Rice, CMU, etc. Good Matches? P.S. I <3 WoW

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey, I am a junior planning on majoring in Computer Science or possibly EE/ECE. Of course i will be applying to MIT/Caltech/Stanford, but those are without a doubt far reaches. Assuming that i don't make the cut for any of those three, how am i looking for these schools?</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon (SCS or CIT ECE)
Rice
Northwestern
UC Berkely (OOS, im in AZ)
ASU/UofA are my safties just for the record...</p>

<p>White middle class family, probably wont be eligible for financial aid
GPA: 4.0uw, 4.25w
Rank: School doesnt rank, it is in the top 20 USNWR though
PSAT: 216 (sophomore) 220 (junior)
SAT I: 1530/2200 (730 CR, 800 M, 670 W)
Sophomore AP Scores: AP Chemistry (5), AP Comparative Politics (5)
SAT II's: I plan on taking Phyiscs, MathII, and USH in May/June</p>

<p>Junior AP course load:
AP US History
AP Physics B
AP English Language
AP Calc AB</p>

<p>Senior AP course load (tentative):
AP US Govt.
AP Computer Science A/B
AP Physics C
AP Art History
AP English Lit
AP Calc BC</p>

<p>EC's:
I play sports all year, practicing about 15-20 hours a week
Soccer:
-JV (9,10)
-Varsity (11, 12 tentatively) This year we were the runner-up state
champions</p>

<p>Track:
-Varsity (9,10,11,12 tentatively)</p>

<p>Baseball
-JV/Varsity (9)</p>

<p>Cross Country
-JV (10)</p>

<p>Boy Scouts of America:
-Involved for 11+ years
-Served in various leadership positions for 6 month terms including
Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, Troop Guide, and Bugler
-Contributed 100+ hours of community service
-Eagle Scout, for my eagle project I planned/led members of my troop in
sanding, staining, and varnishing 20 wooden lab tables in a local high
school's (not my own) science class. The high school is in a very low
socio-economic part of town, and it was my hope to remove gang-related
graffiti and distractions from the classroom so that the students could
better focus on their education and hold a higher respect for their school.</p>

<p>Club's/School-related activities (if anything this is my weak spot)
-Science Club member, we raised money through various fundraisers to
go on a year-end field trip. Last year we took a bus to Phoenix and
examined cadavers at a local college and attended the Body World's exhibit
at the science center.</p>

<p>Awards/Recognitions:
-220 psat should qualify National Merit Semifinalist in AZ and hopefully that
will continue on to become Finalist
-I will graduate with honors from my high school
-Placed in top 50 overall in the Arizona Association of Teachers of
Mathematics Math Competition. The same score placed me in the top 10
for my level.</p>

<p>Recs: Solid.</p>

<p>Essays: Great.</p>

<p>So what do you think? Do I match up well with CMU, Rice, NW, or UCB? If not (or even if so), where can I improve? Thanks a lot!</p>

<p>Oh, and if you clicked this thread just because i mentioned WoW, i regret to inform you that i have not played the game for over a year now... LOTRO FTW =)</p>

2

<p>CMU should be pretty easy...
NW is ok too...
UCB and Rice should be hard...and if you get into rice...get Ready for uber climate change.</p>

3

<p>get 2000+ arena rating and put it on your app.. you'll get in for sure</p>

4

<p>yeah, though i may get rejected if they find out that i used to enjoy killing other players in mid-air with 8k PoM + Pyro crits after dismounting =(</p>

5

<p>-__- I doubt UCB is that far of a reach. I think it's more like a slight reach, just past match. I mean eagle scout helps a lot plus you have good stats. Good luck</p>

6

<p>I'd say you need about 100 more AP and at least 2% more crit before those schools will take you seriously. Your HP is also lackluster...are you even karazhan keyed?</p>

7

<p>aye, i am karazhan keyed and have both epic tailoring sets. I am even showing an upward trend, moving from 56k to broadband..</p>

<p>and to ChaiMex/bay-area thanks for the chances. Is there any specific area that I need to improve on? I know that 670 W is a bit low, but does that really matter for my intended major?</p>

8

<p>bump . . .</p>

9

<p>bump again. is 2200 sat ok, or do you guys think it would be beneficial to retake?</p>

10

<p>Retaking the SAT isn't really necessary for you. You may have a 2200 overall, but you have a 1530 on the parts that really matter. You should be fine there. </p>

<p>You shouldn't worry much about CMU. You're probably in there. Rice is a possibility but not a sure thing. Northwestern is, again, a possibility and not a sure thing. I don't really know Berkley. My prediction is you get into CMU and at least one of the other three; you do, after all, have a 4.0 GPA, and solid ECs. Are you planning on playing any of your sports in college? Even if you're not recruited, I'm sure it helps the adcoms see you as a benefit to their school if you're going to help one of their teams.</p>

<p>Also, having a 4.0 while playing WoW is some sort of miracle. Most of my WoW friends are so addicted that school occasionally falls by the wayside. You should get some sort of award for maintaining WoW and school at the same time. (...you <em>could</em> mention WoW in your essay if you did it creatively enough...)</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the insight silverchris9</p>

<p>If I were to participate in a sport in college it would probably be track. However, I am not the usual smart + track = long distance kind of person. I hate long distance, it's boring. So instead i sprint, and i'm just decent. Probably no way i can get recruited with high 11's in the 100m and mid 24's in the 200m, though i can probably push those down a bit by the end of the season/into next year. The best part of my race is coming out of the blocks, which i owe entirely to video games building my reaction time :P</p>