kryptos

Hi, I am your not so average high school senior. I am interested in becoming a financial engineer when I grow up. I am fully aware that not many schools offer financial engineering as an undergraduate major. Therefore, I would like to find schools which will prepare me best for this demanding field.

I am an immigrant from Ukraine who came to the US at age seven. I moved from Kiev to New York to Connecticut.

My essay based on my family's background of engineering and science. I talk about how I find math to be the unifying subject in the crossfire of engineering and physics in my home.

The Colleges I am applying to:

Cornell (already Applied ED), MIT (Already Applied EA), Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, NYU, WPI, RPI, UPenn, University of Chicago, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, UCONN Storrs.

My GPA: 3.45 unweighted, 4.4 weighted (add .07 for AP, .05 for honors classes)
SAT(S): 800 Math, 650 Reading, 630 Writing
SAT II (S): 740 Physics, 740 Math II, 740 Math I (My lucky number!)

EC(s): Chief Mentor for Elementary After-School Program : Look after Elementary kids find stuff for them to do, also am in charge of other high school kids that help me

Capitan of Varsity Tennis Team for 2 years

VP of Mayors Youth Leadership Council - We work with the local government to make people more aware of Teen Dating Violence so that they can prevent it. E.G. We put up dramatic (fake) pictures in our mall (under agreement).

Thank You for taking the time to chance me
Best Regards

Kryptos

kryptos

Oh yeah... I forgot to mention that I build and rebuild computers... I help with the IT dept. at my school and I also hold a referral business for building custom computers in my community. I mostly do it for friends' families. So far I constructed 17 computers from parts

chendrix

...you want to become a financial engineer and applied to Cornell Arts & Sciences and not Cornell Engineering?

kryptos

Yes, that's right. My uncle who is a senior analyst at Goldman Sachs suggested it would be better for me to build an analytical / CS background at arts and sciences rather go into OR (Operations Research) at Cornell Engineering.

Anyways if I don't like the program at CAS, if it doesn't suit me then I can always transfer

kryptos

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dannygirsh

sorry but those stats are nothing special for most of those top schools... idk how much the whole Ukraine thing helps you either (but it cant hurt). i'd say

MIT: dream
Cornell, UPenn, Columbia :low match
CMU depends on the school...

kryptos

Being an immigrant from Ukraine helps my cause because coming to the US at 7 years old, not knowing a word in English puts me at a bigger disadvantage than most "minorities".
My GPA might be low but I have plenty of things to make up for it.
I didnt mention a lot of my EC's because I figured only the important ones are worth mentioning

kryptos

Also I am thinking about applying to the mellon school of science for CMU

kryptos

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Hopeful_Underdog

I don't think you have a great chance.... but you do have A chance.

dannygirsh- Did you really call Penn, Cornell and Columbia low matches? I don't think that these schools are low matches for even the most stellar applicants. At best, for amazing applicants, these schools are MAYBE low reaches... and that's pushing it IMHO.

kryptos

So an 800 in Math is not stellar or amazing....? As I said my GPA might be low, but i think you are weighing that too much.

chendrix

No, an 800 in math is neither stellar nor amazing, especially for someone looking to major in a math intensive field.

It just demonstrates that you are qualified for a math intensive study.

And GPA is a very important factor, as well as class rank. It's a composite of all of your years of study and your dedication. If you aren't in the top 10% of your class, your chances are even lower at Cornell.

bioblade

GPA does count for a lot.
Also, the SAT Math is 7-8th grade Math. It's more about reading carefully than actually knowing Math. An 800 on the Math iic says a lot more.

kryptos

I know that GPA counts for a lot my GPA might be low but my weighted is 4.4 and im ranked 20/400 in weighted and 50/400 in unweighted ... which means a lot of students in my school take easy classes... so i might not be in top ten unweighted.

and @ chendrix if 800 in math isn't stellar or amazing how come such a low percentage of people get it. Explain to me why is it the perfect score. Am I misunderstanding some enormous concept here? If you are arguing that 800 in math is not amazing and that GPA is so important. How come people who cheat and play teachers pet in high school are considered amazing. But when it comes to standardized testing they are not worth anything?

Sure GPA is important because it shows how you perform in school. But does it show the true value of an individual. I dont think so.

Of course you can say that neither does the SAT, but at least it is taken under special circumstances where people are measured on their skill and not book-smarts or brown-nosing.

bioblade

You seem to be under the delusion that an 800 on the Math portion on the SAT marks you as a genius in Mathematics. It does not.
Yes, few people percentage-wise get an 800 on the Math portion of the SAT, but how many of them are applying to math-related fields? If you look at Cornell's (or any other school you listed there) stats for their engineering schools, I guarantee you that 20+% of people got an 800 on the Math portion of the SAT.

I stress again - it marks you as a candidate, yes. But it is not difficult math - hardly any of it is even high school level math, if you look at it. The Math Level IIc is a much better judge of mathematical skills. 10% of people who take the level iic test get an 800. Does that mark you down as a math failure? No, of course not. But it doesn't mean that you're a "stellar" applicant, either. A 740 is the 73rd percentile for Math IIc, not even close to "stellar".