Chances with Weak Frosh/Soph GPA

Colleges & Universities Carnegie Mellon University
1

<p>About me:
I’m a white, middle-class male from suburbia (great, huh?) attending a relatively prestigious private college prep school.</p>

<p>Non-standard Courseload:
Honors Bio, Chem, and Physics
Honors Algebra II and Geo/Trig
AP English Lang (junior)
AP Comp Sci AB (junior)
AP English Lit (senior)
AP Calc AB (senior)
AP Physics (senior)</p>

<p>Rank:
School does not rank but I believe I’m roughly top 25% cumulative GPA, top 10% junior GPA.</p>

<p>GPA: (weighting: .5 for honors, 1.0 for AP)
Freshman: 3.4 (Honors math and science)
Sophmore: 3.467 (Honors math and science)
Junior: 4.0 (Honors science, AP compsci and english)</p>

<p>SAT:
2230 (CR: 760, Math: 780, Writing: 690)</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
Physics: 760
Planning to take English</p>

<p>APs:
English Language: 5
Computer Science AB: 5
English Lit: ?
Calc AB: ?
Physics: ?</p>

<p>ECs:
Lab Manager 9, 10, 11, 12 (System Administrator/Head Lab Manager @ 12) (6+hrs/week all school year)
People to People (Summer '06, Australia/New Zealand/Fiji)
System Administrator at my high school (30hrs/week, all summer '07)
Microsoft Certified Professional
Soccer for 11+ years (Community, not varsity)
30 hours community service (tech work for poor intercity school)
National Merit Commended (possibly semifinalist/finalist)
National Honor Society (once next year begins and I join…)
Took drum lessons a while, now self-teaching guitar</p>

<p>Schools:
Carnegie Mellon
Purdue
Cornell
UMichigan (Ann Arbor)
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Penn State (University Park)
Rensselaer Polytech
UChicago
Bucknell
Columbia (Fu Foundation)
UPenn
Brown
Lehigh
Drexel
UPitt</p>

<p>Frosh and Soph year really killed me… Slacked off big-time. A lot of reach schools on the list, only put a couple safeties up there, but hey - we don’t make chances threads for the safeties :P. I’m looking to study engineering, physics, or maaaaybe some sort of IT in college. Not entirely sure yet. Anyone have any recommendations for strong physics programs? I’ve found great engineering rankings and whatnot, but little on physics. Also any general recommendations for other schools I should apply to are very welcome.</p>

<p>Gracias. \o/</p>

<hr>

<p>Most of that is a direct copy from the general What Are My Chances forum; I kept the other schools besides CMU in there for reference. I’m not aiming to spm my stats all over the site but I do have a reason for reposting it here. With my list, it seems most of the schools are either pretty solid acceptances or pretty far fetched reaches - with the exception of CMU, which seems to be a “low reach”. So, I’m looking for a bit more input on me and my CMU chances.</p>

2

<p>I’d take the SAT 2 in Math, and granted you do well on that all of the schools listed are targets except for Johns Hopkins, Penn, Cornell, and Colombia, which I’d list at reach schools.</p>

3

<p>Looking really good for CMU. Your GPA is slightly low, but with your scores and ECs you’ll do reasonably well.</p>

<p>Can I suggest Rice University to you? It’s got a very good physics program, but specializes in nanotech.</p>

<p>EDIT: what is a lab manager? I’ve seen this sort of thing on several applicants resumes, as well as scientific research. Where are you guys finding these things? My school does zero research, and our little Texas town isn’t exactly brimming with places to do scientific lab work.</p>

4

<p>Ah I guess I need to figure out a concise way to clarify exactly what a Lab Manager is on my apps.</p>

<p>Lab Manager refers to computer lab manager, but what they do is basically run our school network. We’re a very up-to-date school in terms of technology (one of only a handful high schools in the country that is certified to teach Microsoft classes). By the end of the program and summer work at my school you know enough to be a CIO at any small company.</p>

<p>So to clarify, it’s not really a science thing, it’s an information technology thing.</p>

5

<p>My school IT thinks that CSS is advanced… and that the command prompt is for hackers… </p>

<p>I want to redesign their site though, so that it uses server-side scripting!</p>

6

<p>Hahaha… Well, we have a ‘Web Manager’ program too, basically the same thing except with web design instead of IT. </p>

<p>A kid going into Soph year just coded his own content management system and already has customers, it’s pretty impressive actually.</p>