<p>This is my info:
School attending: Brookline High School (Brookline, MA)
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Race: Caucasian
Majors of choice: Computer Science, Physics
GPA: 3.4 but steadily increasing (unweighted, my school leaves weighting to the colleges)
EC: Chess team, Computer Programming Club, JSA (politics), Math team 1 yr.
SAT I: Writing: 650 Math: 800 Reading: 660 (will retake, consistently scored 700+ in each subject on practice tests)
SAT II: Math IIC: 800, US History: 660 (will retake, avg of 760 on practice tests), planning on taking physics (760 on first practice test)
Classes (of interest) taken:
Freshman: AP math, H english, H history, H physics, Latin, Java (everything highest possible level)
Sophomore: AP math, H english, H history, H Bio, Spanish (everything highest possible level)
Junior: AP math, AP history, H Chem, H English, Spanish, Web Design (everything highest level possible)
Senior: AP math (Calculus BC), AP Statistics, AP Physics C, AP Computer Science, Euro Lit. H, Spanish II (all highest level possible except spanish, which offers AP).</p>
<p>College list:</p>
<pre><code>* Boston U
* Brandeis U
* Carnegie Mellon U <--- Early decision
* Columbia U Columbia
* Cornell U
* RPI
* U Calif Berkeley
* U Illinois Urbana
* U Mass Lowell
* U Mich
* U Rochester
* WPI
</code></pre>
<p>If you want to go to Brandeis, you really should visit the school/have an interview/somehow make contact with the admissions office. I'm from your rival school (think black and orange) and the college counselors here tell us that Brandeis doesn't tend to accept local kids who don't visit because they don't want to be used as a safety.</p>
<p>etselec: Thanks! I already visited Brandeis though (plus my father taught there one semester). Maybe I should add this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Boston U (visited 2 yr ago)</li>
<li>Brandeis U (visited in April)</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon U <--- Early decision (not visited, going to info session)</li>
<li>Columbia U Columbia (not visited, going to info session)</li>
<li>Cornell U (visited in August)</li>
<li>RPI (visited in April, went to summer program in July/August)</li>
<li>U Calif Berkeley (didn't visit and don't plan to)</li>
<li>U Illinois Urbana (didn't visit and don't plan to)</li>
<li>U Mass Lowell (didn't visit and don't plan to)</li>
<li>U Mich (didn't visit and don't plan to)</li>
<li>U Rochester (visited in August)</li>
<li>WPI (visiting in 2 weeks)</li>
</ul>
<p>etselec: By the way, do you know any of the history behind the BHS/NN rivalry? I can't seem to extract any useful detail (not that I try hard).</p>
<p>"how exactly did you take three ap math classes before calc bc? also, why did you take honors physics before bio?"</p>
<p>a) It's not a class that gives an AP test at the end (which is what I assume you use as the definition of the word) but it is math classes at the BC calc level. That is, although there is no test at the end, we are required to work just as hard as a student taking BC Calc.
b) Physics is always taken freshman year. I took biology before chemistry because that was the standard at the school at the time (now they are trying to switch the two, because there is more chemistry in biology than biology in chemistry)</p>
<p>cesium, I think the BHS/NNHS rivalry dates from before the existence of NSHS. At the time, Newton and Brookline were neighboring schools of roughly similar size, population and athletic prowess. Perhaps they had a few heated battles in various sporting events? I don't know exactly how it developed, but I think it doesn't mean much now to anyone but the sports teams. :-)</p>
<p>Thanks, I have always (well, for approx. 3 years) been curious.</p>
<p>Something else I might be able to add: I have won a programming competition at a popular coding website (planetsourcecode.com), but this might be too informal to help.</p>
<p>Update:
SATs: 770/800/720 CR/M/WR (2290 total, all 3 from october test)
ECs (this year): JSA, Programming Club, Chess Team, Math Team, FIRST (robotics), Math Tutoring.</p>
<p>You are certainly a study in contrasts: low GPA and lackluster ECs but a NASA-level SAT (old system) and a strong course schedule. The good colleges you're applying to care a lot about GPA though, and they weight ECs heavily also. Admission at these schools could go either way due to the disparity between intelligence shown and results achieved.</p>
<p>You are certainly a study in contrasts: low GPA and lackluster ECs but a NASA-level SAT (old system) and a strong course schedule. The good colleges you're applying to care a lot about GPA though, and they weight ECs heavily also. Admission at these schools could go either way due to the disparity between intelligence shown (SAT) and results achieved (GPA, ECs).</p>
<p>Excuse me for bumping, by may I add that I ranked on one New England-wide math test (Mathematics Olympiad) and helped my school enter a tie for second place on another one (New England Math League) with a perfect score?</p>
<ul>
<li>Boston U - Match</li>
<li>Brandeis U - Match</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon U <--- Early decision - Match (but reach for SCS)</li>
<li>Columbia U Columbia - Reach</li>
<li>Cornell U - Reach</li>
<li>U Calif Berkeley - Reach</li>
<li>U Illinois Urbana - Match</li>
<li>U Mich - Slight Reach (OOS)</li>
</ul>