Please help me make a list!

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!
I am an Asian male in the class of 2018. I’m looking to study a major in either a field of Mathematics or Natural Sciences, and possibly a minor in Computer Science. I will be applying next year so I came here to look for reasonable choices I should pick. Here is my information:

Demographic: Asian Male

Residence: California (Do not mind moving out of state)

GPA: Unweighted 4.0, Weighted 4.57, UC GPA: 4.5

SAT: 1530 (730 English, 800 Math) Essay 8/7/8 (Took Sophomore Year)

SAT II: 800 Math 2, 780 Chemistry

AP Classes taken: AP Biology (Did not attempt exam), AP Language (4), AP Literature (will take senior year)

Dual Enrollment Classes: Introduction to Statistics, Calculus I, II, III, Childhood Psychology, Japanese I, Music History, Chemistry 1A, 1B, Communications 1A, Introduction to Computer Information Systems, Linear Algebra, Differential Equations (Will Take: Physics 4A/4B/4C, Introduction to Astronomy, Discrete Mathematics)

Degrees: I will earn two Associates’ Degrees by the end of Fall 2017, one in Mathematics and one in Natural Sciences.

Military Leadership: I go to a school where a military aspect exists and is the focus. Consequently, test scores are much lower, as more time and resources are put into the military side. The school is divided into four ‘companies’, each with specific student staff running. I was the Training and Operations Officer in my Sophomore year, then was promoted to the Executive Officer position my Junior year.

Clubs: Due to my school being a military school, student-ran clubs were not a thing. However, I was able to convince the superintendent to allow clubs to be a thing, and I started up a research club, where members share interesting technological devices that they looked into, and described its specs, etc.

Extracurriculars: Kumon tutor, tutored at another less known tutoring place, Community College paid Math tutor/helper, unpaid summer internship, 200+ volunteer hours (from tutoring, helping at library, food bank), private SAT tutor, Junior summer internship, school TA for AP Calculus AB/BC, went on an organized volunteer trip to a less privileged country to help children with education needs

Letters of Recommendation: Principal, Professors, Bosses

My school is academically lax and has crazy grade inflation. Thus, I chose to take advantage of Concurrent Enrollment instead of doing AP classes. I broke the record for the highest new SAT score of 1380, and that was from the graduating class this year. The second highest SAT score in my grade is 1240. Many students have a 4.0, but that is due to easy classes and no one really looks to go above and beyond.

Thank you!

2

These colleges appear in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors,” and may suggest colleges to be researched further: Bowdoin, Caltech, Carleton, Hamilton, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, Haverford, MIT, Reed, Rice, UChicago, URochester.

Students with your academic interests and background should also consider Cornell, UCLA, Princeton, RPI, UC-Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, WUStL, UPenn, Brown, Stanford, JHU, USC, Columbia.

3

Agreeing with above list. Add Northwestern and Williams for other reaches and Saint Olaf (a safety if and only if you show interest starting now.)

4

I’d suggest MIT, CMU, RPI, Princeton, Columbia, and Cornell in that order. There are others like Rutgers and many more that are rated high in one and/or the other, but other factors like location and financials were what I based this list on.

5

I’m unsure about my chances of getting into MIT, but that is likely my go-to if I get in. Do you think aiming for Berkeley is perfect for my stats, or should I go higher?

Also, could you guys make a list of Reach, Match, and Safety? Very much appreciated, thank you all for your contributions!

6

If Berkeley represents a match for you, then colleges that profile similarly or higher should also be realistic:

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-smartest-colleges-in-america-2016-10

In your case, your choices, with possible exceptions, will be more a factor of where you would like to go then where you can get in.

If you like MIT, then look particularly to RPI, Caltech and Rice for additional options, but also strongly consider colleges with strong programs in math and sciences that are less tech-focused than this group.

7

MIT - high reach
Princeton, Columbia - reach
RPI, CMU - Match
I wouldn’t bother for safeties unless you were to need it for financial purposes since you are surely going to get accepted (in my opinion) to RPI and CMU. Even I got into CMU and RPI with a 1390 in Computer Engineering. I chose RPI because they offered the most money.

A little suggestion on which I’m sure many will disagree with me, if you look at the early and mid-career salaries for the specific majors of each of these colleges, they are very close. To me, if I were accepted to all these colleges I wouldn’t look at how prestigious they are, that will not benefit me much for the rest of my life. What my determining factor would be in choosing one over the other would be cost and how hard I will fail. It may take me 5-6 years to graduate from MIT or Columbia because of hard the rigor is there. The rigor level of determines your motivation, stress and depression, life-outlook, and how many years; hence how much money you will be spending. If school has been super easy for you and you got your 1530 in your SAT on your first shot, I’d consider MIT, but otherwise who needs the extra $5k-10k per year to suffer.

8

@GoRedhead Do you think I could make it to those ivies if I write really good essays?

9

Let me put it two ways for you:

1- After MIT admits all the people they want to offer admittance, there are thousands that were rejected with equally near-perfect scores as the rest. The reason they were rejected? Because of other factors besides their academics.

2- look at the crazy admit rates of 5 and 10%. Now invert that number to show not how many qualified people were accepted, but instead how many people were rejected. That’s 90-95% chance you will be rejected. I’d say don’t waste your money but do keep in mind, you only win the lottery if you pay.

My issue is I wouldn’t want that extreme stress level. There were reports of suicides but don’t take my word for it, research to see if it’s true.