<p>dvtran - Sure. Just remember that no matter how certain you think you are about your major, 70%+ of undergrads change their major at least once, including a lot of pre-meds. You will just have to trust me that many of them were just as certain as you probably are that they absolutely knew what they wanted to major in. But I have to agree that if the department doesn’t offer what you want going in, then you are in an inferior position if in fact you were right and want to stick with that major.</p>
<p>Thanks, that’s exactly what my parents told me to keep in mind as well.</p>
<p>What would you say the likelihood of me getting to stanford if I can raise my SAT to 2250ish</p>
<p>I know 2100ish SAT won’t cut it. My goal is 2250.<br>
What do you guys think of my chances for WashingtonU or Cornell?</p>
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<p>How do you define “tons”?</p>
<p>I don’t think I can be disappointed. I’m happy with the work I’ve done and skills I’ve gained throughout high school and will go to the college that best fits my ability.</p>
<p>I agree with silverturtle. Remember I go to a school that’s 50% asian (mostly chinese) and only know 1-2 people who’ve gotten 2400’s (both already going to MIT now).
Do colleges view Vietnamese and Chinese people as the same?</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know the answer to this, but are Asians really all lumped together like that? Or do the schools differentiate between the more populous groups (Chinese, Indian, Korean, etc.) and the (what I think) are less represented (Vietnamese, Laotian, others)? (Edit -crossposted with dvtran). I asked earlier but he never said if he spoke fluent Vietnamese, but if he does I would think schools that offer courses in that might find a (virtually) native speaker valuable. Again, I just don’t know.</p>
<p>If you get your score up to 2250, you have a shot anywhere. Forget what a lot of these people say, it just is impossible to predict at the Ivies, Stanford, even Wash U. That’s why you need safeties you can really be happy with. There are so many great schools that you will have 90+% chance of getting into, I think you will be fine. Don’t get too caught up in the prestige thing. If you are going to med school or grad school, it doesn’t make that much difference for a smart guy like you. Just a quick search tells me that Illinois at Champagne-Urbana, University of Pittsburgh, UC Santa Cruz, and the University of Washington in Seattle all have major research centers in computational biology. These are all fine schools (well, UCSC is a little weird, but gorgeous as you probably know), and safeties for you. You would probably get major money from Pitt, I don’t know what is available from the others.</p>
<p>I can speak only a little Vietnamese (as in yes/no/#s/ and basic phrases). I can only speak and understand Vietnamese (my ability to understand is much better than my ability to speak). Both my parents just never thought teaching me Vietnamese would be special/important (and I kinda agree).</p>
<p>I think being first-generation and having war fugitive parents could help you if you make a really good essay out of it.</p>
<p>How would you make a good essay out of it? It’d be based mostly on my parents’ struggles and to a small extent my own. I don’t think I know how to pull that off.</p>
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<p>It may by a little bit, but not much (unless there’s some compelling story there that you want to tell through your essay). A lot of Asian American applicants are the first generations, and it doesn’t matter that your parents are furgitives unless that has greatly impacted your own life in some way. In other words, being first generation American is not that unique.</p>
<p>If you want, look into Questbridge. Not that you should necessarily apply through the program, but more that you can learn how explain your family’s circumstances on the application and perhaps turn that to your own advantage. Good luck!</p>
<p>Should I even apply to Harvard and MIT?</p>
<p>Well yeah, it would only be good if it was ultimately about yourself and your life. I couldn’t tell you how to make it that way though since I’m not the one with the story. I’m also first-generation, and it’s going to play a part in my essay since it will mostly be about culture.</p>
<p>Idk, it depends on how much you like the two schools and whether you’re willing to pay the application fees. For me, I probably would in your case since I love both schools very much, and there’re not that many super reach schools on your list. I think you’ll have a fairly good chance at Carnegie Mellon… definitely good chance at Rochester. Like Mathcountser suggested, I think you should broaden your search a little more, look for a few more schools that you may like. There’re tons of great schools out there besides the UCs, and you may even get great scholarship offers here and there.</p>
<p>MIT I would say no unless you really get that SAT up. They are very stat driven. Harvard, you should go for it unless the application fees start to become an issue. Or you get tired of doing essays.</p>
<p>The more I think about it, the more Pitt makes a good school to consider. You will get in, you will get some money I think, and you can see both it and C-M in the same trip, assuming you do go visit.</p>
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<p>No. In contrast, MIT appears to be the least-stats driven of any of the top schools; they claim that once you demonstrate that you are academically qualified, scores make zero difference.</p>
<p>(^Haha, somehow I knew you were going to jump in and say just that :P.)</p>
<p>How does MIT define academically qualified?</p>
<p>^ They haven’t been entirely clear on that, but they have said that scores 750+ are always the same as one another and that the cutoff might even be lower than that.</p>
<p>750 as in each section of the SAT I or 750 for the SAT II’s?</p>
<p>^ Both of them.</p>