Chances For Some Upper Level Schools

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>SAT: 2050
CR 750 Math 670 Writing 630
SAT II:
790 Physics
750 Chemistry
720 Math</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.6ish, should be a 3.71 with Senior Grades
Rank: Unknown, but probably in the top 10%
APs: 4 - US Gov + Politics (10)
5 - World History (11) Chemistry (11) Calculus AB (11) Lang (11) Physics B (11)
Grades were poor Freshman and Sophomore year due to lack of interest in classes (I know, no excuses) but I am hoping that getting all As in AP Classes my junior year should help mitigate some of that damage.
Senior Year Courses: AP Physics C (E&M and Mechanics), AP Lit, AP Human Geo, AP Statistics, Organic Chemistry, PE and Health, and Research Practicum (essentially modeled off a undergrad thesis of my own original research)</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
Thespian Honor Society - 9th - 12th, Vice President for 12th
Have done the Fall Play and Winter Musical every year, with leads in several productions, also involved with One Act festival
Aloniz! The School’s improv team from 9th - 12th, serving as captain for 12th
French Honor Society Member
Mentor for incoming freshmen
Member of Junior Board of Directors at my community theatre
Performed in ~9 plays and musicals there, and did lighting/sound for 4
Interview: Will interview whenever possible</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Worked for 2 summers now doing research at the University of Maryland School of Engineering. First year I assisted a masters student with research on a navy grant regarding creation of a device to dampen swing on slung loads on helicopters. This year I worked helping a PHD student with wind tunnel testing, assisting with testing and repairs of a human powered helicopter that achieved a world record for flight duration, and performing experiments and fabricating twisted box beams with carbon fiber reinforcement to find how they took loads.</p>

<p>Hopefully will be able to get a recommendation from the professor I worked for, showing my interest.</p>

<p>Awards: Character Education Award for displaying the values of my school? Nominated by the most teachers of anyone in the student body. Don’t know if it’s significant, but worth mentioning. Also various theatre awards, but nothing like ISEF or anything like that.</p>

<p>Other
State: MD
School Type: large public science and tech magnet
Gender: male
Ethnicity: White</p>

<p>Colleges i’m applying to (in order of preference):
Washington University in St. Louis
Duke University
Vanderbilt University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Bucknell University
Lafayette College
Occidental College
University of Maryland
University of Delaware</p>

<p>and maybe Princeton, Brown and UPenn for the hell of it</p>

<p>Intended Major: MechE or Materials</p>

<p>Any feedback you could give would be wonderful. I know my SATs and GPA aren’t great, but taking the SATs for the second time in October and the ACTs in September, and hopefully the upward trend will help out? Also know my extracurricular are a bit weak, but they’re focused, and drama is a pretty huge time commitment, at least at my school.</p>

<p>Again, don’t know if it’s significant, but I come from a heavily african american school, so it’s a bit of a different culture than your traditional white boy from Maryland, and I was hoping to express that in my essay.</p>

<p>Also would love suggestions for other schools to check out, especially closer matches since I mostly have reaches.</p>

2

<p>Umd is a safety as well as udel. I think your top 5 schools are low reaches/low matches, but you have a good shot of getting into at least a 1 or 2, maybe more</p>

3

<p>Good matches for laffayette and bucknell too. You should look into lehigh as another good match and Miami as a good safety</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the feedback! The getting into 1 or 2 of the reaches is my main hope lol. And I’ve checked out lehigh, probably going to apply there as well. Might add NYU through the 3-2 with Poly also as a match or low reach?</p>

5

<p>You should look into Virinia tech. (just sayin :slight_smile: ) but yeah you have a good shot at UMD, northwestern, and university of delaware. Cool Ec’s and work expierence!</p>

6

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1183447-chances-some-upper-level-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1183447-chances-some-upper-level-schools.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>I think you will have good chance for every school
You have focused ec…
You score and gpa not might be the top… but other things show you are a very strong candidate.
And thanks for a hopeful reply to my post.
Good luck ! :)</p>

8

<p>Would getting a 2200 on my sats or about a 34 on my ACTs help make Duke or WUSTL close to realistic?</p>

9

<p>I think you are a strong candidate for most of those schools because of your EC and internships/work experience. That alone is a very big boost for your college app. If you can improve that SAT score, you can really help your chances (that seems to be your soft spot).</p>

<p>Chance back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1182153-what-my-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1182153-what-my-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>Will definitely try and boost those, it’s that damn writing section :P</p>

11

<p>bum bum bum bump?</p>

12

<p>If you can’t improve your writing score, you might want to look at some schools that don’t consider the writing section, like (I think) Cornell and Chicago.</p>

13

<p>Thanks for the suggestion singh2010, I’ve been looking into it. I’m also going to see if maybe the ACT is a better choice for me.</p>

14

<p>bumpity bump</p>

15

<p>I know I’m resurrecting an old thread, but I just got my ACT back and I managed to score a 34! 33 Math 33 Science 34 Writing 36 Reading. Do you think that will help my chances a lot? I am also definitely applying to WashU ED and did their Discovery Weekend program if that helps.</p>