<p>Right, less girls play chess, so in actuality that means that your top 50 ranking is not as meaningful as a top 50 ranking for males (sexist, but true). Ultimately, it all comes down to your rating. There is no gender distinction at the collegiate level in chess, so you being a female will not help you all that much- i will agree that a 2200 female will be more impressive than a 2200 male, but def. not more impressive than a 2300 male.</p>
<p>UMichigan is definitely a good school to apply to; I’m not sure either about their CS, but aside from great engineering, they also have an extremely solid math program, which can often appeal to CS majors. Several CS majors do like to dabble in math, I’ve noticed.</p>
<p>If you add on CMU and Michigan, and I guess Caltech (sort of surprised anyone with MIT on her list doesn’t have Caltech too), that’s a ton of good programs. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you’ll make one of the very good CS schools with your stats, though which ones, I can’t say for certain.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, Cornell is good, but I don’t see a need to add Princeton unless you really like the school.</p>
<p>mathboy98,
caltech and MIT are more different than you may think. caltech is much more of a pure science school, which focuses more on rigor and theory rather than the practical applications of things that MIT encourages. I much preferred MIT; i applied there and not caltech last year.</p>
<p>whateverr,</p>
<p>independent study in cs… anything from teaching yourself a programming language or two outside of your school’s programs to taking the initiative to take a college course in intro CS from a local school (again, without being guided by your high school to do so [i did both of the above]) would look really good. Any kind of project is great on an app; i shared that i had built a 7 foot tall trebuchet in 9th grade, made a hologram in my junior year, and had fiddled with robotics throughout most of my high school years, among other things. Then again, i just love building things (case in point- my current project is a large high voltage tesla coil. yes that is as dangerous as it sounds.)</p>
<p>class rank doesn’t matter. it just happens that a lot of kids that happen to get into the top schools are in the top 10%, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting in because they’re in the top 10%. I was 15th in a class of 112, and the records that Stanford must have looked at about my school before they accepted me surely indicated clearly the poor performance of the school in general. I don’t want to sound cocky, but i could have been first in the class (I am the only kid from my town to get into Stanford ever). It just wasn’t important to me. So no worries.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Well, to be fair I used to think this was true, but apparently knowledgeable posters on the Caltech threads indicate that the whole “theory vs. application” thing is somewhat overdone, and a simplistic a view of the two schools. The bottom line is there’s a lot of Caltech that’s interested in engineering, not necessarily pure mathematics or science. The difference is that everyone in Caltech undergoes a significantly larger number of pure science requirements as part of their core courses. If you want a knowledgeable poster on Caltech OP, consult lizzardfire on the Caltech forums. He is a current student. </p>
<p>From what I have read, the Caltech vs. MIT difference comes down more to student body differences + requirements to finish the major than core philosophy. Both are lovely schools, and the OP should look into them. A key point behind Caltech is that you probably should consider attaining solid math/science/engineering breadth as a part of your school goals, because their core requirements are not for the faint of heart. I myself, like you ngolsh, actually think MIT would be closer to what I’d be looking for, given in my home school I have just concentrated on mathematics. </p>
<p>One point MIT seems to especially emphasize in admissions, it seems, is creativity + a desire to “change the world for the better.” I think a typical math/science geek who just loves that stuff would be better received in terms of his/her application materials at Caltech than MIT, although I’m sure plenty of these end up students at MIT.</p>
<p>If I were to think of great schools doing pure sciences and mathematics, but not as much engineering stuff, I’d think more of Harvard and Princeton, not Caltech. Obviously there’s some truth that there is more of a theoretical grounding and emphasis in a lot of Caltech’s coursework, but in the end I wouldn’t write it off as a pure sciences school at all.</p>
<p>On the flip side, MIT kicks you know what at pure sciences and math.</p>
<p>nngmm - How can you tell that I would have a better chance at Cornell than Duke? I’m very curious as to how you guys can predict these things because it seems incredibly random to me -.-</p>
<p>Senior - I would definitely rather go to UI, just because its CS program is actually better than U Mich’s CS. Also, I’d probably be more likely to get more money from UI than from U Mich, right? (I’m out of state at both schools) Hmm, is CoE college of engineering? I didn’t know it was that selective, thank you for the information!</p>
<p>omgitsover9000 - Yeah, you’re completely right. My rating’s not all that high at all. I’ll see if I can bring my rating up over the next year. I’ve only been playing for a couple years, so I’ve had a pretty good upwards trend, lets hope it continues this way :].</p>
<p>mathboy - I’ve always had that impression about Caltech, that its all about the pure sciences. Also, their average accepted GPA seemed really high to me (according to Naviance), so I didn’t bother including it on my list. Should I consider adding it on? I already have ~9 schools on my list already. Also, if that is really MIT’s point of emphasis, I would rather apply to MIT, because I think “changing the world for the better” and all is something I connect to and something I might be able to express through my essay. Is it a good idea to apply to both MIT and Caltech? </p>
<p>ngolsh - Thanks so much for the advice, I really appreciate it! As for independent study, I’ve tried to teach myself Photoshop…but I don’t think that counts -___-</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for your input, everyone!</p>
<p>whateverr,</p>
<p>by the way you describe yourself, i think you would enjoy MIT much better than Caltech. I think your school list is good without caltech. however, don’t forget to add some safety schools.</p>
<p>Well, in the end whateverr, you have to make your decision based on your personal impression of the schools. I personally don’t think any of us can decide whether Caltech would be a good fit for you, based on your post. We don’t know you personally, after all. Like I said, I long ago had the same impression of Caltech ngolsh and you have, but don’t you feel like it’s a little too neat and tidy to go “Caltech is a pure sciences school” when quite a few go there and really enjoy its engineering programs? </p>
<p>Now, feel free to confirm this with those on the Caltech forum, but I have gathered from them + my research into the school that Caltech is primarily about forming a community of people who really know math/science/engineering (including CS of course) are what they intensely love at an early age. It is thus a very unique little community, which could be a joy to be part of. Not everyone who loves math and science loves Caltech, but everyone at Caltech is supposed to be very sure ever since some point in high school that that kind of stuff is what they love. </p>
<p>I personally don’t believe in letting general traditions and philosophies such as MIT’s emphasis on creativity close one off from a school like Caltech. In the end, a lot of MIT students probably could love Caltech, and vice versa. </p>
<p>Grounding education in theory doesn’t imply in the least an overly pure-science focused school. In Caltech, the big deal is that I think everyone takes quantum mechanics, and some relatively solid, basic theoretical math. The core subject requirements force you to gain math/science/engineering breadth, which is in line with the types of things a lot of Caltech courses probably require you to know. MIT, on the other hand, lets you largely avoid this grounding in theory. In the end, it amounts to the language in which courses are taught. People can do great engineering work without learning very much math theory, but certain forms of engineering and CS work require solid grounding in theory. One poster on the MIT forums mentioned that she barely just got through AP math, and is a successful mechanical engineering major at MIT. Whereas Caltech would have you take a calculus course based on Tom Apostol’s more theoretical book (so a graduate student in math at my school mentioned, unless things changed since when he was an undergraduate at Caltech), unless for whatever reason you show you’ve done math at that level. </p>
<p>As that MIT student said, you don’t need a theoretical grounding to do great applied work, but to iterate what I said, it opens things up to a certain kind of work. </p>
<p>I encourage you to try to find the opinion of Caltech students on what this “theory” business is all about. But I assure you that I get a strong impression “theory” does not imply a lesser emphasis in engineering and/or more applied fields. I hope my point is clear.</p>
<p>If you know for a fact that you’re a heavily, heavily applied type person, and want to deal with as little other noise as possible, then I guess you can safely get rid of Caltech. But it’s not clear to me what your preferences are.</p>
<p>In short, if you can’t rule out Caltech, keep it on the list is my feedback. And definitely apply to MIT.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah, CoE is a term for college of engineering. It may just be a cornell thing, not sure. </p>
<p>I also didn’t know it was that selective, until I got waitlisted. I have a feeling my common app personal essay (extremely risky, probably a dumb idea to use) didn’t help my case at Cornell. Because, from what I’ve seen on the results boards, students with quite similar demographics (stats, AP classes, ECs, unhookedness) generally got in.</p>
<p>
We can’t. We are just making guesses based on what we’ve seen in the past with people we know who applied to various schools. You should never make any decisions based on “chances” people give you on this (or any other) forum…</p>
<p>“You should never make any decisions based on “chances” people give you on this (or any other) forum…”</p>
<p>Amen. Best advice I have seen thus far.</p>
<p>“I’m very curious as to how you guys can predict these things because it seems incredibly random to me -.-” … asks the girl who created the chance thread asking people whether or not she can get into Stanford.</p>
<p>“You should never make any decisions based on “chances” people give you on this (or any other) forum…” AGREED</p>
<p>well, that is why I’m asking older, more experienced and more knowledgeable people like yourself to help me out ;]</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your input everyone! I’ll let you know how it goes :]</p>
<p>no need to fight here, guys
mathfan98 has a lot of valid points. just cause he doesnt go to stanford doesn’t mean he doesnt know about it. i havent gotten accepted into any college (rising senior) but i can still tell you things about state colleges and the ones that my friends go to. you dont have to experience things to have to learned from them.</p>
<p>tumara pas chances hai, muthlab gpa come hai. tumara chances acha hai. good luck.</p>
<p>whateverr, I made that comment because your question answers itself lol. We can’t predict these things because we’re not admissions officers. Some people will tell you that you’ll get in, some will say otherwise, but the fact of the matter is that once you have a solid gpa and SATs, good ECs and fantatic essays you stand a great shot at being accepted and what people say on a chance thread isn’t going to make much of a difference. If Stanford is your dream school then apply! Don’t ask a group of strangers whether or not you should. The only sure way of not getting accepted is not applying.</p>
<p>That being said, I wish you the best of luck in the application process. It can be really stressful but just put your best foot forward and hopefully things work out :D</p>
<p>Thank you, I appreciate it! I will definitely apply :]</p>
<p>Have ppl heard of stanfordrejects.com. That’s where mathboy98 is</p>
<p>In case anyone was wondering, I got rejected! XD</p>