I agree with the folks above who said you should consult with your counselor about TO. As several have noted, many schools will be very impressed with high test scores that are below their typical range if the score is well above the average score at the applicant’s high school. I think @MITChris has even blogged about this…and he’s an admission officer at MIT.
Also, a strong reason to consider ivies is that IF you get admitted, they will be among the most affordable options. Some (all?) require no parent contribution at all at your family income level. Even if there are better engineering schools, the ivies aren’t exactly bad (ha!) and it’s tough to beat a near-free education anywhere, including (especially) at an ivy.
In terms of the UCs, for your intended major these may all be reaches. I think you are a very interesting candidate, though. I like your background and feel like you bring more to the table than just your (excellent) stats. My biggest advice to you on the UCs is really put a lot of thought into your PIQs. They are more important than most students realize, imo. You get four chances to highlight different parts of who you are and you can use that to your advantage. Think about the top four things you want to highlight - try to be strategic in showing who you are and what makes you special.
That might very well be a mistake. Elite schools like Yale that are eliminating test optional for next year have attributed their decision to analyses that determined applying test optional hurt many underrepresented applicants who might otherwise have been admitted.
Being a high school in CA where majority of students that do end up pursuing further education got community or our state systems which is test blind, not many people do take the SAT exam. Those that I’ve talked to have scored in the 900 - 1100 range, with 1250 being the second highest I know of. My friend who was able to take the PSAT this year showed me her screen and it appeared our school had a PSAT average of 850.
I’ll try to talk to my counselor but she has admitted to me that she very rarely has students apply with test scores. I’m gonna try my best for SAT exam and guess.
For MIT in particular, the overall sentiment online seems to be ‘don’t bother if you don’t have an SAT score that starts with a 15’ so I may have been influenced by that. I actually thought even a 1500 was low, going off their 25th percentile on their CDS
I guess I’ll have to wait until I receive my score for my final attempt in order to make my decision for applying to schools that are test required, though I appreciate the advice to not be so strict on cutoffs!
I didn’t realized that Yale was Test optional for my cycle, thanks for letting me know! Seems like quite a handful of ivies have began requiring them now…
i didn’t realized that Yale was Test optional for my cycle
Are you graduating high school in 2025? If so:
Yale University will require standardized test scores for students applying for the class entering in the fall of 2025 , becoming the second Ivy League university to abandon test-optional policies that had been widely embraced during the Covid pandemic
My mom really wants me to apply to the Ivies (she only knows and says Harvard Yale and Princeton) because of a mix of prestige and because she believes that I’ll find a rich husband there ( Not a priority of mine.) But hey what the heck you only live once why not
Stanford because it’s in state and we have relatives in San Francisco (I know Stanford isn’t in SF, it’s in Palo Alto)
Caltech because I mentioned an interest in it once and it’s commutable. That was before I saw the school size though
I would say - don’t bother applying if you don’t want want to go. But if you want to go somewhere, then heck yeah, you should apply.
The most important school is the one you can 100% get into and that you can afford. It might be a CSU or UNLV/Reno type with WUE.
After that, you have 20 Common App spots - so use them. If MIT is right for you (and mom looking at MIT for you doesn’t make it right) and if MIT is affordable based on the NPC, then you should apply.
If you have a 1380 and apply and don’t get in, you have a 1380 and don’t get in. But what if you did? If you didn’t apply, you’d have no idea.
So you only hurt yourself by not applying - in my opinion. With test scores required, some schools will have a different admission profile.
As long as you can handle rejection - your list can be as elaborate as you want - once you have that assured and affordable locked into place.
Yappers Unite!!! Also THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I appreciate the clear effort that you’ve put in to support me with this list, you have no idea how helpful your response is!!!
Yeah, I thought the same. My Tia and Tio (who don’t have or plan on having kids) who were pretty close to, have made it clear that they are willing to financially support me as I’ve “made it clear I take school seriously”. I’m not 100% sure there income (though they live in a very nice area and have multiple nice cars) but I assume a majority of the contribution for my college will come from them. We’re supposed to sit down and talk with them about finances and their exact contribution in a few weeks when we go to visit them. But my mom said $40k so I’m just going with that for now.
For Ivies and other selective private schools, it can be a lot of work to apply to each one. Many students start to feel burned out when they are doing a lot of applications, and may have trouble doing their best work.
When you are building the actual list, make a list of all the supplemental essays and other materials required for each school. Be realistic about how much work is involved. Be picky about which schools actually interest you. And plan ahead so that you can spread it out a bit.
Oh no I should probably clarify, I really love MIT.l!! It and UCLA are my dream schools!! But yeah, I’ll try to explore the schools my mom may like more and determine if there it for me and put my foot down. As another commenter mentioned, they offer too darn good of aid to not give them careful consideration.
I really like this perspective, thanks. I’m going to try my best to improve my SAT score don’t get me wrong, but worst comes to worst maybe I will apply to MIT. A rejection will make me sad but it’s not like I’m not going to go to college just because one school said no.
Oh yes I definitely want to do this!! Out of curiosity, to those who have more experience, when do uni’s typically release their supplemental prompts for their application? Can I assume the prompts will largely say the same so I can start after AP Exams?
Yeah, I’ll try my best to!! Apparently the ivies have yucky food anyways (This is a joke, I’m not going to base decisions off food quality). Prestige doesn’t really matter for a engineer anyways…