Chance Me: MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Uchicago, for Math/CS [NJ, Top 5%, 1540 SAT, FGLI]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: New Jersey
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public School
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.): First gen, low-income (-1500 SAI)

Cost Constraints / Budget
My parents most likely can’t pay much or anything at all. Hopefully I get generous need-based aid from colleges that meet full need.

Intended Major(s): Pure Mathematics & Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 95.4
    Weighted HS GPA: 105.9
  • Class Rank: Top 5%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (760R, 780M) superscore

List your HS coursework
AP Scores are listed next to the class

  • English: ELA 3 Honors, AP Lit (IP)
  • Math: Honors Algebra II, Geometry, Pre-Calculus, AP Calc AB (IP), AP Stats (5)
  • Science: Chemistry Honors, AP Bio (5), AP Chem (IP), APES (IP), DE Physics
  • History and social studies: Honors World History, US History II, APUSH (5)
  • Language other than English: Spanish 1-3 (School does not have Honors)
  • Visual or performing arts: Art I
  • Other academic courses: Accounting
  • Also self-studied AP Calc BC (5), CSA (5), CSP (4)

College Coursework
I took college courses directly at my local community college that is being paid for by my school.

  1. Differential Equations (4)
    2 Multivariable Calculus (4)

Awards
1.. USACO Gold
2. Horatio Alger State Scholarship
3. Questbridge Finalist
4. USAMTS Honorable Mention
5. National Merit Commended

Extracurriculars

  1. Math summer program (Competitive, full-ride, <10% acceptance rate)
  2. Competitive Programming (1600+ on Codeforces)
  3. Biochemistry Research at local university
  4. Math handout writing (wrote some articles on some math stuff)
  5. Programming blog (blog on programming problems)
  6. Unpaid Math SAT tutoring

Essays/LORs/Other
Personal Essay - I can’t say but I felt it is pretty alright talking about how the math program helped me to grow.
LORS - Pretty strong. They were from my AP Stats & APUSH teacher which I had good relationships with. I also have an additional LoR from the math program.

Schools
I’m not really picky on the location or area of the college I want to go. I am looking for colleges with a good math program that has a good amount of higher level math classes.

QB NCM - MIT
EA - Rutgers, NJIT, Stevens, UW Madison, UVA, UNC
RD - Brandeis, Rochester, Stanford, CMU, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, Harvey Mudd, Amherst, Williams, UChicago, Duke, Brown

Additional Info
Rutgers, NJIT, Stevens, are my safeties/likelies and they all have free tuition for me but not full cost of attendance so they might be too expensive. Brandeis and Rochester are my targets and looking at NPC, they are almost free. UNC, UW Madison, UVA are OOS but are also basically almost full COA too. All my reaches give full rides or near full rides.

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Congratulations on your achievements.

For QB, did you rank 15 schools? If you don’t match, some may let you roll into ED or EA, so make sure you are on top of that because the turn around will be quick. For example, U Chicago (if you ranked it) will automatically roll unmatched finalists into EA, and you could roll into ED2 if you would rather.

Do you have all your EA apps in? Are Rutgers, NJIT, and Stevens going to be affordable? I don’t think there is any way that Madison would be affordable (what do you see that suggests otherwise?)

I can’t chance you for your reaches. Your uwGPA is 95.4…do you have any B’s or lower? If so, how many?

I’m confused why you self studied AP Calc BC last year, but are taking AP Calc AB this year? Does your HS not offer BC? What do the 4’s mean after Diffeq and MV?

For your EC’s do you have any family responsibilities…e.g., caring for siblings, driving fam members around, shopping for groceries/cooking, etc?

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Hi, I should have clarified.

I only ranked MIT and EA to these schools that have exemptions from QB EA’s policy.

I have all my EAs in. Rutgers, NJIT, Stevens all have free-tuition programs for me and some additional merit scholarships/outside scholarships that might pay for other costs but it is confusing if it stacks with the free tuition. On the NPC, it says UW Madison costs 5k/yr for me for OOS residence.

I have 2Bs, in Spanish 2 and 3 (89, 86, respectively)

I self-studied AP Calc BC because I just wanted college credit since my school does not offer it. I’m talking Calc AB as there are no other math classes for me to take and I want to take a fourth year math class as I think most schools explicitly ask for four years of high school math.

The 4 just mean they are 4 credit classes which I’m currently taking.

3 Likes
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I overall like your list, and think you are a credible candidate for your Reaches. There is really not much more to say about them–they are holistic review and highly selective colleges so just not predictable, but as long as you are credible and write your best possible applications, you have done what you can.

If it were me, I might consider trimming a few Reaches, but that is up to you really.

My one notable concern is whether you have a Safety/Very Likely which you know will be affordable for you. I do like your chances at Brandeis and Rochester–which would both be great choices for you–but they are just selective enough that maybe a private with a favorable NPC that is a notch less selective would be a good idea.

One possibility you could consider checking out would be St Olaf. St Olaf is a forum favorite including because it has strong programs in areas like Math (and CS), but tends to be a more reliable admit for highly qualified applicants. You’d obviously want to check their NPC.

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i think your list is pretty good and are a safe bet for your safeties. you know your school and your classmates best so just know you will be evaluated in the context of them as your major “competition” if they apply to similar schools as you. i like that you are open to top SLACs like Amherst, Williams, Harvey Mudd - maybe also consider Swarthmore as they also have an Engineering major (unlike Amh/Will) in case that is a potential door and may have the same vibe as UChicago in terms of student-type. do you really not care about the size of the school? you have tiny ones and huge ones on this list.