Hi, I am a high school junior that wants to go to a strong engineering school, and I want to major in either EE or Mech with CS. I don’t have preferences as far as location but will take into account OOS tuition. I also slightly prefer urban schools.
I got a 94.5/100 UW and 4.3 W GPA freshman year and sophomore year, and I’m disappointed with my sophomore performance, but I am on track for a 5.1 this year if I lock in on math. I have an 87 as of now and am unsure why I am doing so badly.
I come from an upper-middle-class family, and my dad gets paid around $200k a year, so we’re doing pretty well financially. I’m not sure how much aid I’ll get, but I plan to do ROTC, though after speaking to some folks involved I would need to do a gap year or CC year because of medical paperwork. I have a nut allergy and treatment would end my senior summer, and the scholarship’s medical paperwork is due before that. I may also just accept whatever I get with aid for that year if I am confident.
I am dropping sports because of medical reasons along with being super busy, at least the winter and fall seasons. I am still very fit and do calisthenics. I got a 4 on AP Bio and was disappointed, but I am taking APUSH, AP Stats, AP Lang, and AP CSP, and Physics honors and Math honors right now, and am doing super great in all but Math honors. I will either take AP Calc AB or BC depending on scheduling next year, and preferably BC. I’m applying to about ~15 programs since they’re all super competitive.
My early list (I am not sure how good my rankings are):
Safety:
UMASS A (honors?)
UMASS L
Match:
WPI
UCONN
Rutgers
Villanova (not legacy but lots of family)
CWRU
RPI
VT
Lower reaches:
William and Mary
Northeastern
GT
U Maryland
U Toronto (only if scholarship)
UC Davis
Reaches:
MIT
Harvard
UC Berk
USMA
Upenn M and T and regular.
I needed to clarify from last thread if I get a ROTC scholarship I would serve.
I work about 18 hours a week at my local grocery store. I also am head of my JROTC unit and am the head of a robotics team that placed top 50 in internationals, which is solid for a sophomore (it was last year). I’m a Boy Scout and am working on an Eagle Scout project I am actually passionate about. Last year, I was staff at 2 different camps, a Boy Scouts one and a JROTC one, along with helping raise 10k for 2 nonprofits as part of a philanthropy program I did in my county.
I am leading a satellite design team with some friends and applying for NHS this year, along with working on selling some of my custom-designed electronics and working on repair work under my business Moore Performance, website coming soon. I am also managing my local senior community’s website along with an Eagle Scout project website and some other small sites for community service. I am getting mentored every other weekend at MIT from the Future Society of Engineers at MIT, and I hope to help out with that or get something out of it more like an ambassador to other high schools for outreach or something.
I am going to try and do USACO this year and place decently well, along with working on my projects more and getting involved in research based on them if I can. I have a solid project idea that I will pursue regardless of if I get any assistance or recognition. I also plan on competing in a few hackathons and studying hard and working on more fun projects. I am also applying to NSLI and MITES and HSF YLI, I hope I can get the opportunity through that to learn more and network and get deeper in what I am interested in. if you have any advice for those summer programs please share.
I took the PSAT and got a 1430, which means I get a commended score and a sick award but not NM, which is fire honestly because that’s super hard in my state. I plan on taking every spring SAT until I get a 1530 plus.
I live in Massachusetts and I’m Latino. My mom has only a high school degree and is a first-generation immigrant. My dad went to William & Mary, which is a good school, but he doesn’t know much about admissions since he only applied to one place.
I really want to go to MIT, I love the atmosphere and the people and the spirit and the campus and everything about it, but understand it’s a crap shoot.