what are my chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>i haven't done this before --
i'm getting more and more interested in CMU and would love to know if i have a chance!</p>

<p>REGULAR DECISION - i applied to CIT 1st choice (undecided) and MCS 2nd choice (mathematical sciences)</p>

<p>pretty good SATs, bad SAT ii's... hope they don't matter too much :&lt;/p>

<p>SAT
2240 - 780 M, 760 W, 700 CR</p>

<p>GPA - 3.9 UW / 4.6 weighted
my 2 B's put my unweighted rank around top 8% i think...
weighted rank is probably better, no idea what it is!</p>

<p>SAT II
math 2 - 740
lit - 650
chem - 580</p>

<p>yeaaah... i didn't take AP chemistry just an honors-type chemistry course but CMU and other schools needed a science sat 2 which forced me to take it :( am i screwed or what?</p>

<p>AP SCORES
calc ab - 5
psychology, comp sci A, english lang - 4</p>

<p>AP'S CURRENTLY TAKING
calc C, stats, french V, english lit</p>

<p>EXTRA CURRICS
nothing great --
a lot of community service
historian of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA)
secretary of Information Technology Academy (ITA)
secretary of a film festival committee (we help to plan the local student-run film fest)
member of NHS and french NHS
member of a couple other clubs, mostly science/math-related</p>

<p>i got RECOMMENDATIONS from just 2 math teachers, i'm not sure if that's bad
-teacher i had for pre-calc GT (soph year) and currently stats AP
-teacher i had for calc AB and currently calc C</p>

<p>i also asked my physics teacher to send a little extra rec because i'm doing well in his class... not sure if he did! :P</p>

<p>OH i also have a pretty cool internship this year - engineering-related - at the johns hopkins university applied physics lab (APL)... i intern for about 4 hours a week and do stuff with MATLAB and GPS technologyyy</p>

<p>other work experience - an usher at a nearby popular music venue... very fun</p>

<p>LOTTA INFORMATION. not sure how much you needed. i'm new at this!
i know i'm nothing special -- be honest & thank you very much!</p>

2

<p>The SAT IIs will hurt a bit but your ECs sound pretty good. I’d say you have a decent chance(low reach-high match).</p>

3

<p>I think you have a great shot. IF you have an A in Honors Chemistry then your 580 won’t be that big of a deal. Historian of FBLA lol good stuff</p>

4

<p>thank you both! :)</p>

<p>and yeah i did well in my chemistry class - high A’s - and my teacher liked me a lot… she’s a little crazy, though, so i didn’t ask her for a rec ;)</p>

<p>and hahahah yeahh historian… i do a lot of work for FBLA though! i wish colleges could see that!</p>

5

<p>Honestly, I think this school’s admissions has more to do with everything BESIDES the scores. Sure, they are a factor, but I feel not as much as one would think. Most of the people I met have something about them IN ADDITION to the scores. I met someone that was a Christian missionary, for example. Thats what bothers me so much about these chance-me threads, because they all fail to mention things that could make or break an app. You have to realize that schools like CMU get so many qualified applicants that I think they look mainly at other factors for a tie breaker, just as long as your scores hit a certain “threshold”.</p>

<p>Ask yourself if you have that certain “something” to get you admitted. Your scores are fine, but they are low enough where this makes a difference.</p>

<p>For example, I got into CIT ECE with the following SAT IIs:</p>

<p>Math1: 590, Math2: 520, Physics: 550, Literature: 530</p>

<p>Its about more than just the scores and the ECs. Did you do any ECs which were done on your own merit alone(maybe you started your own web site ?), rather than like general school clubs or community service that they see on all the other apps?</p>

6

<p>metalforever has a good point. I got in with a 1890 SAT score but I got a 750 on math 2 and a 680 on biology</p>

7

<p>thank you thank you thank you guys!
and congrats on getting in!</p>

8

<p>and i did a lot of community service on my own, not because of school or clubs - even since i was in elementary school, when i would visit and help out at an inner-city school with my mom!
so maybe they’ll note that</p>

9

<p>You might want to communicate somehow to the admissions staff why you did this community service. Be sure to note that this wasnt mom-enforced. This college isnt looking for handholders.</p>

10

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<p>What was your hook ? Do your parents donate a million dollars/year to CMU or something like that ?</p>

11

<p>I dont think so, i am lower/middle class. Im white and in state. The SAT I was also bottom percentile. Like I said previously, almost everyone in ECE or CIT usually falls into the following categories:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Has a Hook. What I mean by a hook is, there is something besides school and school-related activities that is original that the student possesses that adds to the community. Note that they can probably tell if your parents forced you into something, so those items don’t fall into this category. People that have done things that generally are restricted to the upper class probably arent part of this category either(feeding the hungry in some obscure country etc). Perhaps the person in question has registered a patent, written a book, done research, created a linux distribution (or what have you). I do not mean race, CMU is hardly discriminating when it comes to race groups. They also reject a good portion of private school valedictorians. They were sure to brag about that stat during orientation, as well as a lot of the perfect scorers they turned away.</p></li>
<li><p>Kids that didn’t get into MIT, but generally have the scores. These are the ones that dont have the above attributes, but had perfect SATI and SATII scores. Usually these kids have also done some sort of research, but this isnt required. Usually internationals.</p></li>
<li><p>The kids that were on the waiting list ( I was not, nor was I restricted from ECE, which they do to some people).</p></li>
<li><p>Development Cases ( I havent personally seen this myself, but I am not going to deny that it exists).</p></li>
<li><p>Kids that they can tell have a lot of work ethic.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thats about the pattern I saw.</p>