Which HYPSM college(s) should I try early action for?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I just finished my sophomore year of high school and I was just thinking about college admissions (it might be a little too early, but hey i’m curious). I really want to apply to the HYPSM colleges and yes, I know getting into them is pretty unpredictable. Fortunately out of these selective colleges, some will have a better chance in accepting a person if he applies for early action. I want to know which HYPSM college I should do early action for to maximize my chances. Just a general note: I want to go into Engineering and Business.

STATS:
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Asian American (Indian)
State: TX
School Type: Public (Magnet)

Rank: School does not Rank
GPA: 3.8/4.0
SAT: 2320 (800 math, 740 Reading, 780 Writing) [not official, just an average of what i’ve been getting on practices. I will definitely try to improve]

Courses:
9th grade: Honors Bio, Precalculus, Spanish 2, Drawing 3, World Geo, English 1, Engineering Elective
10th grade: AP Chem, AP World History, AP Calc BC, Differential Equations, English 2, Spanish 3, Geology
Expected 11th grade: AP Physics Left (Combo of 1 and 2), AP Physics C, Multivariable Calc, Linear Algebra,
Organic Chem, Painting 3, APUSH, AP English 4, Advanced Biotech

AP Taken: World History (4), Calc BC (5), Chemistry (5)

AP Taking: Junior Year: Physics C and Physics 1 & 2, APUSH, AP English Language 4
Senior Year: AP Stat, AP English, AP Euro, AP Drawing Portfolio others haven’t decided

SAT II’s: Chemistry (800) Math II (800) (Will take US History and Physics next year)

Awards:
-AIME 9th and 10th grade (max score 8)
-AMC 10 and 12 Honors
-Intel ISEF finalist
-Intel ISEF 2nd Place
-International Eco Hero Award
-TSA TEAMS Nationals
-TSA TEAMS 2nd Place State
-1st place in Regional and State Science Fairs throughout (9th and 10th grade)
-At&t Mobile App Competition top 20 in state
-VASE State Honorable Mention
-ISWEEEP Gold Medal
-Genius Olympiad Finalist
-TAME State
-Science Bowl 2nd Place Regionals

(Aiming for chem and physics olympiads next year)

EC’s:
-Lots of Research under a professor (300 hours+) (still going on)-Intern
-Art (Drawing and Painting)
-Currently helping Grad student with his or her masters thesis (idk if gonna be published)
-Lot’s of clubs (Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, Math Club etc)
-NHS? (idk if this is even that significant)

Speaker (I spoke at these events):
-Invited to speak at ACC
-Invited to speak at Texas Earth Day Festival
-Invited to speak at Wild Rice Festival
-Invited to speak at SXSW Edu
^^all speaking about environmental activism^^

Leadership:
-Founder and President of Engineering Club (Brought the team to national competition wins in it’s first year)
-Treasurer of Math Club
-(Most likely going to be President of Math Club in senior year)
-City Block Leader

Volunteering:
-Community Environment Activism
-Official Volunteer for Research at state university

Yeah lot’s of details, but I wanted to give you guys a full position of where I am at. So which HYPSM should I try early action for?

2

There is arguably little benefit in terms of admittance chances in applying early action for any of those schools. There is a higher percentage of admits from early rounds, but that is largely due to the self-selecting nature of applicants who apply EA and the presence of athletes/legacy applicants AKA correlation =/= causation. I would recommend applying to the school that you personally like the most. If you get in, you’re happy. If not, know that you will still have an equal chance of getting in RA.

Good luck.

3

Yeah those are all pretty much obvious reach schools for me. But do any of you guys have any recommendations of match schools and safety schools for me. Mainly want to try for schools that have good engineering programs.

4

I would look at Cornell. It’s the least selective Ivy League school (I think) with an excellent engineering program. Your stats (if you do indeed make that SAT score) are definitely on the level of Cornell. Having many connections at Cornell and knowing the type of student they’re looking for, I think you’re the perfect fit.

5

ISEF finalist? You have a good shot at any school

6

NYU Poly, which also has an amazing engineering program would be a match for you if you are interested at looking at a second tier school compared to what you are looking at.

7

If you are interested in engineering and business, then you should look at applying SCEA to Stanford, EA to MIT, or ED to Penn’s Jerome Fisher M&T program, which is a highly selective dual degree program (about 8% acceptance rate).

http://www.upenn.edu/fisher/

The Ivies aren’t known for engineering. Penn, Princeton and Cornell are probably the strongest. Harvard is trying to build a stronger engineering program. Stanford and MIT are world class engineering, and both have strong business and entrepreneurial traditions. I would say that those 2 plus Penn M&T should probably be at the top of your list.

Competition for all these programs is fierce, and as an Asian with a STEM focus you are in a very tough demographic group. Your ISEF award will help, but you also have some distinctive features on your EC list that you might want to highlight, particularly your arts background, your public speaking, and your environmental activism. Your are clearly bright and well qualified, but what you need to do is to differentiate yourself from all the other extremely bright and well qualified applicants, particularly in your demographic category. There are a couple of ways to do this:

  1. Be "better" in your areas of focus. For STEM, this means national level science fair awards, Davidson awards, national and international olympiads, prestigious programs like RSI, and publications. The "best of the best" by these standards tend to get in most places, but many brilliant kids who don't quite make that cut end up getting left out.
  2. Do things that are different from the traditional STEM approach. Your arts, public speaking and environmental activism all qualify. Enhance these. Go off the beaten path to start your own organization or business. Anything which makes an adcom think that you're different from all the other highly accomplished Asian STEM applicants.

How you choose to do this, and how you paint a picture of yourself on your applications, will be critical.

You have achieved a tremendous amount for someone who is just a rising junior, and you have some time to build on your accomplishments. Be selective about where you want to focus your effort. Quality trumps quantity.

8

Thanks everyone for all your support and advice!

9

This coming year I plan to aim for semifinalist in Chem Olympiad and Physics Olympiad and hopefully improve my AIME score (I’ve been practicing for these most of my summer). I also want to make Intel again (not an easy feat because I need to improve/continue my previous project or find another). Since I’m taking Painting next year, the class comes with a lot of opportunities to showcase art. My environmental activism will definitely continue throughout the year.

I also have my SAT and PSAT this October (As the PSAT is new, I have no idea what the NMQT cutoff will be. Hopefully if its 1500/1600 for Texas I think I should be good.)

But yeah in conclusion my plan is to improve on olympiads, and continue research in science fair. I want to make myself stand out so I will be pursuing those unique characteristics specifically. But the rest of this year I want to up my school grade average (all fun classes this year) and do well on the standardized tests. Big plan, but honestly much more concise than what I had been following before.

10

Intel ISEF Finalists looks like a big plus, even considering that you (and I too) are in the toughest demographics possible… given all your scores and ec’s, i think they are the best that they can be…(unless you are an IMO,iPHO qualifier or ISEF Winner or smth lk that, which then, why would anyone of that academic standing even need to visit this website).

Those 5 schools are reach for everyone … or I don’t like the word “reach”, I want to say that it’s just that there are too many over-qualified applicants in this world for those five schools. life is hard. lol. gluck.

11

Simple answer: the one that you like the best.

12

Agreed, go with the one that feels right to you and that you would enjoy the most. Don’t go on reputation because they all have great reputations.

13

Thanks for all your suggestions. I am aiming for engineering so I will probably do EA for Stanford or MIT/Caltech. I want to try applying for RSI and see if I get in (not really expecting anything). If it works out, I hope that along with giving me a wonderful opportunity that it will serve as an indicator to see if I am a stronger-than-average applicant to these universities.

14

Impressive stuff. See where that internship goes. Something in Siemens or STS would be really great for your app. As for HYPSM, that’s really up to you. Advise I would give: check naviance and see where your top kids tend to get accepted. Let that inform your decision.

15

Honestly in my school the general trend has been; Quizbowl kids all got accepted to Stanford, Science Fair kids all got accepted to MIT, and Club leaders all got into Harvard. And every once in a while (about a year) we’ve had students who been accepted to all 3.

16

I thought I already posted in this thread, but guess not. If not for your lowish GPA, I’d say you’re definitely in at least one of them (assuming you apply for more than 1), but the good news is that you have a year to a year and a half to raise your GPA before applying to college. Your awards and ECs are already quite impressive despite being just a sophomore, in fact, your resume looks quite a lot like mine did sophomore year. I ended up only applying to 3 schools, HSM, and was accepted into two of them, so I’d say you’re on a pretty good track.

As for business and engineering, I’d have to agree with renaissancedad on this one. He seems to always be on point, and he’s right again. Out of HYPSM, Stanford and MIT probably have the best business and engineering programs, and UPenn’s M&T is another great option (my 4th choice school actually, but did not end up applying because I got in early to one of my top 3 choices). M&T only accepts 50-60 applicants a year, but for somebody with your stats, I don’t think it is that much of a reach.

Just keep doing what you’re doing (maybe raise grades a bit :stuck_out_tongue: ), because you’re clearly doing something right and don’t worry about where you’ll end up.

17

Yeah, I will work on my grades. Spanish really killed me last year, but now that I finished all required foreign languages, I have a lot of fun courses. As you can see, I am very math and science oriented so I took a bunch of advanced math and science next year simply because I find them really interesting. So, hopefully my grades get better.

18

So I guess my next question is: Will I have a better chance Stanford SCEA or MIT EA (both colleges are extraordinary in engineering so either one would be awesome)?

19

My opinion would be MIT EA would be easier for you to get in than Stanford SCEA. Also, you could do Caltech and Georgia Tech EA at the same time as MIT’s.

20

Really? Personally I thought Stanford SCEA would be more fruitful when given my stats. I also thought MIT EA has almost same percentage as its RD. (It was just personal assumption) Thanks for your input!