Is MIT out of my reach?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographic Info:
Gender+Ethnicity: Asian Female
School Type: Competitive public in CA
Rank: N/A (currently unknown and unreleased, but estimated to be top 25-30%)
Income Bracket: High Middle (I won’t need Financial Aid)
Hooks: None… but URM… I guess?

Number time:
GPA: 3.75 UW/4.1 W
SAT (retaking for 2300+ superscore in November)
First sitting: 2140 (690CR/800M/650W/9E)
Second sitting: 2210 (680 CR/800 M/730W/10E)
Superscore: 2220 (same writing and math, but 690 CR)
ACT: taking in september and got a 31 on my first simulation test (ew) aiming for 34+ when the time comes
SAT 2 Subjects (retaking in October for 800s in both, which I know I can do): Math 2 (June 2015) and Chem (June 2014): BOTH 770

Course Load and Grades: (AP scores marked next to appropriate classes, school restricts the number of AP and honors underclassmen are allowed to take)
Freshman:
Bio (A/A)
Geometry (A/A)
Chinese Honors (A/A)
Business (B/A)
Lit 9 (A/A)
Gym (A/A)
Orchestra (A/A)
Sophomore: (a depression triggered by a personal event+serious grade deflation caused my GPA to plummet)
Lit 10 (B/A)
World History (B/A)
AP Chinese (A/B/5)
Chem Honors (B/B)
Alg 2/Trig (B/B)
Dance (A/A)
Business 2 (A/A)
Junior: (improvement, if it even counts).
Teacher’s Aid (A/A)
Business 3 (A/A)
Lit Honors (A/A/took APLAC for this class: 4) (pretty disappointed by the 4 tbh, but meh)
APUSH (B/A/5)
AP Chem (A/A/5)
Pre-Calc H (B/A)
Planned Senior: (Note changes, this is as it’s planned out on the school’s registar)
AP Bio (switching to AP Physics 1 asap)
AP Calc AB (switching to BC if there is space, I made a mistake putting down AB…)
AP Gov (semester only)
AP Econ (semester only)
AP Lit
Lab Aide (I would take another science here, but my school does not allow double enrollment)
Will try to take Organic Chem at a local CC for dual enrollment

ECs and Awards:
DECA(1 year): won 1 6th place awards at regionals 2013, state competitor 2013
Volunteering (all years): have around 50 hours, will get around 100 when summer ends. I volunteer for fundraisers, school events, and this summer I’m volunteering at a sports camp for children with disabilities
Science Olympiad(1 year): Have 3 gold medals (both regionals and invitationals) and 1 silver medal (state level). To become VP of Events (basically in charge of comps) the coming year
Chemistry Olympiad (1 year): was top 2 in my school, but couldn’t go on because of conflicts with SciOly States and regional cutoffs. Plan to take it again next year.
Music (10 years): I played cello in the school’s orchestra, and piano and flute as well.
Sports: ran Track, played Tennis. Quit both to focus on school.
Friends and I created an organization for city clean up
Member of Chinese Honor Society
Self-Employed tutor for chem kids, write tests and help out. ~30 undocumented hours
AP Scholar with Honor
Taking Physics at a local CC

Rec Letters:
Science/Math: my AP Chem teacher. She loves me.
Humanities: my teachers have a weird policy. I’m either getting one from my APUSH teacher (who was impressed by my improvement in her class) or my Honors Lit/Lit 9 teacher (who appreciates me). I have to wait until the school year starts.

Intended Major: Chemistry/Undeclared

IF I decide to apply to MIT, I will be applying RD. Is this school out of my reach? Please be brutally honest with me. I’m not sure if I want to pay $75 to get rejected. If so, some recommendations for lower tier schools with a solid chem department would be nice! Thank you!

2

Are you looking for chemistry or chemical engineering? The University of Minnesota has the top-ranked Chemical Engineering program. Forget MIT. Asian is not URM, you’re not in the top 5% at your school, you don’t have any national awards, etc. Focus on realistic choices. Many of the state universities would love to have you, and if you really want to attend a private college and can afford it, then choose some that are in the 25-125 rank. If you want to apply to places ranked in the top 25 just for fun and hoping for luck, go for it, but better to fall in love with more suitable options. There are tons of excellent colleges out there.

3

@mommyrocks preferably chemistry. Thanks for the advice!

4

Your course rigor is slight weak, business and teachers aid are not academic subjects. GPA are not great, but not terrible. I would say very low chances.

5

@DrGoogle my school requires that we take those classes (basically electives) to graduate. Then they only offer 7 honors classes, 4 of them being languages, and the rest are scattered (I took Chem (only science honors because physics honors became AP Phyiscs 1), PreCalc(only math honors), Chinese, and Lit (only lit honors), and that’s considered an awful lot of it already). They restrict the number of AP classes underclassmen are allowed to take, and then they don’t offer double enrollment (two subjects in one year, i.e. Bio and Chem together). My course rigor isn’t entirely my fault, it’s just the way my school designed everything.

6

All of these colleges have bachelor’s programs approved of by the American Chemical Society: https://webapplications.acs.org/Applications/CPTASL/app_list_results.cfm

Also scroll through this list looking for the colleges in the U.S., and you’ll see that there are many state universities with Chemistry programs that are considered among the best in the world (Minnesota shows up here as well), and you’re a good candidate for most state universities:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/chemistry

7

Well being a girl will sure help you, as the female acceptance rate is a little over twice as high as the male acceptance rate (12.6% vs. 5.8% according to the 2014-15 Common Data Set). You have some extracurricular activities, but I think a deficiency of sports might bring your application down a bit. Make sure you explain about your depression in your essay so MIT might be able to understand why your grades dropped a bit during 10th grade, and convince them that something like that will never happen again. Make sure you get your standardized test scores up a bit, in case MIT does not give you leniency on your depression during 10th grade. When you write your essay, make sure you stand out from the rest of the pack and make your depression bout a unique experience, maybe like how it changed you and what you learned from it? But if you do do that, make it unique and not like one of the thousands and thousands of adversity essays that have no meaning or uniqueness. An 800 in SAT math and Science is critical because MIT most looks at math and science scores. During your senior year, make sure you get A’s in your Science and Math classes.
If you would like to attend MIT, it is better to just apply and get a true decision form the admissions committee rather than just ponder if you would have gotten in or not. You sure do not want to be, lets say 10 years form now, “Could I have gotten into MIT. I regret not applying.”

8

bump