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I would like to know my chances of being admitted to Carnegie Mellon, Columbia's Fu School of Engineering, and MIT.

Academics:
GPA: 3.9 unweighted, 4.304 weighted
Class rank: #1 out of 329
PSAT: 216 (64V, 80M, 72W)
SAT: 620V, 800M (will retake)
ACT: 34E, 36M, 28R, 34S, 33 combined
SAT II: Planning to take Math 1c, Writing, and either Physics or Chemistry

Extra-Curriculars:
National Honor Society
Math League (President)
Mu Alpha Theta
Science Club (President)
Spanish Club
Homework Club
Quiz Bowl
Key Club
Student Council
Tennis (three-year letterwinner)

Awards:
Ranked top 10 in Pennsylvania Mathematics League
Won many regional math competitions this year
School winner of AMC 12 with score of 110
Qualified for AIME, received score of 6
Most outstanding math student in school
Placed 6th in tri-state chemistry competition (includes parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia)

Classes:
Have taken most rigorous course load available (honors everything)
Senior year:
AP English
AP Calculus BC (independent study)
AP Chemistry
AP Physics
AP European History

Any questions/comments are appreciated. Thanks!

By Serene (Serene) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 08:54 pm: Edit

Eh? there's a homework club? ^^

Hmm... and you're from PA... Depends on how competitive the regional math competitions are, your awards section may seem a bit weak (Considering all the other applicants to MIT)... won any tournament in.. say quiz bowl or tennis? Other than that, everything's good.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 08:56 pm: Edit

damn you and your class rank! you wouldnt be #1 if you stuck it out over here with us!!!!! loser that's okay because we dont need you.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 09:02 pm: Edit

It's not like I wanted to move, you freak ;)

To answer your question Serene, homework club is a group which helps the elementary school students with their homework a couple times a week.

Also, I placed third in a Northeast Ohio doubles tournament my sophomore year but no tourney success to speak of this year in PA, although my record was 15-4.

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 09:06 pm: Edit

awwwww i love you *hug* come back and visit! i miss you!!!!!! guys in this town are too stupid. you need to make up for the lack of male intelligence in our female-dominated intellectual student body.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 09:09 pm: Edit

I miss those Academic Challenge days....and MathCounts *tear*. You should move over here; we could be #1 and #2 in the class....haha

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 09:15 pm: Edit

yeah! people in this school are too smart for me. my poor #3 class rank. Academic Challenge whenver we see the mounds of *free* food at the meets, we always think of you. MATHCOUNTS!!! awww *tear* those were the days. maybe we'll see each other in college! what are my chances at harvard with these stats?

GPA: 0.987 (u/w), 1.234 w
SAT: 430 (220M/210V)
PSAT: 70 (23V/22M/25W)
Class Rank: #1, if you count backwards

EC's:
-president of institute for the mentally messed up
-voted dumbest person in grade
-jailed for 5 years for stealing food from a store so i can continue to get fatter and fatter

HELP!! I NEED OPINIONS!!!!!!

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 09:20 pm: Edit

OHHHHH!!!!!! and i won the "most recently pottied trained" award yesterday!! YAY FOR ME!!!!!! now i'll DEFINITELY get into harvard!!!!!

By Wawalu223 (Wawalu223) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 10:39 pm: Edit

Sunshine,

You crack me up.

By Aly55a8 (Aly55a8) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 - 10:43 pm: Edit

hahaha im sure you guys are cool and all but the tearful memories of math competitions crack me up.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 03:33 pm: Edit

haha, it seems childish but those were the days... lol

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 03:34 pm: Edit

...before I moved to PA in October...

By Sunshine916 (Sunshine916) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 03:42 pm: Edit

yeah those were the days we hated each other and were pitted against each other in cut-throat competition until bigman kicked my butt at states. thats k, because i still beat you in regionals.

oh bigman, someone from our school (well your OLD school) applied to MIT but got rejected. now he's going to U of Pittsburgh. not that you cared.

bye everyone! off to write my crappy thesis paper on Mark Twains mockery of romanticism in Huck Finn!!

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 04:38 pm: Edit

so, to get back on the topic, any opinions?

By Arthurd (Arthurd) on Wednesday, June 04, 2003 - 08:20 pm: Edit

Funny how the topic totally changed over the past few days. lol... Anyway, I'd say:
Carnegie Mellon: YES
Columbia FU: Probably
MIT: I don't think so.
My reason for "I don't think so" for MIT is that your ECs don't really line up with what they tend to look for, and they usually look for a higher total SAT score. Math and Science clubs are good, but try getting in some robotics competitions (and doing well ) or something similar. That will boost your chances by a mile.

By Chronic19 (Chronic19) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 02:13 am: Edit

Hey,

I applied to Carnegie Mellon: SCS (Computer Science) and MIT this year. I can give you some tips, IM (AOL) me at chronic321.

Your shot at all three schools is decent, regardless of what people may say. Although I was rejected from MIT, the application process gave me a sense that although a lot of super kids get in, a lot of just normal hard workink and intelligent kids get in. You are defenitly in at Columbia Engineering, as long as you can bump up that SAT verbal to 650+ and get 800 on the IIC and 750+ on the Physics SAT II (Neither are that hard to do).

For Carnegie Mellon, it depends. You will defenitly get into their Pure Science or Non-ECE Engineering programs. If you are applying to their ECE engineering or CS programs, the admission is far more difficult. To put it in perspective, I thought my chances at MIT were greater than those at SCS. The admissions rate for Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon is ~15-16%, average SAT 1500. This is the single best undergraduate CS program in the country, so you have a lot of elite hackers applying, I only got in because I live in VT and have no CS cirriculum in my school, I started the CS cirriculum actually. For ECE, the admit rate is 22% and the average SAT is 1460.

IM me if you need details, I can help you out.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 06:00 pm: Edit

Thank you both for your responses. I am planning on majoring in Chemical Engineering, Mathematics, or both. I can definitely get my SAT verbal up there (I am predicting something in the high 600's) and the Math IIc shouldn't be hard for me to get an 800 on. I am very good at physics so I don't foresee having trouble on the SAT II, although I have never taken a practice test.

Another question I have is which SAT II's should I take to get into these schools? I know I will take the writing and the math IIc, but I am debating on whether I should take the Physics or Chem.

By Arthurd (Arthurd) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 06:06 pm: Edit

For ChemEng, definitely take the Chemistry SAT II. If you are confident that you can do well on the Physics, take that too.... Too much is always better than too little. Good luck.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Thursday, June 05, 2003 - 10:44 pm: Edit

bump

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Friday, June 06, 2003 - 11:45 pm: Edit

bump

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Sunday, June 08, 2003 - 01:12 am: Edit

bump

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Sunday, June 08, 2003 - 05:26 pm: Edit

My daughter was admitted to CIT at Carnegie Mellon for next fall. She has a few friends who were also admitted there, for engineeering and the Mellon College of Science. I'd say your stats. etc look quite comparable to theirs. Since you live in PA, I imagine you've visited the campus at some point? I think they offer some sleeping bag weekends as early as the fall--definitely try to do that. I think you can interview then as well; I don't think the interview counts for all that much though.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Sunday, June 08, 2003 - 06:14 pm: Edit

Thank you for the advice and congratulations on your daughter's acceptance to CMU. I just moved to PA in October and I have seen the campus but I am taking a more detailed visit this summer (I believe they have some kind of lectures on Sunday afternoons). I was not aware of the sleeping bag weekends, so I will put that on my huge list of stuff to do in the fall haha.

By Quakerboy2 (Quakerboy2) on Monday, June 09, 2003 - 01:39 am: Edit

I think you've got a good shot at MIT. I had a lower AMC/AIME score, lower math SAT, and lower class rank, and I got in. I'm also an Eagle Scout, and I had a fantastic interview. It's probably a little late to go for the Eagle Scout thing, but I get the feeling from all their literature, talking to the other accepted kids, and talking to the people who are important, if you can show in the interview that, other than being obscenely good at math, you are normal, you'll have a good shot at getting in.

In a related story, that was a really long sentence.

Anyway, work on the personal side of your application. You have decent stats, and MIT is very much trying to change it's horribly nerdy image to just mildly nerdy. You can't get in on numbers alone, but you are def. in the candidate pool.

Wow, for a minute there, I sounded like I knew what I was talking about.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 - 02:06 am: Edit

bump

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Wednesday, June 11, 2003 - 02:06 am: Edit

oh, and I'm taking the Math IIc, not the Ic.

By Bigman82085 (Bigman82085) on Monday, June 16, 2003 - 12:49 pm: Edit

bump