Chances for multiple selective schools.

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Hi all, I am a rising senior from Ithaca, NY, I want to study math. I am not sure where I should apply, and some of the places I want to go to are very selective, and I’m not sure if I should even bother applying to them. The colleges for which I need chances are Princeton, MIT, Caltech, UChicago, Harvard, and Stanford.</p>

<p>Information:
Gender: Male
Race: Indian
Prospective major: Math
GPA:
Fresh/Soph: 4.08 or 4.18 (I forget which) unweighted.
Junior: Haven’t gotten final report cards yet, anywhere from 3.8 to 4.0.</p>

<p>Courses of note:
Freshman: AP Chem
Sophomore: AP Calc BC
Junior: APUSH, AP Comp Sci, AP Physics C
Senior (Projected): AP German, AP Latin, Two math classes at Cornell University</p>

<p>Tests:
ACT: 35 without writing, essay was pretty bad (8-10, not sure exactly)
AP Exams:
Fresh/Soph: Chem(5), Calc(5)
Junior: Stats, Environmental Science, English Literature, Comp Sci, Physics C: Mech, Physics C: E&M, US History, still waiting for scores.
(I probably got a 5 on all of them, perhaps with the exception of Environmental Science)</p>

<p>EC/Other stuff:
AIME: 8 (Low score because of stupid mistakes, => missed USAMO)
Accepted to/Attended AwesomeMath Summer Program in 2011 and will attend again in 2012.</p>

<p>Treasurer of high school’s Quiz Bowl Team. (I don’t have competition results atm)</p>

<p>Member of high school’s math team. (Again, no results atm, we competed in NYML and NYSML</p>

<p>Founding member of Ithaca Math Circle, and independent organization that covers more advanced Olympiad-level topics not done in the math team and fields teams to other contests. (I won’t write results so you have less to read, but we have done fairly well as a team in pumac and hmmt)</p>

<p>Competed in various team programming contests.</p>

<p>I may be forgetting some things, but this should be enough.</p>

2

<p>Impressive AIME score; hopefully you will qualify again next year and score 10+ and make USAMO. </p>

<p>one question: what is your class rank or estimated percentile?</p>

3

<p>My school has stopped calculating those things.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, your top choices are very selective so def. apply to them, but also have some slightly less selective choices as well of course. </p>

<p>Provided you got a 35, that’s a solid score to be applying to the top schools; gpa seems a little iffy (note, even though your school says the unweighted gpa is 4.08 or 4.18, it would normally be recalculated so that 4.0 is the highest. This is usually achieved by equating A/A+ to a 4.0, A- to a 3.7, B+ to a 3.3, B to a 3.0, etc.). It also seems like there is a slight downward trend which isn’t the best pattern to show. You are applying for math so they may give a little allowance if the weakness is in non-math areas. Any info on class rank? What institutions your schools usually sends the top decile to?</p>

<p>ECs aren’t particularly strong. For one, interest in math is demonstrated; qualifying for AIME let alone scoring an 8 is no small feat. Also founding the math circle is a nice addition. But it seems like those are the only highlights. It seems like you could have a little more involvement.</p>

<p>AS far as chances go, great shot at Chicago (recommend applying EA). Caltech (go for EA here too) is bit odd with admissions, in range though. HPSM are no doubt going to be tough sells, but with some luck, who knows. They’re not out of range.</p>

<p>Good luck, make sure this summer is productive with activities and get an early start on the essays.</p>

5

<p>Let’s just say I don’t really do any more activities this summer (I am not really invested in going to HPSM and I have no desire to do things in which I have no interest), do you guys think it’s still worth it to apply to those places?</p>

6

<p>Well what do you have to lose by applying to HPSM? Well, you have a few more essays and ~$70 per app for each of the four. Granted you have a chance and the finances to attend one, the potential benefit of being able to go to one them, in my opinion, far outweighs the extra time spent on essays and the cost of the app.</p>

7

<p>It’s worth it if your stats are really high. I spent an entire week last year doing applications all day every day, making sure I picked the right word for each and every one. The supplement that honestly seemed easiest for me to answer happened to be Penn’s. Don’t get me wrong. I put a lot of work into it. I just had a good feeling about it. I had already visited and knew I loved the campus. The most important question is: “Where will you be happy?”</p>

<p>I’m attending Penn in the fall. After my admittance I received a letter saying I was in the top 15% of all admitted students and an acceptance into a science scholar program. I turned down the program, applied, interviewed, and was accepted to the Penn Civic Scholars Program because volunteering is important to me. Pick somewhere that focuses on things that are important to you.</p>

8

<p>Princeton, MIT, Caltech, UChicago, Harvard, and Stanford</p>

<p>Now, that is a serious college list.</p>

<p>Apply EA to MIT, Caltech and Chicago then other schools in RD round.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>