Now that applying for RD is over, please chance me!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Applying to UVA (In-state), UCB, Cornell, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Upenn, Georgia Tech, Uchicago
Applying Engineer to all these schools

Asian
Income bracket: A bit less than $65000

GPA (Excluding Senior yr) : UW = 3.87 W = 4.3

AP classes are +1, honors are +0.5

Courseload:

7th grade:
Algebra 1 HN - A

8th grade
Spanish 1 - A
Geometry Hn - A-

Freshman: 4.243
English 9 HN - A
Wld Hist/Geog 1 HN - A
Algebra 2 HN - A
Biology 1 HN - A-
Spanish 2 - A
Health & PE 9 - A
Intermediate Band - A

Sophomore: 4.143
English 10 HN - A-
AP World History - A- (Got a 4)
Precalc w/Trig HN - A-
Chemistry 1 HN - A
Spanish 3 - A
Health & PE - A-
Personal Fitness 1 - A-

Junior
AP English Lan/Com - A (Got a 4)
AP US History - A (Got a 4)
AP Psychology - A (Got a 4)
AP Calculus BC - A- (Got a 4, AB subscore of 5)
Physics 1 HN - A
Spanish 4 - A-

Senior Workload (Predicted grades)
AP Statistics - A- or an A
AP Physics C - A
AP Government - A
AP Macro/Microeconomics - A- or an A
AP Lit/Com - A
Multivari Calc/Linear Algebra - A-

Honors section:
Science Fair winner in Computer Engineering, went to regionals during 11th grade
National Honor Society for 11th and 12th grade
AP Scholar with distinction
Academic Honor Rolls
Participant in CTY program for Forensic Science during 9th grade

Testing breakdown:
SAT 2110, only one time, 670 R, 770 M, 670 W

ACT 33 composite, 34 super-scored. Highest one sitting score of 31 E 35 M 32 R 35 S 30 Combined English/Writing
Highest individual scores are 31 E 35 M 34 R 35 S 30 Combined English/Writing

Subject scores: Math 2 : 790 Physics 640 (Will be retaking in January, hopefully this doesn’t hurt me too much)

EC’s:
Piano for 9 yrs, guitar for 8yrs, clarinet for 5 yrs, won some minor competitions within my racial community, but mostly do it for leisure
Community service for kids living in the ghetto, ~200 hrs
Participated in a project for World Bank Group, helped over 10000 employees with their data transfer (Paid Work)
Worked at a dental lab, assisting and following technicians and bio-medic engineers (Paid work)
Science Honor society (Treasurer position)
Math Honor Society (Board member)
Volunteered at non-profit tutoring organization, ~480 hrs
American Leaders of Engineering Club
Cranes for Cancer club (Co-founder)
Self entrepreneurship, created my own business that provides online services in games. Made over $5000

Teacher recommendations, one from AP Lang teacher and one from Physics HN teacher (Both teachers left school, still got them recommendations though)
I imagine English teacher to be excellent, physics either excellent or very good
Counselor Rec: Idk, probably good or very good.

Essays: Common app was talking about an experience I had while helping the kids in the ghetto, something pretty sad if you understand it. I would say 8 or 9 out of 10.

Other essays in general: Pretty good I guess, some colleges I think I wrote pretty decent. Otherwise, lets just say a bit above the average. Most of them does show what kind of hardships I went through and how they shaped me as a person (Depression, poverty, immigration, etc)

Throughout most of the app questions, I had the theme of being selfless + giver going on. I made sure I listed the EC’s that were related to that theme or math/science field.
I Don’t have much awards, I suck I know :frowning:

2

Also if it helps, I predict realistically 750~800 on my physics subject test I will be taking on January. There’s reasons why it was so low on my December test :frowning:

3

Well, one thing is, colleges don’t care for weighted gpa and I see quite a few A- s in there. Find out your unweighted gpa nd see how you rank from there. Everything else looks fine

4

High reaches tho

5

Are they all high reaches? Dayum that’s kind of heartbreaking

6

I’d add in some backups. But yah mostly high reaches thus far. I’m Asian too :(( , you’ll probably get into one of them IMO, but I would have at least one/two safeties.

7

How is your gpa not a 4.0 when you have all A’s?

8

Well I had assumed Georgia tech would be an okay school for Safety ish level?
Well because I do have some A- here and there

9

An A of any kind is considered a 4.0.
Your UW gpa is 4.0

Georgia Tech may not be a safety if you are OOS

10

Wow man I didn’t know it was this bad. I expected some mid or low reaches and a match at least with Georgia tech, or UVA since I am instate :frowning:

11

wait, @Ctesiphon r u sure A of any kind is considered a 4.0???
isn’t it like 3.7

12

You should not have UCB on your list if you are an OOS student. They will not give you ANY need based aid. You would be a full pay student and seeing that you make about $10,000 more than the out of state COA, you should not he considering Berkeley at all. In addition, Georgia Tech is not a safety. Not financially, and not academically for you. The are a high match/ low reach seeing that you aren’t a resident in Georgia.

13

Yeah, even if I were to get accepted into UCB, I came to a conclusion I probably wouldn’t go there in the first place due to the $.
So even if I were to get into georgia tech, it would be hard to receive financial aid / scholarships?
Damn, I did expect reachs, but not all high reachs :frowning:
I mean, I’m sure I will at least get into Virginia Tech, since I can still apply but that’s quite discouraging to hear all this lol

14

You have test scores within the ranges of the majority of the schools you listed with a slightly lower GPA and OR status. Good choice in engineering as you have near perfect math scores. No one here can accurately tell you your chances because we can’t see your essays, recs, and profile as an admissions officer can. However I think you still stand a good shot, much better than anyone above believes.
UVA (In-state): High Match
, UCB: Low Reach
Cornell: Reach
Princeton; High Reach
MIT: High Reach
, Stanford: Hugh Reach
, Upenn: Reach
, Georgia Tech: High Match
, Uchicago: Reach

chance me http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1727267-homeless-to-harvard-chance-me-chance-back-p1.html

15

@ctesiphon @ndemazita It depends on the school. At my school and A- is a 3.67 while an A is a 4.0.

@master1006 the unweighted GPA was listed as 3.87.

I agree with CaliCash about the UCs if you are OOS you need to be able to pay out of pocket in order to attend. I had to take UCLA which was my “dream” school off my list because I’m not shelling out that much money for undergrad.

As you have probably already applied to most of these schools already, there’s nothing left to do, but hope and pray that it all works out in the end. You’ll end up at the school that is best for you in the end.

16

“for kids living in the ghetto”??? How about “in the inner city” or “low SES.” Something that sounds a little less judgmental.

Your list contains some of the most competitive universities in the world for admission. You may get into one or two, or you may not. Most GCs suggest applying to a mix of safeties/matches/reaches. You have all reaches here.

17

Oh I am pretty sure I didn’t come off as judgmental in any of my essays. That’s far from who I am
Well I figured since a lot of seniors I knew last year got into UVA with far inferior stats and EC’s (read their essays as well, quite a lot of them were generic too), I figured it would be a match for me as well. I also thought Georgia tech would be on the easier side for me, but I guess I was wrong.
I guess I will have to apply to Virginia tech now as a safety. (By no means, I am trying to say I am smart or anything, but it’s just more like an educational guess)

Thanks everyone so far for giving me realistic expectations and encouragement!

18

@tola2015‌

UW gpas don’t depend “by school”. Colleges will record an A or an A- as a 4.0. The reason they use unweighted GPA in lieu weighted GPA is precisely because it is consistent among all schools, not taking into account specific weighting systems implemented by each.

Nonetheless, the presence of A- instead of an A on a transcript may be qualitatively analyzed by admissions committees; However, there is no numerical difference in how A- and A play into an unweighted GPA as analyzed by colleges.

19

@Ctesiphon I’ve never heard of that, do you have proof? Because even collegeboard considers an A- as an 3.7.

20

Depends on the college you are applying to. My main point is that colleges in general don’t care how high schools calculate unweighted GPAs. They will do it themselves. I’ve found that a large percentage of selective ones don’t really care about the presence of minuses attached to letter grades, let alone the number they see on transcripts sent by your high school. That conclusion has been a result of personal research.

HS grading systems vary so much. An example in my case, I received a 90.5% in a class this semester. Numerically it should be an A- but my teacher gave A’s because he doesn’t think the -/+ system accounts to anything, even though my school practices it. It is a good thing these whims aren’t accounted for, else I’d be getting an unfair advantage. (And I certainly did nothing special to merit a free 2.5%)

For some insight on how GPA and the calculation of it is viewed in admissions process:
http://www.wsj.com/news/articles/SB105899458688282900