Do I have a shot at any of these schools? What can I do to increase my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

[li] SAT I (breakdown): 1310 ( 700 M, 610 V Essay: 17/24 : Will retake in October)[/li]
[li] ACT: Haven’t taken (Might take)[/li]
[li] SAT II: Already have scores 670 Chemistry || 670 Biology M || 720 Math Level II[/li]
[li] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.13/4.0 for this year (It’s out of 4.0 since most classes are regular classes, so even if u get all As, you won’t get 5.0)[/li]
[li] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): (1 or 2)/22[/li]
[li] AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calc AB (selfstudied, this is taught in senior year, but took it this year and got a 5) and AP US Gov: 3 for Junior Year. Senior year, I’m taking AP Bio, AP Language and Composition, AP Calc BC (selfstudy), AP Comp Sci A (selfstudy), and maybe AP Stat or Chem (selfstudied as well).[/li]
[li] IB (place score in parenthesis): None[/li]
[li] Each Year Course Load:[/li]9th Grade: Geometry, Physics, World History, English 9, Islamic Studies, Arabic Level 2, Quran, Physical Education
10th Grade: Algebra II, Chemistry, US History, English 10, Islamic Studies, Arabic Level 3, Quran, Health
11th Grade: Pre-Calc, Biology, AP Gov, English 11, Islamic Studies, Arabic Level 4, Quran, Computer & Technology
12th Grade: AP Calc AB (even though took exam in junior year), AP Bio, AP English Lang and Composition, Islamic Studies, Arabic Level 5, Quran

[] Volunteer/Work Experience:
Tutor, Volunteer at an Annual Ice Skating Event, Assistant and an Annual Meet, Greet, Talk, and Eat event, Assisstant at Summer Camp: helped teaching students, and an Assistant at School Fundraising dinners every year.
Internship this summer at some Computer Programming job. 225+ hours
[] Extracurricular Activities:
Soccer Team Captain, High School Math Competition by UMD, Participated in College Essay Writing workshop, Young Scholars Program at UMD***, Participant at UMD Fifa Kicks for kids 2015 tournament, Interscholastic basketball and Football tournaments + Organizer, Member of the Creative Writing Club, SGA officer every year (9th: Public Relations, 10th: Secretary, 11th: Treasurer), Part time hifz (Quran Memorization) program, A+ Taekwondo, Blue belt + trophy (this was back in middle school).

[li] Skills: Microsoft Office, Paint, Notepad, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Komodo Edit, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Jquery, php (learning over summer) and fluency in Arabic and English[/li]
[li] Awards: Not so great but here they are[/li]Academic High School Honor roll, 1st place in annual high school math competition (in conjunct with UMD) among all my high school contemporaries, Football Tournament MVP Award, Basketball and Football Team championship winner, Summer Camp Volunteer Commendation, Annual Ticket Competition Recognition Award, Soccer Team won 1st Place this year in an MSI league.

[li] State (if domestic applicant): Maryland[/li]
[li] School Type: Private Islamic School[/li]
[li] Ethnicity: White (Middle Eastern but lived in US most of my life)[/li]
[li] Gender: Male[/li]
[li] Income Bracket: >250k[/li]
All classes are regular classes unless indicated, We have no Honors at our school.
I’m planning on doing a double major in Computer Science and Mathematics
***At the Young Scholars Program at UMD I got an A (4.0)
What are my chances at these schools: Stanford, UC-Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Penn State, University of Illinois, University of Texas-Austin, California Institute of Technology, Cornell, UMD, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, NYU, and John Hopkins?

2

I am reluctant to say this and could be wrong but I am concerned that you might not be that competitive for the schools you listed - except UMD and UTAustin - depending on what you are applying into there. Do you have Naviance http://www.naviance.com/
at your school- it helps to see where students from your school with similar GPAs & test stats have gotten into. Otherwise google the common data set & freshman profiles for the schools you are interested in and look.

To see where you are competitive - try inputting your info here:http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/
or here:
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/search/college/college_search_tmpl.jhtml

Try to be open minded - there are many great schools - I hope you are exploring online and visiting too when you can. Best of luck to you!

3

@CA1543 I know a better SAT score would help a bunch… but I only got one more shot at it before early app… Anyhow, any tips on increasing my chances there? Also, I know, I put in a lot of schools as of right now… I will narrow down my list later.

4

Your test scores are quite low for some of those schools. Definitely retake the SAT in the fall & attempt the ACT in the fall also (I found it much easier but that is just me). You still have some time before applying to look into more match & safety schools.

5

Yea I’m going to take the ACT as well. I was just taking a look at it and it seemed way more straightforward than the SAT… What would you say is a good act score then? @HPhelpbot123

6

A 30 would put you on the lower side for your selected schools. A 33 would put you in the 50% to 75% range for your schools. For reference, your original SAT is equal to a 28.

7

Yea, is that my only weak point or is there more? If yes, please list them, so I can rectify them to my best ability. @HPhelpbot123

8

@YoohooAddict I wouldn’t characterize your profile as ‘weak’. It seems pretty consistent across the board. The problem is that they schools you list are top tier and the competition at those schools is brutal. You realistically don’t have a lot of time to change things, and there’s no guarantee they will change. If you were my child I’d have you reduce the above list and do as suggested above and get some matches and a couple safeties at least. There are a ton of great schools for CS/Math. Good luck!

9

@2muchquan Thanks for your lovely reply. I really do appreciate that you took your time to help. How many schools do you think I should apply to? Afterall, this list mainly started with MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon. UMD, JHU, NYU, GWU I just added recently… the others are just blah… I don’t really think I should waste my time applying there.

10

First, I assume you have confirmed with your parents that they can afford full-pay at the above schools? Since these are all reaches for anybody, I would pick 1-4 of the ones that can offer you what you want (CS & Math). Then, pick ones where your stats are more in the 60-75% range and 40-60% range for Matches and Safeties. Maybe 3-5 Matches and 2-3 Safeties. Spend a LOT of time on Matches and Safeties, researching. Make sure everything is affordable, or you’re wasting your time. This is just the way I would start my list, knowing only what I see in the OP. Again, good luck. Don’t feel the need to attend a so-called prestigious school, especially if you plan on attending grad school. Please, please, please make sure your choices are affordable.

11

@2muchquan Yes, I checked with my parents, and finance should not be an issue at the moment. So I think I got them settled:
Reaches: MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley
Matches: UCSD, NYU, John Hopkins (these aren’t matches currently, but hopefully, once I raise my sat score, these should become matches. Right now, they’re reaches)
Safeties: UMD, GWU, UT Austin,

12

Unless you significantly raise your SAT all of the schools in your initial post are reaches or out of reach except NYU.

13

They’ll accept you since you’re high income and scores not too bad

14

Out of test range for Caltech. You need safeties.

15

I don’t think you need a ton of safeties, you need way more Upper Middle of the Roader’s.

16

@TomSrOfBoston Yes, I know lol… I have two chances or possibly three… September and October ACT and October SAT. Hopefully one will cross the benchmark for me.
@planetjanet Where’s your evidence?

17

@RightCoaster Can you recommend another school than for the upper middle? Major: Comp Sci and Mathematics.