I applied to a wide range of schools and am interested in others’ views of my chances. I view MIT, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pennsylvania as reaches, UCLA as a match, and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) as a safety. I applied to another 10 or so schools as well.
Specifically, I’m very worried that I was drastically overconfident/arrogant. My freshman year and low volunteering/charity activity are definitely weak points.
[ul]
[]Unweighted GPA: 4.00
[]UC GPA: 4.29
[]The above GPA’s are for my sophomore to senior years at my current high school. My freshman year at a different high school is about a 3.7 unweighted. I can’t combine them for complicated reasons.
[]Class rank: 1 (class size is about 30 so doesn’t mean much; small class size may also lessen my student club accomplishments) (this is at my current high school)
[li]Took all the most challenging courses offered at both high schools, included 8 APs (1 as a sophomore, 3 as a junior, 4 as a senior).[/li][/ul]
Standardized Testing
- []SAT: 1570 (800 verbal, 770 math)
[]SAT II Biology: 800
[]SAT II Math Level 2: 800
[]SAT II U.S. History: 760
[]AP World History, Psychology, US History, English Language: all 5’s
[]Currently taking AP US Gov, English Lit, Calculus AB, Biology
** EC’s: **
[ul]
[]Computational Biophysics Intern at a research lab for four summers (starting the summer after 8th grade). First 3 summers unpaid, most recent summer paid. Completed many research projects and co-authored two forthcoming papers (I’m mad I couldn’t get them published in time). I have an excellent recommendation letter from my research mentor (former Professor at a top 5 STEM university).
[]Founder and Captain of the high school Debate Team. We didn’t win anything big, but I started it from nothing and we are now very active.
[]Editor-in-Chief of the high school newspaper. Led newspaper to publish on a consistent schedule for the first time in school history.
[]Volunteered for a special-needs organization, about 2 hours a week.
[li]Other stuff: active in Yearbook Committee, helped organize four Red Cross blood drives, and receiving official recognition from school for tutoring efforts (volunteer basis).[/li][/ul]
Employment: My latest summer internship was paid.
I have recommendation letters from my Math and English teachers, as well as my research mentor. All are excellent.
I am a white straight male, majoring in STEM.
Good for you for getting a higher verbal than math score, lol. Nice job with the research, that is something that MIT, Harvard, etc. really desire in their students.
It probably is going to end up coming down to your essays, and how you sell yourself and your personality. You’ve got as good a shot as anyone for most of those schools, good luck!
What is your sophomore-junior year GPA?
UCLA won’t look at senior grades unless they explicitly ask you for a mid-year report. Instate or OOS for the UC’s?
@GreenPoison My sophomore-junior year GPA is 4.00 unweighted, and the UC GPA I mentioned (4.29) is only for sophomore-junior years since that’s their GPA policy. I’m in-state for the UC’s and applied to Berkeley, UCLA, UCSB and UCSD.
@owsophomoreyear Thanks!
You are a very competitive applicant. I think you could get into every UC you apply to. Harvard and MIT are high reaches, as they are for basically anyone who doesn’t win a major, nationally recognized competition. For Penn, if your essays are good I think you have a relatively high chance of getting accepted
Thanks for the response.
I guess Carnegie Mellon (Computer Science) is a high reach too? And I’m not sure if RPI is a match or safety… (I’m defining match as “good shot at getting in” and safety as “probably getting in.”) Also, I declared computer science as my major for the UC’s, which is super-competitive.
Basically, between RPI (Science Undeclared) and the UC’s (computer science), can I be confident that I’ll get in somewhere? Most of the other colleges I applied to are high reaches (Columbia Engineering, Princeton, Cornell Engineering, Johns Hopkins, Penn Engineering, Stanford, etc.), which worries me.
Bump? Some feedback would be awesome
I think that your chances are quite good. MIT and Harvard are of course reaches for everyone, but I think that overall you will do well.
Have you run the NPCs?
@Gumbymom and west coast folks will know better than I whether UCSB and UCSD can be thought of as safeties. Given your stats I certainly hope that they are!
Thanks for the response! I would definitely appreciate @Gumbymom and others’ feedback.
I did not run NPCs. Instead, I talked to my college counselor and he recommended the colleges he thought would be relatively cost-effective for me. (I’m middle class and my parents don’t have any money saved for college.) Basically, he told me my options are: (1) go to a UC, (2) get into an elite school with a fat endowment and generous financial aid, or (3) take on a lot of debt. I tried to avoid applying to state schools not in CA because of their cost. (Also: I applied to one small university that my high school has a close relationship with, where I’m basically guaranteed a full tuition scholarship, perhaps even a full ride. But I really don’t want to go there, for many reasons including their pretty much nonexistent CS program.)
I’m considering applying to the University of Maryland, but it’s a state school so will be expensive. I just ran their NPC and got $44k for the first year (!!!) :(.
Does this make sense, or did I mess up?
Yes I think you can be confident you will get in somewhere, even if it is not a school like Harvard. Your stats and ECs are top notch
Your ECs are extremely solid, but they aren’t otherworldly for applicants to schools like the Ivies. That research (especially for four summers) looks impressive, but since you didn’t get anything published, it might put a bit of a question mark on it? Of course, it’s not to say that it’s a minus.
Did you win any research-related awards (Regeneron STS, Siemens, ISEF, etc.)?
Overall, I’d say you have a decent shot at your reaches and you should get into RPI at the extreme worst case scenario.
You are definitely a competitive applicant for all the UC’s. Although UCLA and UCB are definitely not a guarantee, you have an excellent chance. UCSB and UCSD would be Match schools.
Best of luck.
MIT: Reject
Harvard: Reject
CMU: Accept
UPenn: Reject/waitlist
UCLA: Accept
RPI: Accept
@anonpenn2022 You’re definitely right about the lack of publications, but I’m hoping the strong recommendation letter from my research mentor (which mentions that I co-authored two papers in the process of publication) will at least partially make up for that. I did not win any research-related awards. Thanks for the response!
@Gumbymom thanks for the feedback! Also, since I’m ELC, worst case scenario I’ll get into at least one UC. (I’m a little surprised that you consider UCSB a Match and not a Safety.)
@MaybeHarvard2022 Rough probabilities such as Reach/Match/Safety are generally a lot more helpful than somewhat arbitrary predictions, but your list seems probably correct. One thing though: I’m pretty sure CMU Computer Science is more competitive (especially for males) than UPenn Engineering, not less. I’d say it’s somewhere between UPenn and MIT/Harvard, making it a likely “Reject.” Similarly, I’m surprised that you consider UCLA Computer Science an “Accept” given how competitive it is.
@anonpenn2022 You’re definitely right about the lack of publications, but I’m hoping the strong recommendation letter from my research mentor (which mentions that I co-authored two papers in the process of publication) will at least partially make up for that. I did not win any research-related awards. Thanks for the response!
@Gumbymom thanks for the feedback! Also, since I’m ELC, worst case scenario I’ll get into at least one UC. (I’m a little surprised that you consider UCSB a Match and not a Safety.)
@MaybeHarvard2022 Rough probabilities such as Reach/Match/Safety are generally a lot more helpful than somewhat arbitrary predictions, but your list seems plausible, though with one exception. CMU Computer Science is at least as competitive, if not more (especially for males), than UPenn. I’d say it’s somewhere between UPenn and MIT/Harvard, making it a likely “Reject.”
You look competitive for the UC’s.
The ELC just indicates that if you are not accepted into your applied UC’s, then you would be eligible to attend a UC that has room. Right now, that is UC Merced.
IOW, you get accepted to Merced if you don’t get in anywhere else.
UCSB is never a safety for certain majors.
Do you have any updates? How did this admission cycle go for you?
Yup, things went very well for me. I’m very happy with my options. The highlights are that I got into Berkeley EECS with Regents, Johns Hopkins BME as a Hodson Scholar — and Harvard!
As I write this I’m on a plane heading to Johns Hopkins’ admitted students event, and I plan to attend Visitas later this month (as well as tour Berkeley’s campus). I will probably choose Harvard, despite their relatively weak CS program. (Unsurprisingly, they offered me a very reasonable financial aid package that makes it about the same price as Johns Hopkins and Cal after scholarships.)
Accepted
- Harvard (!!!)
- Johns Hopkins — Biomedical Engineering; Hodson Trust Scholarship
- UC Berkeley — Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS); Regents’ Scholarship
- UCLA — Computer Science & Engineering; UCLA Achievement Scholarship
- Georgia Tech — Biomedical Engineering
- UCSB — Computer Science & Engineering; Regents’ Scholar
- UCSD — Computer Science
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
- Boston University
- University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
- Boston College
- Hamilton College
- New York University (NYU)
Waitlisted
- Princeton
- Columbia — Engineering School
- UPenn — Engineering School
- Stanford
- Carnegie Mellon — School of Computer Science
Denied
- Caltech (deferred from EA)
- MIT (deferred from EA)
- Cornell — Engineering School
Just updating to note that Harvard ended up offering me an amazing financial aid package that makes it about half the price of Cal and Hopkins after scholarships.