Ivy League, math major??

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
1

<p>Student:</p>

<p>User Name: JonDominguez1995
Gender: M
Location: Califronia
College Class Year: 2017
High School: Public
High School Type: rarely sends grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.70
GPA - Weighted: 4.30
Class Rank: top 5%
Class Size: 600</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 720
SAT I Critical Reading: 780
SAT I Writing: 720
SAT I Composite: 2220
SAT II Math Level 2 (IIC): 720
SAT II Biology - M: 770</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Intern with a congressional campaign.
President of a political action club.
Organized my towns Occupy movement.
Extensive free STEM tutoring for kicks and giggles
Member of a green club
Member of
Leadership positions: President and founder of my schools political action club
Team and Regional leader for my internship
Honors and Awards: National Hispanic scholar
National merit scholar, commended.
misc stuff
College Summer programs: I took Differential Equations and Linear Algebra at UCSB between Junior and Senior Year</p>

<p>Colleges of Interest:</p>

<p>College: Harvard University, Choice #: 1, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Choice #: 2, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: Princeton University, Choice #: 3, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: The University of Chicago, Choice #: 4, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: University of California-Berkeley, Choice #: 5, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: University of California-Los Angeles, Choice #: 6, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: University of California-Santa Barbara, Choice #: 7, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply</p>

<p>First generation and Mexican American
I got 5s on the AP Calc BC, US History, Biology, and English Language tests in junior year.
I also take math classes at UCSB (2 As so far) and I plan to finish Linear Algebra and Differential Equations through Multivariable Calculus by the end of senior year.</p>

<p>I know my SAT score isn't too good but I didn't study so I'm happy with it.</p>

<p>What are my chances for my schools and does being a hispanic math major help with admission??</p>

2

<p>Hi Jon,</p>

<p>Do you have any safety schools? </p>

<p>Your stats look very good and I’m sure you’ll get into a great school, but I would recommend having a safety school on your list.</p>

<p>As far as whether being a math major and being Hispanic will be adventageous, I cannot say for sure. My son, 1/2 Puerto Rican, 1/2 Caucasian, middle income (below
80K), not first gen (I graduated from the local state univ here in So Cal), applied as a math major to his schools including two Ivies, Princeton and Penn. He was admitted to all 10 of his schools and is currently a freshman at MIT.</p>

<p>I don’t know how much either his major or his ethnicity were a factor. He was a top student who also took lots of college math and physics during high school and had SAT scores of 2300+ as well as some national level achievements in math, physics and chess. It’s too hard to know what factors tip admissions in one direction or another.</p>

<p>You sound like a hard working, smart, and interesting student. If you write great essays, I am sure you will do well in admissions! :-)</p>

3

<p>I don’t do Chances, but it looks like your academic background is solid in supporting your interest in math. It’s a field, like engineering, that is lacking in qualified Hispanic applicants.</p>

4

<p>

UCSB is probably a safety.</p>

5

<p>Agree UCSB is a safety, but I would suggest like some other posters adding a few more safeties. With your stats and interest in math, I think you could get scholarship money from a variety of places and would suggest, among others, looking at Carnegie Mellon, Case Western, Michigan, and Georgia Tech. Also, Cornell has a very strong math department too, although from your list it looks like you are focusing primarily on good schools in larger cities (or close to them).</p>

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<p>Like entomom I do not do chance threads but have a few comments based on experience. The UC’s (with the exception of Riverside and Merced) are no longer safeties and should not be considered as such especially if Prop 30 does not pass today. I know of many California Latino high school students with stats better than the OP who were not admitted to Cal; UCLA; Irvine etc. With the budget issues I would not count on those schools as safeties. </p>

<p>Instead focus on a variety of schools and apply now. The early deadlines are passing each week and it is best to be in those early action pools. You have already missed the merit scholarship/early action deadline for Georgia Tech (where 70% of the EA applicants are accepted). It was Oct. 15. Michigan will probably not be generous enough in financial aid if you have a high % of need plus it can’t really be considered a “safety” school. </p>

<p>Case Western is a good safety and they give merit money if you apply by the scholarship deadline. </p>

<p>Cornell’s west coast admissions’s rep was just in California traveling up the coast and giving multicultural presentations. Did you get and invite and attend it. You want to make sure to get on the radar of the schools on your list? Cornell’s rep gave all 10 students who attended the event a fee waiver and walked us through the common app line by line with tips. </p>

<p>For Carnegie Mellon your stats are good but CM only meets 82% of need with an average financial aid award of $28K. Remember the school is around $55K so you will need to have other resources to meet that gap. See CM’s common data set for more info. [Common</a> Data Set 2010-2011-Institutional Research & Analysis - Carnegie Mellon University](<a href=“http://www.cmu.edu/ira/CDS/cds_1011.html]Common”>http://www.cmu.edu/ira/CDS/cds_1011.html)</p>

<p>So not only do you want your safeties/matches to be good schools but you want them to be generous with aid. Since you are a National Hispanic Scholar look at the offers that are arriving in your mailbox/email. See the more generous ones and apply to those schools such as Arizona. My son goes to Ohio State and they are very generous with Latinos and have good match program. </p>

<p>Look at the partner colleges at the Center for Student Opportunity and examine some of the programs offered. Also sign up for the Venture Scholars website since that website will send your profile to some colleges which could be an additional source of safeties and matches. </p>

<p>The ivies such as Harvard get about 35K in applications and admit 2K with 700 early. A I tell my students you have to have the stats to get a pair of dice (which the OP does) but then admission is like rolling a pair of dice-who ever gets snake eyes gets into Harvard. The ivies could admit 5 times the number of qualified students but they simply do not have the room. This does not mean you do not try but rather you have some great backup plans. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

7

<p>JonDominguez-rather than have us “guess” your chances a better gage is to look at the resources thread for the actual results decisions thread for each class for the past 3 years. You will get a better picture of your “chances.” <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/646134-resources-hispanic-students-start-here.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/646134-resources-hispanic-students-start-here.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>itsv,</p>

<p>Great advice, as usual.</p>

<p>OP, my son had three safeties, UT Dallas (where he was chosen as a McDermott Scholar but ultimately turned it down), Pitt (where he did not make it to finalist for their full ride scholarshp), and Baylor (where he ultimately withdrew after realizing it wasn’t the right school for him).</p>

<p>And, he had the community college as his back up. You just never know!</p>

9

<p>jon,</p>

<p>My son is a freshman at Stanford (so similar school). He is setting himself up to double major in math and Computer Science. He says his freshman honors math class which weeds out potential math majors has dropped from about 80 to about 30. It’s tough. He says he knows more than one IMO competitor/winner in the class. He was well prepared so he is hanging in there and actually loves the material. I’m not trying to discourage you, just letting you know that at the schools you are looking at being a math major is a huge commitment.</p>

<p>I really can’t say what your chances are, but my son had a 2380 SAT score and 2380 SAT subject tests. Also 3.9 unweighted GPA. He had a national level award also. He applied to three schools (Princeton Stanford Brown) and was accepted with likely letters to all three. I say this only to point out that his qualifications seem to be beyond what they were looking for for a STEM minority student, or at least I assume this because of the likely letters. So STEM will help. Just not sure how much.</p>

10

<p>Yes, I concur with soomoo about the level of work at top schools. It’s awesome and finally challenging for many of the kids, my son included. He is starting with junior level math classes at MIT because of his work in high school and he finds it so interesting. It’s hard, make no mistake, and the work load, at least at MIT, for four academic classes, is about 30 hours a week of homework.</p>

<p>My son also knows several IMO winners in his dorm, but I’m not sure what classes they take. I would say that kids who’ve done high level math competitions (my son only got as far as AIME in math three times but did physics olympiad semi-finals three times) have perhaps a slight advantage in that they are already extremely quick and familiar with problem solving.</p>

<p>My son had less experience (only started in 10th grade) than most of his friends at MIT who began competitions from a very young age. He says he’s learning to think even faster than he did before and he’s happily challenged by those around him.</p>