Lets play help a poor dude: Applying to few Ivies, JHU, RPI, UTAustin, UCB, etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hiya.</p>

<p>Well, I guess I might as well try and get some chances. Please feel free to offer me any CONSTRUCTIVE criticism so as to help me improve my chances. And good luck to all you fellow applicants out there!</p>

<p>Senior attending semi-competitive HS in South-Central Jersey (sends two-ish to Ivies, quite a few to top schools)
Plan to major in Civil/Arch Engineering</p>

<p>SAT: Expecting 2150-2200 on October test, but first one was a 2000.
ACT: Taking on the 27th. Expecting a 33ish after taking prac.tests.
SAT II's: Will take in December(or Nov. standby I know that Columbia and Cornell need these for their engineering early admits before Dec., but I hope I can explain and still apply early. I couldn't take them due to financial hardships. If anyone can clarify this, much appreciated!)</p>

<p>GPA: Right around a 4 weighted, 3.8 unweighted.
Classes: Most rigorous curriculum: All honors and AP classes.
APs: Soph: AP Macroeconomics-4
Junior: AP Spanish Language-(Couldn't take)
Senior: AP Physics self-study (school doesn't offer)
AP Calculus AB
AP USH
AP Microeconomics</p>

<p>EC's- National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Team, member of founding team as senior
designer/engineer. We won the NJ regionals and won a Rookie
all-star award, after which we went to the world champs in Atlanta.
Morning TV show, I created a lot of attractive, professional grade Flash
Intros which really got everyone talking!
Habitat for Humanity
Perhaps one or two more as the year goes by.</p>

<p>Work experience(significant!) </p>

<p>Possible internship at architect's firm (Will this help me?)</p>

<p>BIGGIE: Worked in a construction company all four years of high school. I started as skilled labor(electrics, plumbing, carpentry) and moved up to more professional jobs. I am now a project manager, sales consultant, in marketing, and I've created a website for our firm(<a href="http://www.g4sconstruction.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.g4sconstruction.com&lt;/a>, let me know how it looks!) It's a serious job in which I've used a lot of stuff I learned in school. I'm also given full-scale responsibilities, no easy stuff. I can run most machinery, including excavators and large tractors.</p>

<p>Special considerations, if any:</p>

<p>Come from a low-income family. Scratch that....veeeery low income family. It's been hard to survive in Jersey with our income, I work very hard to support it. I used to work around 30-35 hours a week before, now due to the housing slump, that has increased to near 35-40 hours. I heard the Ivies+top schools have a hard time attracting low income kids, so I'm hoping mentioning this will help me. Where could I put it? The extra info sention on the common app? Do adcoms even read them?!?!? I really need to get this across, and might only mention a snippet in my essay. I'll tell my GC to write about it, but I don't know the order the colleges look at each piece of the app.</p>

<p>Colleges I plan on applying to:</p>

<p>Princeton (just like the NY lotto, hey, you never know.)
ED Columbia Fu Foundation (Dream)
ED Cornell
(I need to find out whether the two above will take December SATII scores for early app, or whether they might not need them at all. I can state financial reasons.)
University of Texas at Austin
University of California at Berkeley
Johns Hopkins
Renseleaer
Penn State
Rutgers
Maybe NJIT</p>

<p>Really appreciate all the help. Since I work and every hour is taken up by something important, I haven't really got the time to sit down with my parents, GC, or anyone to help me out. Someone told me about questbridge like two days after the application closed. Damn. Anyway, I really appreciate all your help. Thank you!</p>

2

<p>You need at least 2100 to be competitive, but even in light of slightly lower scores, your essays will surely be compelling. Columbia and Princeton are still large reaches, but how large depends upon your scores. Cornell is a lower reach.</p>

3

<p>You have strong scores (presumably), an okay GPA, and good ECs/honors/awards. I'd say Berkeley's a reach, since you're OOS, you're from a competitive state, and you're applying for a competitive major (engineering). If you write really great essays, you just might get in. The internship will help.</p>

<p>ED Columbia: reach
ED Cornell: slight reach - high match
University of Texas at Austin: match
Johns Hopkins: slight reach - high match
Renseleaer: safe match - safety
Penn State: safe match
Rutgers: safety</p>

4

<p>I would consider UT Austin a slight reach as well. It isn't easy for people who are out of state to get in.</p>

5

<p>Forgot to mention, I just got voted hardest working in Senior Superlatives. But I don't think I can use that for college apps, can I? Maybe put it under additional info.</p>

6

<p>Not enough standardized test scores for me to judge their strength. APs are weak, GPA is fine except that your weighted seems low (maybe using a different grading system than what I'm used to), ECs average but unfocused -- other awards? leadership positions? sports teams? Working at architecture firm can set you apart, possible essay material... I don't recommend putting a senior superlative on your application, though. What's your ethnicity/sex?</p>

<p>Princeton (just like the NY lotto, hey, you never know.) - High reach
ED Columbia Fu Foundation (Dream) - High reach
ED Cornell - Reach
University of Texas at Austin - Match
University of California at Berkeley - Reach
Johns Hopkins - Reach
Renseleaer - High match
Penn State - Match
Rutgers - Match</p>

7

<p>Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I'm applying to Georgia Tech, too.</p>

<p>Thanks, keep 'em comin! Does anyone know how standby testing for SATII's goes?</p>