Stressed About Apps! Chance me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I was too busy to post this earlier, so here it is. Won’t make a difference, but I guess it’ll be insightful to see you geniuses think. I’m particularly worried about my low GPA and low test scores, since I’m not sure if my ECs and essay will cover up for them. Here is my info:

Race: Asian
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 300,000+
Residential Area: San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley

GPA: 4.342 (W), 3.763 (UW)(<-- Most worried about this)
Class Rank: None Available

SAT I: 2280 (730 R, 800 M, 750 W)
SAT II: Math II (800), Bio (800), Chem (800), Physics (800), Chinese (740)

AP Tests:
Freshman:

  • AP Bio (SS): 5
  • AP French: 5
  • AP Chinese: 5

Sophomore:

  • AP Chem (SS): 5
  • AP Stats: 5
  • AP World History: 5
  • AP Calc BC: 5

Junior:

  • AP US History (SS): 2 (<-- super worried about this)
  • AP Physics C Mech: 5
  • AP Physics C E/M: 5
  • AP Lang: 3
  • AP Computer Science: 5

Senior:

  • AP Lit
  • AP Microeconomics
  • AP Macroeconomics

Classes I Took and Grades:
Freshman:
Honors Bio (A/A+)
Honors English 9 (A-/B+)
PE (B+/B+)
Health/Geography (A/A)
Honors Precalculus (A/A)
AP French (A/A)
AP Chinese (A+/A+)

Sophomore:
AP Stats (A/A)
AP World History (B/B+)
H English 10 (A-/A-)
PE (B/B-)
Honors Chemistry (A+/A+)
AP Calculus BC (A/A)

Junior:
MultiCalc/LinAlg (A/A), college credit
AP Physics C (A+/A)
AP CS (A/A)
AP English Lang (B-/B)
US History (A/A)
Finite Math/Discrete Math (A/A), college credit

Senior:
AP English Lit
AP Macro/Micro
AP US Government
Digital Photography, college credit
TA AP CS
TA Physics C

Extracurriculars:
Origami: (<-- Not sure if this counts as an EC, but I spent a lot of time on it)

  • President and Founder of Origami Club
  • Displayed numerous models at international origami expositions
  • Raised $5000 for cancer (across 4 years)

Science Olympiad: Medaled in 6 events overall (gold in all engineering events at regionals)

USAMO Qualifier
USNCO Honors
USAPhO Silver
USACO Gold

Letters of Recommendation:

  • AP Physics C Teacher
  • US History Teacher
  • Brian Chan (Origami master, Google him!)

Schools I applied to:
Early:
Stanford (CS) (Rejected :’()
MIT (EECS) (Deferred)
Caltech (CS) (Rejected :’()

Regular:
Harvard (CS)
Princeton (Physics)
Columbia (CS)
Johns Hopkins (CS)
Carnegie Mellon (ECE)
Cornell (CS) (safety???)
UC Berkeley (EECS) (safety)
UIUC (CS) (safety)

Thanks for taking the time to read this post, any input you have is appreciated. After the deferral and the rejections, I’m honestly not feeling very confident about my chances at getting into good schools. Worst case scenario, I’ll still be able to get into Berkeley…?

EDIT: Forgot to include grades.

2

You’re choosing one of the most competitive majors (if not the most competitive) major at UCB, which may I add is a really good school, and you’re calling it a safety??? Ok… I think you have no safeties. Cornell CS is a reach (it’s also ridiculously competitive). Berkeley is a high match/low reach. Maybe UIUC is a safety, but that’s it. I do think you will get into at least one of your schools though, if that means anything, but good chance you won’t get into your reaches because your ec’s seem to be lacking in that “pop” factor that would wow adcoms.

3

Agree UCB is no safety. I think your list is overly ambitious and hope you get into some of the colleges since you are competitive applicant. Many of these schools are crapshoot so Good Luck.

4

Wait how did you apply early to both Stanford and MIT/Caltech?

5

Stanford was my dream school, so I would’ve chosen it over MIT and Caltech.

6

You were not allowed to apply to both MIT/Caltech early and Stanford early.

UCB EECS is super, super competitive, definitely not a safety.

You have absolutely incredible accomplishments. Your deferrals/rejections were probably because of your GPA, but since you have had a semester to improve your grades, your chances to those schools you applied RD will be much better.

7

Why would you think Cornell is a safety…?
The B range grades in PE confuse me, considering at most schools if you show up and just stand there you get an A+. Unless your school has some crazy PE requirements, a B- in an easy, mandatory gym class makes it look like you genuinely don’t care. It’s just the vibe I get though; I’m not sure admissions would care much, but it’s clearly a large portion of what pulled down your GPA.

8

You don’t have any safety schools in your list. Yes, I think UCB is more of a borderline reach/match for you. UIUC is a more of a match for you. Safetys should be more like Oregon or Oregon State. Any of the Ivys will be reaches for anybody.

I’m not sure if your specific choice of major has any effect on your chances of admission at your listed schools, but yes EECS tends to be competitive anywhere. Also, admission into an engineering school generally tends to be more competitive than into a liberal arts school. If it is like at umich where all CoE and LSA freshmen come in undeclared and you can only declare after prerequisites [done while in college] are met (satisfactorily completed certain courses, met minimum GPA, good academic standing), then your specific choice of major (e.g., ME vs EECS) has no effect on your chance of admission. If you have to try to be admitted into a specific major, then that could be a different story.

9

You’ve got great scores, and pretty good grades. I hate when schools don’t offer class rank because it’s really good data. In my unqualified, unprofessional opinion you will get into Berkeley, Cornell, Mellon, and Hopkins. You’ll probably get waitlisted at Harvard. Anyway, the origami intrigues me. I’m a mom so I’m not really in the know about teen trends, but this seems really unique and quirky. You should send some bad ass drone-shaped origami to MIT because last year their admissions video was flight of the drones, and the kids that got in were sent an origami kit to work on before they arrived on campus. You sound like a real cultural fit there. Good luck to you and please keep us posted.

10

You’re the sixth kid I’ve heard of that applied to schools in violation of their early policy. This really rankles me but your GC might have turned you in for doing so. Sometimes schoolmates do as well.

Your science Olympiads accomplishments are outstanding. Congrats!. Your senior year schedule seems pretty light. I would have advised you to keep going with college math instead of digital photography. TA ing thise two courses in HS could mean anything. Teachers don’t need TAs to teach AP courses.

Other than violating the rules and giving yourself exrptra chances early, I think you have a some decent accomplishments and may get into some of the schools on your list. Good luck!

11

Considering UCB and Cornell safties, is one of the most ridiculous things I have read in this site ever (and I have read a lot!), especially with your less than perfect stats!
I do not know much about UIUC, but I hope it is really a safety for you, otherwise, with this list of schools you may well end up going to a CC !

12

I think you need to lower your standards a bit. UIUC is a good match. The rest are iffy and the Ivies, probably not :frowning:
Chance back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19209443#Comment_19209443