I have a better chance of winning the lottery, but whatever.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Princeton University
1

<p>Hey. Hope you guys could give me some chances.</p>

<p>Senior attending semi-competitive HS in South-Central Jersey (sends one Ivies, three-ish to top 40 schools)</p>

<p>Plan to major in Civil/Arch Engineering, if that doesn't work, it'll be architecture, and if not that, finance/business</p>

<p>SAT: Superscore 2060 (700M 660CR 700W 10 Essay)
ACT (good s**t): Composite 33 - 34 English, 33 Math, 31 Reading, 34 Science, 32 Writing
(Is Princeton biased on which test to accept? I mean, they've got my SAT's and SATII's, and I sent them my ACT's two weeks ago. I hope that they get my ACT's in time and will take those scores)
SAT II's: Physics 650
Math IIC 690
(Unrealistic because I realized I had to take them a week before the test date, don't think they accurately measure my skills and I mentioned this in Addt'l. Info)</p>

<p>GPA: Right around a 4 weighted, 3.7 unweighted.
Classes: Most rigorous curriculum: All honors and AP classes.
APs: Soph: AP Macroeconomics-4
Junior: AP Spanish Language-(Couldn't take test)
Senior: AP Physics (Well, it's not AP, but its the same coursework/load and I plan to take the test)
AP Calculus AB
AP USH
AP Microeconomics</p>

<p>EC's- National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Team, member of founding team as senior
designer/engineer. We won the NJ regionals and won a Rookie
all-star award, after which we went to the world champs in Atlanta.
Morning TV show, I created a lot of attractive, professional grade Flash
Intros which really got everyone talking!
Habitat for Humanity
Perhaps one or two more as the year goes by.</p>

<p>Work experience(significant!)</p>

<p>Worked in a construction company all four years of high school. I started as skilled labor(electrics, plumbing, carpentry) and moved up to more professional jobs. I am now a project manager, sales consultant, in marketing, and I've created a website for our firm. It's a serious job in which I've used a lot of stuff I learned in school. I'm also given full-scale responsibilities, like some sales presentations and crew management, no easy stuff. I can run most machinery, including excavators and large tractors, and tools. I hope colleges look at this as a much more involved employment as opposed to something like working in a supermarket (nothing wrong with that, but my job's way more intensive!)</p>

<p>Special considerations, if any:</p>

<p>Come from a low-income family for where we live, I think. I'll do the EFC thing today with my folks, but I expect it to be at most $2,500. I work very hard to support it. I used to work around 30-35 hours a week before, now due to the housing slump, that has increased to near 35-40 hours, taking away some time I could've used to study, play lax, etc. I heard the Ivies+top schools have a hard time attracting lower income kids, so I'm hoping mentioning this will help me. I worte about it in the extra info section and mentioned a snippet in my essay.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input.</p>

2

<p>first, id like to cynically point out that "three-ish to top 40 schools" is not that great of a high school, considering its in jersey. thus, the 3.7 UW gpa is further eclipsed.
by finance/business, do you mean ORFE? i dont think princeton has business or finance major (there's a finance certificate)
work experience is impressive and makes applying a good bet.</p>

3

<p>"no kitty, these are my cheesy poofs"</p>

4

<p>The work experience gives you a good chance. However, you should know that Princeton doesn't have architecture for undergrads, nor does it have a business degree for undergrads. The closest thing is ORFE, Operations Research and Financial Engineering.</p>

5

<p>i thought princeton had an undergraduate program at its school of architecture!! is that not right?</p>

6

<p>No, man, I think that's the civil engineering major with some arch stuff and classes thrown in. They also have the liberal arts with arch major and some urban studies thing. I think that's about it. No BArch, unfortunately.</p>

7

<p>false. princeton has an undergrad arch major.</p>

<p>Princeton</a> University - Departments & Programs</p>

8

<p>Ernie: That's a liberal arts degree (Bachelor of Arts), not an undergraduate professional degree (Bachelor of Architecture).</p>

9

<p>oh, i thought that was what he/she wanted. Duh, Princeton doesnt offer any undergrad professional degrees...</p>

10

<p>...since engineering isn't a professional degree... >.></p>

<p>So yeah, you can concentrate as an AB student in architecture, or you can go with the architecture and engineering track of civil engineering. Those are the only undergraduate options.</p>

11

<p>Yep, I was thinking the civil/arch track. It sounds pretty good. </p>

<p>Any other chances?</p>

12

<p>To be honest, you really never know.
I'm sure they'll look past your academic and standardized testing deficiencies, if that's what you're worried about.</p>

13

<p>I think your work experience will help you a lot, but is it really smart to mention that the reason your SATIIs arent very high is that you only realised you had to take them a week before the test? It's a legit reason for lower test scores, but it doesn't exactly demonstrate responsibility...</p>

14

<p>Yeah, but the reason I took the SATII's a week before was 'cause of my work schedule, and because I'm too poor and had to save up I planned to take it in Dec. but my kind of misguided guided counselor told me I had to take it in Nov. My head was in so many places at one time and I didn't have time to research the truth, so I just bit the bullet and registered standby. I'll mention something like that and I hope they'll be able to digest it. But seriously, if I had nearly the time most of the other smart kids in my class had, I'm sure I'd kick total a$$.</p>

15

<p>It's good man, it's all looking good. And I'd suggest that you explain the SAT II situation to them.</p>

16

<p>Yeah, I will. I acknowledged that I should've been a bit more aware of the situation, but I simply couldn't focus on it with all this other stuff going on like work, etc.. Plus, financial situations dictated it was best to take it then.</p>

<p>Hey, it's worth a try to apply, I guess. For everybody.</p>

<p>Do any of you guys know about Cooper Union? I know its great for arch, but I just found out is has a great engineering school. I know it's not significant or anything, but just out of curiosity, how's the name recognition? How many people know about it (both normal people and engineering firms)? I heard it's hard as he!! to get in and has a great program. Could you guys tell me how a dude like me might fare admissions-wise there? I'll post my chances there, but if any if you guys know, I'll appreciate it.</p>

17

<p>Cooper Union has a lot of name recognition, at least where I go to school (an independent school in NJ)... I think its' reputation is pretty widely known, at least among art students/ in the context of art and science schools.</p>

18

<p>a good essay will shove you in :)</p>

19

<p>I think I've got a decent essay. Anyone want to read?</p>

20

<p>let's read it :D</p>