Is my TOP 10 Realistic? (UW-Madison, UC Berkeley/Santa Barbara, UT-Austin, UMich, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a rising senior and have been looking at my options as far as where I would like to attend college. I would first like to state that I have discussed with my family the cost of going Out-of-State and I do have the financial information for all of the universities that are on my list. At the moment, I am concerned with my chances for all of the colleges on my list and making sure that I have a proper variety of safeties, matches, and reaches.</p>

<p>I am looking to major in Chemical Engineering and I am a white male.</p>

<p>TOP 10 UNIVERSITIES:
University of Wisconsin - Madison
University of California-Berkeley
University of Texas-Austin
University of California—​Santa Barbara
University of Minnesota Twin Cities
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Michigan
Carnegie Mellon University
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Delaware</p>

<p>About Me:</p>

<p>Classes:
Weighted GPA: 4.24
Unweighted GPA: 3.86
Rank: 20/430</p>

<p>Senior Year:
I.B. History of The Americas HL
I.B. Chemistry HL
I.B. English SL
I.B. German SL
I.B. Math SL
I.B. Psychology
Physics I (AP)
Zero Hour Broadcast Journalism
Zero Hour Theory of Knowledge
Personal Finance (Summer)</p>

<p>*I am an IB Diploma Candidate</p>

<p>Standardized Test Scores:
PSAT: 194 Index
ACT COMPOSITE - 32
English - 34
Math - 32
Reading - 28
Science - 32</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
5 years Broadcast Journalism
2 Years Mentor for Freshmen and Sophomores
2 years Math Club
2 years Scholar Bowl (Public Relations Manager)
2 years Member of the Youth Advisory Council for a Foundation
2 years German Club
2 years German National Honor Society (Secretary)
2 years National Honor Society (Public Relations Manager)
1 year Student Senate
1 year National Art Honor Society
3 Weeks EF Educational Tour in Germany</p>

<p>Awards/Honors:
Best Website (National Broadcast Competition) ($5000 Award)
Public Relations Manager of National Honor Society for my school's chapter
National German Honor Society
National Broadcasting Honor Society
Department Award for English (11th Grade) [One Student Per Grade Level]
Department Award for Mathematics (11th Grade) [One Student Per Grade Level]
Student of the Month - January of sophomore year
Principal's Honor Roll (3.5 GPA for a Semester) [x6]
Letter in Academics (4.0 GPA for a semester per year) [x3]
Letter in Broadcast Journalism
Letter in German Club
Top Living Skills Student (Middle School)
Top Broadcast Student (Middle School)</p>

<p>Many Broadcast Journalism awards:
Best Photographer (10th & 11th)
Best Human Interest Feature Story (10th & 11th)
Best Technical Guru (10th)
Best News Story (10th)
Best Overall Package (10th)
Go-Getter (10th)
And More...</p>

<p>~Broadcast Journalism Leadership~
Web Director - Sophomore, Junior & Senior
Line Editor - Junior
Filmed Graduation and Male Pagent Show (earning money)</p>

<p>Community Service
100 Hrs of community service at a VA Hospital
40 Hours of Student Mentoring
10 Hours of Community Service at Elementary Day Care
Four Volunteer Projects for NHS
150 Creativity, Action, and Service hours for IB Diploma</p>

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<p>If you have any questions please feel free to ask! I appreciate any help you may offer (:</p>

3

<p>Still looking for some advice!</p>

4

<p>Bump!</p>

5

<p>You’re in everywhere except for maybe Berkley I would considerate that a decent reach</p>

6

<p>Both UT Austin and Michigan are reaches as well if OOS. Is your ACT superscored? Michigan doesn’t super score.</p>

<p>I’m not sure what @roise96 is thinking. No one is a definite in for Carnegie Mellon or Georgia Tech. Those are also reaches as well. </p>

<p>Not sure why you are pursuing chemical engineering. Aside from your word, you haven’t shown any interest in that. It’s surprising that you aren’t considering something in Broadcast Journalism. It seems like that is where your passion is </p>

7

<p>My ACT is not superscored, that was in one test date. I am OOS for Michigan and UT Austin, thank you both for the insight!</p>

8

<p>I am very interested in Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry which are the classes that I excel most in. Broadcasting is a hobby, I don’t see any future in it as a career. I have done extremely well I believe in broadcasting, but I believe this is the case for anything that I put an equivalent amount of effort in.</p>

9

<p>Where do you live? Did I miss that? You are a competitive candidate, but some of those OOS schools will strongly prefer their own. </p>

10

<p>I am OOS for all of the schools on my top 10 currently. I enjoy traveling, and my family does so quite often. For this reason, I am not looking strictly at Universities in my current residence of Missouri. I understand that I will have a tougher time getting accepted into any University that I am out of state, so I am trying to keep that in mind as I begin to apply.</p>

11

<p>

@schlaubaerchen‌ Personally I think this is a bizarre statement. Other than your word?? What else do we need? Especially in areas like engineering and the physical sciences, it isn’t easy or necessary to have EC’s that reflect that this is the field you want to go into. Taking the right math and science courses and doing well is more than sufficient.</p>

<p>She is right, though, that Berkeley, Texas and Michigan cannot be considered sure things, and neither can GA Tech or Carnegie Mellon. But you certainly have better than decent chances at all of them, your course difficulty level, grades and test scores, along with your EC’s are all strong. And the journalism passion is an attractive feature since all universities like someone who is likely to get involved in something like this at their school. The other schools on your list seem highly likely. One can never say 100% unless a school states upfront that they accept all students with certain grades and test scores. I feel sure that is not the case with any of the schools on your list. Another school similar to these that you don’t have on your list is Purdue.</p>

<p>Since you are a Missouri resident, are you going to apply to MIST as a relative safety and a cheaper in-state alternative? You definitely should. Although I know you say you can afford these OOS schools, there is nothing wrong with saving money. The top ones on your list are very unlikely to offer you any decent financial aid. The less selective ones might, but it depends on how they handle OOS students in general. Many private schools are not that much different in price than the OOS costs of these schools, and more than a few have nice merit scholarships.</p>

<p>So other schools you might want to look into and strongly consider are Case Western Reserve, Harvey Mudd College, Bucknell, and Rice. These all have excellent engineering programs and with your stats you could get a nice merit scholarship offer. Maybe you only want large state schools, but if not you should really look into these schools as well. A couple of schools that have good chemical engineering departments and generally are even more generous with merit scholarships are Tulane, my alma mater (but I was chemistry, not chemical engineering) and Miami (FL). Just some thoughts.</p>