Chance a rising senior. Just finished visiting my dream colleges and want some feedback.
Hi I’m a rising senior from Texas. Now that it’s time to apply to colleges I’m a bit nervous and I’d appreciate any feed back yall have. Thanks again.
Colleges I’m applying to (mainly engineering and some finance and I’m planning to apply as early as possible)
:
UT Austin
Stanford
MIT
UPenn
Columbia
Princeton
Harvard
Caltech
SAT: 2150 (730 Reading, 710 Math, 710 Writing)
SAT II: 2330 (790 Math Level 2, 780 Chemistry, 760 Physics)
ACT: 32 (34 Math, 33 Reading, 31 Writing, 30 Science)
AP scores: 5’s for Chemistry and Physics 1&2. 4 for APUSH and 3’s for Comp Sci, WHAP and English (planning to retake Comp Sci)
GPA: UW: 4.00 W:4.35
Class rank: non ranking high school
Will take 13 AP Classes by the time I graduate with an emphasis on STEM(lots of math and sciences)
Ethnicity: Indian (dot not feather)
Family income: $200000+
Extracurriculars:
Member of NHS and local community club (not an officer or anything)
Relay for life team founder. The team is a bronze level team and has raised over $10,000 over 5 years.
Hospital Intern at local hospital only 40 hours so far.
ILPC Journalism Awards for Individual Multi-Topic spreads (2 of them)
AP Scholar with distinction (over 3.85 average AP score needed)
National Merit Scholar Commended (208 PSAT)
Helped set up the technology systems (all the hardware and such) at a rural school in India and set up all the security systems too. (My aunts school)
College Essays:
Pretty passionate about computer engineering, better than you’d think. Overall 8 or 9 out of 10.
Good rec letters from Physics and French teacher(has known me for 4 years)
One last thing. I’m pretty happy with my SAT/ACT score but I took both when I was pretty sick. Should I retake them or just be done with it?
thanks for reading, I appreciate your honest feedback.
You math section of SAT1 is too low for MIT and Caltech. You don’t report your subject tests scores combined, just individually. What is your score on AP Calculus? If you have special circumstances you are going to disclose to admission since you mentioned that you were sick when took both tests this might be different.
Although it may be low, his 790 on the Math II (which is more difficult) shows he has math skills. But I agree - you can easily can an 800 and that would bring your scores close to 2250 which is what you really want.
Thanks for all the feedback.
So if I were to retake the SAT and get an 800 on Math (which I can do with a little studying) and get around a 2240/2250, I would be a competitive applicant?
No SAT score will get you in to the 6 top schools that you listed in the OP; but a low SAT score may stand in your way. Your current score of 2150 is on the lowish side for an unhooked applicant at those schools. You don’t have particularly strong ECs or anything that makes you stand out. Raising your SAT to the 50% or above range would remove a potential question mark, and is probably worth doing. But it wouldn’t necessarily do a lot beyond that. You are already competitive, but you don’t have anything that differentiates you right now.
@Renaissancedad is right. Unfortunately, your EC’s are subpar for the schools on your list (the first one and the bottom three are pretty run-of-the-mill. So is 40 hours in a hospital, for that matter). This coupled with low test scores makes admission into MIT or any of the other schools on your list pretty challenging. You should be targeting a completely different set of schools.
I guess I should be more blunt, as an Asian male without super high scores and a lot of EC depth involving CS, your chances of making it into Caltech, Stanford or MIT are near zero. Find schools that are no so high a reach.
Not sure it really matters what you could have done. It would be best to focus on what you can improve: ec’s (you can still get more involved in what you currently do, but don’t add any ec’s to pad your resume), SAT (this could definitely help you and is within your grasp of improvement), and essays need to be spectacular. I agree with above for the most part. Target a different set of schools. You’re on the weaker side for all of them, and have less than a 5-10% chance at any of them in my opinion. Get rid of like all but one or two reaches, and add some safeties and fit schools.
Ok thanks for your reply. I’m planning on applying to UT Austin and Texas A&M and both UCLA and UCB. I was asking what EC’s I could have done because I have a younger brother entering high school and I want him to be able to get into these top schools.
Your most appropriate school on list is UT Austin. All of the rest are reaches, with five of them being large reaches. As stated above, your test scores are low, and that’s exacerbated by the group you are supplying from SE Asians. Keep 1-2 of those reaches and identify 3-4 match schools and 2-3 safeties.
I will echo what posters above have said about your SAT. 2150 as an Indian is below target for pretty much all of these schools (even UCB for CS/Computer Engineering). That needs to be raised up to at least 2250 to even have an “average” chance at any of these schools.
Also, in reviewing your list of ECs, I’m not entirely sure where most of your time is dedicated throughout the academic year. Is it to journalism, to service, or just to studying? Colleges want someone who can contribute to their student body beyond just the classroom setting, and from your list I’m having a hard time seeing what you would bring to the table. Apologies for the bluntness of this comment but I think you should recalibrate your list a little bit. Keep 3-5 of your reaches, then find appropriate match schools (eg. Georgia Tech) that excel at the field you’re interested.
Are you guaranteed admission at UT Austin? That would tell us a lot given that the Top 8% of Texas HS students are guaranteed. If you are not within that group you definitely need to change your list of schools.
Caltech is more objective than the rest of the top schools, so awards in Math /Science (Science fair, Olympiads etc,) and strong stats are key.
Other schools are more holistic and more difficult to predict.
Best EC: Do a sport and be amazing at it. Hockey, basketball, tennis, anything. That’s all you really need.
It’s just that your EC’s are not very heavily focused on computer engineering. You have journalism and hospital internships and cancer thing which if you can relate to computer engineering, that’s great, but are overall not really related to what you want to do in the future.
UCB Engineering is also very competitive (Ivy-like acceptance rates) so that would be a reach as well. You’d probably be a lock at UT Austin and Texas A&M. In California, many people do the same thing. Apply to UC’s as safeties/matches and then all top privates so his list isn’t exactly sure (considering that OP doesn’t mind going to UT Austin)
Like others said, unless you have something extraordinary (experience, something you did in India at your aunt’s school), you will need higher test scores. 2250 SAT and a 34 ACT would be ideal.
Ok thanks. I’ve decided to retake my SAT and I’m confident I’ll get an 800 on the SAT 1 Math section. I’m also interested in Biochemical/Biomedical Engineering and I was wondering if I am more qualified for that. I also have a very personal connection with that regarding a family member and i think it would really help. (Especially at MIT) Thanks again for your help