Top Schools+Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m planning on applying to Harvey Mudd, Cal Tech, Northwestern (legacy) , Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, UPenn, UChicago and possibly Carnegie Mellon. In addition, I’m applying to Berkeley, UCLA and UCI (my safety). My stats are listed below

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1540/1600
ACT (breakdown): Composite: 35; Reading: 36; Math:35; Eng: 33; Science:34; Essay: 27

SAT II: Math 2: 800 Physics: 800 World History: 790
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA:4.5
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):1
AP (place score in parenthesis): 14 Tests, all 5’s. Seven of them were self-studied (SS)
Freshman Year: Calculus BC (SS), Computer Science (SS), Statistics, Human Geography
Sophomore Year: Physcis C: Mech, Physics C: E and M (SS), Psychology (SS), World History, Macroeconomics(SS)
Junior Year: US History, Microeconomics (SS), Chemistry, Government (SS), English Language

IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP National Scholar by Sophomore Year; First Place in CSTEM Robotics State Competition; National Merit Semifinalist (still waiting on finalist notification). 1st Place District Chess Champion. So basically, nothing much.

I’m planning on taking the USPHO and will most likely end up getting around a Bronze/Silver on the USAPHO (based on practice tests) which I will update colleges on.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Volunteer/Community service:Started A Non-Profit Organization focused on setting up after school programs at Elementary Schools with high school volunteers to help teach students how to code. A 501C3, has actualy received a lot of publicity in the area, and I’ve been meeting with district superintendents and other tech companies to work with them.

President of school programming club.
President of school chess club.
Leading programmer of First Robotics Team, we’re decent, ranked low at worlds last year.

Summer Activities: Heavily involved with my school sailing team year round. We were ranked first place on the West Coast last year (although, I’m not the leading player)

Note: I have taken a few college courses at UCI including: Multivariable Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, Abstract Algebra, and a Physics course. My current UCI GPA is a 3.9.

2

I’m going to throw a wild prediction and say that you’ll get into at at least 5 of those schools lol don’t stress.

3

I don’t want to get into too much detail but you will get a math flag at some of the schools on your list. Your app will be sent to the math department for review. If you had done more for them to evaluate such as competitions or high level research I would say you chances would be extremely high. As it stands though, you should get into some pretty good schools. It seems like you spent your summers studying for APs and standardized tests besides sailing. Did you apply anywhere early?

4

Your ECs are okay, but your grades/scores make it clear you will get into a good amount of these schools. UPenn and Harvey Mudd and Northwestern are strong matches imo, and the rest are either low matches/reaches.

Chance Back: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20132878#Comment_20132878

5

Looks like you have a decent chance at some of those on the list. Your profile seems similar to mine

6

Thanks @rshortsma.

@Multiverse7 I didn’t apply to any schools early, I felt unprepared at the time and now am kind of regretting it.

Over summer, I spent most of my day sailing (6-8 hrs/day) and working on the non profit developing a curriculum and working on coordinating with district faculty.

I didn’t really spend any time studying for standardized tests besides a practice test each, the day before I took it. The AP tests I mainly crammed for during the weekend before the tests (besides Comp Sci and Calc which I already had experience with) lol.

Since most of these schools want some sort of spike per se, do you think my application stands out in this manner, or am I bunched in the admissions crapshoot as one of the generic strong student, good score applicants?

7

Unfortunately, when you get into the RD round anything can happen. Harvard’s RD acceptance rate is a little over 3.0% so 1 in 33 odds means that although you are a strong candidate, you have to have an element of luck on your side too. So all I can say is best of luck with your applications! You should get in some schools, just no one can say which ones. Oh, I would add you need some match schools. I disagree with the poster above about those three schools being matches.

8

bump