Chance Me (Special Situation)/Generic GPA vs EC Situation

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Ok, I go to the Texas Academy of Math of Science. Its a program hosted by UNT and basically instead of 11th and 12th grade at a high school i take college classes at UNT.
Now. all TAMS classes are considered to be at the AP level so…</p>

<p>AP:</p>

<p>Calculus AB, BC
Biology
Chemistry
English
Political Science
Micro Economics</p>

<p>Now, this program is not ranked and I have 2 separate gpa’s (one from my high school with a pre-IB program and one from TAMS)</p>

<p>GPA from High schoo: 4.373333 (the scale is 4 for regular classes, 4.5 for honors, and 5 for AP but only 1 AP class was offered ) - Third Rank </p>

<p>GPA from TAMS: 3.89 (on a 4.0 scales)</p>

<p>My SAT: 2370 (800 reading, math)
PSAT: 222</p>

<p>EC/Accomplishments </p>

<p>Participation in AMC, Math Counts, Tx Math League, McNabb
Finalist in Texas Science Olympiad
First Place and Grand Prize in Regional Science fair (2 years)
First Place in the International Sustainable World Project Olympiad (2 years)
First Place and Best in Category in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance/The Lemelson Foundation Award
Recipient of the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Honor
Environmental Protection Agency P3 Award
Dean’s List for Academic Achievement in Eleventh Grade
Qualified for National Academic Competition Nationals 2 years in a rw
State qualified for HOSA and FBLA</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Played Violin for 6 years- Sunbonnet Classic State Competition Superior Award </p>

<p>Over 100 hours of hospital volunteering
Over 50 hours of other volunteering programs. </p>

<p>Leadership:</p>

<p>Functioned as a leader in the Learning About Science and Engineering Research (LASER) Club</p>

<p>Co-President of the Clark High School Math Team</p>

<p>Operations Officer of the National Academic Competition team</p>

<p>Executive of the Robotics Division of the Junior Engineering and Technical Society (JETS) </p>

<p>OK so my question is this: My GPA is obviously not perfect, but my EC’s and Standardized test scores are pretty good. </p>

<p>I’m looking to apply to:</p>

<p>MIT
Cal Tech
Harvard
Olin
Stanford
Princeton
Yale
Cornell
U of Penn
Berkley
Rice
Carnegie Melon
rensselaer
UT </p>

<p>So Chance me please, but generically- how much will my less than perfect GPA hurt me? </p>

<p>and generically,</p>

<p>How important is GPA to the colleges above compared to EC/Standard Test Scores</p>

2

<p>nice chance everywhere. but the ivys are unpredictable .
rice, rensselear berkeley ut carnegie in
others its always a reach no matter how good u are</p>

3

<p>Ok, great, thanks for a quick response! </p>

<p>So, generically my GPA won’t significantly hurt me in comparison to those who have 4.0’s but do not have many highly ranked EC’s (ie ISEF)?</p>

4

<p>You are a reasonable candidate everywhere.
However… that doesn’t mean you will get in everywhere or you admissions will even be remotely consistent. You might get into Harvard and rejected by Rensselaer. You never can tell, that’s why you need to do reach/match/safeties just like everybody else. I’m not sure any of these could be considered iron-clad safeties so I think you need to add a couple.</p>

<p>Good luck!
'</p>

5

<p>This is still a very solid GPA that shouldn’t preclude a sensibly hopeful application to any of the schools on your list, especially given the totality of your application. But, huge but, unless you are automatically in at UT given the formula they use and you would be happy to attend UT, what about some safety schools, maybe a couple of other state flagships that are more predictable in admissions than Berkeley and have excellent science research opportunities??? Even an extremely strong candidate for top schools – and you certainly are one – needs to have safeties.</p>

6

<p>Out of context, that GPA looks very strong. But if everyone in your school gets 5.0’s and you’re only ranked like 30% - then it might hurt.</p>

7

<p>Ok great. Yea, a good group of students have 4.0’s at my high school but because of the nature of TAMS, they do not rank and we are also not automatically admitted into UT.</p>

<p>I didn’t list it at the time but my backups are TX A&M and UTD.</p>

<p>Also, I have automatic admission into UNT because of the TAMS Program.</p>

<p>Any other recommendations for good engineering school that might be less selective than the previous ones?</p>

<p>Also, should I acknowledge my B in admissions essays (like write a “what I have learned” part) or would that be a mistake?</p>

8

<p>Thanks for all who replied by the way. Your help and advice is much appreciated!!</p>

9

<p>Hey I’m in a similar situation [mediocre GPA, good standardized tests/ECs]. I’ve read that Princeton [good benchmark for ivies] considers GPA, ranking, and tests most highly in admissions, and then ECs in the second highest category. Hope that helps?</p>

10

<p>Yea, ramenmachine, thanks. Thats exactly the kind of scale idea I was looking for.</p>

11

<p>I don’t thinmk u mean Stanford. I think u mean Stanley’s School For Suckers.</p>