Chance me for MIT EA, Tufts, Pomona, Yale, Columbia, University of Southern Cali as QB Finalist?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics:

State: Florida

School Type: Small town low-level public school (about 1000 people)

Race: Asian (Vietnamese)

Gender: Vietnamese

Income Bracket: ~$22,000

Major: Either Computer Science or Electrical Engineering, still deciding

Stats:

GPA - 3.97 UW, 4.97 W GPA

Rank: 6/308 (~1%)

SAT Subject Tests: 660 Math II, 440 Biology

SAT: 1350 superscore (710 in math, 640 in Reading+Writing)

AP: AP Human Geography (5), AP World History (3), AP Drawing (2), AP US History (3), AP Statistics (3), AP English Comp (3), AP Psychology (4)

Senior Year Course Load: Dual Enrollment Composition, Dual Enrollment Intro to Environmental Science, Dual Enrollment Intro to Engineering, Dual Enrollment Drawing, Ceramics I, AP Calculus AB, AP Chemistry, AP Computer Science Principles,

Extracurriculars:

  • Volunteer for two years at Vacation Bible School program at local church taking care of kids (2017-current)
  • Art Club (9-10th)
  • Working and helping out at my parents' salon since I was 13
  • Chess Club since 11th grade
  • Founder of Kendo Club (Japanese Sword Fighting Club) (11th-current)
  • Selected Student Engineer for MIT LLRISE (Lincoln Laboratory Radar Introduction for Student Engineers) in this past summer where I attended lectures at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and built a radar and did a presentation on concepts to scientists and engineers
  • Fixing Chromebooks for the school and county this year
  • Published a music article in the local school newspaper recently

Awards:

  • AP Scholar with Honor
  • Questbridge Finalist
  • 2nd Place Overall at Spring Arts Festival
  • The usual A-Honor Roll, Perfect Attendance etc.
  • STEM Scholar Award in 11th grade (local)
  • Certificate of Completion for Online MOOC Course in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Tokyo Technical Institute

Essays: Wrote about always having grown up being in the middle in various circumstances and how I grew out of it to work towards becoming an engineer, and also about how my perspectives and beliefs on people of different gender identities changed when I met a few important friends on my trip to Japan. Another short answer I wrote that I thought was great was on why I’d like to get to know Alan Turing someday and how he’s influenced me and my path towards becoming an engineer.

Teacher Recommendations: My Stats teacher’s letter is definitely 10/10. He knows me personally and writes the best and most thoughtful letters for me. My AP English teacher is also who I got along with very well but she gave me her letter to read and it wasn’t that great, it was very short and brief, but, I can’t change it.

Counselor Rec: She knows me personally as well, I’m sure it’s decent. But at the same time I’m not sure.

Other: Since both my parents run a nail salon and are self employed as well with no other employees to help out, I haven’t had a lot of time to participate in my extracurriculars at school for long or much. I also identify as LGBT (though I doubt that helps but… idk). University of Southern California is also my dream school, as well as MIT. I’m hoping more for USC though, since my scores are more in their range and I feel the school fits me more. Although I could’ve also used my resources and time better, I feel that this is the best I got and I hope for the best for RD :’)

2

I like your profile a lot, and I think you can succeed in USC and MIT! But admission results really can’t define your accomplishments.

3

First, congrats on your GPA! You’re clearly a hard worker, especially in light of the work you do at your parent’s business.

Just from what I’ve read while helping my daughter chose appropriate places to apply, I SUSPECT MIT, Columbia, and Yale will be out of reach due to your still-terrific-but-low-by-their-standards SAT scores. But let me ask, are you sure you want to go to those schools, anyway? I live in FL, too, and my daughter is struggling with the decision as to how far north to apply, being used to wearing shorts and flip-flops every day. Also, coming from a small town, is a big city the environment you are sure you want, possibly on the west coast?

Anyway, have you thought about schools like Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, and University of Rochester, which have good engineering programs? I’ve heard that Georgia Tech accepts Bright Futures eligibility from Florida students, so you may get a tuition break, if that’s important to you. I wish I could give you more advice, but I’d just be speculating. Good luck! Sounds like wherever you go, you’ll be successful, which is the important thing.

4

For any kind of Engineering, Chemistry and Physics are needed. Have you taken those classes yet?

I would take MIT off your list. Although you have a high GPA, your standardized test scores are low and MIT is a notorious pressure cooker (pass/fail instead of letter grades freshman year). Kids with perfect GPA/test scores have suffered their first year.

Try to look for a school that provides enough academic support for you to succeed instead of going for the prestigious name school. In the long term it will be better for you.

5

@Hamurtle Yeah I’ve taken chemistry and physics, both honors. I’m currently taking AP Chemistry right now. And alright!

6

@RayManta I was born up north in Boston but moved down to Florida and have lived here since I was about 7. And I not only have visited MIT but have also stayed on campus for two weeks for the LLRISE program. And I’ve toured other schools up north including Brown, Boston University, Boston College, and Northeastern University, and feel that going to school up north would be great. As for California, I suppose I’ve yet to fly over to LA to tour USC, so you may have a point. I am currently already accepted to Florida Polytechnic which is in Lakeland nearby which I know is a great STEM school. I’ll just have to wait for results to see. Thank you!

7

@Xuedingedemao Thank you! But how do you mean?