<p>So I had another post and it got buried. sigh.....</p>
<p>User Name: sriharifez
Gender: M
Ethnicity: Sri Lankan (if don't know where Sri Lanka is, go look on a map)
College Class Year: 2008
High School: Public
Location: Wyoming, USA
High School Type: rarely (like really rarely) sends grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>
<p>Academics:</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.98
GPA - Weighted: (school doesnt weight)
Class Rank: top 9%
Class Size: 297</p>
<p>Scores:
(Sat scores are predicted)
SAT I Math: 800
SAT I Critical Reading: 710
SAT I Writing: 740
ACT: 32
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 780
AP Calc AB-5
AP Calc BC-Yet to take (prob a 5)
AP Phys C Mech and E&M-Yet to take (prob a 4 or 5)
AP Gov't-Yet to take (prob a 5)</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
-AMC 10 2006 1st in state (score : 114)
-Wyoming State Math Contest (either first place or second place for five years)
-Baseball-Traveling team (I would consider it Varsity level)
-Tennis-JV
-Swimming-JV and V
-Track-JV
-Coaching Little League this summer
-Member of Society of Physics Students (at the university)
-Member of American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
-Summer Research Apprenticeship Program 2006 (a program at the University of Wyoming where I studied Computational Relativity)
-Amateur Jeweler</p>
<p>Junior classes(this year):
-AP Gov't
-Chemistry 1
-Intro to Art
-Writers Workshop (sem1) and Survey of Fiction (sem2)
University classes:
-Foundations of Geometry (Fractals and Projective Planes) (semester 1)
-Classical Mechanics (Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics, not the easy stuff) (semester 2)
-Physics 2
-AP Physics C-Mech and EM-Ind. Study
-AP Calculus BC-Ind. Study</p>
<p>Planned Senior Classes:</p>
<p>note: college classes are dual enroll at University of Wyoming.
-AP English Lit
-Advanced Art
College Classes:
-Calculus 3
-Applied Differential Equations
-Linear Algebra (stuff like eigenvectors and calc based matrices)
-Circuits and Systems w/Lab</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure there have only been about four people in the last ten years that have taken a senior year courseload this insane (in my area). Im taking 4 college classes (which is by the rules is a full time freshman.) Let's hope I survive long enough to substantiate my gesture. </p>
<p>Schools:
What i think would be reaches:
Caltech
MIT
Princeton
Brown
Stanford
Yale
Harvard</p>
<p>What i think would be matches:
Harvey Mudd
Carnegie Mellon
Reed
Pomona
UC Berkeley
Cornell</p>
<p>Pomona's acceptance rate of 18% is pretty much the same as your reach school acceptance rates, even when you ignore the fact that it's applicant pool is HIGHLY self-selective. And the SAT score ranges at Pomona for accepted applicants are comparable to the Ivy score ranges. So that's a reach school for you.</p>
<p>UCLA and UCSD are not safeties, especially because you're out of state. And since you're applying for financial aid, I think you should look for schools that are a LITTLE friendlier on out-of-state wallets than the UCs.</p>
<p>I'm curious what your criteria were when you constructed this list. You have vastly different schools on this list and I can't imagine how you could possibly fit at half these schools (forget the whole list). Brown and Caltech? Reed and Berkeley? UCSD and Pomona? These schools are like...polar opposites...</p>
<p>I would definitely move the UCs away from the "safety" list (especially since you're an out-of-state applicant). Also, I agree with MallomarCookie... how are MIT and Reed on the same list? Pomona should also be moved up to the "reach" category.</p>
<p>Reed and Berkeley don't have much in common, but academically MIT is right up there with Reed as future PhD leaders (a very narrow measure), both in the top five in all disciplines. But more pertinent for the OP, MIT is clearly much harder to get into, so Reed could be a safety for an MIT match, or a match for an MIT reach.</p>
<p>Ah. My list is indeed polar opposite, because it was drafted by two people: me and my dad. My dad had me aim for prestige and "places where smart people come from." I, on the other hand, am aiming for teacher excellence and research. Which is why you see such vastly different school types. I plan to slice the list in half by the end of summer, eliminating the schools that are just there cuz my dad said to add it.</p>
<p>For a rough first approximation, you can rank the schools yourself in terms of chances of acceptance, for those that publish their Common Data Set or similar data. Collect the data from CDS section C9 (or equivalent) and sort by each category (GPA, SAT, ACT); weight the categories however you want, or just do it separately for each category. This will show how the schools' last entering classes ranked statistically (but that's all it shows), and gives a very rough idea how the non-existent average applicant might fare.</p>
<p>sorry but uc's arent a safety for you. your out of state. out of staters make up like 5% of the uc population, and of the 5% that get in, they are the most qualified candidates (not saying your not, but it isn't a safety).</p>
<p>I disagree with a lot of the comments here:</p>
<p>Caltech - reach
MIT - reach
Princeton - reach
Brown - reach
Stanford - reach
Yale - reach
Harvard - reach
Harvey Mudd - high match / low reach
Carnegie Mellon - high match / low reach
Reed - match
Pomona - high match
UC Berkeley - low reach
Cornell - high match / low reach
UCLA - match / high match
UCSD - low match / match</p>
<p>I second Brand's comment. Kyledavid's comment is misleading (Caltech is a match? Um...good one). It may be "sweeeet" and reassuring to you but Brand's comment is MUCH more realistic and consistent with results on CC.</p>
<p>thanks brand_182. your comment seemed a little more solid to me. and yeah. it would rock if i was a match for caltech, but that would also mean im a match for several others that are actually reaches.</p>
<p>"Mudd and Pomona aren't reaches. UCLA/UCB are matches. Caltech might be a match, too."</p>
<p>caltech is a reach, still. so is mudd.
OP has pretty good SAT scores, classes, etc. however, i see a bit of a lack of non-academic math/science extra curriculars. although the OP has excelled in physics, it appears to stay in the classroom OR the OP does not have time for things outside of school.</p>
<p>the truth of the matter is, the world doesn't work like academia. while there are impressive EC's, classes and scores, mudd also looks for inituitive to take things on yourself (your own science projects... for the hell of it; you built this thing because you could... blah blah blah).</p>
<p>with that said, however, the OP may get into mudd and caltech by the numbers. the real judge of a match or reach, however, is how they compare to the student body. unfortunately HYPS have a lot of students that just get in from freakishly high numbers. i believe that many of these people are really not as capable as the SAT or AP makes us believe. because of this, these schools are automatically reaches for everyone even though when referencing a student to their student body, a person like this OP should really be a match.</p>
<p>in any case, sure, after further review i will resubmit my analysis for mudd as a low reach. the OP's SATs are slightly above average and her classes are pretty standard for admits.</p>
<p>(if the OP had already taken complex analysis II before coming, i'd make mudd a safety. ;) )</p>
<p>[note about C.A.II comment:
there was a student in my class this year who took C.A.II as a freshman (i believe). Mudd and Caltech were supposedly a bore to him... which is evident when he finished a double thesis in math and physics during his 3rd semester and left to go teach math at a university in indiana. from what i have heard, he plans to attend India Institute of Technology. just when you think that you are really smart, these types of people come into your life...]</p>