Potential Valedictorian at a Mediocre School, CHANCE ME

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>GPA: 4.0 (straight A's) taking all of the hardest classes available</p>

<p>2330 SAT (790CR, 780M, 760W)</p>

<p>SAT2's: Physics, Biology M, Math 2, US History, Chinese all 800s</p>

<p>APs: Chinese, US History, Calculus BC, Comp Sci, Biology, [Microecon], [Statistics], [Physics C] all 5's ([brackets] denote taking this year)</p>

<p>Other courses: Taking online courses for CS, taken a few small courses at local college</p>

<p>EC (this is really just my top 5, I do a few more):
1) Co-founder and 3 year president of Science Club (basically runs the USABO, and other Olympiads, as well as local competitions)
2) JV Tennis freshmen year, Varsity Tennis other 3 years
3) Piano for 11 years
4) Robotics electrical team lead (2.5 years)
5) Science department TA for 2 years(technically not "work" but at my school, there is so much to do that I spend 2+ hours a day 5 days a week grading/setting up labs that it is essentially the same thing)</p>

<p>Awards:
3 year AIME qualifier, 1 year USAMO qualifier (I won't go into details, but I WOULD have qualified, but a technical mistake with my scoring made me unable to receive a AIME score in time for the test)
1st place at a regional engineering competition
Other small local competitions in math and science, mediocre placing (ex: 6th place or so)</p>

<p>Volunteering:
60ish hours at a local soup kitchen
50ish hours through volunteering clubs at school</p>

<p>My dream schools: MIT (applied EA), Caltech (EA), Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, (really any Ivy)
Other schools that I'm not sure how to rank: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, John Hopkins</p>

<p>I'd really appreciate it if you could chance me. I'm stressing out so much! I'll try to chance you back if you give a link but just as a upfront warning, I have very little experience (I immigrated to America 6 years ago and have no siblings or close friends who have gone to prestigious schools)</p>

2

<p>Very good shot at MIT! Impressive math stuff!</p>

3

<p>USAMO is nice, but you might want to explain the scoring problem to adcoms… You do a sport, too… I think you’re pretty solid! </p>

<p>Still, with HYPSM, it’s pretty much like rolling a die (really, really unpredictable), so I can’t say… </p>

<p>Do you have any safeties/matches?</p>

4

<p>Yeah, I put the info on the USAMO in the additional section. My main worry now is that I didn’t do research. I’ve been really busy with my schedule and family that I couldn’t find the time and mentor to do independent research. I feel that this is really going to bring me down…</p>

<p>My safety schools hopefully are the mid-tier UC’s.</p>

5

<p>I’d kill for your degrees. Good luck. Pretty good chance anywhere.</p>

6

<p>I think it’s fine. With USAMO and science club, I think you’ve pretty much got it covered… you give colleges and universities the idea that you are definitely capable of doing research anyways.</p>

<p>I knew someone who was a USAMO/US math camp qualifier (no sports), high SAT, tippy-top GPA etc. who didn’t do research (rejected by RSI and stuff), but got into all 8 colleges he applied (HYPSM) with UC’s as safeties… but I guess it depends on your essays haha.</p>

7

<p>^ Gotta agree with the poster above. Your application on the whole is fine. But in the end most of it comes down to your essays and sheer luck.
Also, don’t worry about research because youve done your bit. The Adcoms will notice that. :slight_smile:
So all the best ! :D</p>

<p>Chance back, please? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1411650-chance-indian-hypd-cornell-mit-will-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1411650-chance-indian-hypd-cornell-mit-will-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;