<p>First generation Bangladeshi-American in Kansas. Born in US. Intented major is engineering physics/pre-med. Currently a junior. My list of schools includes MIT, Northwestern, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, University of Kansas, JHU BME, and USC.</p>
<p>Rank: 1/170
GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.385 W
SAT: 2230 (soph year)
SAT II: expecting 800 Math IIC and 750-800 Chemistry
ACT: 35 (soph year)
PSAT: 216 (soph year)
226 (junior year)
College classes: Calculus II, Multivariable Calculus, Organic Chemistry I, II
EC's: average mostly, the usual clubs, also a 2 year varsity tennis player thus far, summer volunteer at local hospital, service in key club, nhs, tutoring, etc..
Research: Chemistry research, 2 year summer research in plastics engineering technology</p>
<p>Your SAT scores are not that high for the top 10 colleges, but I'm sure they are going to go up for senior year. You will be able to apply anywhere. I don't know if being first generation in the US will be an edge, but being first generation college would help. Being from Kansas will give you a geographic edge since colleges like to say that they have students from all 50 states. Being a rural valedictorian will be an edge.</p>
<p>Sometimes the question is whether or not to apply. You don't have that problem, but you have to understand that the top schools are not matches for anybody. They first look at difficulty of curriculum. They want people who took the most challenging curriculum offered at their high school. Then they care about gpa/rank, and then standardized test scores. They won't split hairs between high scores and extremely high scores. An SAT score of 1550/1600 is every bit as good as a 1600/1600. After you qualify on academic measures, they look at EC's, essays, and recs. Colleges do not want well-rounded students. They want well-rounded freshman classes, but the individual students should show "passion" and long-term commitment to one/two EC's. After all of that, they still have too many qualified applicants for the number of available slots. Often they have 4-5 nearly identical applicants for each open slot, and they have just don't have room for all of them. This introduces a real element of luck into the process.</p>
<p>Of your schools, MIT, Cornell, JHU-BME, and Northwestern would certainly want you, but you might still be waitlisted/denied due to space problems. The state schools are going to be harder than you think because they are required by the state to accept something like 70% in-state students. Good luck. You obviously look good, and I'm sure you know it.</p>
<p>There are two kinds of safeties, academic and financial. Make sure you have a school to attend if you get accepted to an elite college but no financial aid. I assume Univ of Kansas fills this function.</p>
<p>T E N N I S = S P O R T?
E X T R A C U R R I C 4 T H E R I C H A N D S N O B B I S H
T H E R E A R E N O T E N N I S J O C K S
T E N N I S B R E E D S A C E R T A I N T Y P E O F P E R S ON
1 W H O I M P R E S S E S N O O N E
N O F O R T Y L O V E 4 U. N O T E V E N 1 L O V E.</p>
<p>-Robert Frost, entitled "If I Ever Knew Anything, I Knew Thus-"</p>
<p>Your ACTs are excellent! Schools will look at those instead of the ACTs. Simply put you have 1580, 4.0, very difficult curriculum (nice college classes), and research.</p>
<p>Reaches: MIT
Matches: Berkeley, Cornell, Northwestern
Safer Matches: Carnegie Mellon, JHU
Safeties: U of Kansas, GA Tech, USC</p>
<p>I think you'll probably get in everywhere, except MIT which is a tossup. I don't know enough about RSI to comment on your chances. If you get into RSI, that obviously is a big boost on your chances at MIT.</p>
<p>If you get into RSI, you're pretty much guaranteed in at MIT... and you have an excellent shot at any of HYPS.</p>
<p>You ACT is amazing and your SATs are definitely within range for any top school. Personally, I see no reason to retake either the SAT I or the ACT considering all your potential reaches will look at either.</p>
<p>As for RSI chances...I can't tell you. The thing that's awesome about RSI is that anyone with good scores who shows a passion for science has a shot. (Although, I have this feeling that if I had slightly higher scores I would have been admitted instead of waitlisted, but I couldn't change those at the time, so whatever) Anyway, work hard on those essays!</p>
<p>I didn't see the ACT score before. Your SAT score doesn't quite go with everything else. Of course you were only a sophomore when you took it. Obviously they can use the ACT instead of the SAT, but they will see the soph SAT score when you send in the SAT II scores.</p>
<p>The competition at the top elite colleges is insane. Harvard denies 90% of the applicants. More telling, they deny about 60% of the applicants who have perfect 1600/1600 SAT scores.</p>
<p>bump...................</p>