Seriously? I'm probably crazy.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Right, I've got a weird profile. Take a look.
Race: Indian, US resident
Graduating (High School): 2009, will be starting college fall 2009
Study (planning): Economics
GPA: Yeah, this is my problem, 3.5. Due to not taking school seriously the first two years, I had a 3.3 and a 3.5 respectively. Junior year, I averaged around a 3.8
School: One of the top public schools in NY/the country. We have LOTS of Ivy students each year. At least 10% of the graduating class gets into Ivy or better
Essays: They'll be good.
Recommendations: A Physics teacher who taught me for 2 years and does out of school competitions with me and a few friends, as well as a history teacher who I had for 1.5 years.</p>

<p>SATs
SAT I (Superscored):
Math: 800
Writing: 790
Reading: 710
Total: 1510/2300</p>

<p>SAT IIs
Math IIC: 770
Chem: 790</p>

<p>APs:
AP Euro: 4
AP Comp Sci AB: 4
AP BC Calc: 5
AP Chem: 5
AP American: 4
AP Physics C Mechanics: 3 (that was bad for me)</p>

<p>Senior APs:
AP English
AP Spanish
AP Statistics
AP Physics C E/M</p>

<p>Most amount of APs in my school.</p>

<p>EC's:
Indian Drums for 4 years
Played tennis on school team
Worked at local library for 3 years
Worked at a mathematics center teaching younger kids for 3 years
Did a micro-finance internship in India over the summer
Founded the school's engineering club, is also co-president
Officer in school's Model UN Club, has won awards over the years
Member of the Quiz Bowl Team
Qualified in the top 32 of the MIT-Lemelson Inventeams competition, we've just submitted our proposal for the next round. If we get in, MIT gives us up to $10,000 to build our invention.</p>

<p>College list:
Columbia (ED)
University of Michigan (EA, Safety)
UChicago
Tufts
Harvard
MIT
Rice
SUNY-Binghamton (Safety)
Cornell
Northwestern</p>

<p>Yeah. BTW, even though my stats look relatively poor, let me say that Michigan and Binghamton are without a doubt safeties. Our school is a feeder for those two, and for Cornell as well. Harvard and MIT are just in there as complete reaches.</p>

<p>And my list is designed with very few safeties because of the confidence our school has as Michigan as a safety. </p>

<p>So, opinions please?</p>

2

<p>Oh yeah. I should say that I've taken every honors course I could possible, but I won't waste your time by listing them.</p>

<p>One more EC. Our team of 5 kids scored in the top 60 of Moody's Mega Math Competition, which is pretty decent.</p>

3

<p>Definitely except everywhere but Harvard and MIT - you could get in there, but everyone knows how the admissions at those two colleges are. Screwing around for the first two years of high school is a lot easier to explain in a short letter to the adcoms than screwing around for the last two.</p>

4

<p>Bump? Anyone else?</p>

5

<p>Oh yeah, GPA is out of 4.0. Our school doesn't have an unweighted GPA, just a system where the GPA of an AP class gets a plus .4. For example, if you score a 3.5, it's recorded as a 3.5 on the transcript, but averaged as a 3.9. However, the school offers 16 APs total, so the valedictorian usually ends up with a 4.1, taking about 8-9 APs. </p>

<p>I'm a bit of a strange case, especially with my performance. I've taken 6 APs so far, and I've only scored less than a 3.5 in one of those. However, I've rarely scored a 3.5 or above in 3 or 4 of my regular classes. This extends to scoring a 3.0 in the first two years of math (Geometry/Algebra II and Pre-Calc), but getting a 4.0 in the AP BC Calc class, although my classmates' grades remained the same. </p>

<p>Same thing happened to me in Chem, I scored a 3.5 for the year in regular Chem, but scored a 4.0 in AP Chem and the 5 on the AP with a more difficult teacher. </p>

<p>So yeah, my counselor will mention the fact that although I've taken lots of difficult classes, that isn't the reason why my GPA is low, it's because of the regular classes (lol) I've had to take. This isn't a good thing, but still, it's worth mentioning.</p>

6

<p>Another question I've got. The InvenTeams competition, if we make it to the next round, would that be a thing worth emphasizing for my application? I mean it's 16 teams who are given up to $10,000 to build and patent an invention, and it seems like it would be pretty nice, but I'm not sure. Also, worth emphasizing for an MIT application?</p>

7

<p>Bump I guess? Anyone? Someone?</p>

<p>Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?</p>

8

<p>I think you have a decent shot at your schools. Everything seems to be good, with the exception of your "low" GPA.</p>

<p>"At least 10% of the graduating class gets into Ivy or better"
^Its hard to believe that statistic. And, what do you mean "Ivy or better," there really aren't better schools than the Ivys (if you include MIT and Stanford)</p>

9

<p>I didn't include MIT, Stanford or Caltech into the Ivy. So that's why I said Ivy or better.</p>

<p>And yeah, my class usually averages 350 students. And for the last year, our admission rates into Ivies and around same rank schools.
Cornell: 29
Columbia: 7
Harvard: 3
Princeton: 2
Yale: 2
Dartmouth:
Penn: 3
Brown: 6
Dartmouth: 9
Stanford: 2
Caltech: 1</p>

<p>We have kids getting into Northwestern, Chicago, Georgetown, and all those other nice schools, I'm just too lazy to list all those stats.</p>

<p>So you see what I mean?</p>

10

<p>Bump. Someone? I'm wondering why it seems people are avoiding this topic.</p>

11

<p>Columbia (ED) -- reach b/c GPA
University of Michigan (EA, Safety) -- match (btw its rolling not EA)
UChicago -- low reach
Tufts -- low reach
Harvard -- high reach
MIT -- high reach
Rice -- low reach
SUNY-Binghamton (Safety) -- in
Cornell -- low reach
Northwestern -- low reach</p>

12

<p>Hi strife15!</p>

<p>I'm happy to chance you ... here goes your eval. </p>

<p>Your GPA is a bit low at a 3.5 UW. However, you do demonstrate an upward grade trend and you complement that with a solid number of APs. Your SAT of 2300 is outstanding and places you in the Top .5% of the US. However, you do seem a bit weak at reading ... but that's okay. Your SAT IIs are quite fine. Other than that, you'll probably earn some credit for Calc and Chem at most schools; however, the top schools will generally not look at 3s or 4s. Your ECs look pretty solid and you demonstrate leadership and initiative by founding your school's engineering club. However, in order for that to mean much, make sure you convey your passion for engineering in your essays. Your MIT competition should belong in the honors section. </p>

<p>Overall, you seem to be a really strong student and has clearly taken advantage of what your school offers. </p>

<p>Chances:
Columbia: Reach
UMich: Slight reach (They drop your freshman HS grades, so that should help you out but they also drop non-academic classes)
UChicago: Slight reach (GPA under avg)
Tufts: Slight reach
Harvard: Far reach
MIT: Far reach
Rice: Slight reach
SUNY: Safety
Cornell: Slight reach
Northwestern: Slight reach</p>

<p>Good luck!
-ab2013</p>

13

<p>Thanks! </p>

<p>Well, our GPA is calculated with only academics, so I'm sure it shouldn't make a difference. :D</p>

14

<p>Woah! Okay then, I guess that statistic makes sense :)</p>

<p>In that case, you may have even a greater chance (or maybe more competition) because you feed kids to the Ivys.</p>

15

<p>Any other schools that don't include freshman year?</p>

16

<p>hmm pick a few more match schools maybe.. michigan doesnt seem like a safety..</p>

17

<p>I know it sounds like I'm bragging or over-confident, but trust me on this much when I say Michigan is a safety. Our school is a feeder school to Michigan, even with my weird stats, our school counselor is sure Michigan is a safety. The fact that they don't take freshman GPA helps, since I'd have a 3.7.</p>

18

<p>i agree with ab2013's advice
and i don't think you have a >15% chance at columbia or Harvard or MIT</p>