What Are My Chances to Top Schools? (LISTED IN DESCRIPTION)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi there, I am looking for feedback on my application and possible ways to improve my chances.

I am currently a Junior at a top public school in California. Asian (Indian) male.

Intended major: Chemical and biomolecular engineering

SAT: 1560 (790 math - I’m really pissed about that- and 770 reading/writing)
SAT Subject tests: 760 Spanish and 800 Chemistry so far (will take Physics and Math II in June, Biology in August)
PSAT: 1500 (750 math, 750 reading/writing, 225 selection index)
GPA: Cumulative = 4.49/4.00
**A note about GPA: while I have never gotten a B, I have gotten 3 A-'s, but I didn’t factor a +/- in the calculation.

AP’s:

  • None freshman year (freshmen are not allowed to take AP courses)
  • AP Spanish sophomore year (only 2 AP’s available to sophomores, can only take a language if you skipped a grade, which I did)
  • AP Stats/AP Chem/APUSH junior year (3 AP’s 3 honors overall)
  • AP Calc BC/AP Macro/AP Bio/AP Physics/AP English Lang senior year (5 AP’s, 1 regular overall)

EC’s (Not including clubs) (I KNOW THESE ARE SUPER WEAK; HOW DO I IMPROVE ON THEM? HOW CAN I CONTINUE TO DEVELOP A SPIKE FOR CHEMISTRY?):

  • Captain and founding member of a community FRC robotics team (plan for all 4 years)
  • Piano since 2nd grade (Have passed the MTAC level 10 exams with honors)
  • tennis (2 years, nothing special)
  • Volunteered at a local community center the summer after 9th grade (over 125 hours) (not super important, but it is something)
  • Intern at a local peptide synthesis/biotech startup in the manufacturing sector over the summer
  • Self studying a lot of higher level chemistry (just for fun, not really an extracurricular)

Future Plans:

  • Currently applying to a couple of summer programs (SIMR, RISE, Clark Scholars)
    - If that doesn’t work I will do research at a Stanford Lab

Schools I am looking at (Also no particular order):

  • Stanford (Top choice)
  • UPenn
  • Princeton
  • Yale
  • MIT
  • Caltech
  • Northwestern
  • Purdue
  • WPI
  • RPI
  • Carnegie Mellon
  • Harvey Mudd
  • Purdue
  • Boston University

Letters of Rec:

  1. My Physics Honors teacher - Loves me, we have a good relationship, personally asked me to come back to be a lab assistant for him (9/10)
  2. My APUSH teacher - We have a pretty good relationship and he is known for writing amazing letters. (7/10)

I will gladly provide any additional information you will need.

What do you think are my chances to these schools? Am I loading up my list with too many reaches? How can I show interest and aptitude in chemistry and chemical engineering?

2

Another outstanding student who can succeed at any of the schools listed.

Because of geography, your probability for admission are very good at BU, RPI and WPI, but BU does not list Chemical Engineering among their majors. You might want to consider Clarkson University in upstate NY as a safety. It has an excellent reputation in Chemical Engineering but may not be well known in CA. It is really in the country and they take their ice hockey very seriously!

Yes, there are too many reaches. Eight of the listed schools are reaches for anyone. I suggest you learn more about the individual schools and programs beyond their general celebrity status. If you want engineering, the best “Ivy League” programs are probably at Cornell University. Whichever programs you apply to, learn about the individual schools and ask yourself what makes that school special to you. This way you will also write a better application.

As you probably know, Harvey Mudd offers an exceptional INTERDISCIPLINARY engineering degree, but does not list a degree offering in Chemical Engineering.

Studying Chemistry “just for fun” is actually a very good sign! A little research at a Stanford Lab can help.

You might replace BU with Northeastern University in Boston. A very large, downtown school without much of a campus environment, but right in the heart of a vibrant student city. Lots of engineering, but a five-year long co-op educational program is the heart of the Northeastern engineering school. MIT is across the river from Boston in Cambridge. WPI is 50 miles outside of Boston in a smaller city about 1/4 the size of Boston. It is the second largest city in New England and hosts ten colleges. The best known are WPI, Clark University, Holy Cross College.and UMASS Medical School. I am a WPI alumnus.

BU has a very fine music program, but no Chemical Engineering… I think you will find a very solid population of talented musicians at most engineering schools as it is a common interest among the mathematically inclined. You might want to continue your involvement in music. This may help your entire program of studies.

Good luck!

.

3

@retiredfarmer Thank you very much for the absolutely outstanding advice! Also thank you for the reassurance - a lot of my friends are exceptional students and I seem outshined a lot of the time, so hearing something encouraging is very nice.

Yes, BU doesn’t have a ChemE degree - I don’t know how I missed that! Thank you for opening my eyes to that.

I visited Harvey Mudd this past weekend actually, and it was very interesting. The general engineering degree is unique and the overall course syllabus is not what I expected at all.

I will definitely take a look into Northeastern University. The only thing is I’m not super interested in mega-huge colleges (I know I’m considering a few right now), but my top choices would definitely be smaller. I’ll also look into Clarkson - you’re right that it isn’t well-known in California (at least not at my school).

Another couple of schools I was thinking of were UI-Urbana Champaign, University of Wisconsin, University of Delaware, Georgia Tech and Case Western. What are your opinions on those?

4

@rstorm I cannot give feedback on most of your list but, it seems that you do have a large number of high tier schools on your list. You need to focus on YOU and what you are interested in studying, size of school and try not get caught up on what your friends/other students are doing. Also, your volunteer work is not considered unimportant. Volunteering is giving back to your community. Consider continuing your volunteer work in something meaningful to you.
I can give a little information on Purdue and Case. My S is a CS major at Purdue and loves it. The school is known for aeronautics, engineering and technology. It is a larger school but, really doesn’t feel overwhelming. Very diverse campus due to the high International draw of students. The school offers all majors but known for your studies. I believe it would be more of a safety for you.
Case is near where we live and has a great reputation and is an amazing mid-size school. One thing I would consider is the fact that there are more graduate students at the school than undergrad. I don’t know if this makes a difference but I am not sure if it would have the same type of campus feel with being higher grad student based.

5

You are a very competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Try getting a research position at a local university to improve your Chemistry extracurriculars. Start a Chemistry club, find out about chemistry competitions for high school students, and perhaps write your Common Application essay on your interest in Chemistry. Write amazing essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

6

@rstorm
“Another couple of schools I was thinking of were UI-Urbana Champaign, University of Wisconsin, University of Delaware, Georgia Tech and Case Western.” All top flight Chemical Engineering programs and all very large.

My alma mater is WPI. They have an outstanding Chem Engine department, are relatively small at 6600 students (about 4,200 undergraduates) and have a real campus. Their program is unconventional, project and team research directed. They also have a very solid program for music minors including a performance minor.

Clarkson is a fine choice. WPI is a little more competitive for admission and more unconventional in its program. It has received recognition from the National Academy of Engineering four times in 2015 for its innovative approach (see https://www.nae.edu/Activities/Projects/Awards/GordonPrize/GordonWinners.aspx#tabs).

Check out WPI’s Chem Eng program @ https://www.wpi.edu/academics/departments/chemical-engineering/prospective-students. For graduate school and job placement, go to https://www.wpi.edu/student-experience/career-development/outcomes and click on “2016 Post - Graduation Report.” Click on the Chemical Engineering listing found in the index on page three. You will see all the placement and income data for that year.

Judging by the large schools that keep showing up on your list, you are identifying schools by their research levels which are largely a reflection of large graduate student populations. It would be very rare to find a small school with the research level of larger universities. The labor force for these large research programs are graduate students. This is why I encourage students to find out about individual programs and how those programs meet the students objectives. If you want a job with a good company, ask about job placement. If you want to go to graduate school, find out about graduate school placement.

Illinois, Georgia Tech, and U of Wisconsin are top researching Universities in most engineering fields. The DuPont Chemical Company is based in Delaware which has a long history of research in areas related to Chemistry. Case Western has a long history of achievements in engineering dating back to Case Institute of Technology who merged with them about 40 years ago.

Unless you live in the respective states, Illinois, Georgia Tech, and Wisconsin are also “reach” schools. State schools have this problem. Case Western, Clarkson, RPI and WPI are private. These schools tend to favor students from a greater distance.

Perhaps I could entertain you with Korean music from a Korean star with a PhD from WPI in EE and a degree in voice from BU. I don’t know Korean, but I love the vocals. Try https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnoU7Ad_-dM&list=PL7RHGHNjzQtjg9kMGmldAkshzIYEEovMb. It is free!

7

Since you are in California, why not include UCs (all except UCSC and UCM have chemical engineering) and CSUs (CPP, CSULB, and SJSU have chemical engineering)?

Be aware that Purdue does not admit directly to engineering majors; it admits to first year pre-engineering, and you must compete for admission to specific engineering majors later. Other schools with this system include Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Texas A&M, and some others. Wisconsin admits directly to engineering majors, but weeds heavily with progression requirements including college GPAs substantially higher than 2.0 to remain in the major (3.5 core and 3.0 overall for chemical engineering).

8

The other thing you need to do is talk to your parents about what they will contribute to your college costs, and run the net price calculator on each college’s web site to get a financial aid and net price estimate.

9

@ucbalumnus Sorry I wasn’t clearer. The schools listed above are just part of my list (I am still in the early stage of whittling the list down) and am planning to apply to UC’s. In terms of CSUs, I was looking at Cal Poly.

Thank you for the insight into Purdue; I did not know of that before.

I am lucky in that finances are not really a worry for me or my family, we have been good with setting aside money for college.

10

Note that of the Cal Polys, Pomona has chemical engineering, but San Luis Obispo does not.