RPI is a safety for me, right?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1

<p>BACKGROUND:
Male, live in NY, born in South Asia, moved to U.S. when almost three yrs old, English was my third language, household income is around 85,000 so about 55,000 net, I have two older siblings, both of whom went to college. Father is a pharmacist. Mother is a housekeeper.</p>

<p>STATS:
GPA: 103 weighted, 95 unweighted (weighting system: honors = +10, AP = +12)
Class Rank: 6/300
SAT Reasoning Test: M: 710 Cr: 670 W: 670 Total: 2050/2400 and 1380/1600
AP: Last year I took 3 APs, and got two 4s and one 3. This year I am taking 5 AP classes (6 if you count economics as macro and micro as separate since tests are separate) + engineering research class + phys ed + a graduation requirement class.
SAT II: Phys: 800 MathIIC: 800 Literature: 700
Essays: Good, meaning not super because I am not an extremely creative writer and I rarely use SAT words, but good in the sense that I feel I successfully expressed my personality
Letters of Recommendation: One of them was really good, and the other two were average good.</p>

<p>AWARDS/EXTRACURRICULARS/WORK EXPERIENCE:
--AP Scholar
--Varsity Tennis Team: 3yrs (I made counties once)
--Varsity Excellence Award (received twice)
--Two-time scholar athlete
--Distinguished High Honor Roll student
--Mathletes: 4yrs (county champion last year, captain this year)
--Science Olympiads: 2yrs, ever since it was offered (I entered all the physics and chemistry competitions)
--SWEEP (an environmental club): 2yrs
--Key Club: 20 hrs community service
--School Radio: 2yrs (journalist)
--Have been working hard at a convenient store 30hrs/week for 3yrs. I have been sales manager for 1.5 years. This is big for me since it took up a lot of my time on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
--Even though I am an atheist, I have been helping every year, for five years, to help set up the food and dining preparations during the four weekend community feasts in the month of Ramadan. My counselor told me this is community service. So it took at least 3hrs/day<em>2days</em>4weekends<em>4yrs(high school yrs)=96 hours.
--I volunteered to tutor two students, on math and chemistry during junior year, after school every day, 1 hr each session, for 32 weeks. So 1</em>5<em>32 = 160 hours.
--I gave tennis lessons to a couple of persons at my tennis club during sophomore year, once a week, three hours a week, for six months. So 3</em>4*6= 72 hours. Afterwards, she became my girlfriend, which indeed was the ultimate payoff!</p>

<p>RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
--I have completed original research on two projects, one involving chemistry at a state university, the other involving a bit of physics, environmental science, and biology—mixed—at a prominent national lab. I will be sending my abstracts for both research projects. Neither project was published, but I am entering the second one into ISEF. All this research stuff is perhaps my biggest “hook.”</p>

<p>MISCALLENOUS:
--I have been privately tutored for Arabic twice a week, for about 2 years now.
--I speak four languages fluently: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, English; I know there are some conflicts about whether Urdu and/or Punjabi are languages or dialects, it’s acknowledged.
--I have taken part in civil protests against the war in Iraq as well as against the Patriot Act for twice a month, for two years.
--I trained at an international tennis academy in Texas for 1 month. (But please note, I do NOT wish to play college tennis)
--I regularly play tennis at a local club
--I love to play chess with my friends; I tried to create an official club, but my school’s board failed to pass it in time to make it official this year.
--My favorite album is War by U2
--As subtly mentioned above, I am taking an engineering research class. This year is the first year ever that my school is offering it, and it is very unique. I doubt many other schools have it, so this may catch a second glimpse.</p>

<p>PERSONAL QUALITIES:
--Mathematically and scientifically inclined
--Extremely politically active (I’m somewhere between liberal and libertarian)
--Very outgoing, I love my closest friends with all my heart, and I like most everyone else (except for the cocky jocks, for they are so annoying).
--Theologically open-minded
--I like to get personal with small groups of people, rather than lead a huge pack, as evident in my tutoring and tennis-lessons providing.</p>

<p>ACADEMIC INTERESTS:
--Economics
--Philosophy
--Mathematics
--Physics</p>

2

<p>I'd say you have a good chance at getting into RPI but not if your attitude is that "this great college is a safety for SOMEONE LIKE ME right". net income doesn't make a difference to colleges just for the record. I wish it did for my own sake too. good luck.</p>

3

<p>Listen, I apologize if I came off as a cocky fool, I really am not like that, honest. I feel really bad now, and if I could, I wish to delete this thread right now. I've just been spending my entire day (or at least it feels like it) at the Ivy League subforums, and then I've been looking at other schools like Stanford, UChicago, and such, and trust me, I've been getting put down badly. So I was just really desperate. So ironically, I should come off as desperate, not cocky. I hope you understand.</p>

4

<p>sat123, yep i agree that RPI is a safety for you! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you got some money from them too!
Research is not a hook, since so many people do it, but it's still really cool, and I agree that it is one of the best parts of your app
another thing that's really cool and you should consider writing an essay about: participation in protests against the war.
Arab is neat too.
All three of these will make your application pretty interesting to an admissions officer</p>

<p>btw, I founded a chess club at my school :) I'm also libertarian. judging from your personal qualities, dude, we'd probly be friends if we went to the same school... if you can say such things from someone's post on the internet</p>

<p>as for your Ivy dreams, I see how you would have been put down, mostly due to your SAT I's, which are not adequately compensated by your research/EC's. But hey, we don't all need to go to the Ivies. and some people on here can be a little touchy and condescending, but don't let them get you down</p>

5

<p>Hi JohnC613,</p>

<p>Thank you for your very kind post. And I agree, I think we would be good friends if we went to the same school. If you don't mind me asking, what other schools are you applying to? You can PM me if you'd prefer.</p>

6

<p>RPI is a safety for you and it is a really great school too. They have some really neat stuff going on there. Good luck with your apps.</p>

7

<p>Yeah, I know, a friend of mine, who graduated from my high school, got a full scholarship to go there, and he's loving it. I talked to him over Thanksgiving. </p>

<p>Plus, RPI has one of the lead "Yes Men," which is pretty cool for me, since to me it shows that the faculty is at least somewhat well rounded.</p>

8

<p>I considered RPI too, since I got the medal (15k scholarship per year), but I decided agianst it at the end. It was on my list for quite a while tho. I have a friend who has RPI as his first choice. Great for snowboarding :) Also, I heard from my friend that their labs and facilities in general are really nice.
It's a great school, althoguh I decided against it becuase it's not as prestigious as I'd like.</p>