UChicago, MIT, Mudd chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>White male
Age: 16
I attend a highly ranked math/science school
3.2 gpa (calculated, gpa and rank not provided), messed up during transition year for new school and tried (unsuccessfully) to bring it up by much.</p>

<p>very rigorous classes (school does not offer real APs, but all honors), calculus freshman year, just finished all the way up to introductory abstract algebra (apparently equivalent of a 3/4th year course in college: previous background includes multivariable calculus, analysis, differential equations, linear algebra, discrete mathematics), chem/phys same year. Always challenge myself (maybe a little too hard)</p>

<p>AP Scores:
Calc BC: 5
Chemistry: 4
Phys. C Mechanics: 5
Phys. C E&M: 4
Computer Science: 5</p>

<p>SATs:
730 V 800 M 740 W
800 Math IIC
720 Biology
690 Chem
Planning to retake chem and take physics, possibly another sat I (the test is way too long and I don't like the idea of studying for such a useless thing!)</p>

<p>Honors and awards:
National French Award at levels 2 and 3
USAMTS gold winner
3-time AIME, score 10 this year
Mandelbrot national winner
Patent for x-ray technology
Research at UChicago in mathematics (logic) last summer, Siemens and Intel status, of course, pending.</p>

<p>Work as a math tutor</p>

<p>Volunteered in the school, doing tutoring and helping to grade assignments, also worked in my community park district.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Math Team
Editor-in-chief of the school newspaper
Publication in many high-school math journals
French horn player (admittedly not too great a musician)</p>

<p>People tell me that I'm a decent writer (although my grades certainly don't reflect it) and that I have a strange way of thinking, so I hope to write good essays. I'm not sure about recs yet, but I think I can find some good ones. </p>

<p>My main concern is that my GPA is a little low, but I am not very lazy (I don't know if that will show). I have had many personal issues with my family during my time in high school as well as a very intense courseload. I'm young, having skipped 7th grade, but actually that doesn't matter very much, if at all.</p>

<p>I am probably going to concentrate in mathematics and philosophy. I really like the whole Chicago style, as I said before, I worked there last summer with some very bright undergrads and a brilliant faculty member (B. Farb) in mathematics. </p>

<p>thanks!
louis</p>

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<p>Your GPA will hurt you tremendously, although everything else looks good. What is your breakdown by grades for each year? If you weren't able to manage much better than a 3.2 for 10th & 11th, then I would say all are reaches. However, your math scores are really good. Did you qualify for USAMO? </p>

<p>I would say MIT is a reach for sure. Chicago should be a reach, but they have a reputation of looking at the person and not the application, so if they feel you will succeed academically and professionally in math they might give you a chance. Harvey Mudd is a reach, how much so depending on the breakdown of your grades.</p>

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<p>do you really think the gpa will hurt me that badly? there really is no easy A in my school (in fact, I know of absolutely no one with straight As in junior year, and my school is pretty close knit, especially the "intellectual" community). i write quality papers at about 2 pages an hour and still barely manage three hours of sleep a night (2 5-page papers from my english teacher and 2 6+ page papers from history per week). Add to that the difficulty of simultaneous enrollment in courses equivalent to AP Chemistry, AP Physics C, and abstract algebra, plus the time needed to prepare for math contests, write research papers, work out issues for the newspaper, and practice French horn, etc... and it's pretty clear what happened. Not that I'd trade those for anything though.</p>

<p>I did not make the USAMO thanks to poor performance on the AMC and a very hard curve on the index (I expected 10 to qualify so did not attempt others, just checked like mad. Afterwards, I discovered 11 and 12 were extremely rote types of problems that gave in quickly to empirical methods in about 5 minutes X(. During sophomore year and below, I did not actively participate in contest math so my scores were abysmal. </p>

<p>However, I am happy to say I do have a fair bit of Olympiad practice and am usually able to solve 1 and 4 on the USAMO and get points for some of the others in the alloted time, had I been able to qualify (i met the floor and am younger than most sophomores :). I have found that this ability, which for me was not natural but trained, has significantly increased the ease of research, especially for such strange fields as mathematical logic. </p>

<p>Of course, MIT is a reach, but my counselor said that Mudd was a very good fit for me. I'm not sure about Chicago, but I lived there for a period of eight weeks and I really liked it there. Also, I count on Farb to write a strong rec and my work to make a strong showing at Siemens.</p>

<p>I am pretty sure Chicago knows about the academic situation in my school, since many friends with similar GPAs have been accepted and some have even been granted their elusive merit aid package. Does Mudd go by the numbers that much? In that case, should I retake my SAT I?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>Also, if my school weighted or gave out GPAs at all, I would have about 4.3-4.4 (my old school did in fact weight GPAs, I was 1/600 something there with a 4.8, and this is a pretty good school with 98% grad rate, avg ACT 26, and so on).</p>