Hey everyone, a junior here looking to see where he stands in terms of the following schools (for ChemE)
MIT, Stanford, RPI, Georgia Tech, and NC State
Race: White
Gender: Male
I attend the North Carolina School of Science and Math
GPA: 4.0 unweighted/5.5 weighted
Haven’t taken the new SAT yet (taking in May), but PSAT 740/750 and ACT 35 composite, 34 E 35 M 36 R 36 S (one sitting), haven’t gotten writing back yet
Taking Math IIc, Chem, and Bio M subject tests in June
Courses taken of significance/ rigor/ planning to take:
American Studies (honors level class incorporating US literature and history- taking APUSH and AP Lang exams this spring)
British Literature (college level)
Southern Literature (college level)
AP Statistics (4)
Pre-calculus with Advanced Topics (intermediate b/w honors & college level)
AP Calculus BC with Advanced Topics
Advanced Probability Models or Differential Equations (college-level)
AP Chemistry with Advanced Topics
AP Biology
AP Environmental Science
Physics with Advanced Topics
Fluids, Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, and Optics (college-level)
Biochemistry or Organic Chemistry (college-level)
AP US Government and Politics (3)
AP Human Geography (5)
AP European History (4)
Advanced Spanish (again intermediate honors/college level)
AP Microeconomics
AP Macroeconomics
Web Development (another intermediate)
ECs
-Boy Scouts/ Order of the Arrow: earned Eagle at the age of 13 but continued to serve in positions such as ASPL in my troop and further pursued leadership in the OA- serving as treasurer and VC activities. Participated in several leadership development programs including National Youth Leadership Training. Serving on camp staff. (there’s a lot of involvement to this one that i’m not gonna subject y’all to reading)- my responsibilities as VC activities total to roughly 60 hours a month. Also I have the camping/conservation parts of the National Outdoor Badge that i found out about like a few weeks ago lel
-Swimming: swimming in summer league since the age of 5 and varsity swim at my school sophomore and junior year, almost made regionals this year- coach at least acts like I’m his favorite so i’ll probably get captain next year. usually this took up about 12 hours of my time every week
SciOly- participated in middle school, won first place in meteorology 6th and 8th grade, (2nd 7th), placed in several other events, placed at states twice; in high school, placed third in anatphys regionally. Served as my school’s captain in 10th grade.
Other clubs/ECs- help lead the school hiking club, leading a WWII history seminar next trimester, most likely serving as a biology TA next year or a residential assistant.
Served as a House Page in the NC General Assembly between sophomore and junior years
Played the piano for the last 10 years
Math Club 10th grade- competitions like TrigStar
took the AMC 12 this year we’ll see where that goes
through BSA/ NCSSMs summer service requirement I have several hundred hours of service at or related to a local food pantry
Also idk if this is useful at all but as part of my school’s junior year work service requirement I helped out on the physics floor setting up labs and such
@0x0001 Thanks! NC State is definitely much less selective than RPI & GT (it’s my safety). And yeah I applied for a mentorship program within my school to go do research at local universities (UNC-CH and NCSU), but I didn’t get accepted which ticked me off because kids with much worse grades did, but it’s w/e at this point. I’d like to go to MIT or Stanford but I wouldn’t mind attending any of the schools on this list, at least if I go to state or to an extent GT I can stay involved with my local scouting program.
@admiral12 your stats aren’t too bad for MIT & Stanford. I would suggest you try to apply (the worst case scenario is you lose the application fees and waste some times) so you don’t regret later on.
Your coursework and stats are really strong. But I don’t really see anything in your activities that demonstrates a passion in Chemical engineering. You should definitely continue Science olympiad hopefully in chemistry, and consider getting a research internship in chem over the summer. That would enable you to apply to Siemens/STS/etc. before the app is due1
Like everyone above said, your stats academically are very very strong, and you do show commitment to your ECs, but they are not specific to your intended major. Essays and interviews would solidify your acceptance to all of these schools except MIT and Stanford which are reaches for p much everybody. Since your school is a math/science school, do they offer internship / summer program opportunities ?
@paul49ers@2017journalismhopeful yeah, there are summer internship/research opportunities but i already have commitments over the summer lol- including family vacations, boy scout summer camp staff, and serving as the SPL for my BSA council’s jamboree contingent. In hindsight I probably should’ve gone for the research opportunity but a lot of these commitments were made before I even enrolled at S&M
i’m sorta hoping my dedication to scouts might help separate me from the rest of the NCSSM student body as a lot of them drop the kinds of activities they did back home because it’s too difficult to maintain that connection and research seems to be relatively common for students here. we also have research experience classes that are open to everyone so i might try to get into one of those (chem or engineering) in my senior year- do you think that would help my application?
I would probably add Emory to your list as a high match. Your numbers are more than within their range and they are highly rated in Chemistry. I might consider WashU as well as your numbers match up as well.
I like the Scouting-my son made Eagle at 15 and he’s still active (has 3 Palms, OA, served as SPL before getting his Eagle and served as Troop Guide for 2 terms after earning Eagle). He wrote his Common App essay on Boy Scouts and it must have worked since he got into WashU ED for the Class of 2021.
