Where do I sit? Harvey Mudd, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Caltech

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm in my senior year and I'd like to know where I sit in the pool of applicants, especially whether I should apply for Mudd's early decision 1. I'm looking to go into computer science.</p>

<p>Grades (Junior Year)
Chem 89%
English 83%
Independent Studies 95% [This is essentially a course that I requested; I am the only person in this course. Material is that of 1-2nd year college IT courses]
Physics 11 92%
Physics 12 92% [I was able to get another special condition from the science department where I took physics 11 in class and physics 12 partly online. My physics teacher had a website where he posted notes so I would go and study those notes then do quizzes in school]
Math 12 (Pre-Calc) 88% [In Fast Track program, essentially a program that accelerates math material in the earlier years so the student ends up being 1 year ahead at grade 10 (not sure what that is in american terms)]
Socials Studies 82%
Spanish 83%
Hockey</p>

<p>Senior Year
AP Calc [Only AP available in my school]
English
Chem 12
Independent Studies [Doing statistics right now, so I guess you could call it AP stats]
Geography
Photography
Hockey</p>

<p>My class schedule is gridlocked this year due to my completion of physics 12 in my junior year, so I wasn't able to have more than 7 classes, where as a full schedule is 8 classes.</p>

<p>SAT - Took it this October, feel confident about it and expect 700+ CR + W, 750+ M with a slight underestimation.
Subject Tests - taking Physics and Math II in November</p>

<p>EC
My resume lists my EC quite clearly, so I'm just going to link it and list a few key points here.</p>

<ul>
<li>Maintainer of an open source project (node-apac)</li>
<li>A project in advanced hockey statistical analysis. (think moneyball for hockey) This project has received some really great comments by those familiar in the field and even from a professor that has published multiple outstanding studies in the field.</li>
<li>Web Design for a non-profit org. ~ 80 hrs</li>
<li>Organizer/Creator of the floor hockey club at my school</li>
<li>Blog with other misc. hockey statistical analysis.</li>
</ul>

<p>Hooks- First gen college</p>

<p>First of all thanks for reading this post. I have a couple of questions:
Do I need the early decision at Mudd to be competitive? I like Mudd and will probably be going to Mudd even in regular decision if I am admitted but I'd just like to keep my options open if I do change my mind. That, and I'd just like to know if Standford would admit me for bragging rights.</p>

<p>How much is my project on the advanced hockey stats going to help my application? I know my humanities are weaker but I'm hoping that this project shows my ability in the computer science field.</p>

<p>Should I take the AP Computer Science and Statistics tests? At the risk of sounding arrogant I know I can breeze through these but should I take the test anyways?</p>

<p>Any other general tips are also appreciated! Thanks for reading.</p>

2

<p>You’re probably sitting in a desk chair at the computer.</p>

<p>Yes, you do need ED to have the best chance. Bottom 25th percentile is 680CR/740M/680W. 25% of the people have above and 800 on math, 770 on CR, and 760 on W. We need to see your real scores to know your chances. While it’s obvious that you have a talent for computers, your grades in the humanities are lacking for HM. I don’t think your ECs show any kind of leadership, either. HM will look at these things. What is your cumulative GPA? Do you have leadership?</p>

3

<p>I’m not really worried about SAT scores because I don’t think that’s going to make or break my app, which is why I’ve decided to post before getting my scores back. I’m not sure what my cumulative GPA is, but it should be fairly similar to my junior year since I haven’t done terribly or amazing in any specific year. As for leadership, I’d say the two things I have is being the maintainer of the open source project, as it requires maintaining and organizing other contributor’s effort, and being the president of the floor hockey club. I could probably get a official “C” from my hockey class as I do show leadership qualities in that class. If captains were selected I’d be a main candidate, but we’ve never had an official captain so…</p>

<p>Also, one of my recs is going to be from my english teacher who is also the sponsor for my floor hockey club so I believe he will emphasize my leadership qualities in the rec.</p>

<p>I’m not sure what else counts as leadership.</p>

<p>Again, I know I am a bit weaker and definitely would have a tough time being admitted but I do hope that my achievements in STEM fields, especially computer science, is outstanding enough that Mudd would overlook them. I also forgot to mention I have had an interview with them in the summer. Not sure if that changes anything.</p>

<p>Thanks for your reply.</p>

<p>EDIT: Third question: Should I get the professor that is familiar with my work in hockey statistics to write me a rec? He doesn’t know me very well but he would definitely be the most familiar with my work and its significance.</p>

4

<p>I would say you are overly confident of your chances at Mudd, even ED. In fact, every school you listed in your thread title is a reach for you. What are your match and safety schools?</p>

5

<p>I don’t have any safeties yet. I’m definitely going to apply for Mudd ED cause now that I think about it even if I were a strong candidate I would just want to get the admissions over with, assuming I get into Mudd. Do you have any safeties/matches to recommend? I would like to go to school in Cali but other universities near a coast would be okay too.</p>

<p>I thought my study on hockey analytics would be a big boost since I pretty much self-taught myself everything I needed to publish a close to 2nd year comp sci/stats research before the start of my senior year but I have no doubt that there are plenty of people smarter than me.</p>

<p>If you could clarify, what percentage would you put a “reach” at? I don’t frequent this board so I’m not that familiar with the specific chance. Would it be close to 50%? or more like 5%?</p>

6

<p>Last year Mudd admitted 331 of the 2,447 males who applied. That is a 13.5% acceptance rate. You are an A-/B+ student who does not have an actual SAT score yet or any subject tests, so you have left yourself no time for re-takes if you aren’t happy with your scores. The midpoints scores at Mudd last year (based on the midpoint in the 25-75% ranges) were:</p>

<p>CR - 725
Math - 770
Wr - 720</p>

<p>Even if you achieve your estimation, you still may be below the 50% mark on any or all of them. You ECs are okay, not outstanding. Your odds are honestly infinitesimal for Stanford, by the way. First gen will help a little, but probably not enough.</p>

<p>You should start your college search by identifying safeties and matches – they are a lot harder to find than reaches, and you are a lot more likely to end up at them.</p>

<p>Also, what is your financial situation? If you apply ED you have no chance to compare financial aid packages across colleges or ask colleges to review your aid in light of the cost of attendance at comparable schools.</p>

7

<p>Are you an international student, because the school system you come from sounds a lot like Canadian Ontario system.</p>

<p>And sorry to say, but all those schools are a reach for you. Your GPA isn’t all that great. You 5 B’s and only 2 A’s in Junior year (which is also the most important year of your high school career). Your senior year grades won’t really count.</p>

<p>You underestimate the importance of SAT’s. To be competitive at those schools you’ve listed, you need to score at least 2200+, especially for schools like Stanford or Berkeley. I don’t know much about Mudd. For subject tests, score 770+. And yes, SATs CAN be what makes or breaks your app, looking at your GPA. </p>

<p>Your extra curriculars are impressive, but they don’t jump out of the page. Do not rely on them too much.</p>

<p>A reach IS NOT 50%!! Reaches are less than 10% of getting in, maybe even lower than 5% if it is a high reach. Given this,</p>

<p>Stanford: High Reach due to low GPA (5 B’s and 2 A’s)
Caltech: High Reach
UC Berkeley: Reach (Again, low GPA)
Harvey Mudd: Reach/Low Reach</p>

<p>[Harvey</a> Mudd College - GPA and Test Scores Needed for Admission for Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California](<a href=“http://collegeapps.about.com/od/GPA-SAT-ACT-Graphs/ss/harvey-mudd-college-admission-gpa-sat-act.htm]Harvey”>Harvey Mudd College: Acceptance Rate, SAT/ACT Scores)</p>

8

<p>The midpoint score for Mudd is 2215, and Berkeley’s is 2015 – so Mudd is actually a harder admit than Berkeley. Berkeley’s acceptance of males last year was 17% to Mudd’s 13.5%. None of these are anything but a reach or high reach. Berkeley is probably actually the most likely to accept him.</p>

9

<p>^You can’t base admissions chances solely on one’s SATs. Consider his GPA and EC’s, and he’ll stand lower than average % for these schools. And Berkeley’s average accepted SAT for out-of-state and int’l is 2100, while in-state is 2050.</p>

10

<p>I’m not sure how you arrived at 2 A’s and 5 B’s. I’m from Vancouver but I have US citizenship. In my school an ‘A’ is 86%+, so by that standard I would have 5A’s and 3 B’s all in humanities. Even if an A was 92% I would have 3 A’s so I guess you misread my numbers?</p>

<p>Like I said my SAT estimations were a bit low because I didn’t want to risk overestimating it since I actually don’t have my tests back yet. I am confident it would be near the 50% percentile of the Mudd scores. Financial aid is not that big of an issue that I would switch schools for.</p>

<p>Assuming I get the Mudd 50% percentile SAT scores, would Mudd still be a reach? If so, why is that? Do most people under 50 percentile just tend to have really outstanding ECs?</p>

11

<p>Okay, so your grades are better than it initially looked. At most US schools an 86% is a B. One of the challenges in figuring out how your SAT scores really look for Mudd is that acceptance for males is much more challenging for females because so many more males apply, and they want to stay fairly balanced in the class gender mix. So you can’t tell how the SAT breakdown really looks from that perspective.</p>

<p>Another question – have you visited Mudd yet?</p>

12

<p>Even if you have 5A’s and 3B’s, that’s still very low for schools like Berkeley and Stanford. If it were your sophomore year, then it wouldn’t be as bad, but this is your junior year. </p>

<p>Stanford and Berkeley are unlikely to accept you. I’m just being realistic.</p>

<p>And I can’t stress this enough: SAT SCORES WILL NOT DETERMINE WHETHER A SCHOOL IS A REACH, MATCH, OR SAFETY.
The SAT’s only tell one perspective of the student. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the 50th percentile if your other stats don’t match up.</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd is still a reach/low reach.</p>

13

<p>@intparent Yep, I mentioned in an earlier post that I got an interview at Mudd; I think it went pretty well.</p>

<p>@CollegeBoardJaJa Right, I agree that SAT scores are not an all encompassing metric to measure a student’s chance of admission, but you also stressed the importance of SAT scores in your previous post and mentioned that my ECs are above average. So why is it that Mudd would still be a reach? What other stats of mine don’t add up? My 3 humanities courses?</p>

<p>Given that the Mudd acceptance rate for males is 13%, I must be a god awful applicant if I have less than 10% chance of getting in. </p>

<p>Also, my provincial marks (standard test across the province) for socials 11 is 89%, which is obviously a LOT better than my final grade, should I mention that in my app? I also won a short story contest in my grade, should I put that in too to reflect that I am not THAT bad at humanities?</p>

14

<p>A school with a 13% acceptance rate is a reach for nearly anyone. There’s no other way to put it. I’ve seen Cornell reject a 4.0 GPA and 2400 SAT, and they have a 17% acceptance rate.</p>