Chances for HYPSM

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Course Rigor: Hardest in school.
Frosh:
H Bio
H Alg 2
H Eng
Health/Frosh sem
Spanish I
JV Tennis

Summer: Intro to crypto and infosec at USC

Soph:
AP Physics 1
AP Bio
Chem H
Precal H
AP World
H English
Varsity Tennis
Online Spanish II
Self-study APCS

Summer: Stats and a history at a local college

Junior:
AP Chem
AP Physics C
AP Calc BC
APUSH
Ap Lang Comp
Varsity Tennis
Online Spanish 3
Upper level mathematical cryptography/game theory at a local UC

GPA / Class Rank:
Overall GPA: 3.98 UW / 4.89 W - one B+ for one semester in AP world
Class Rank: 2/647

Standardized Tests:
ACT: 35C - 34/36/33/35 E/M/R/S
SAT II: Taking this fall
AP Scores (weakest part of my app): 4 on Bio and CS, 3 on World and Physics 1. Only really disappointed about world, physics 1 was idiotic.

Extracurriculars:
Science research - done independently with mentorship from a professor at local UC. (this is the crux of my app)
Volunteer for regional science fair (built website, helped to run the fair), secured $250,000 donation
Volunteer for ThinkTogether, a highly respected local org
Volunteer for/contribute to numerous large open-source projects (e.g. core Bitcoin protocol, OpenSSL)
Lots of school based participation (president or treasurer of a lot of clubs, won a lot of intra-school awards)
Plus I play tennis

Awards:
2015 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Finalist, First Place, and Best of Category Grand Award Winner
2015 Intel Foundation Phillip V. Streich Memorial Outreach Award Winner
2015 GoDaddy Open Source Award (First) for Outstanding Contributions to the Field
Regional science fair (one of the largest in the country) 2015 Best of Show Winner
Scheduled TEDx speaker for a STEM conference
ThinkTogether 2015 Volunteer of the Year (in my region)
Multiple conference publications, paper accepted for journal publication
Almost certainly a Siemens semi-finalist for the upcoming competition

Essay:
Finished and, according to a few MIT/Harvard 2019’ers, very strong. I write very directly and I’ve been told that they read as very ‘authentic’. If I had to rate, they’re at least a 9/10.

Recommendations:
2 solid teacher recs, one of which from a science teacher who got to reap the rewards of my success at ISEF and the regional fair (got us new chromebooks for the department). The other is from my AP lang teacher who absolutely loves me; there have been multiple times where I run into him after school and we just talk for an hour or two about life and stuff. Additional rec from my research mentor and the program leader of the statewide program that I volunteer for.

Other stuff:
Got a few personal letters from adcoms at HYPSM asking me to apply (as in, written to me specifically after ISEF). Dunno if that will actually do anything but one can dream.

2

If you won ISEF I see no reason you wouldn’t get in. Basically your one of the top (as in single digit) in academics shooting for a single digit institution. Sounds about right. Also, no one really cares about APs for admission so you are a shoo in. You’ll probably get in all or most

3

bumpity bump

4

any hooks?

5

You’ll be fine. I see no reason you wouldn’t get in to at least 3 of the 5 HYPSM. As long as you don’t commit murder before admissions, you’re good.

Jr year ap scores? (also chance back?)

6

wuuut the…
the sole reason i feel so underqualified in cc

7

@chancethrow7815, you have outstanding qualifications. Congratulations on your ISEF grand prize - your mathematics work is clearly high advanced. You have as strong a chance as anyone can reasonably expect applying to top schools.

My only question/caution is regarding your “secured $250,000 donation”. This is an unusually large sum, and it may raise some eyebrows. Given all your other impressive accomplishments I wouldn’t put it past you, but please make sure that you yourself did this and that it can be documented, or phrase it in a way that reflects your individual contribution. Your accomplishments are truly impressive.

What is your long term interest and direction? And what does your senior course load look like?