed away when i was 6
-first generation immigrants
-Uncle is professor at Stanford (i guess it doesn't count for legacy so.. idk)</p>

<p>Just your average Asian aiming for the stars...</p>

<p>Colleges:</p>

<p>Stanford (EA)
Princeton
Harvard
MIT
Caltech
Cornell
Brown
Columbia
UCB
UCLA
UCSD
UCD</p>

<p>(yay for ELC for UCs, at least i know worse case scenario isn't utter failure)</p>

<p>Also, anyone have any other recommendations on colleges?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>O forgot to mention, anyone got any advice for those UCSD and Brown B.S/M.D programs??</p>

2

<p>I think the Brown BS/MD program would be as hard to get into as your reach schools — but again, I never applied myself, so I don’t know for sure.</p>

<p>I think you should add a few match schools that you sincerely like and would love to attend if accepted.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>What kind of college? What major are you interested in? Any geographic preference?</p>

3

<p>I prefer sunny weather. Majors interested are usually applied science/research oriented, so depending on the college, i’ll either apply into an engineering program (most likely material sci or chem E such as at Berkeley) or something to that degree.</p>

<p>Preferably a good college that can get you good jobs (well… considering i’m from a low-income first generation single parent background, thats actually quite important for me…)
ALso, i’ll be relying on Need based Aid since my family income is <60k (annoyingly still can’t qualify for pell grant or anything like that due to my small family size of me and my mom)</p>

<p>UCB has cut away lots of other matches for me since i’d take UCB over many of the other colleges.</p>

4

<p>I’m not sure about the west coast, but in the northeast there’s cooper union in NYC (I believe the school has a special policy that rewards full ride scholarship to those accepted, so it’s quite competitive), RPI in Troy NY, and a lot of less known schools… University of Illinois at UC (it’s in Illinois) is a relative affordable public with one of the best engineering programs in the country, if you’re interested in that field.</p>

<p>Rice (nice and sunny) has a huge research program, but it’s more biomedical than engineering, I think. It’s also closely affliated with the Baylor Medical School and there’s also the Rice/Baylor medical school guarantee program. Of those you listed, MIT and Cornell are both very strong in engineering.</p>

<p>Oh and there was a thread in the parent forum a while ago about good engineering schools, if you want to check it out.</p>

<p><a href=“QB%20pre-college%20scholarship%20denied”>quote</a>

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I applied to the scholarship too two years ago and was rejected, so I applied normally during application time and ended up with a lot of great college options, so don’t worry about it :). Anyway, happy college search and good luck!</p>

5

<p>Is money an issue? Your stats wouldd get you lots of merit aid, so you may want to add merit aid schools (lists on financial aid board). Your uncle will not make you a legacy but powerful profs can certainly help a relative with your stats get the nod.</p>

6

<p>Money is actually a slight issue, but i think for all the schools i’m applying to, i’ll get enough need-based aid (i think every school up on my list would ultimately cost me no more than 7k a year)</p>

<p>@xrCalico23
So you got in the regular QB and not the pre-college one? so i should apply regular QB again right? just in case?</p>

<p>And I was just looking at Rice, so thats definitely a possibility, though I think Berkeley will be my top choice public, so probably no other OOS public schools can match that.</p>

<p>Also what do you guys think about Stanford EA? is it really that deadly like others say it is? What if i can get my uncle to write me a letter or rec?</p>

7

<p>All of those highly selective schools offer incredible financial aid, so don’t worry (unless your family has huge amounts of assets or something) :).</p>

<p>So you got in the regular QB and not the pre-college one? so i should apply regular QB again right? just in case?</p>

<p>No, I didn’t get the college prep scholarship and applied to college normally, not through QB. I might have subtly hinted at being from a low-income family in one of my supplement essays, but that’s really it. Overall, I felt that QB was more for applicants who overcame significant obstacles as a result of their family background, whose family income affected them greatly in some way, as in having to work multiple jobs, parents not supportive of their academic pursuits, etc. My situation really didn’t fit the profile, so I didn’t apply through the program. It didn’t matter in the end since I ultimately chose one of my top choice schools that didn’t participate in QB, with a FA package that basically covered all of tuition and most of the other costs.</p>

8

<p>HPS hve much, much better aid than Cornell and Brown which have much, much better aid than the UCs, so do pay attention to money early. Bottom line, the great aid schools are an enormous reach for even the best unhooked student-true acceptance rate is probably under 3% for the unhooked at HPS, most of whom have a resume like yours. 75th percentile scores are 790 per section, a little lower at S but that’s because they bend more for athletes.</p>

9

<p>@xrCalico23
Yeah i understand what you’re saying, but i’m sort’ve in an bad position with those intense low-income scholarships. Like When i came to the states 9 years ago, we had like nothing, my mom worked min-wage while going to nursing school full time. So basically she was out from 6am till 7pm everyday (no weekends, she worked holidays too, takes bus to school, thats why it takes so long) and we barely scraped by on a 30k income in a relatively expensive place to live (college town, California suburb) But like after she got her nursing degree 2 years ago, I lost all eligibility at those gates millennium and other more intense low income scholarships.
Sorry for throwing my whole life story out there, but basically thats that.</p>

<p>I guess my only serious hook is the single parent part.</p>

<p>@Redroses
yeah the 75% at Harvard is like 790 each and thats so disappointing for me… I’m a mistakes prone person, so i always miss 1-2 questions in the math and reading section, while grammar is my absolute bane. I can say English is my second language, but really thats just an pathetic excuse, i honestly suck at grammar.</p>

<p>Any opinions on Stanford EA?</p>

10

<p>Stanford (EA) - reach (low reach if your uncle can “influence” the committee)
Princeton - high reach
Harvard - high reach
MIT - reach
Caltech - low reach (Caltech has a very good Caltech-UCSD Medical Scholars Program, do check it out.)
Cornell - IN
Brown - IN
Columbia - IN
UCB - IN
UCLA - IN
UCSD - IN
UCD - IN</p>

11

<p>Your stats seem really solid, and congrats on doing so well on everything! Its impressive that you moved here when you were nine and have come so far. You seem to have solid leadership roles and ECs, and your test scores (especially those SAT IIs and AP exams) are stellar. I’d say you have a shot at any of those schools.</p>

12

<p>Oh, and Vanderbilt will give you 100% of your demonstrated needed aid… just something to think about.</p>

13

<p>UCB - Match due to your leadership positions and excellent academics.
UCLA - Match
UCSD - Match
UCD - match, if not safety, due to your high gpa and sat scores.
Caltech - I’d say a match due to your SAT scores being in the range of 50% of the applicants that were accepted, but it might be more of a reach since it’s pretty difficult to get into.
Stanford - I’d say it would depend on your personal statement, otherwise it’s be in between a reach and match.</p>

<p>Since i’m more familiar with colleges on the West coast, I don’t have much of an opinion of Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Cornell, Brown, and Columbia.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>Neither of these schools should be considered a match by anyone.</p>

15

<p>You’ve got some great scores and grades under your belt. Your ECs are decent as well.</p>

<p>Stanford (EA): reach (but a bit lower than the other reaches below)
Princeton: reach
Harvard: reach
MIT: reach
Caltech: reach
Cornell: match
Brown: low reach
Columbia: low reach
UCB: low reach / match
UCLA: match
UCSD: match
UCD: match</p>

16

<p>O yeah forgot to mention, i’m ELC at my school, which has close to 100% admit rate with UCB if you’re ELC. which was why i said before UCB knocked a lot of schools off of my list.</p>

17

<p>Your stats are really impressive considering your background. I would say you have a good chance at them, but still reach for the ivies.</p>

18

<p>hahaa…man
you have really similar stuff
i think you have a great shot at Brown, columbia, and cornell
as for harvard, princeton, and stanford i think you have as good a shot as any</p>

19

<p>Thanks for commenting on my chance thread, it was very insightful. I’ll try to chance yours as well as you did mine.</p>

<p>You have a very good application, your worst case scenario is not ELCing to a UC (lol). If anything, a little bit more leadership could help you for the Ivies. What you need to concentrate on now is getting excellent recommendations and a killer essay. It is almost impossible to overestimate those aspects of your application. Also, your recommendations need to be from meaningful people, not just those who you are sure will give you an excellent one. Best of luck, though I am not sure if you will need it.</p>

20

<p>np, i’m glad that my comment was of use to your future planning :)</p>

<p>So again… i have to ask, is there anyone that has knowledge about stanford EA? is it harder to get in then usual?</p>