Please Chance Me! :)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>Hi, do I have a shot at CIT for ChemE? I know my stats are low but what are my chances? Thanks.</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian male </p>

<p>GPA: 3.8 UW
4.18 W
Rank: 25/329</p>

<p>Course Load:
9th grade classes:
Regular English- A+
Regular History- A
Honors Geometry-A
Regular French- B+
Honors Chemistry- A+
Orchestra- A+</p>

<p>10th grade classes:
Honors English- A-
Regular History- A+
Honors alg2trig- A+
AP Bio- A+
Honors French- A
Orchestra- A+</p>

<p>11th grade courses:
AP Lit- A-
APUSH- A+
Honors Calc- A+
AP Stats- A+
AP Physics B- A+
Honors French- A-
Orchestra- A+</p>

<p>Current 12th grade courses:
AP Physics C (Mechanics & Electricity/Magnetism) A+
AP Chemistry A-
AP Language A-
AP French A-
AP Calculus A
AP Government & Politics B+</p>

<p>Current senior year grades slightly dropped to 3.7 :( has been very challenging with all the AP classes...Trying my best to pull it back up before 1st semester ends.</p>

<p>AP scores: Biology: 5 Physics B: 5 Statistics: 4 APUSH: 4 Literature: 3</p>

<p>Standardized Tests:
SATs: 1810 (Most concerning to me...) CR: 560 M: 670 Writing: 580
SAT II: Biology (M): 750 Math I: 690 Math II: 730 Physics: 730 Chemistry: 650 (took chemistry in freshman year and was not prepared, but CMU required me to send all my scores)
ACT: Composite: 28 English: 26 Math: 30 Science: 27 Reading: 28 </p>

<p>Recommendations:
1. Alg2Trig Teacher- Very good, had the teacher for 2 years and I have a very good reputation.
2. Physics B Teacher- Decent
3. Supplement recommendation from the director of ChemE at a university, very good.</p>

<p>Essay: Common app essay is pretty good, supplement is decent. Can't really judge myself but most people liked my common app essay.</p>

<p>Extracurricular (I'll only list the significant onces):
Garcia MRSEC research at SBU
President of math team
Gold medal at math fair competition
Submitted 2 papers to Siemens
Submitted paper to Intel STS
Filed a patent on my research
Publication in a journal relating my research
Some minor science competitions (JSHS, Intel Lisef, etc)</p>

<p>Thank you so much, I appreciate the help!</p>

2

<p>Very small chance with those test scores.</p>

<p>President of math team and gold medal in math competition but why the weak scores in Math? (For CMU)</p>

3

<p>How do I look for admission (specifically architecture)? Thank you!
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 780 Math 740 (1520) CR 780 Writing (2300)
SAT II: 800 chemistry, 780 Math II, 790 History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top of the class probs?
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), AB Calc (5), Chemistry (5), Lang (4)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Italian, AP Econ, AP BC Calc, AP Physics, Honors English, Honors Western Civ, Fine Arts
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar, Women’s Society of Engineers Math and Science, other little science and history things, NHS </p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): National Italian Honor Society (President), Cross Country (Varsity Letter and a couple of awards), Track, Newspaper (editor, illustrator), Jersey Shore Science League (captain), Math team, History Bowl Team, Art Club at Library
Job/Work Experience: nada!
Volunteer/Community service: thrift shop that donates to charity (120 hrs), tutoring (30+ hours), farm/park volunteer (30+ hrs), Library Midterm Tutor (3 hrs lol)
Summer Activities: volunteering, cross country, architecture design camp at NJIT
Essays: probably good, common app essay about how I was a mediocre close minded student hiding from reality and met someone who changed me and allowed me to find myself, a little corny but I connected it to my career calling (architecture)
Teacher Recommendation: probably fantastic </p>

<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant): NJ
Country (if international applicant): US
School Type: public
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female</p>

<p>and i think my art portfolio was ok</p>

4

<p>also classical pianist for 7 yrs but didnt compete or anything</p>

5

<p>bump…</p>

6

<p>@GreenTreeFrog
I agree with cortana, the math problem does stand out, but that doesn’t mean that you have no chance at all. If you can’t do anything about your test scores at this point, I believe the recommendation from a ChemE professor will make you stand out. You should hope that it’s <em>really</em> good. I also see that you submitted papers to Siemens and Intel and filed a patent, but how did that go? Don’t just list it without explaining. In general, it seems that your research is your strongest area and test scores is your weakest, so I think that you should focus on it in your application. Make sure that you don’t leave the admission officers thinking “…and? so what?” good luck!</p>

<p>@mbdarbin
I’m not that familiar with architecture selection process, but I know 4-5 archies who always say how they bombed their SATs/high school grades/etc but their portfolio was amazing. Your grades are definitely a big plus (you can probably try for SCS and CIT) but for architecture your portfolio should be also very good. If you’re doubting yourself right now, my best advice is to apply to architecture as well as to CIT CivE if you have the time, as a backup. Even though there’s an ongoing joke that civil engineers can’t stand archies and vise versa (hehe), you have a more of a legitimate reason for switching to arch from civil than from any other department (in my opinion).
EDIT: or maybe from CFA, but I’m not sure what specifically</p>

7

<p>yeah that’s really interesting thanks! the portfolio was the hardest part for me haha. i applied to tepper for some odd reason though thats really competetive</p>