Will I Get In?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I've been worrying about this for a while. I want to know what my chances are of getting into the schools I applied to, so I can have realistic expectations. Any feedback would be appreciated. :-)</p>

<p>So, all of my information:</p>

<p>Male, public high school, Minnesota</p>

<p>Courses in school:
Always honors or AP or test out or whatever
Did University of Minnesota advanced math program, so Algebra I/II in 6th grade, Geometry/Pre-calc 7th grade, Calc I 8th grade, Calc II/Lin Algebra 9th grade, Calc III/"Calc IV" 10th grade, no math ever again, however; these courses are all universities honors courses (e.g. 1737H)</p>

<p>(unweighted) GPA after junior year, 3.87 (~110 of 800)
(unweighted) GPA after first semester, 3.82 (~150 out of 800)</p>

<p>This year I'm taking all classes at the University of Minnesota through the post-secondary options program, except for AP English because it's more rigorous. My grades from last semester:</p>

<p>PChem 1, Thermodynamics, Kinetics, Stat Mechanics: A-
PChem 2, Quantum Mechanics, Spectroscopy: C+
Physics III: A
Organic Chemistry I: B
Public Speaking: B+</p>

<p>This was my worst semester by far, ever, my first C+ also. I was either unprepared for the college experience or the tests were horrible at testing actual knowledge (I prefer the latter explanation).</p>

<p>Spring semester I'm taking</p>

<p>AP English (at high school)
Organic Chemistry II
Quantum Physics
Quantum Physics Lab
History of 20th Century Physics</p>

<p>I wrote letters to colleges about why my grades were so low first semester (bad tests, one late homework assignment, etc.) and why they were so low before then (review sheets, stupid homework, I tended to do well on tests though, etc.)</p>

<p>AP Tests: </p>

<p>8th grade - Calc AB, 5
9th grade - Calc BC, 5; Stats, 4
10th grade - CompSci AB, 5; Micro, 4; US Hist, 5
11th grade - Macro, 4; Bio, 5; Chem, 5; Phys B, 5; Phys C Mech, 5; Phys C E&M, 5; Env Sci, 5; Stats, 5; Psych, 5; US Gov, 4; French Lang, 3; Comp Pol, 4
12th grade plan to take or retake - US Gov, US Hist, Comp Pol, French Lang, Macro, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, Human Geo, Art Hist, World Hist</p>

<p>I'm really proud of all of those :-)
Thus, I became a National AP Scholar, also Minnesota's male Siemens Award Winner (male/female in each state with most 5's on eight math and science AP tests, I got 5's on all eight; a $2000 scholarship)
The tests also let me get into some of the more advanced college courses.
Many of the AP tests I took I did not take the courses for (though psych was, for example, offered as a non-AP course)</p>

<p>Let's see, what else...</p>

<p>National Merit Finalist
SAT I: M - 780, W - 800, R - 740, essay - 9 --- 2320,
SAT II's: French w/o listening - 800, Bio M - 800, US Hist - 770, Chem - 800, Math 2 - 800
ACT: S - 33, R - 36, M - 36, E - 35 , E/W - 32 --- 35</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
(no sports, only painfully nerdy things)
Quiz Bowl - probably 2nd or maybe 3rd best player in MN, best team in MN by far, for sure, undoubtedly
Math Team - on scoring team of eight and on "state team"
Science Olympiad - won 3rd place in two events last year
FIRST robotics competition, my school's first year this year
I also do amateur chemistry experiments at home</p>

<p>Peer tutoring after school (or whenever I can)</p>

<p>Took an intro chemistry course over the summer at UMinn</p>

<p>Last summer took a French language course in Paris for 8 weeks (AFTER the AP test)</p>

<p>I can't really tell how good or bad most of my admissions essays were, but assume they were all poor to mediocre. Specifically, for my common app essay, I wrote about how reading Einstein's "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" when I was in 9th grade permanently changed my writing style and made me realize his deep insight and showed me that the best way to get to understand a theory or development is to go directly to the source, and it "influenced me to read such original and influential works as On the Origin of Species and In Praise of Folly [...]".</p>

<p>My teacher recommendations probably portrayed me as an ambitious and somewhat bright student who may or may not be wont to fool around in class. But (hopefully they put this) he is likable and often offers interesting comments or ideas.</p>

<p>A few other things that I put into my college applications:</p>

<p>Thanks to my summer courses, advanced college math, testing out of required classes with AP tests, never having an open hour, college courses, and maybe something else, I have the most high school credits of anyone in my class of 800 or so (but again, a very low GPA).</p>

<p>Whether or not my AP credits are counted, I have the most UMinn credits of anyone in my year as well, because of the actual courses I took.</p>

<p>Due to all of the physics and chemistry courses I'm taking, I will have fulfilled the requirements for a minor in physics by the time I leave high school and I will be one course away from a minor in chemistry.</p>

<p>Also, I was born in Uzbekistan and I speak Russian. </p>

<p>The schools I applied to, in no particular order:</p>

<p>(University of Minnesota - already accepted, hefty scholarship)
Duke University - Pratt Engineering School
Carnegie Mellon - 1st IT, 2nd Science, 3rd Tepper Business
Berkeley - bioengineering
UCLA - bioengineering
Princeton - B.S. Engineering, bioengineering
Harvard
MIT - EA, deferred
Stanford
UW-Madison - biomedical engineering
Michigan - engineering
UPenn - Fisher Program for Management and Technology, 2nd choice technology not management, bioengineering (this is a dual major program awarding a B.S. Economics and B.S. Engineering at the end of four years' study)</p>

<p>So, considering all the information I put here, what are the chances that I'll get admitted into any of the schools here for the given major or program (if listed)?</p>

<p>I'm particularly worried about the following questions: How selective are the schools I applied to? Will my low unweighted GPA hurt me? Will my first semester of low grades in college courses hurt me? How much do my essays matter? Do these answers vary between schools?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance to anyone who replies. Really, I'm not feeling secure about this and any advice on what to expect would be really great.</p>

2

<p>You're in at all except HPS and MIT. Your EC's are on the weak side, but your courseload should fix that.</p>

3

<p>8th grade - Calc AB, 5
9th grade - Calc BC, 5; Stats, 4
10th grade - CompSci AB, 5; Micro, 4; US Hist, 5
11th grade - Macro, 4; Bio, 5; Chem, 5; Phys B, 5; Phys C Mech, 5; Phys C E&M, 5; Env Sci, 5; Stats, 5; Psych, 5; US Gov, 4; French Lang, 3; Comp Pol, 4
12th grade plan to take or retake - US Gov, US Hist, Comp Pol, French Lang, Macro, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, Human Geo, Art Hist, World Hist</p>

<p>Sorry, but I am a bit skeptical of your courseload.. Why would you retake a 4 in Stats? And retake a 5 in US? Is there any point of retaking?</p>

4

<p>Calculus in Grade 8...eeks</p>

5

<p>i think you're interesting because you chose to demonstrate your passions through academics instead of extracurriculars.</p>

<p>not a bad thing at all, just very different!</p>

6

<p>wow you got deferred from mit....
since you're a mathlete, haven't you taken any of the national contests? (AMC, GPML, etc.)
Also, isn't Calc III a prerequisite for Linear Alg?</p>

7

<p>What school in minnesota do you go to?
I go to Mahtomedi</p>

8

<p>oh my god your a genius. I'm so jealous of you!!!!you'll get in for sure</p>

9

<p>Oops, for the AP tests I meant: Micro - 5, US Hist - 4</p>

<p>I'm retaking any non-5's I got because many of the schools I'm applying to only accept 5's for advanced credit, and I hope to double major.</p>

<p>To minnesotaguy: I'm from Eden Prairie High School (colloquially refered to as EPHS). You may have heard about our recent "Facebook" "scandal." Just another one of the many reasons EPHS is a bastion of academics and accomplishment (besides the fact that our quiz bowl team is awesome).</p>

<p>To banned UBER: I have indeed taken the AMC, I think, but I did terribly on it because I have no motivation to compete in mathematics against others. I realized too late that I could take it to get recognition and prizes and stuff, so I missed out. I did not put any of those test scores on my college apps.</p>

<p>Da_Elite, thanks for your concise reply. Does anyone have anything else to add?</p>

10

<p>Oh, and in the math program I took, Calc II was basically equivalent to multivariable and Calc III actually more incorporated linear algebra than vice versa. It's not the usual system that many schools have.</p>

11

<p>I see. Not sure why MIT deffered you, but I am sure you will get into MIT regular decision. You will get into most of the schools you listed.</p>

12

<p>And isn't your school's uw gpa based on a 4.0 scale?</p>

<p>If so 3.82-3.87/4.0 is very good. You have nothing too worry about. Although I am not sure why your rank would be in the second decile.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the positive MIT prediction, GPAx213 :-).</p>

<p>Yes, my school's unweighted GPA is based on a 4.0 scale. Grades at my school are "inflated". Many students try to keep above a 3.7 uw to stay in NHS or for other reasons (I am not in NHS for many many good and bad reasons). A lot of kids take gym classes or non-AP/non-enriched classes to "preserve their GPAs".</p>

<p>Usually the school has 10-20 valedictorians and 5 or so salutatorians (one A-), though they are getting rid of that system this year.</p>

<p>Does anyone know if there is any way that I can increase my chances of being admitted into some of the most selective schools, at this point in the year?</p>

14

<p>I appreciate everyone's ratings of my chances; special thanks to Da_Elite and to GPAx213 for his questions.</p>

<p>I have another question: Would it improve my chances enough for it to be worth it for me to send in another essay to, say, Princeton, or an outline of a homemade experiment to, say, MIT?</p>