<p>I am a senior in high school at Nevada state.
our school is fairly small around 200 kids.
I moved to US three years ago, until then, I start learn English.Native Chinese.
I'm applying those schools below for their Engineering school.
long shoot: MIT, Columbia Uni., Cornell Uni.
reach:Carnegie Mellon Uni., Boston Uni., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
back up: Northeastern Uni., Syracuse Uni., Drexel Uni.
class rank:11 of 66,
GPA:3.87(UW), 4.10(W) took AP Cal AB and AB Chemistry both got 3
cuz we are such a small school, thats all we have for AP courses besides AP history.
SAT: just took it,appx.score reading:5XX, math:7xx, writing:5xx
SAT2: math2:7xx, chemistry:6xx, Chinese:800.
Nevada All-State Academic Team Honor
4 years varsity basketball(captian), baseball(captian)
Key Club vice president(community service club)
academic team, nationl honor society candidate
work: motel front desk 25 hrs/week
spa and maintenance shop 5 hrs/week</p>
<p>I really have difficulty in English since I just learn it three years ago.
please tell me my chances and should get more back up schools?</p>
<p>The problem in a nutshell is your poor SAT verbal score and the fact that you haven't mastered English. The SAT scores of 5xx in both CR and Writing will keep you from getting into the top schools. If you had 730+ in these tests, you would have a chance at every school on this list. (still a reach at MIT and Columbia and a slight reach at Cornell, but a match at Carnegie Mellon, for example). </p>
<p>You simply cannot expect to go to a school like MIT and Columbia and keep up with the others if you have a language problem--which appears to be the situation. Sorry.</p>
<p>You should get into both Northeastern and Drexel, and possibly Syracuse. Work hard on your English at these schools for two years and maybe you can transfer to MIT or Columbia at that time if you do well during the college years.</p>
<p>Well, if I were you I will try first to improve myself in English, because students who get accepted or attend to those kind of prestigious universities are very articulate in communication.
---Keep it Up!
-Jake</p>