Just got deferred EA, need help choosing regular decision schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So I just got deferred twice (MIT Caltech) within a one hour period...needless to say my self esteem is destroyed. Now I'm on to RD. I hate chance threads but I just need an evaluation of which schools I have a chance at. Im applying for electrical engineering major and here are my stats:</p>

<p>-2400 super score
-800 math 2, 800 physics, 800 us history
-Rank 2/800ish
-4.0 uw GPA, 4.7 w
-10 APs, six 5s, four 4s, three self studied</p>

<p>-ECs: Marching band section leader, local FBLA pres, TEDx organizer, NHS</p>

<p>-Jobs/internships: interned at engineering firm (laser diodes) and paid to design website, office intern at chamber of commerce, also research at local university and have unpublished research paper</p>

<p>-Awards: several Fbla state level, county honor bands, ap awards, NM commended, top 1% graduate in county...nothing outstanding</p>

<p>-Asian male (yeah I know)
-100k income, need financial aid</p>

<p>-My teacher recs are kinda worrisome. One is a club adviser and the other teacher likes me well enough, counselor barely knows me. Also have additional rec from professor I did research with.</p>

<p>-For what it's worth I love my common app essay, hopefully my supplementals aren't too generic.</p>

<p>I need a reality check, so here are the schools I'm applying to/considering:</p>

<p>Brown
Carnegie Mellon
Cornell
Columbia (fu foundation)
Harvard
Harvey Mudd (top choice outside ctech/mit)
Princeton
Rice
Stanford
USC (sent in already)
Yale</p>

<p>I guess I technically still have a chance at MIT and Caltech</p>

<p>Chance me and thanks :) I know they're all reach schools but I already got into backups and applied to state universities. </p>

<p>Lastly, congrats to EA admits ur the envy of high school seniors nationwide. </p>

2

<p>hey – your stats are impressive. I wouldn’t worry about the counselor rec so much as most of them from public high schools will be so so given the large class sizes. Since you already got into backups – enjoy the moment and don’t feel too down. Take it you want to be an engineer – have you considered John Hopkins, Duke, Upenn? As far as MIT and Caltech go… stay in touch with them to express interest and update them on any new achievements.</p>

3

<p>If you have already applied to state Us, including the one for where you live, I think you have it covered. Good luck. Hang in there. You will get in somewhere good and have a great experience. </p>

<p>(I say this as the mom of smart kids like you who didn’t/may not get their first choices either. Come spring you will make a choice, embrace it, and move forward.)</p>

4

<p>If you’re happy with your backups and the state schools you applied to, I don’t see why you’d need more suggestions. Maybe Case Western if you want a smaller, engineering focused school with merit aid (visit the website and show interest in other ways so they don’t just think you’re using them as a safety school), but I’m not sure. Northwestern could also be a possibility, but if you’re okay with your other choices, fantastic.</p>

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<p>Thanks for all the encouragement and suggestions! I guess what I’m looking for is which schools on my list are a bit too far of a reach. Money isnt a problem, I just don’t want to spend time writing so many applications and instead want to focus on a 5-6 quality ones.</p>

<p>Edit: I guess in the original post it should’ve said envy of students worldwide</p>

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<p>The problem is, the schools that are a reach for you are a reach for everyone. You literally have a perfect SAT and GPA. Your extracurriculars are far better than what the vast majority of students have. The only potential problems I can see are your ORM status (although this may be exaggerated in its significance for college admission) and your teacher recommendations. </p>

<p>I would focus on which colleges you like the least on your list and then toss those. By the way, I think the CWRU application is free and doesn’t require an essay in its common app supplement. </p>

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<p>You certainly have an impressive resume. For top students like you, there is sometimes a tendency to apply only to safeties and lottery schools. I think you will get into some of the schools on your list, but if you were my child and since you say you already have safeties, I would tell you to also throw in one or two more schools that are still highly selective, but not sub 10% acceptance rates, so that you have more choices in terms of financial aid. Maybe Hopkins or Northwestern?</p>

8

<p>Agree with the above posts - you have an impressive resume, and if you’re happy with your safeties, then I would go through that list and weed out the ones that you’re not too into and add some mid-range schools (aka schools that are still very selective but a little less so than the ones you have listed.) Maybe WashU, Berkeley, or Northwestern? Don’t be so hard on yourself - your grades and ECs are solid, but MIT and Caltech are just reaches for everyone regardless of grades. :-S </p>

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<p>I also think you are a great candidate - please try not to be destroyed. I would apply ED 2 to Harvey Mudd, also a great school. I would add Hopkins, Wash U (no supplement) and Vanderbilt - I think those schools tend to be a little more stats oriented in their selection process which will help you. I think you will end up with great choices by April, it will just take a little more waiting, but your hardwork will pay off with lots of great options.</p>

10

<p>JHU definitely is not stats-oriented; for someone like the OP, they’re research potential/passion-oriented.</p>

<p>WashU and Vandy certainly seem to be stats-oriented, but they’re on the look-out for kids who obviously are using them as safeties and will not admit just to boost someone’s self-esteem.</p>

<p>In any case, to the OP: the key things to keep in mind are:

  1. Don’t take it personally; schools like MIT and Caltech get waaaaay more super-qualified kids than they can admit, so it becomes a numbers game.
  2. Lots of places and paths can get you to your goals in life. What would those be, BTW?</p>

<p>No point applying to schools that you don’t value as highly as your backup(s).</p>

<p>The key thing with many of these schools is that you truly do have to be enthusiastic about them and let it show through in your app. No one wants to serve as your backup.</p>

<p>I agree that ED2 to Mudd seems like a good idea if you really like them a lot.</p>

<p>In the end, keep in mind that the college admissions process is a means to an end; a way for you to achieve your goals in life, and not something for ego-boosting. Also keep in mind that difficulty of admission isn’t completely correlated with opportunity. For instance, if your goal is to work in a startup at Silicon Valley, it’s extremely hard to beat Cal. All the schools you’re applying to would serve you well for meeting that goal, but Cal would be as good as or better than most of them.</p>

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<p>Wow thanks a lot for the helpful advice! I don’t think I’ll end up doing early decision as I need to compare aid packages. People keep telling me I have a lot going for me so I’ll just let life go on and enjoy the rest of senior year (after finals and apps of course). BTW I’m from cali so I already applied to UCs. </p>

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<p>I don’t understand your post about needing financial aid and then stating that money is not a problem. </p>

<p>BTW: The application deadline for the UC’s has passed. </p>

<p>Your potential school list is everyone’s potential list with your stats. The thing you need to know about Caltech is that their admissions are kind of quirky. They get lots of kids with 2400’s that they reject. My son got in with a 2370. Go figure!<br>
I think that they really look at and “read” the whole person: essay, grades, letters of rec, by looking at “what” is stated about each individual.
They only had 248 freshman in their class this year. </p>

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<p>Sorry for not clarifying, when I said money is not a problem I was referring to application fees and such, not actual tuition. </p>

<p>And yeah, I keep telling myself that acceptance is unlikely but deep down I’m still slightly disappointed</p>

14

<p>You will most likely get into the UCs (as you probably already know) and since your instate it should be relatively cheap. Only Stanford and MIT are ranked higher for EE than Cal so you will most likely attend a great university.</p>

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<p>The only thing that worries me about Cal is that my single sitting SAT is slightly embarrassing, overall is 2340 but 740 in MATH…as an engineering major…idk wat happened. </p>

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<p>Case Western
University of Rochester
Lehigh
Purdue</p>

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<p>If you get rejected from Cal, your SAT won’t be the reason.</p>

<p>They weigh essays quite heavily there.</p>

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<p>nor will the 740 be the problem. </p>