<p>I'm applying to SAMS this year (and AP/EA...the free one) and I really want to go; but I was looking at the SAMS thread the other day, and numerous people mentioned that the acceptance rate was pretty low. [After edit: SAMS (Summer academy for math and Science) is the minority summer program held by Carnegie Mellon. AP/EA is basically the same thing, but a bit more competitive (classes are actual classes taught by Carnegie Mellon profs). ] </p>
<p>What are my Chances at SAMS and AP/EA.</p>
<p>psat: 222 [Cr 78; M 69; Wr 75]
gpa: 4.0 unweighted.
class rank: 1st</p>
<p>Male URM</p>
<p>essays will be excellent (i've won numerous essay contest)</p>
<p>Recs should be good i suppose.</p>
<p>Course Schedule:
APUSH [A]
APchem [A]
Honors Physics [A]
Pre-Cal [A]
Adv. French V [A]
Jazz Band & Web Design [A]</p>
<p>Dual Enrollment @ Drexel U.</p>
<p>Fall courses:
Epidemics: Disease Shaping History [B+...shouldn't have procrastinated]
English 101 [A]</p>
<p>Winter course:
Psychology 101 (in progress)</p>
<p>college gpa = 3.67 (grr)</p>
<p>don't feel like listing the Ec's (i have leadership, passion, etc. w/e)</p>
<p>If i don't get accepted, I'll just spend my whole summer playing Tennis :)</p>
<p>After edit: I've edited the thread title to reflect your update on what the program abbreviation means. My wild guess is that you have decent chances of getting in. My son got a brochure about those programs (presumably because he has attended a Carnegie Mellon info session here in town) but will be doing something else this summer. Good luck.</p>
<p>U seem to have a really good chance. Remember to make the essays personal and that it really shows why u are diverse. What state are u from?? Because I can tell u how many got into SAMS last year from there.</p>
<p>I would say you have a good chance of being accepted. I would hope that your stats are good enough because they are about the same as mine - 4.0 gpa, 220 psat/2200 SAT... but alas I am a white male so you havea leg up on me there.</p>
<p>I wrote some stellar essays though that i think will give me a solid chance at least. How are your essays? If you are accepted for ap/ea what classes are you considering? I want to major in computer engineering or computer science so i think i'll look for courses in one of those areas.</p>
<p>If i get accepted into AP/EA, i'll probably do Biology and Calculus I. I am a very gifted writer (sorry to toot my own horn), so my essays will be stellar.</p>
<p>its the diversity one, right?
i went to diversity ap/ea last summer. i had worse stats than yours (220 PSAT, 2nd ranked, etc).
if you do everything right, you should be able to spend WONDERFUL 6 weeks in pittsburgh.
i am really glad you are considering it, for i spent the happiest 6 weeks of my life there. : )</p>
<p>wow, i hope it's as good as you make it sound. What courses did you take? </p>
<p>Also, what was you psat math score? Even though my index score is high, i am worried about the 69 in math, considering the fact that SAMS is a MATH and science academy.</p>
<p>i dont think having a non-stellar math score will hurt your chances. some of my friends in diversity ap/ea were very humanities-oriented and i believe some had lower math scores than 69.
i took intro to ethics and intro to programming. id recommend ap/ea over SAMS. according to the responses i got from people in SAMS (with all due respect to CMU), the program was not challenging at all. someone told me they were learning algebra II materials in their classes. i dont know about you, but that didnt sound very fun to me.</p>
<p>the description for Seniors says Differential Calculus. </p>
<p>anyway, I put SAMS as my first choice (since it's less competitive) and AP/EA as my second choice, because the website said that people who apply to SAMS and are overqualified will be invited to do AP/EA. I don't know if I'm overqualified though, but hey, I'll give it a shot.</p>
<p>They actually give u a test the first few days and if u get a low score then u take pre-calc (one class takes more algebra but it depends on teacher). If u do well on the test u get into calc. SAMS is not that hard on the math part but some projects might give u tons of homework(SAT prep gives u a lot of homework too). A few do get placed on AP/EA. Just remember that its main purpose is to give u a preview of college life, so whatever summer program u get into, just have fun because its a great experience.</p>