Meh, what the heck

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Well, it's April first, so all I've been hearing about is whether people got accepted/rejected. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of my friends got rejected from the Ivy League-tier schools. That peaked my curiosity, so I would be interested if anyone could give me a chance:</p>

<p>Schools I'm particularly interested in: MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Cornell
I'm planning to major in computer engineering or something similar
I'm a white male junior</p>

<p>GPA uw: 4.0
GPA w: ~4.7
Rank: Top 1 or 2
Courseload: Straight As so far in all honors classes freshman year, all honors + 2 APs (human geo and micro/macro econ) in sophomore year, 8 APs junior year (Bio, chem, psych, compsciA, calc AB, stat, English lit, Euro), and an equally intense senior year planned.
SAT Math: 790
SAT Writing: 620 } I'll be re-taking in June and I'm realistically aiming for a 2300+
SAT Reading: 690
Total: 2100</p>

<p>Taking SAT IIs for Bio, Math II, and chem in May; shooting for 700+ in all of them</p>

<p>School activities (including hypothetical senior year)
-Varsity swimming (4 years), AAA district qualifier
-Science Olympiad (captain 1 year)
-Chess club (VP two years, President 1 year, school chess tournament winner [hey, it's something])
-NHS 3 years, probably an officer's position
-Amnesty International (basically a civil right's group) 3 years, Secretary all three</p>

<p>Extra things:
-Volunteer organization that refurbishes computers and gives them to needy families (over 100 hours)
-Lifeguard (100+ hours)
-Swim lesson instructor (50+ hours)
-Shooting to do a paid internship this summer that would have me working with computers</p>

<p>Great, but probably not stellar recommendations. I'm a fairly prolific writer, so my essays should be top-notch. </p>

<p>And I think that's it. I have impressive grades and good ECs, but is it enough? Thank you everyone!</p>

2

<p>Well your grades and rank is excellent, and the ECs are there—but they may not be enough for MIT, Duke, or Cornell. Also, definitely retake SAT and bring up your score. If you’re going into engineering, you’d also want to get a high 700 on the Math II Subject test.</p>

<p>Overall, it’s hard to say. This year has been absolutely brutal when it comes down to Ivys and other top schools so who knows how it will be next year? I’m not going to say you’ll get in to this school or that school because honestly, having just gone through the process, chance threads don’t mean a thing. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>if you want ivy league acceptance you really have to do something out of the ordinary. there are just too many kids with high sat’s, gpa’s and all that. Make the olympics or win a national science fair. then you have a shot lol</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the comments; I agree, this year is really brutal. As for going to the Olympics… probably not going to happen, especially since I’ll <em>hopefully</em> be in college by the next one. I am working on some sort of hook though. Do you think a profitable website would be a pretty good boost?</p>

<p>Thanks again, and I’m still looking for more opinions/advice.</p>