President of school STEM Team (Organized school stem-related events and leading joint school projects)
Vice-President of the Students’ Association (Organized many large-scale (~500ppl) school and joint-school events, managing ~50 exco members)
Vice-President of school Visual Arts Club
Vice-President of school English Society
Vice-President of School Publicity and Publication Committee (Involved in school publications: school magazines, social media content, etc.)
Chief designer of school Design Committee (Involved in designing promotional materials for school and joint-school events)
Awards & Accomplishments
Third place in national STEM competition (China), solo with a project related to helping the disabled gain access to nature
Lead my team to represent HongKong showcasing the above mentioned project in an international tech fair (in the UK)
Developed a Chrome/Google extension with 10k downloads, deals with digital illiteracy
Champion and a few other awards in regional (Hong Kong) STEM competitions, with the two above mentioned projects and another one related to an architectural-based solution to the heat island effect
What about your grades? What does mid income mean? What can your family afford to pay each year for college? For examples, the UCs will be around $80,000/year - would that be affordable?
What can you afford in total over four years without taking on debt?
In your post I see your SAT score and your AP test results. I do not see anything about grades or GPA. Do you get graded at your current high school? If so, what is your unweighted GPA (on an A=4, B=3, C=2 scale)? Do you know how your grades compare with other students in your high school?
Do you currently live in the US? Do you count as being in-state for any state in the US?
Your SAT score is very good. It is only average for Princeton. Your math SAT score is below average for MIT and Caltech.
If you get accepted to UC Berkeley or UCLA you will be full pay, assuming that you are not in-state in California.
You have a lot of reaches on your list. I do not see any safety at all. I think that NYU and U.Michigan are the most likely on this list, but I do not think that either is a safety. I do not know whether either would be affordable if you did get accepted.
You need to make sure that you also apply to one or preferably two safeties, and you need to find out what your budget is and apply to schools that will meet your budget.
Some of these colleges may have quite different admit rates between architecture and engineering. Also, the focus in an architecture degree in particular can vary quite widely from college to college and may not have the kind of overlap you think with engineering type courses. For example, to take one of the colleges on your list, the undergrad architecture option at NYU is a BA in Urban Design and Architecture Studies housed in the art history department, so is quite humanities and art-focused - it’s not a focus that I’d expect would attract someone who is considering engineering. So perhaps a first cut is to try figure out which you want to do (or if you want to do something like architectural engineering, which may not be offered at a number of the colleges on your list). If you decide on architecture, you then have to figure out whether you want a 4-year BA/BS (would require an MArch to get licensed) or a 5-year BArch. Again, these will not be offered at all the colleges you’re looking at - very few colleges (I can only think of one, not on your list ) offer a choice between a 4-year and 5-year pathway, most do one or the other. My student is interested in architecture but has also considered engineering, and I can say it is a fair bit harder to find an architecture program that suits what you want than an engineering degree.
The other issue with these degrees is that both tend to be quite specific from quite early on - not like some other degrees where it easier to switch in and out of different majors if you change your mind, so that’s also something to bear in mind when figuring out what you think you want to do.
As others have asked, need more info including GPA, instate residency if applicable (it sounds like you live overseas so probably not?) and what targets/safeties you are considering. None of those schools have the kind of admit rates that they could be considered targets for anyone.
Okay, it wouldn’t be a delusion to list your safeties. What are those?
These are all high reaches and EXTREMELY different schools. What are your grades?
It appears to me that you are “building” a resume for the colleges. My question to you is what makes you happy? That is what the colleges want to see. You aren’t applying for a job; you are applying for a spot on a college campus that fits them. They choose who they want. They are building classes of unique individuals, and each year, the themes are different. All “work” and no play makes for a miserable experience for you and for the school.
Being a US citizen grants you an application for FAFSA. It doesn’t grant you State residency at the public giants like the UC’s and Michigan. Plus, the UC’s wont see your SAT scores, so, what are your grades like? What do your teachers say about your attitude?
I think it’s always good to aim high. But this list is kind of a recipe for potentially not getting admitted anywhere. I say that with a grain of salt -because you could just as easily come back here next year with multiple admits (and tell me to eat crow) BUT you REALLY REALLY REALLY need some targets –not just safeties in the list. You don’t have either safeties or targets. And they need to be schools you might actually WANT to attend (at LEAST for the targets! Ideally for the safeties).
What do you even LIKE about these schools? They are really different and only share one thing: Prestige. Again - aim high but also really, really evaluate what you want in a school.
Your list is a very top heavy list…for any student. Please read the thread I’m linking here. The student in it was a top student, NMF, class val, excellent LOR and ECs. Really a fabulous student. No one expected him to be rejected from every college when he applied as a HS senior, but that’s what happened. He really didn’t have a sure thing on his list of applications. He did land on his feet well after a well thought out gap year, but the end of his senior year in HS was not a happy time. You don’t want to be in this position…and your list could very well place you there. Please read every single post.
And then find yourself at least two sure things that you like that are affordable.
It is not delusional for a strong student to apply to some hyper-competitive schools which are reaches for any unhooked applicant. Go for it – juat be sure to spend the time and energy to write meaningful supplemental essays.
It is delusional to only apply to reach schools so I hope you have researched match and safety options that appear affordable and that you would be excited to attend.
We have grades but they don’t work the same as the USs, basically impossible to get anything higher than 3 out of 4. Mine would be straight 2s
APs: 7 (calc(5), precalc(5), stats(5), phyC(5), phy1(5), human geo.(4), envir. science(4)) (school does not provide ap courses, all self-study)
ECs
President of school STEM Team (Organized school stem-related events and leading joint school projects)
Vice-President of the Students’ Association (Organized many large-scale (~500ppl) school and joint-school events, managing ~50 exco members)
Vice-President of school Publicity and Publication Committee (Involved in school publications: school magazines, social media content, etc.)
Chief designer of school Design Committee (Involved in designing promotional materials for school and joint-school events)
5 excos positions across arts, geography, English, bazaar and economics clubs and societies
Internship in Tencent, one of the most valuable companies in China
Awards & Accomplishments
Third place in national STEM competition (China), solo with a project related to helping the disabled gain access to nature
Lead my team to represent HongKong showcasing the above mentioned project in an international tech fair (in the UK)
Developed a Chrome/Google extension with 10k downloads, deals with digital illiteracy
Two champions and a few other awards (2nd & 3rd places) in regional (Hong Kong) STEM competitions, with the two above mentioned projects and another one related to an architectural-based solution to the heat island effect
Internationally-verified Taekwondo black belt, grade one
LORs: School principal, STEM teacher x2
School list
Princeton
UPenn
Cornell (ED)
Rice
Yale
Columbia
NYU
UMich
Stanford
UChicago
Harvard
Northeastern
Northwestern
Duke
Brown
Dartmouth
Only applying to top colleges cuz if I don’t get accepted I’m staying in Hong Kong. Probably will ED Cornell, not much idea what schools to EA. Is there any areas that I should focus more on?(perhaps graphic design?) Probably going to write about balancing hobbies and leadership in my essay(?, should be quite decent, I genuinely enjoy the stuff I listed.
Have you run the NPCs to see what the estimated cost of attendance is? With that list being reach-heavy, you will have to qualify for enough need based aid to reach that target. No merit
Of the schools on your list, Harvard, Yale and Princeton offer the so-called single-choice/restrictive early action (SCEA/REA). If you SCEA/REA to one of these schools, then you may not ED/EA to any other private school (EAing to public schools such as Michigan is fine). If, instead, you ED to Cornell as stated, then you may EA to all schools on your list that offer EA but not SCEA/REA. In fact, there is no downside to choosing EA over RD, unless you need more time to finish your essays.
But will they get in at less than $40K? Well, for a semester they will. But the cost at UM is double plus.
They’d be better to apply to say - U Kansas - but then they say they’d stay in Hong Kong.
Frankly, the top architecture schools, depending on ranking - include UF (close to the budget), Va Tech, Miami, Syracuse, U Washington, Auburn, and more…..not necessarily this list provided by OP.
Of course there’s lots of lists but i’ve often read about Va Tech, Syracuse and Miami….including on this website.