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OK, so I'm by no means a great applicant or anything, but what do you think of my chances!

Columbia ED
MIT EA
Cornell

I'm interested in aerospace engineering and I have a passion for math and science.

GPA (On a 12-Point Scale)

9th Grade 8.6 (B/B+)
10th Grade 8.6 (B/B+)
11th Grade 9.8 (A-)
12th Grade 1st Qtr: 10.5 (A-/A)

This is about a 3.3 unweighted.

School doesn't rank, but I'm just inside the top quarter at an elite, extremely competitive private school in the SE.

After 11th grade my cumulative GPA was just over a 9.0, which is approximately a 3.33 unweighted on a 4.0 scale. I took AP Chem, AP Calc, AP Microeconomics, and AP Macroeconomics last year and got four fives. I'm currently enrolled in five APs (Calculus BC, English Lit, Biology, Physics B, Art History), which is the toughest schedule (with one other person) in my school.

*Testing

SAT I 1440 (760 Math/680 Verbal)
SAT I Pending, Estimating 1520-1550
(750 Math/770-800 Verbal)
ACT 34 Composite (~1520)
34 English/34 Math/
33 Writing/36 Science
SAT II 770 Chemistry
740 Math IIc
700 Writing
Retaking all three in November
(too late for Columbia ED)

*4 Years Varsity Sailing (Full Year Committment)
-Most Improved Awards (2)
-Most Valuable Award (1)
-Have also sailed a lot outside of school
-School team is ranked 9th and 11th nationally in two different categories
-Sailed at both national events

*4 Years With A Newspaper/Magazine
-Written & Produced by Young Adults (16-24)
-Monthly writer
-School representative

*Spent my summer after sophomore year at Oxford University in England
-Majored in "Creative Writing" & minored in "Speech & Rhetoric" during my four weeks there
-Earned an A+ in creative writing and a B+ in Speech & Rhetoric

*Spent my summer after junior year at a local university (University of Miami) working in a research lab with graduate students
-Was chosen as one of two juniors in my school to have this opportunity
-Spent six weeks in the civil engineering department
-Learned MatLab computational software and Abaqus engineering software
-Worked on three-dimensional modeling of reinforced concrete with composite materials
-Coauthoring a research paper to be published in major engineering journals on my work (may not be ready for early applications...)
-Have a very good recommendation letter from a professor at the university (a doctor of engineering)


I also have about 90 volunteering hours from the summer after ninth grade (all at a local hospital) and maybe 35 or 40 volunteering at a Sunday School near my house. I play guitar quite a bit and have recorded songs and such, but there is no "guitar" at my school. I have tutored my friends throughout high school, but not formally. I have had a poem published by poetry.com and I won their "prestigous" editor's choice award. I've heard this is a fraud, so...any information there would be much appreciated. Attended a Science Olympiad at a local university tenth and eleventh grades. Participated both times in chemistry and eleventh grade my team placed second overall (by one point in like a ten-thousand point competition!). The competition was broken down into team laboratory, team oral, and individual test sections. As team captain I led my team to first in the laboratory, second in the oral, and I placed third overall on the test. This competition was state-wide I believe, but it was at least regional.

My recommendations are absolutely top-notch. I have the director of my school who has taught me AP Chemistry and whom is teaching me AP Physics B now. I also have my current math teacher who's teaching me a class called AP Calculus BC/Differential Equations and who respects me very, very much intellectually. He is writing my rec. on my passion for mathematical proofs using the imaginary number i. I interview well and write well, so these parts of my application should stand out.

Some Questions I Have:
1. Obviously, do I have a decent chance at any of these schools?

2. Would becoming involved in a research project to build a hydrogen-powered train fill out my application more or is it too late?

3. Does anyone know the policy on sending in extra recs? For example, my transcripts from Oxford University or the rec. from the professor for my research over the summer

4. Again, is poetry.com a total fraud?

5. Should I put down that I tutored my friends? I could probably get them and their parents to sign off at least a hundred or so hours that I have legitimately helped them...my phone is always ringing off the hook for help

6. I took the AMC 12 math exam, does anyone know where I can get my scores?

Thank you very much to anyone who read this and I look forward to your honest opinion.

By Brpstn (Brpstn) on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 01:27 pm: Edit

4. I too recieved a semi-finalist letter from Poetry.com, so when I read your post I decided to do a little research and this is what I came up with: http://wockyjivvy.com/poetry/shame/index.html

By Nhlgoalie (Nhlgoalie) on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 01:31 pm: Edit

Did you win the Editor's choice award too? Cause maybe that means my poem was actually decent

Anyone have an opinion on my chances?

By Anduin (Anduin) on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 06:49 pm: Edit

Yes, you have decent chances at all of these schools. Good luck. I'm curious about one thing, though: why are you retaking the SAT II's, especially the Chem? Unless you've studied hard, you're risking only minimal improvement for any of them.

You should do this research project if and only if you have time for it and it is something that you want to do. Even if the admissions officers don't know that you did something solely to strengthen your application, I feel that a desire to please others is an inherently lesser motivation for taking any action.

Like any recommendation, give them stamped and addressed envelopes and have them send the rec's to the universities. Only one or two extra rec's will probably not seem excessive to the adcoms.

Unfortunately, hundreds of hours of unpaid help to personal friends is not the same as structured tutoring (be it paid or unpaid) in the eyes of an adcom. Therefore, you probably shouldn't put it down.

I am surprised that you never got your AMC scores. Talk to whoever organized this at your school in order to find out your scores.

By Nhlgoalie (Nhlgoalie) on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 07:20 pm: Edit

thanks Anduin, that was a lot of helpful advice

would you really suggest not taking chemistry again? i am definitely going to take writing again because i'd never written on a rubric before, but the others i haven't considered yet. do you think schools would like it if i took and did well on a fourth sat ii, or is that just a waste of my time?

as for the extra recommendations, thanks for the advice. i don't want to bombard them, but for some schools research rec. and stuff will help

Matt

By Nhlgoalie (Nhlgoalie) on Monday, June 14, 2004 - 11:41 pm: Edit

my SAT score ended up being a 1530 (770v/760m) and I got into MIT early action. good luck to the class of 2005!