Well, it's March 24th. Early applicants should have heard from their schools already and the rest of the regular decision applicants should be rolling up within the coming weeks!
For myself (from NJ): Stanford - Rejected UC Berkeley - Accepted UCLA - Accepted Carnegie Mellon - Waitlisted University of Illinois Urbana - Accepted Rutgers - Accepted
4.57 weighted GPA (at the end of my junior year) 2230 SAT 780 SAT2 Bio 800 SAT2 Physics 800 SAT2 Math 2 300+ volunteer hours summer internships at SIEMENS and Columbia University research with NJIT professor programmer on an indie game AP CS AB, Stat, US history - 5
I applied for computer science at all the schools. Post yours!
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
This. Stanford would be so awesome to get into, but if the OP didn't, = /
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Wow, those seemed like some pretty good stats (op) and yet the acceptance decisions look so scary and uncertain.. T__T
My dream school is MIT or Harvard, though their specialties are quite disparate... I definitely want to enter a science field but my options are still open. Anyway, point being that these schools are even more selective ;__;
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
Edit:
Good luck with Berk btw. I heard it's super hard to get in from out of state; mad props if you do. Berk is easily one of the top CS schools, directly comparable to Stanford.
On March 25 2011 07:30 DrivE wrote: Accepted: Waiting UC Berkeley USC
OP's stats are ridiculously good lol
where do you live? USC acceptances should reach everywhere in the US by tomorrow.
I live in San Jose; A bunch of my friends got their decisions in the mail already but for some reason I haven't yet x_x
not to scare you, but if you don't get the big white envelope tomorrow you may be out of luck for USC. USC sends out their acceptances via priority mail and rejection letters by standard first class mail.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
UC Berkeley student here - keep up your hopes for Berkeley, even if your numbers aren't all that great! I know plenty of friends who got into Berkeley (one even into EECS, which is incredibly competitive) with sub-4.0 GPAs and/or sub-2000 SAT scores. They really care alot about the essay, and they have really strange decisions in the admissions processes. You never know if you'll get in or not.
Stanford - Rejected UC Berkeley - Accepted (waiting for regents decision) UCLA - Accepted UCSD - Accepted (waiting for medical program decision) UC Davis - Accepted (Regents) Harvard - Waiting
4.5 weighted GPA (at the end of my junior year) 2340 SAT 780 SAT2 Bio 800 SAT2 US History 800 SAT2 Math 2 AP Bio / Lang / US History / European History - 5's 200+ volunteer hours at local hospital summer internship for 2 years at NIH in Bethesda, MD odyssey of the mind wrote one of my essays about organizing starcraft events sport - volleyball ethnicity - chinese no legacies, first generation college student, california
On March 25 2011 07:42 HolyArrow wrote: UC Berkeley student here - keep up your hopes for Berkeley, even if your numbers aren't all that great! I know plenty of friends who got into Berkeley (one even into EECS, which is incredibly competitive) with sub-4.0 GPAs and/or sub-2000 SAT scores. They really care alot about the essay, and they have really strange decisions in the admissions processes. You never know if you'll get in or not.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
For every white friend of yours, I can name at least five (I originally typed ten, but that might be pushing it) Asian friends with equal or better stats, what's your point? I never said it was easy for "white".
This is a well-known issue, called affirmative action.
I don't blame them, diversity is important.
Anyway, this is derailing the thread. Good luck to everyone.
On March 25 2011 07:30 DrivE wrote: Accepted: Waiting UC Berkeley USC
OP's stats are ridiculously good lol
where do you live? USC acceptances should reach everywhere in the US by tomorrow.
I live in San Jose; A bunch of my friends got their decisions in the mail already but for some reason I haven't yet x_x
not to scare you, but if you don't get the big white envelope tomorrow you may be out of luck for USC. USC sends out their acceptances via priority mail and rejection letters by standard first class mail.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
No, thats false. Schools discriminate against whites and east asians. Thats a verifiable fact.
OT: I have friends who got into Stanford/Yale/Columbia. For Stanford he was Columbian and a known genius o.o He took all of the science AP exams and got 5s on all of them --"
Im a norwegian studying political science, and my university have an awesome program with Berkeley, where i can (if i want) have 1 semester at Berkeley
I didnt really consider Berkeley, since the only classes I can take over there is social science, and thats not exactly right up my ally of interests. But its close enough to political science, so i can fill the classes into my masters. Might reconsider since alot of ppl here talks highly of Berkeley!
kinda off topic but does anyone know the conversion for US to UK (England) Grades? i always get confused with the american school system, college at 17? (which is supposed to be equivalent to Uni in England) majors and minors etc.
On March 25 2011 07:49 Condor Hero wrote: im a senior at illinois champaign. its a great school but i think with your profile you could do much better
Well from my research I found that illinois champaign has a great computer science program right? So although there may be schools that may be "better" in other areas I think illinois is pretty good for comp sci.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
For every white friend of yours, I can name at least five (I originally typed ten, but that might be pushing it) Asian friends with equal or better stats, what's your point? I never said it was easy for "white".
This is a well-known issue, called affirmative action.
I don't blame them, diversity is important.
Anyway, this is derailing the thread. Good luck to everyone.
So I have a friend who got rejected by yale. He had a 98 GPA, a 2400 on this SAT, he's been principal clarinetist in the local youth orchestra for the past 3 years (I'll finally get a chance next year!), he has 16 5's on APs, he was a finalist in the international clarinet highschool competition, he's on varsity tennis, and he's captain of the math team, and he's the regional champion in chess.
However, he's chinese...so gets rejected by yale and MIT...at least he got into REMS which is awesome!
Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD Berkeley Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Waiting to hear back from: Cornell University (ACCEPTED!!) Lehigh University (ACCPTED)
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English
Captain of Cross Country and Track Team, won state last year. Leader of 2 clubs on campus. Leader of church youth group that makes multiple mission trips overseas. Volunteer at local hospital. and more.
Well, I originally went to Lehman College, but since I've decided on a Geography major, I've changed schools and recently have been accepted to Binghamton University. I've already accepted, seeing as my other option was further north in New York State to Buffalo, so yeah. I'm totally excited.
Looking forward to joining their SC2 team, or at least getting to know them!
Partly depends on where you are, for some areas (e.g. the whole freaking north-east) Stanford can be the hardest school to get into in the country, Ivys tend to accept more people from the north-east and Stanford accepts more from California and its about at the level of the top Ivys. Also are there other extracurriculars? What you have there is amazing, better than I'll ever do, but at the very top of schools you really have to have something impressive outside of grades and I can't tell from just this how big/important those internships actually are, just to show my point the valedictorian of my school last year who worked unbelievably hard's top school was Penn because of a lack of extracurriculars while the salutatorian's at Yale because of a combination of math, science, music, and sports extracurriculars.
To hell with all of you. I drank my way through a state college and have been rejected by 3 of 4 grad schools so far this year. Damn you and your hard work and ambition making me look bad.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
For every white friend of yours, I can name at least five (I originally typed ten, but that might be pushing it) Asian friends with equal or better stats, what's your point? I never said it was easy for "white".
This is a well-known issue, called affirmative action.
I don't blame them, diversity is important.
Anyway, this is derailing the thread. Good luck to everyone.
So I have a friend who got rejected by yale. He had a 98 GPA, a 2400 on this SAT, he's been principal clarinetist in the local youth orchestra for the past 3 years (I'll finally get a chance next year!), he has 16 5's on APs, he was a finalist in the international clarinet highschool competition, he's on varsity tennis, and he's captain of the math team, and he's the regional champion in chess.
However, he's chinese...so gets rejected by yale and MIT...at least he got into REMS which is awesome!
I knew someone who was chinese and probably had about the same amount of 5's on APs, valedictorian of our high school, and probably really high SAT. He got into MIT. Your friend should've gotten in, but he probably didn't have a strong essay or something. It's not just because he was chinese
What the hell I knew there was a bias against East Asians, but this is ridiculous =______=
Edit: some kind seniors should open a thread to give advice as to how to improve one's chances of getting into the colleges of one's dreams. College Confidential is obviously really good because it's a forum whose purpose is general admissions counseling, but more often than not, there are very few replies, and the replies that are made are often not of a particularly high quality/are slow to come/aren't made at all, even though the posters are very knowledgeable...
Damn what's with all these smart people on Teamliquid, I was an underachiever in my HS days. =/. I got into UCSD, UCI, UCD, rejected by berkeley and LA. Didn't even bother trying for any kind of IVYs or private schools. TL sure is a smart bunch
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
For every white friend of yours, I can name at least five (I originally typed ten, but that might be pushing it) Asian friends with equal or better stats, what's your point? I never said it was easy for "white".
This is a well-known issue, called affirmative action.
I don't blame them, diversity is important.
Anyway, this is derailing the thread. Good luck to everyone.
So I have a friend who got rejected by yale. He had a 98 GPA, a 2400 on this SAT, he's been principal clarinetist in the local youth orchestra for the past 3 years (I'll finally get a chance next year!), he has 16 5's on APs, he was a finalist in the international clarinet highschool competition, he's on varsity tennis, and he's captain of the math team, and he's the regional champion in chess.
However, he's chinese...so gets rejected by yale and MIT...at least he got into REMS which is awesome!
I knew someone who was chinese and probably had about the same amount of 5's on APs, valedictorian of our high school, and probably really high SAT. He got into MIT. Your friend should've gotten in, but he probably didn't have a strong essay or something. It's not just because he was chinese
I think it's partly because our school is ridiculous and there are three other people with almost identical achievements. Therefore, he didn't quite stand out as much as he would have liked, but ya I guess there must have been something else like what you mentioned.
Do Australian universities count? I got accepted in January but this is still my first year.
I got accepted into University of Queensland for a Law degree with an Overall Position (OP) score of 1 and an entry rank score of 99 (99th percentile, top 1%)
Hmm, it's unfortunate that there's a lot of high-test-scoring kids on here who aren't getting into top schools :/ Probably due to extracurriculars/awards/recs/essays...
But it's ok! Life doesn't end if you don't get in! Just pwn face at wherever you go. It's probably better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.
On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley
On March 25 2011 07:24 Junbugger wrote: Stanford is a huge athletic school, so generally, athletes who are smart get in
Can someone else confirm this? I'm actually interested on this fact.
it's true but not a 100% guarantee. my white female friend had 2390, IB diploma, 3.9+ uw gpa, top 10 cross-country in state, and got rejected from stanford.
she ended up at USC with me on a full ride, ran D-1 cross country and track for the university and is getting her phd in EE/CS at UCSD.
On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley
There is something you aren't telling us. You'd get into washington U if you really had all this leadership stuff, etc.
Good luck to everyone in here. That said, don't pump college up too much - unrealistic expectations don't help anything. My first year would be a total bummer if it weren't for the eSports club here. Ultimately it is just another part of your life, and unless you're a Comm major you need to keep working hard. Don't be sucked in by the rich and/or stupid kids who are partying it up and pissing away their parent's investment.
Also try not to get mad when you meet some of the imbecile athletes who are getting better scholarships than you. I still fail at this sometimes.
On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley
There is something you aren't telling us. You'd get into washington U if you really had all this leadership stuff, etc.
well that's one helluva sassy way to put it lol from what i hear wash u loves to accept a lot of their early application peeps and waitlist / reject a lot of the rest (the people who apply early usually have more motivation to go into wash u etc.) and thus their numbers (for # of students invited / # of students accepted) look really good on paper. kind of a dickish way to mess with the statistics imo
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
For every white friend of yours, I can name at least five (I originally typed ten, but that might be pushing it) Asian friends with equal or better stats, what's your point? I never said it was easy for "white".
This is a well-known issue, called affirmative action.
I don't blame them, diversity is important.
Anyway, this is derailing the thread. Good luck to everyone.
So I have a friend who got rejected by yale. He had a 98 GPA, a 2400 on this SAT, he's been principal clarinetist in the local youth orchestra for the past 3 years (I'll finally get a chance next year!), he has 16 5's on APs, he was a finalist in the international clarinet highschool competition, he's on varsity tennis, and he's captain of the math team, and he's the regional champion in chess.
However, he's chinese...so gets rejected by yale and MIT...at least he got into REMS which is awesome!
I knew someone who was chinese and probably had about the same amount of 5's on APs, valedictorian of our high school, and probably really high SAT. He got into MIT. Your friend should've gotten in, but he probably didn't have a strong essay or something. It's not just because he was chinese
I went to MIT, and for a while you were able to get your admissions paperwork from their office and see what they wrote during your admissions process. No guarantees it still works this way, but it's probably similar (and similar at other top schools too). Also, I'm doing this from memory, so the details might not all be exact.
They condense your application to a one-page summary. That includes SAT scores, GPA (recalculated by them to standardize). They combine your academics into some sort of overall number score. They then have a series roughly 5 attributes they can check off, to the best of my memory - academics, co-curricular, diversity, interview, and recommendations. Then there is a little box where each of the two or three people who read your whole recommendation can write a couple sentences. That page then goes to the people who actually make the decisions (and presumably borderline people there then get their application looked at again).
As far as I was able to tell, you either get the diversity check or you don't, and that's all that matters there (whites and asians don't get it). The academic check is extremely hard to get. I had straight As, 1600 SATs (before it increased), perfect SAT II scores, and 5s on all of my 10 APs, and I didn't get it. (Those things go into the number they calculate - to get the additional check you presumably need to have won the Intel science fair or something.) I got the interview and recommendation checks, as well as the co-curricular one (several major extracurriculars). I got in early, so that (and my number) was apparently enough.
Acceptances are kind of random. It's extremely hard. There are a lot of extremely smart people, and they don't care about sports and that sort of stuff (other than the general value of extracurriculars, of course). The admissions committee is not perfect. There are lots of geniuses, but also a couple people who aren't all that smart. There's just only so much you can tell from a college application. They get it right more than they get it wrong, but remember that it's kind of random. Don't take a decision (either way) personally.
On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley
There is something you aren't telling us. You'd get into washington U if you really had all this leadership stuff, etc.
well that's one helluva sassy way to put it lol from what i hear wash u loves to accept a lot of their early application peeps and waitlist / reject a lot of the rest (the people who apply early usually have more motivation to go into wash u etc.) and thus their numbers (for # of students invited / # of students accepted) look really good on paper. kind of a dickish way to mess with the statistics imo
Yeah. It came off wrong. I'm just surprised that if the user really ils that perfect that they got rejectged.
It makes me wonder whether or not people on here are lying. There's no way more than 3/4 of you have above 4.0 GPAs and are all being accepted to Harvard.
...........or maybe I'm just jealous that I was a high school failure.
On March 25 2011 07:42 HolyArrow wrote: UC Berkeley student here - keep up your hopes for Berkeley, even if your numbers aren't all that great! I know plenty of friends who got into Berkeley (one even into EECS, which is incredibly competitive) with sub-4.0 GPAs and/or sub-2000 SAT scores. They really care alot about the essay, and they have really strange decisions in the admissions processes. You never know if you'll get in or not.
Seems I was one of the lucky ones with like 3.75 gpa and like 1800 SAT scores.
On March 25 2011 07:42 HolyArrow wrote: UC Berkeley student here - keep up your hopes for Berkeley, even if your numbers aren't all that great! I know plenty of friends who got into Berkeley (one even into EECS, which is incredibly competitive) with sub-4.0 GPAs and/or sub-2000 SAT scores. They really care alot about the essay, and they have really strange decisions in the admissions processes. You never know if you'll get in or not.
Seems I was one of the lucky ones with like 3.75 gpa and like 1800 SAT scores.
On March 25 2011 08:33 Alexson wrote: Accepted Harvard Oxford UC Berkeley UCLA UNT
Rejected: none
That is beastly. What are your "specs"
I'm just kidding, I wish..
I'm putting lots of work in right now though, in high school, so hopefully I have a chance of getting into an ivy league school. The fact that I'm a foreigner from eastern Europe, and nobody in my family has an education past middle school is a bonus after the hard work.
also, English is a bitch, if anyone is willing to help me I will love you forever.
On March 25 2011 08:38 Deadlyhazard wrote: It makes me wonder whether or not people on here are lying. There's no way more than 3/4 of you have above 4.0 GPAs and are all being accepted to Harvard.
...........or maybe I'm just jealous that I was a high school failure.
Only those who have such awesome results want to show off in this thread :p
On March 25 2011 08:33 Alexson wrote: Accepted Harvard Oxford UC Berkeley UCLA UNT
Rejected: none
That is beastly. What are your "specs"
I'm just kidding, I wish..
I'm putting lots of work in right now though, in high school, so hopefully I have a chance of getting into an ivy league school. The fact that I'm a foreigner from eastern Europe, and nobody in my family has an education past middle school is a bonus after the hard work.
also, English is a bitch, if anyone is willing to help me I will love you forever.
haha. I would be willing to help
I figured you were being sarcastic, but did not wish to be rude.
GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Rejected Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for SCS and CIT... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
I feel bad how people are saying shit like "200+ volunteer hours." I did around 8-10 total during high school but told them I did around 150, which I thought was a lot. They don't check.
On March 25 2011 07:48 Candide wrote: You guys try too hard :D
OT: I have friends who got into Stanford/Yale/Columbia. For Stanford he was Columbian and a known genius o.o He took all of the science AP exams and got 5s on all of them --"
All of the AP science exams are a complete joke =P
On March 25 2011 08:43 1Eris1 wrote: Half of you are either liars, or holy shit TL is smart. Anyways crap, I really need to step it up for next year (<--high school junior)
Gogo the fact that I've always been recognized to write good essays? = /
Not really, they don't care about your senior year, you need to step up your grades from the remainder of this semester and write a good essay is all, nothing else really matters.
On March 25 2011 08:42 FabledIntegral wrote: I feel bad how people are saying shit like "200+ volunteer hours." I did around 8-10 total during high school but told them I did around 150, which I thought was a lot. They don't check.
They do audit at times, and it can be rewarding. Plus I do thirty minutes a day 4 times a week, during school. Not a bad deal @perg: Yes they did :D
On March 25 2011 08:33 Alexson wrote: Accepted Harvard Oxford UC Berkeley UCLA UNT
Rejected: none
That is beastly. What are your "specs"
I'm just kidding, I wish..
I'm putting lots of work in right now though, in high school, so hopefully I have a chance of getting into an ivy league school. The fact that I'm a foreigner from eastern Europe, and nobody in my family has an education past middle school is a bonus after the hard work.
also, English is a bitch, if anyone is willing to help me I will love you forever.
haha. I would be willing to help
I figured you were being sarcastic, but did not wish to be rude.
On March 25 2011 08:42 FabledIntegral wrote: I feel bad how people are saying shit like "200+ volunteer hours." I did around 8-10 total during high school but told them I did around 150, which I thought was a lot. They don't check.
Just checking out this thread as a current university student, and it's amazing the academic achievements of the people in this thread. I came from a standard public Canadian high school, and although I had a 97% average coming out of senior year, I only wrote one AP exam (Calc BC - 5) and didn't do any kind of research or actual scientific work during the summer.
I, however, did want to go to a US college, and got into Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. From what I hear about US universities, sometimes acceptance into the big schools is a bit of a crapshoot, since most of them have admission quota they need to meet. Extracurriculars are also really really important - I played on 4 sports teams in high school, competed at the provincial level (equivalent of state championships in the USA), did school paper, started and led a lunchtime bible study, and ended up the valedictorian of our class.
College is so damned expensive, however, so I ended up turning down MIT, Stanford, and Harvard for the University of Toronto's Engineering Science program, which I've been completely satisfied with. If I can offer any advice to any prospective applicants wanting to get into big schools, it is this: Apply early, and make sure you keep up on your activities out of school. Universities (and businesses too) are increasingly prioritizing well-rounded people over the pure eggheads who may have higher academic scores. Nothing against that style of person, a lot of the great scientific discoveries of our age have been made by the eggheads, but it seems to be a negative stereotype these days.
GL to all looking to go to college next academic year!
On March 25 2011 08:42 FabledIntegral wrote: I feel bad how people are saying shit like "200+ volunteer hours." I did around 8-10 total during high school but told them I did around 150, which I thought was a lot. They don't check.
They do audit at times, and it can be rewarding. Plus I do thirty minutes a day 4 times a week, during school. Not a bad deal @perg: Yes they did :D
I don't believe they audit the community service hours - how would you even check? I just said I did a lot of shit like beach cleanups for random clubs and stuff that no one would remember anyways. 4 of the legit hours I did were a local relay for life, but there's no way they could check if I was actually there.
On March 25 2011 08:43 1Eris1 wrote: Half of you are either liars, or holy shit TL is smart. Anyways crap, I really need to step it up for next year (<--high school junior)
Gogo the fact that I've always been recognized to write good essays? = /
I got accepted in about 3 years ago (graduating class of 2008), but I like this, and I can probably give hope to you guys who are scared. My stats were nothing extraordinary. None of that 4.5 BS that OP had (jk, that's very commendable).
GPA: 3.8 (or 3.9 I forgot) WEIGHTED. ACT: 32 Extracurriculars: Wind Ensemble Oboe Freshman Year. Varsity Tennis 4 Years. Community Service (I think this is why I got into the schools I got into): 500+ hours at Kaiser Permanente in the Laboratory.
I got accepted into every UC (I was too lazy to do more than one app. Senioritus hit me so hard).
I'm currently studying Biomedical Engineering at UCI. I hope you guys take into consideration the "lesser" schools like I did. Do yourself a favor and visit every campus you've been accepted into, and don't blindly commit. Spending half a day at each campus (and its city) will give you a very rough idea of how your four years will be there. You never know how much you'll like/dislike the environment around you unless you VISIT. UCI is a hidden gem (for me). There are tons of engineering firms here, and I'm not fond of the city. Don't get me wrong, I love visiting LA and SD, but I like keeping it at that: a visit. I hate the traffic, the congestive-ness, etc.
Make sure that when you get on campus, you don't blow everything you've busted your ass for in high school. Go party every chance you get. The key word is CHANCE. You work hard, play hard. I'm in a fraternity (let the hating commence =D!), and it's been monumental in my growth as a human being. The parties are a nice bonus too.
And I guess that's my last thing. Don't let any stereotypes scare you off from anything. Joining a fraternity was the last thing I wanted to do upon entering UCI. Getting to know some of my now brothers really helped change my mind. Dabble in everything, and find what you like. Go with it, and if you don't like it, you can easily move onto something else. =]
Good luck with school, and hopefully I can see a few of you at UCI next year. Peace.
This always strikes me as weird, what does volunteer work have to do with being a good student? I find that odd to take into account in the admission process. GL to people having to apply to colleges right now!
On March 25 2011 08:48 lvlashimaro wrote: I got accepted in about 3 years ago (graduating class of 2008), but I like this, and I can probably give hope to you guys who are scared. My stats were nothing extraordinary. None of that 4.5 BS that OP had (jk, that's very commendable).
GPA: 3.8 (or 3.9 I forgot) WEIGHTED. ACT: 32 Extracurriculars: Wind Ensemble Oboe Freshman Year. Varsity Tennis 4 Years. Community Service (I think this is why I got into the schools I got into): 500+ hours at Kaiser Permanente in the Laboratory.
I got accepted into every UC (I was too lazy to do more than one app. Senioritus hit me so hard).
I'm currently studying Biomedical Engineering at UCI. I hope you guys take into consideration the "lesser" schools like I did. Do yourself a favor and visit every campus you've been accepted into, and don't blindly commit. Spending half a day at each campus (and its city) will give you a very rough idea of how your four years will be there. You never know how much you'll like/dislike the environment around you unless you VISIT. UCI is a hidden gem (for me). There are tons of engineering firms here, and I'm not fond of the city. Don't get me wrong, I love visiting LA and SD, but I like keeping it at that: a visit. I hate the traffic, the congestive-ness, etc.
Make sure that when you get on campus, you don't blow everything you've busted your ass for in high school. Go party every chance you get. The key word is CHANCE. You work hard, play hard. I'm in a fraternity (let the hating commence =D!), and it's been monumental in my growth as a human being. The parties are a nice bonus too.
And I guess that's my last thing. Don't let any stereotypes scare you off from anything. Joining a fraternity was the last thing I wanted to do upon entering UCI. Getting to know some of my now brothers really helped change my mind. Dabble in everything, and find what you like. Go with it, and if you don't like it, you can easily move onto something else. =]
Good luck with school, and hopefully I can see a few of you at UCI next year. Peace.
I did a BTEC at college which limited my choices a fair bit in the selection process, in terms of ranking Loughborough and Southampton are far more highly rated than Bournemouth but Bournemouth had the course I most wanted and gave off an awesome vibe at the open day which ultimately swayed my decision.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Mildly offtopic, I'm going to Graduate School! So here's my list: MIT - rejected Northwestern - Rejected UNC-chapel hill - accepted Georgia Tech - Accepted UMass Amherst - Accepted SUNY Stony Brook - Accepted
Go to Fairfield University in Connecticut 3.86 GPA presently (4.0 in major) Chemistry Major Physics Minor Mathematics Minor GRE: 780 Math, 600 Verbal (don't laugh, that's 90 percentile right there). 5 on writing. Chem GRE: 720/990, 72 percentile (I'm told that's good for domestic students, but I don't believe it anymore) I've done research as a rising junior all the way til now. Done stuff with organic chemistry, some materials work, and the development of sensors for CERN in the physics department (My roommate got to actually go TO CERN. Much jealousy from me.) Edit: I also tutor a fuckton of organic chemistry and TA an advanced chemistry lab.
Applied to polymers/materials work at all my schools, focus is on organic solar cells.
For the past two years I've been here this thread has been the most loosely veiled brag thread on the forums. I esspecially dislike it when absolutely amazing students list their achievements. Curse you internets.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
From what I hear, UCs super-prioritize GPA, and his is probably lower than many other applicants.
Got accepted into berkeley for spring semester and I'm so happy right now. It's been my dream school for awhile now and I was laughing like a crazy man when I heard i got in.
Damn, it seems like not many of you guys are doing the community college to university thing. I can sure say that pretty much all of you put my high school stuff in the gutter haha. I barely broke the 3.0 range while most of you are 4. something. Holy cow! Good work though guys!
I go to UIUC and although I cannot speak of the computer science program, I would not recommend you go there. The school itself is very money-hungry and not student-centered at all. The only program the school cares about is engineering and you can tell that they only care about their engineering students. It is also a ridiculously large campus and the town (and campus itself) is very unsafe. Especially if you are from out of state, it will be just a waste your money, being one of the most expensive public schools. Obviously, you are very intelligent and can go far. Don't hold yourself back by going there!
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
From what I hear, UCs super-prioritize GPA, and his is probably lower than many other applicants.
Oh, duly noted...
Intel semifinalist is too freaking good though O_O ...300 people nationally holy crap.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
Judging by all these statistics and people saying their colleges, It's either TL has a lot of smart young kids, or the slackers that don't make it into the schools aren't posting int he thread because there's nothing to brag about. I would go with the latter. I mean seriously, some of those statistics of these schools accept basically the top 1% of the nation... crazy.... to think about. Last I remembered LA had an acceptance rate of 25%, take into consideration that the people apply are ones that already do well in school so its a select population.
It's hard to wrap my brain on all these smart kids when in general my highschool was one of the best in the district, and out of 200 students , only about 10 got into berkeley out of it , I would guess about 50 applied.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
Oh, I see. :/ For which major and/or department did you apply for your schools?
On March 25 2011 08:36 aristarchus wrote: I went to MIT, and for a while you were able to get your admissions paperwork from their office and see what they wrote during your admissions process. No guarantees it still works this way, but it's probably similar (and similar at other top schools too). Also, I'm doing this from memory, so the details might not all be exact.
You can't anymore--they get rid of all the comments on your application now -_-
On March 25 2011 08:25 ]343[ wrote: Hmm, it's unfortunate that there's a lot of high-test-scoring kids on here who aren't getting into top schools :/ Probably due to extracurriculars/awards/recs/essays...
But it's ok! Life doesn't end if you don't get in! Just pwn face at wherever you go. It's probably better to be a big fish in a little pond than a little fish in a big pond.
Haha, yeah.
To the high schoolers here, the top universities prize extracurriculars a lot but nobody cares in the adult world past your initial job. The people who succeed the most in the adult world are the most focused people, not the most well-rounded ones.
So keep your chin up! Getting into a less prestigious school that will allow you to concentrate more on what you're good at might be a blessing in disguise.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
From what I hear, UCs super-prioritize GPA, and his is probably lower than many other applicants.
Let's hope that other schools don't prioritize GPA as much ... and hey people with lower UC GPAs than me got in--and some with higher ones didn't.
I don't think admissions really fit any formula anymore.
On March 25 2011 08:49 gerundium wrote: This always strikes me as weird, what does volunteer work have to do with being a good student? I find that odd to take into account in the admission process. GL to people having to apply to colleges right now!
Probably nothing, but it is something that every college looks at because it tells them what kind of "person" you are. Really seems like self service if the sole reason a ton a people do it is to put it on college apps. Then and again it doesn't make sense that being having white students hurts your academic environment at a school.
[quote] On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT [quote] SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley [/quote]
Just got rejected from Berkeley. I have a friend who took 2 AP classes, had a 3.6 weighted GPA, 3.2 unweighted, who just got accepted. I have never had such little faith in college before. I am seriously doubting the legitimacy of every university in the US right now.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
Oh whoa... I was an Intel semi (but last year) too. Kind of surprised that MIT rejected you...? Maybe it was the essays/recs T_T?
I feel like a lot of the top schools just want to "create their own class" in a way (especially Ivies ~_~). There are plenty of valedictorians running around... they want people with national awards and crap, I guess?
I'm not good enough (silver league O_O) for the UCI starcraft team haha. I'm a fan on the page though. I told my friend (known as Lime online) about it, and he's been tearing shit up supposedly haha. I've gone to a couple events. Someone (I forgot his name) helped me understand some early game zerg play though. =] When (if) I get better, I'll try to enter the lineup, but UCI is already super good as it is.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
From what I hear, UCs super-prioritize GPA, and his is probably lower than many other applicants.
Oh, duly noted...
Intel semifinalist is too freaking good though O_O ...300 people nationally holy crap.
It's definitely a lot easier if Intel semifinalist was combined with being Natalie Portman. That would get somebody into Harvard.
On March 25 2011 09:07 cerka wrote: On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT
SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley
Just got rejected from Berkeley. I have a friend who took 2 AP classes, had a 3.6 weighted GPA, 3.2 unweighted, who just got accepted. I have never had such little faith in college before. I am seriously doubting the legitimacy of every university in the US right now.
Hey man, there's lots of us in this boat, but I don't think getting carried away thinking that we should have gotten in because "we're better" is entirely healthy. If someone is truly unqualified for the school that he or she got into, then that will show itself sooner than later. I never had faith in colleges before this Welcome to the club of Berkeley rejects.
On March 25 2011 09:03 Z3kk wrote: Oh, I see. :/ For which major and/or department did you apply for your schools?
Unfortunately, Electrical Engineering, which is ridiculously impacted for pretty much all the schools I applied to--but I didn't think that just because something was impacted that I wasn't going to get in for sure.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
Yeah. Sorry about that.
Also sorry abot my comment that probably came off as snarky. I didn't realize how big of a deal it was :/
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
On March 25 2011 08:49 gerundium wrote: This always strikes me as weird, what does volunteer work have to do with being a good student? I find that odd to take into account in the admission process. GL to people having to apply to colleges right now!
Probably nothing, but it is something that every college looks at because it tells them what kind of "person" you are. Really seems like self service if the sole reason a ton a people do it is to put it on college apps. Then and again it doesn't make sense that being having white students hurts your academic environment at a school.
Actually, I suspect the reason also has to do with the american educational system. gerundium is from the Netherlands as I am. Over here we have different tiers for highschool. Whereas in america you just have highschool. The level of which is probably less then our highest tier highschool atheneum / gymnasium. As a result you get a huge group of people with really high grades. A problem which is made worse by the way they grade stuff in America.
Of course universities do want some way to seperate the good from the really good, and also students in such an environment need a way to set themselves apart from everyone else with "perfect" grades. Stuff like volunteer work lets you do just that.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
Sorry about that man. :/ I have a friend who was both Siemens Semifinalist and got waitlisted too. All these top schools are so difficult to get into. T_T I don't even have any of these, and I'm scared to hell by all of you guys.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
USAMO is obviously biggest; ARML is pretty big too. Harvard-MIT / Princeton / Stanford / Rice / Duke hold pretty big on-site math meets. Caltech/Harvey Mudd are just beginning their own too, I think. Many states / regions have their own math contests. Smaller ones... USAMTS and Mandelbrot are legit, the rest not so much.
And then there's the research competitions (if you do math research)... but yeah it seems like making USAMO is important. (also lol @ USAJMO)
also this stuff doesn't really matter in college anymore, other than bragging rights to your friends >.>
I had a 4.35 weighted GPA I think, with a 3.57 unweighted GPA, and a 30 on the ACT. I plan on doing Computer Science. My freshman year GPA screwed me up =/
As far as AP's, I got a 4 on AP Human Geography, World History, US History, and English Literature, but I did not attempt any other tests because they weren't offered at my school. One of my friends and I tried to get AP Computer Science after taking two years of Programming, and we initially had the green light from our principal, but our school district's budget cuts meant that there would be no more programming or non-basic computer classes in our district...
Accepted:
BYU (planning on going here) BYU-Idaho UCF
I did not apply anywhere else. I reckon I'm realistic, and I either wanted to get into BYU and live far away from home, or stay at the local university. I also think that people shouldn't apply to a billion universities when they aren't serious about which ones they want to get into, because you're denying people who really do want to go to those schools the opportunity of attending when that is their #1 school of choice.
I did a ton of extracurriculars, such as a year in Marching Band and Ballroom Dance, the Teenage Republican and Young Democrat clubs (concurrently, I was an officer in both...which was amusing ) and three years of Soccer and Tennis.
I think I got into the schools because I have a ton of dual enrollment and AP credits...I'll be going into my Freshman year with 38 credits and a 3.8 college GPA!
What I'm really upset about is that I missed a half tuition scholarship by less than .01 unweighted GPA points...
Hopefully I'll get a lot out of Financial Aid, right?
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
USAMO is obviously biggest; ARML is pretty big too. Harvard-MIT / Princeton / Stanford / Rice / Duke hold pretty big on-site math meets. Caltech/Harvey Mudd are just beginning their own too, I think. Many states / regions have their own math contests. Smaller ones... USAMTS and Mandelbrot are legit, the rest not so much.
And then there's the research competitions (if you do math research)... but yeah it seems like making USAMO is important. (also lol @ USAJMO)
also this stuff doesn't really matter in college anymore, other than bragging rights to your friends >.>
I will check out ARML; hadn't heard of it until now--I knew only of Mandelbrot/USAMO.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
I'm saying that as far as math goes--it doesn't really matter until you make it to that level. Again there are regional differences and everything--but USAMO seems to be the minimum here.
Im so glad I got accepted to my university before the recent few years, competition seems insane with rising participation from all classes, and grades keep getting higher/exams easier (at least here).
The whole nasty kind of competition, dog-eat-dog ranking and indisciriminate judgement made me feel physically sick.
Whole american system seems really unpleasant to me.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
Well, you can study for them but it's going to take a lot of work. Basically, you're going to have to do problem after problem after problem. Go through like, The Art of Problem Solving set of books, and you can raise your chances, but just keep doing problems. The idea is that eventually, you'll be able to recognize what type of problems they are, and just solve them. However, this doesn't make you any more talented at math. It's kind of just brute memorization in a way. :/ On the other hand, if you can find your own way of looking at these problems, it could really help with your mathematical understanding.
But yeah, it takes a lot of effort and dedication. I never did it. T_T I suck at math.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
well, I think he's referring to being admitted to MIT based on math. I'm pretty sure most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO. (Also it's now harder to make USAMO again thanks to that USAJMO thingy... lol.)
On March 25 2011 09:29 Z3kk wrote: Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
Well, you can study for them but it's going to take a lot of work. Basically, you're going to have to do problem after problem after problem. Go through like, The Art of Problem Solving set of books, and you can raise your chances, but just keep doing problems. The idea is that eventually, you'll be able to recognize what type of problems they are, and just solve them. However, this doesn't make you any more talented at math. It's kind of just brute memorization in a way. :/ On the other hand, if you can find your own way of looking at these problems, it could really help with your mathematical understanding.
But yeah, it takes a lot of effort and dedication. I never did it. T_T I suck at math.
Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
On March 25 2011 08:42 Froadac wrote: [quote] Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
I'm saying that as far as math goes--it doesn't really matter until you make it to that level. Again there are regional differences and everything--but USAMO seems to be the minimum here.
At my school it seems to me that the only people who get in are the girls =\ Girls are OP at tech schools.
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
I'm saying that as far as math goes--it doesn't really matter until you make it to that level. Again there are regional differences and everything--but USAMO seems to be the minimum here.
At my school it seems to me that the only people who get in are the girls =\ Girls are OP at tech schools.
Haha, that's one bias that I'm not going to argue against. While roughly the same number of girls/boys admitted to MIT is very close, looking at the number of applicants relative to those accepted for each gender paints a very clear picture.
Does anyone have experience or information about how much you get from pell grants and federal financial aid? I'm really sick at my stomach thinking about how I'm going to pay for school. My family's income is around $50,000, and my parents are trying to retire, so I'm going to be mostly on my own.
On March 25 2011 08:42 Froadac wrote: [quote] Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
well, I think he's referring to being admitted to MIT based on math. I'm pretty sure most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO. (Also it's now harder to make USAMO again thanks to that USAJMO thingy... lol.)
On March 25 2011 09:29 Z3kk wrote: Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
Well, you can study for them but it's going to take a lot of work. Basically, you're going to have to do problem after problem after problem. Go through like, The Art of Problem Solving set of books, and you can raise your chances, but just keep doing problems. The idea is that eventually, you'll be able to recognize what type of problems they are, and just solve them. However, this doesn't make you any more talented at math. It's kind of just brute memorization in a way. :/ On the other hand, if you can find your own way of looking at these problems, it could really help with your mathematical understanding.
But yeah, it takes a lot of effort and dedication. I never did it. T_T I suck at math.
Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
USAMO is obviously biggest; ARML is pretty big too. Harvard-MIT / Princeton / Stanford / Rice / Duke hold pretty big on-site math meets. Caltech/Harvey Mudd are just beginning their own too, I think. Many states / regions have their own math contests. Smaller ones... USAMTS and Mandelbrot are legit, the rest not so much.
And then there's the research competitions (if you do math research)... but yeah it seems like making USAMO is important. (also lol @ USAJMO)
also this stuff doesn't really matter in college anymore, other than bragging rights to your friends >.>
Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
On March 25 2011 08:42 Froadac wrote: [quote] Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
Well, you can study for them but it's going to take a lot of work. Basically, you're going to have to do problem after problem after problem. Go through like, The Art of Problem Solving set of books, and you can raise your chances, but just keep doing problems. The idea is that eventually, you'll be able to recognize what type of problems they are, and just solve them. However, this doesn't make you any more talented at math. It's kind of just brute memorization in a way. :/ On the other hand, if you can find your own way of looking at these problems, it could really help with your mathematical understanding.
But yeah, it takes a lot of effort and dedication. I never did it. T_T I suck at math.
Yup. I won a regional citywide Math competition once in Manila and that was because I got lucky enough to get familiar questions in the test. The hardest question happened to be something I just studied in a extracurricular competition level math class a week or so before. It's really more about familiarization than talent.
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 09:20? Z3kk wrote: Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
If you want to do EECS, you don't necessarily have to do math competitions. In fact, if you want to impress compsci-wise, try things like USACO and Topcoder, or build your own cool electrical gadgets (my temp roommate took apart a Wii and stuck it inside a Macbook... so now you can play Wii 100% portably with a built in screen on it!)
If you really want to do math competitions, you really do need just a little talent and a loooooot of work. How can you be good at anything if you don't put in a lot of time?
Holy shit, I always figured that Starcraft enthusiasts were probably an intelligent bunch, but damn, I didn't expect numbers like this. No wonder my area is considered "demographically challenged" (poor and stupid). I post some of the most impressive academic stats around here and people consider me to be really smart, a label which I wholly reject; there is NO ONE like you guys within a 50 mile radius of where I live.
4.48 weighted GPA (have only had 2 semester b's), 4's and 5's on 6 AP exams (5's on BC calc, psych, english lit and comp) SATs were mediocre. 700 verbal, 680 math, 710 writing. 740 on the Math II Extracurriculars are awful aside from sports (4 varsity years for cross country and soccer) Won a lot of academic awards from the school and school system, but I doubt those count for much. Have shit for clubs and service. Only National Honor Society and a few volunteer hours.
Schools: JMU - Accepted Pitt - Accepted UVA - Find out tomorrow at 5pm, but I got what is called a "likely letter", so I'm fairly confident.
On March 25 2011 08:42 Froadac wrote: [quote] Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
well, I think he's referring to being admitted to MIT based on math. I'm pretty sure most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO. (Also it's now harder to make USAMO again thanks to that USAJMO thingy... lol.)
On March 25 2011 09:29 Z3kk wrote: Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
Well, you can study for them but it's going to take a lot of work. Basically, you're going to have to do problem after problem after problem. Go through like, The Art of Problem Solving set of books, and you can raise your chances, but just keep doing problems. The idea is that eventually, you'll be able to recognize what type of problems they are, and just solve them. However, this doesn't make you any more talented at math. It's kind of just brute memorization in a way. :/ On the other hand, if you can find your own way of looking at these problems, it could really help with your mathematical understanding.
But yeah, it takes a lot of effort and dedication. I never did it. T_T I suck at math.
Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
But that's what I'm saying. If the total amount of possible USAMO students that could get into college any given year is a max of 1500, it's impossible for 70% of the people at MIT to have made USAMO. Statistically, it doesn't make sense.
First of all, the max of 1500 is ludicrous to assume in the first place, because there are certainly a good percentage of students that make it year after year. Second of all, not all USAMO qualified students go to MIT. And finally, not all USAMO qualified students get into MIT. I know this from personal experience.
soooo competitive now. i wonder if classes are getting easier or if ppl are trying harder or if ppl are getting smarter or what. i go to ucsd right now and reading some stats of people that were rejected, makes me sad.
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
Yeah, those are pretty much the big ones... but around here you gotta make it into USAMO or MIT won't bat an eye.
That's not entirely correct: approximately 500 students make it into the USAMO each year. So if we assume that you have three chances out of your applicable years (that is, you can make it as either a freshman, sophomore, or junior) that means that by the time you apply there's only 1500 possible candidates for MIT...and that's just not true. And that's assuming that there are no duplicate students in the USAMO each year.
So no, while it certainly helps, it's by no means required to the extent that you seem to imply.
well, I think he's referring to being admitted to MIT based on math. I'm pretty sure most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO. (Also it's now harder to make USAMO again thanks to that USAJMO thingy... lol.)
On March 25 2011 09:32 ghrur wrote:
On March 25 2011 09:29 Z3kk wrote: Well fml...does one have to sort of study for those competitions or take classes? Only literal geniuses can do these types of problems with an education limited to high school, right (i.e. taking calc and the like in HS can't possibly prepare one for the problem types in AMC/AIME/USAMO...correct?)?
Also, what do you mean by "here"? How much exactly, additionally, do your region (or school perhaps) matter? .__.
MIT has always been and still is my dream school, so it's really disheartening to see all of these rejections...
Well, you can study for them but it's going to take a lot of work. Basically, you're going to have to do problem after problem after problem. Go through like, The Art of Problem Solving set of books, and you can raise your chances, but just keep doing problems. The idea is that eventually, you'll be able to recognize what type of problems they are, and just solve them. However, this doesn't make you any more talented at math. It's kind of just brute memorization in a way. :/ On the other hand, if you can find your own way of looking at these problems, it could really help with your mathematical understanding.
But yeah, it takes a lot of effort and dedication. I never did it. T_T I suck at math.
Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waiting :/ UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Hmmm. Sort of eerily similar.
My extracurriculars are probably a bit better, and GPA is probably a hare better, but overall very similar.
What major are you wanting to do?
Your extracurriculars are probably a bit better than intel semifinalist =O
How did he get rejected from Berkeley (not saying it's an easy school of course) with those stats omg...intel semifinalist and everything solid except GPA in a pinch...
Considering all the other schools that I didn't get into... I wasn't entirely shocked by this point. You win some you lose some, and by now I figured it was time for me to lose a lot. Obviously people with "lesser" stats get in--it's just a matter of which direction the wind blows.
actually wait a second--are you an "international" (non-permanent resident) student? I might be reading too deeply into the "China" on your profile lol, but that would make it much harder to get into places.
I live in the United States right now and had US Citizenship when I applied. I'm thankful that so many people are offering their sympathies and are trying to reason through with me... as for myself I'm trying not to read too deeply into everything.
As for MIT, I know another Semifinalist at my school who was waitlisted and had a better GPA and SAT score than me--so again, you win some you lose some. My low GPA and lack of math awards sealed my fate there I think.
I always wondered this: what kinds of math awards are there to obtain outside of AMC==>AIME==>USAMO etc.? I have heard of a few, but they seem mostly to be low-leveled or not particularly worthwhile.
USAMO is obviously biggest; ARML is pretty big too. Harvard-MIT / Princeton / Stanford / Rice / Duke hold pretty big on-site math meets. Caltech/Harvey Mudd are just beginning their own too, I think. Many states / regions have their own math contests. Smaller ones... USAMTS and Mandelbrot are legit, the rest not so much.
And then there's the research competitions (if you do math research)... but yeah it seems like making USAMO is important. (also lol @ USAJMO)
also this stuff doesn't really matter in college anymore, other than bragging rights to your friends >.>
Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
Even if you're very smart, you (with a few people who are extreme exceptions) need to do a lot of contest training in order to do well at the USAMO level, but getting to the AIME level is definitely possible without devoting that sort of time to it. I also do think that results at that level matter to them. I was an MIT math major (with a good GPA there) and never qualified for the USAMO.
ARML is definitely worth looking into. USAMTS isn't a huge deal, but it's legit and something they'll notice, and I think the difficulty/reward ratio is quite good.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 09:20? Z3kk wrote: Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
If you want to do EECS, you don't necessarily have to do math competitions. In fact, if you want to impress compsci-wise, try things like USACO and Topcoder, or build your own cool electrical gadgets (my temp roommate took apart a Wii and stuck it inside a Macbook... so now you can play Wii 100% portably with a built in screen on it!)
If you really want to do math competitions, you really do need just a little talent and a loooooot of work. How can you be good at anything if you don't put in a lot of time?
Right, right, definitely just pure hard work then.
I suppose I'm for EE, and not comp sci, because it seems true then that anyone who hasn't been programming from an earlier age or who has considerable experience is generally screwed in that regard. I don't know any programming languages at all and likely cannot pick up enough to be particularly competitive...I took one of those pointless classes and learned a bit of C#, but I was not a particularly promising student -_-;
GPA: 4.2 SAT: Math 700 CR 710 W 630 SAT II's: U.S. history 770 Physics 690
Classes: All AP and IB junior and senior year, my grades improved significantly from freshman/sophomore to junior/senior year
Extra curricular: XC 4 years, Model United Nations (communications officer, now VP), Haiti relief club, Internship with a congressman for a few weeks, and camp counselor, some community service
Essays + reccs: Pretty damn good
School list: Mcgill: Accepted St.Mary's college of Maryland: Accepted + scholarship program College of W&M: Accepted UVA: Accepted JMU: Accepted Tufts: REJECTED Brown: REJECTED
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 09:20? Z3kk wrote: Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
If you want to do EECS, you don't necessarily have to do math competitions. In fact, if you want to impress compsci-wise, try things like USACO and Topcoder, or build your own cool electrical gadgets (my temp roommate took apart a Wii and stuck it inside a Macbook... so now you can play Wii 100% portably with a built in screen on it!)
If you really want to do math competitions, you really do need just a little talent and a loooooot of work. How can you be good at anything if you don't put in a lot of time?
Right, right, definitely just pure hard work then.
I suppose I'm for EE, and not comp sci, because it seems true then that anyone who hasn't been programming from an earlier age or who has considerable experience is generally screwed in that regard. I don't know any programming languages at all and likely cannot pick up enough to be particularly competitive...I took one of those pointless classes and learned a bit of C#, but I was not a particularly promising student -_-;
If you don't have a knack for programming when you take your first classes in the subject, then it's a much better option to do EE, I think. From what I have seen, it's not something that you can really pursue unless you're already madly in love with writing code and thinking about it in your spare time.
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 09:20? Z3kk wrote: Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
If you want to do EECS, you don't necessarily have to do math competitions. In fact, if you want to impress compsci-wise, try things like USACO and Topcoder, or build your own cool electrical gadgets (my temp roommate took apart a Wii and stuck it inside a Macbook... so now you can play Wii 100% portably with a built in screen on it!)
If you really want to do math competitions, you really do need just a little talent and a loooooot of work. How can you be good at anything if you don't put in a lot of time?
Right, right, definitely just pure hard work then.
I suppose I'm for EE, and not comp sci, because it seems true then that anyone who hasn't been programming from an earlier age or who has considerable experience is generally screwed in that regard. I don't know any programming languages at all and likely cannot pick up enough to be particularly competitive...I took one of those pointless classes and learned a bit of C#, but I was not a particularly promising student -_-;
Don't worry that much about what you'll study yet. I don't think they pay much attention to your intended major during admissions, and you're in no way bound to it. Lots of people have very little specific background in their major before they pick it. The admissions people are just looking for something that proves you're smart and that you work hard.
On March 25 2011 09:45 xoreyy wrote: Holy shit, I always figured that Starcraft enthusiasts were probably an intelligent bunch, but damn, I didn't expect numbers like this. No wonder my area is considered "demographically challenged" (poor and stupid). I post some of the most impressive academic stats around here and people consider me to be really smart, a label which I wholly reject; there is NO ONE like you guys within a 50 mile radius of where I live.
4.48 weighted GPA (have only had 2 semester b's), 4's and 5's on 6 AP exams (5's on BC calc, psych, english lit and comp) SATs were mediocre. 700 verbal, 680 math, 710 writing. 740 on the Math II Extracurriculars are awful aside from sports (4 varsity years for cross country and soccer) Won a lot of academic awards from the school and school system, but I doubt those count for much. Have shit for clubs and service. Only National Honor Society and a few volunteer hours.
Schools: JMU - Accepted Pitt - Accepted UVA - Find out tomorrow at 5pm, but I got what is called a "likely letter", so I'm fairly confident.
Congrats to everyone in here
Dude likely letter = in. They send it out to like the top 5% of their applicants, to keep them interested in UVA. congrats! I may see you there, depending on whether I get in or not....
4.0 GPA unweighted, 6.04* weighted *(I think florida does it differently considering everyone else's GPA is 4.5 ish. basically, i've taken honors classes and will graduate with 7 AP classes and 2 college classes dual enrolled, all As so far)
770 math SAT, 750 reading, 620 writing (blegh) 770 math II sat2, 800 chemistry sat2
AP calc AB 5, AP chemistry 5, AP english lang 4 for the AP exams I've taken thus far
applied everywhere for chemistry major
schools: University of Florida - Accepted Rensselaer Polytech - Accepted (but where am I going to get 40 grand a year?) Northeastern University - Waitlisted (was my top choice too, because the co-op program made it more affordable :/ )
waiting on: Boston college, boston U, Carnegie Mellon U, Carleton College
Got offered and I accepted my MA at University of Waterloo ... also on a waiting list for a Law School but Liquid'Tyler said he's glad he's not in law school and I'm starting to agree with him. I don't really wanna go to Law School.
On March 25 2011 09:53 FrostyTreats wrote: why is this a thread? it should be a blog.
This thread is made every year. Read the OP please.
Accepted: UCLA UCI UCSD
Rejected Berkeley
Waiting: Harvard NYU - Accepted (Stern School of Business) Pomona - Rejected Claremont McKenna - Waitlisted Yale Princeton Columbia Brown Cornell Stanford
Yeah. I know. I applied to a shit ton of schools.
4.21 GPA 2230 SAT --> Superscore is 2310 SAT II Math: 750 SAT II US History 770 AP Bio: 5, AP US History 5, AP Calc: 4, AP Comp Sci: 4
Former captain of the tennis team (we won our first sectionals that year!), captain of the speech and debate team, vice president of literary anthology club, section editor of the school newspaper, 150+ hours of volunteer service, piano player (got to level 10 or something).
Semifinalist at the NFL (speech) national tournament in 2010. Placed 8th.
I would list the other awards I got from Speech but....that might take a while.
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 09:20? Z3kk wrote: Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
If you want to do EECS, you don't necessarily have to do math competitions. In fact, if you want to impress compsci-wise, try things like USACO and Topcoder, or build your own cool electrical gadgets (my temp roommate took apart a Wii and stuck it inside a Macbook... so now you can play Wii 100% portably with a built in screen on it!)
If you really want to do math competitions, you really do need just a little talent and a loooooot of work. How can you be good at anything if you don't put in a lot of time?
Right, right, definitely just pure hard work then.
I suppose I'm for EE, and not comp sci, because it seems true then that anyone who hasn't been programming from an earlier age or who has considerable experience is generally screwed in that regard. I don't know any programming languages at all and likely cannot pick up enough to be particularly competitive...I took one of those pointless classes and learned a bit of C#, but I was not a particularly promising student -_-;
If you don't have a knack for programming when you take your first classes in the subject, then it's a much better option to do EE, I think. From what I have seen, it's not something that you can really pursue unless you're already madly in love with writing code and thinking about it in your spare time.
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: Pretty much. Spend hundreds, thousands of hours doing problems and you'll get good
So literally only way outside of being a genius is to brute-force work on problems? ._. Any suggestions besides AoPS? I know of those books but have yet to get them...well definitely do that.
On March 25 2011 09:20? Z3kk wrote: Wait, so how much exactly do these matter in regard to EECS? I'm still very much open to possibilities, but do I want to enter a future in STEM and EE currently seems to appeal most to me. ._.
Ugh...I think my math skills really are subpar compared to the smarter group of students and I waste ~9 hours a day online, but I really just don't know how I'm supposed to learn about/prepare for these types of things. Gotta cut my addiction, but I just find the Internet/computer so useful...I'm also a perfectionist and focus 100% of my attention on whatever I'm doing, i.e. right now I'm focusing solely on this thread and some random research, and homework has gotten literally nowhere in 1.5 hours. I don't even know where the time went wtf
If you want to do EECS, you don't necessarily have to do math competitions. In fact, if you want to impress compsci-wise, try things like USACO and Topcoder, or build your own cool electrical gadgets (my temp roommate took apart a Wii and stuck it inside a Macbook... so now you can play Wii 100% portably with a built in screen on it!)
If you really want to do math competitions, you really do need just a little talent and a loooooot of work. How can you be good at anything if you don't put in a lot of time?
Right, right, definitely just pure hard work then.
I suppose I'm for EE, and not comp sci, because it seems true then that anyone who hasn't been programming from an earlier age or who has considerable experience is generally screwed in that regard. I don't know any programming languages at all and likely cannot pick up enough to be particularly competitive...I took one of those pointless classes and learned a bit of C#, but I was not a particularly promising student -_-;
Don't worry that much about what you'll study yet. I don't think they pay much attention to your intended major during admissions, and you're in no way bound to it. Lots of people have very little specific background in their major before they pick it. The admissions people are just looking for something that proves you're smart and that you work hard.
Both points noted, thanks! My issue is that I don't know where to look/go to learn...I've applied to 3 summer programs, but I had to turn down acceptance from JHU engineering (4.3k, worst out of 3, 90% refund if I decide to cancel later, I have to send in decision this week and other programs' notification come out later), SAMS@CMU doesn't seem particularly edifying, and YSP@UCD just seems impossible to get into, since it's bio-oriented and I don't have much in the way of extracurriculars right now (and desperately want to get more involved).
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: well, I think he's referring to being admitted to MIT based on math. I'm pretty sure most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO. (Also it's now harder to make USAMO again thanks to that USAJMO thingy... lol.)
But that's what I'm saying. If the total amount of possible USAMO students that could get into college any given year is a max of 1500, it's impossible for 70% of the people at MIT to have made USAMO. Statistically, it doesn't make sense.
First of all, the max of 1500 is ludicrous to assume in the first place, because there are certainly a good percentage of students that make it year after year. Second of all, not all USAMO qualified students go to MIT. And finally, not all USAMO qualified students get into MIT. I know this from personal experience.
Sorry if I didn't make it clear... "most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO." And in aristarchus' case, it was certainly more difficult to get into USAMO pre-expansion, though they've halved the number of USAMO qualifiers again due to the junior olympiad.
Though I might be overestimating, since there are definitely a people majoring in "general math" who are math majors just because it's easy (8 math classes and you get a degree!) So maybe it's better to say "70% of MIT pure math majors made USAMO." I'm talking about my own class and the few above mine, to be precise.
On March 25 2011 09:33 ]343[ wrote: well, I think he's referring to being admitted to MIT based on math. I'm pretty sure most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO. (Also it's now harder to make USAMO again thanks to that USAJMO thingy... lol.)
But that's what I'm saying. If the total amount of possible USAMO students that could get into college any given year is a max of 1500, it's impossible for 70% of the people at MIT to have made USAMO. Statistically, it doesn't make sense.
First of all, the max of 1500 is ludicrous to assume in the first place, because there are certainly a good percentage of students that make it year after year. Second of all, not all USAMO qualified students go to MIT. And finally, not all USAMO qualified students get into MIT. I know this from personal experience.
Sorry if I didn't make it clear... "most (70%?) American MIT math majors have made USAMO." And in aristarchus' case, it was certainly more difficult to get into USAMO pre-expansion, though they've halved the number of USAMO qualifiers again due to the junior olympiad.
Though I might be overestimating, since there are definitely a people majoring in "general math" who are math majors just because it's easy (8 math classes and you get a degree!) So maybe it's better to say "70% of MIT pure math majors made USAMO." I'm talking about my own class and the few above mine, to be precise.
I hate you kids from California so much... So many great in state schools all with good name recognition. Side note, for every poster who's like "wow tl is so smart you guys must be lying" you have to consider what kind of people are gonna post in this thread. Obviously your littler fishes are gonna pass, its an if you got it wave it kind of thing
On March 25 2011 10:01 rocky13 wrote: Got offered and I accepted my MA at University of Waterloo ... also on a waiting list for a Law School but Liquid'Tyler said he's glad he's not in law school and I'm starting to agree with him. I don't really wanna go to Law School.
Hey grats! Started in MSc at York but dropped it cause....well a lot of things sucked. I did recently find out I got into Optometry at Waterloo (only school in the country for English speakers!) so mebbe I'll see you there! :D
Hey hey guys! I'm one of those Americans that decided to jump ship and dodge US admissions. Idk the randomness just didn't appeal to me. Anyways I've got into University College London University of Warwick University of Edinburgh =D GL to all
I hope many of you don't make the mistake of blowing yourself out on high school with the 4+ GPA and trying for high SAT scores and crap.
Once you are accepted into a university, everything before that is absolutely meaningless. And at least here in Virginia, you don't need to be a super star student to get accepted into UVA or VATech.
I would understand something like MIT... but some of you seem kind of super serious about this...
I guess west coast schools are just harder to get in to *shrug*
On March 25 2011 10:14 n.DieJokes wrote: I hate you kids from California so much... So many great in state schools all with good name recognition. Side note, for every poster who's like "wow tl is so smart you guys must be lying" you have to consider what kind of people are gonna post in this thread. Obviously your littler fishes are gonna pass, its an if you got it wave it kind of thing
Legion of mediocre students, RISEEEEE
3.8gpa weighted no extracurricular activities starcraft and hon all day long
1980 SAT 800 Chinese 590 US History 590 English Literature AP Language and Composition 5 ACT 31
On March 25 2011 10:22 Mailing wrote: I hope many of you don't make the mistake of blowing yourself out on high school with the 4+ GPA and trying for high SAT scores and crap.
Once you are accepted into a university, everything before that is absolutely meaningless. And at least here in Virginia, you don't need to be a super star student to get accepted into UVA or VATech.
I would understand something like MIT... but some of you seem kind of super serious about this...
I guess west coast schools are just harder to get in to *shrug*
California does have a lot of good schools but it also has a huge population. Not to mention that it attracts a lot of superstudious international students from Asia. From the people who self-identified their race, many of the posters on this thread are Asian, too.
On March 25 2011 10:21 GreEny K wrote: OMg Mike why you fail so hard? I thought you were a child prodigy Y_Y. Where are Derek and Vic going? Community College? lol
Lol, hi inhale. Derek doesn't know where he's going and I think victor is going to Seton Hall on a swimming scholarship.
I really am curious about the admission process. When schools look at my application, they should see potential (nothing compared to the people here with huge e-penises huge achievements) but have no motivation to actually realize it.
Do they really not look at senior year? If someone did 5 APs their junior but took only 4 core classes the senior, it should raise an alarm, although my essay was probably well-polished.
On March 25 2011 10:22 Mailing wrote: I hope many of you don't make the mistake of blowing yourself out on high school with the 4+ GPA and trying for high SAT scores and crap.
Once you are accepted into a university, everything before that is absolutely meaningless. And at least here in Virginia, you don't need to be a super star student to get accepted into UVA or VATech.
I would understand something like MIT... but some of you seem kind of super serious about this...
I guess west coast schools are just harder to get in to *shrug*
California does have a lot of good schools but it also has a huge population. Not to mention that it attracts a lot of superstudious international students from Asia. From the people who self-identified their race, many of the posters on this thread are Asian, too.
Yeah, ty... that makes sense
One of my best friends in HS was a Chinese student named Ming, who was basically the smartest student in the school, but couldn't be Valedictorian because he was not in IB (You need some bullshit like 8 AP classes to get a higher GPA than an IB student)
Our entire east coast school had less than 1% asian students, I can imagine what a Cali school is like n_n
On March 25 2011 09:54 Fulgrim wrote: GPA: 4.2 SAT: Math 700 CR 710 W 630 SAT II's: U.S. history 770 Physics 690
Classes: All AP and IB junior and senior year, my grades improved significantly from freshman/sophomore to junior/senior year
Extra curricular: XC 4 years, Model United Nations (communications officer, now VP), Haiti relief club, Internship with a congressman for a few weeks, and camp counselor, some community service
Essays + reccs: Pretty damn good
School list: Mcgill: Accepted St.Mary's college of Maryland: Accepted + scholarship program College of W&M: Waiting.... UVA: Hear back tomorrow at 5 pm...................................... JMU: Waiting Tufts: Waiting Brown: Waiting.....
I can't concentrate on anything until I hear back from more schools.....
25 years old atm, finishing college for the first time with my Bachelor's in Physician Assistant come August 2012.
If I'd applied directly out of high school, I would have had a guaranteed seat in my program, however I didn't know about it, and simply assumed I was going to be an engineer. Instead, I went to UT Austin for 2 years in their Biomedical Engineering program there and decided I hated it. I'm definitely too social of a person to be able to handle a mostly laboratory career.
That said, I only went to UT Austin because it was far more affordable than anywhere else I got accepted. This was a huge factor for me, as I was financially and socially disowned by my parents at age 17 after coming out. I think my tear-jerker story, combined with 1590 SAT score (when it was 1600 max), excellent interview ability despite being homeschooled K-12, filled the "diversity checkbox" that has been referred to in this thread.
Didn't finish because I hated my major, and my boyfriend at the time was killed by a drunk driver, sending me into a wonderful toilet bowl of depression. Picked myself back up with the help of some SSRIs and my boyfriend's family, who were actually supportive of him.
Anyways, my advice to any high school juniors who are reading this thread; find some way to promote yourself, not just your academic achievements. A unique personality with a great story is probably one of the greatest things you can promote about yourself.
I was accepted into MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Boston University, and UT Austin. Glad I went the financially feasible route at the time, since I didn't end up getting a degree my first go-around.
Also, remember it's never too late; there's a woman in my program who's 47 and going for her first bachelor's degree after retiring from a full career in the Army as a secretary.
Freshman applicants should read this update on the release of decisions from the Director of Admission.
The Office of Undergraduate Admission is expected to complete its evaluation and selection process in the next few days. As a result, applicants are asked to refrain from submitting any new updates, notifications of awards or honors, and letters of recommendation. We will no longer be able to consider any new materials sent from this point forward.
We are still on schedule to release all freshman admission decisions on Friday, April 1 after 3pm (Pacific Time). All admission decisions will be sent via email from admission@stanford.edu and will be signed by Richard Shaw, Dean of Undergraduate Admission and Financial Aid. Decisions will not be posted on any Stanford Web site and only applicants offered admission will be sent any information by mail. Admitted students will be mailed a packet of materials (including their official offer of admission letter). All other decisions will be sent to students via email — including those students offered a space on our waiting list. All admission decisions will be final and given the highly selective nature of our process, we cannot consider any appeals whatsoever. We never, ever reverse an admission decision once it has been officially rendered.
Between now and April 1, please understand that we will not provide any additional information about the release of admission decisions by phone and we will not release any admission decisions over the phone under any circumstances, with the exception of students who have not received their admission decisions beginning the week of April 4.
We have been truly humbled by this year's selection process. We have tremendous respect for the students who put so much time and effort into their applications and who have worked so hard over the last several years to present us with incredibly compelling cases for consideration.
Unfortunately, roughly 94% of those who have applied will not be offered admission this year. We recognize how stressful this process can be for our applicants but we take great solace in knowing that any student who is even a candidate for admission to a place like Stanford will have wonderful college options, whether it be Stanford or another great university. With great respect and best wishes to all of our candidates, Bob
On March 25 2011 10:51 hypno_toad wrote: I'm not the greatest student around, have average grades and some extracurricular activities..
Got into Becker College for Game Development, gaming is what I've always done, and what I do best, so why not turn it into a career
Woot! Another game developer I remember seeing Becker College at a booth while I was at PAX East I believe.
Are you studying to be an artist or something else?
Looking towards the programming end of it, seeing as I've never been the greatest artist :x.. I might dual major with Game Design as well because when I was looking at the classes you take for Development and Design, they both had a lot of the same classes.
Taking AP CS and am not finding it too difficult atm, and once I start in college I'll start taking my classes very seriously.
Jesus christ, my grades and SAT scores are mediocre compared to you guys. So many Californians too, wonder how my life would have been if I didn't move to VA. Well I got into George Mason and probably gonna go there since I don't like James Madison that much and I didn't apply to Vtech
If I got rejected from UC Berkeley do I have no chance of getting into University of Pennsylvania? I applied as an engineering major if that makes a difference since UCB's engineering might be more competitive than Penn's engineering program
Only applied to my top school Early Action and got in :D
University of Notre Dame- Accepted
~96 weighted GPA 2290 SAT (780 reading 730 math 780 writing) 790 Math II SAT2 750 History SAT2 720 Literature SAT2
bunch of volunteer stuff, xc and track runner, drummer in wind ensemble and jazz band, had a job as a waiter for a while AP World History, U.S. History, Calc BC, Language and Composition- 5
Gonna be double majoring in Math and Music Theory!
On March 25 2011 11:12 FakePromise wrote: Jesus christ, my grades and SAT scores are mediocre compared to you guys. So many Californians too, wonder how my life would have been if I didn't move to VA. Well I got into George Mason and probably gonna go there since I don't like James Madison that much and I didn't apply to Vtech
George Mason is a pretty good school man. I didn't apply there though just because I lived 20 minutes away and wanted to get out of the state (away from parents )
Man applying to schools was quite the experience 2 years ago. Almost ended up going to Eckerd College in Florida (great small liberal arts school although pretty easy to get into) instead went with my 2nd choice Quinnipiac University since I got deferred from first choice U. of Vermont.
Any TLers at QU? I doubt it... Its a pretty good school and I'm enjoying their small Comp. Sci. program. Really up and coming.
On March 25 2011 11:25 ViciousVanitye wrote: Accepted: UC - Berkeley University of Michigan - Ann Arbor University of Colorado - Boulder University of Pennsylvania University of Maryland Rejected: None Waiting: None
On March 25 2011 11:25 ViciousVanitye wrote: Accepted: UC - Berkeley University of Michigan - Ann Arbor University of Colorado - Boulder University of Pennsylvania University of Maryland Rejected: None Waiting: None
Attending UM - Ann Arbor this fall
When did you get your upenn admission?
Oops sorry, I didn't actually apply there I was trying to remember colleges and that was prospective but I never actually did anything about it
On March 25 2011 11:14 GhostKorean wrote: If I got rejected from UC Berkeley do I have no chance of getting into University of Pennsylvania? I applied as an engineering major if that makes a difference since UCB's engineering might be more competitive than Penn's engineering program
You're on even standing. I ahve a friend who got rejected compsci berkeley, got in compsci at UPenn
Waiting: Boston Boston College George Washington University Washington U in St. Louis University of Illinois Maryland George Mason University Washington & Lee Seton Hall Fordham University
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
No, thats false. Schools discriminate against whites and east asians. Thats a verifiable fact.
Looking at you guys, I feel stupid. Its probably the product of me being lazy, but:
SAT: 1970 GPA: 4.68 ACT: 30
Applied to: Florida State (accepted) University of Florida (accepted, attending)
I am mostly going for electrical engineering, maybe a language or programming double major as well. I only applied here because of in-state tuition and scholarships as well.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
No, thats false. Schools discriminate against whites and east asians. Thats a verifiable fact.
4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks National Merit Finalist Some clubs but nothing that important National Honor Society
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
I wish people would stop posting their weighted GPA, it varies so much from school to school.
Anyway for those of you with really high credentials, it's important to remember that for almost everyone, there are a number of people equally qualified as you. Even if you have 3.95, 2370, good extracurriculars, you still won't get into all the Ivies. They simply don't have room to accept everybody of your quality, deserving as you may be.
On March 25 2011 12:00 RedMochi wrote: 4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
holy crap you got screwed over hard. Last year I got accepted into UCSD (which I'm attending now) and UCI and I only had a 4.2 GPA, 2040 SAT, really shitty subject SATs (650's around that LOL), AP Euro, US, Gov, Econ, Lang and Lit (4 4 5 4 3 4[+failed AP Bio/Calc lololol]), and only extracurriculars were my HS Chamber Orchestra getting very good results at various festivals, being first chair, being in SCSBOA Honor Orch and playing in w/ the local CC Symphony and a Concerto w/ them (no community service >_>).
I did write some super fuckin sexy essays though, maybe those count more than I thought.
On March 25 2011 12:00 RedMochi wrote: 4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks National Merit Finalist Some clubs but nothing that important National Honor Society
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
There are tons of us who share your feelings, and lack of faith in the admissions process.
On March 25 2011 12:00 RedMochi wrote: 4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks National Merit Finalist Some clubs but nothing that important National Honor Society
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
There are tons of us who share your feelings, and lack of faith in the admissions process.
Seeing all these rejections with such high credentials makes me glad that Texas makes their public school automatically accept people if they're in the top 10%.
On March 25 2011 12:00 RedMochi wrote: 4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
holy crap you got screwed over hard. Last year I got accepted into UCSD (which I'm attending now) and UCI and I only had a 4.2 GPA, 2040 SAT, really shitty subject SATs (650's around that LOL), AP Euro, US, Gov, Econ, Lang and Lit (4 4 5 4 3 4[+failed AP Bio/Calc lololol]), and only extracurriculars were my HS Chamber Orchestra getting very good results at various festivals, being first chair, being in SCSBOA Honor Orch and playing in w/ the local CC Symphony and a Concerto w/ them (no community service >_>).
I did write some super fuckin sexy essays though, maybe those count more than I thought.
ROFL we have almost the exact same stats, I think I posted mine in last year's thread. I got into Irvine and waitlisted to SD, but yeah the college is so fucking hard to get into now. I didn't even have any notable extra curricular or achievements.
I've seen a lot of people mention that everyone with high scores is getting turned down to the top tier colleges but what you have to understand that schools like Harvard/Stanford/MIT get so many applications from students around the country with 99 percentile SAT scores w/ tons of extra-curricular that "normal" students rarely get in.
To get into these schools, you need to have some kind of edge like having family that went to the school, being in a prestigious family, winning a major competition of some sort, being a strong athlete, going to a well-known or elite private or public high school (T.J. for example), etc. Once you factor in these people who have an "edge" over you who also have equal level qualifications (they may or may not be smarter/harder working than you), there are very few spots for the really smart and talented "normal" guys.
The best advice is to not sweat it. Go to whichever school accepts you, do well and move on with your life. Many non ivy league schools have programs just as good (if not better) than many ivy league schools. If you have your heart set on a certain program or career path, do the research and find out how you can make it happen.
edit: You also need to realize that if Harvard/Stanford/MIT/etc wanted to, they could limit their acceptance to only those who scored above 2350 (or higher) on the SAT with ease. The competition at the top is fierce so if you are not above 2300 and you don't have one of my above mentioned "edges" than you are going to need a miracle or the best set of extra-curriculars known to man. RedMochi is sadly, a perfect example of this.
God damn a lot of you (op lol) waste way too much time trying to get in to these schools :/ you should live life while you're still young. You might look intelligent on paper but you're fuckin stupid (no offense) if your priorities are that skewed. Getting a perfect weighted AP GPA and great scores on all your SATs and SATIIs is not a sign of getting a real education of any kind of value, and i find it hard to believe that you'd have time to do both since achieving the first is such a time sink. This is why i'd never want to go to an ivy league, because they've got so many kids that just spend literally their entire high school lives preparing for college.
Mark Twain had a great quote, he said "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education". Unless this kind of faux-academic stuff is all you really like to do, i don't mean to judge. Just my 2 cents, i'm still a junior in hs anyway. hf
3.98 unweighted GPA 2000 SAT 560 SAT Chem 780 SAT Math II 250+ Volunteer hours Vice President of NHS President of Model United Nations President of Mathletes
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology - Accepted University of Washington - Accepted Harvey Mudd College - Rejected Western Washington University - Accepted Standford - Waiting
On March 25 2011 12:00 RedMochi wrote: 4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks National Merit Finalist Some clubs but nothing that important National Honor Society
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
There are tons of us who share your feelings, and lack of faith in the admissions process.
Yeah it does, but I'm hoping somewhere East accepts me. If not, then it looks like UCR for me. At least they gave me a partial scholarship. If that happens I intend to transfer, hopefully to an ivy. Or if transfers don't work out then graduate as fast as possible. I should have enough credits for mid-year sophomore standing if I end up going.
On March 25 2011 12:26 chameleonism wrote: I've seen a lot of people mention that everyone with high scores is getting turned down to the top tier colleges but what you have to understand that schools like Harvard/Stanford/MIT get so many applications from students around the country with 99 percentile SAT scores w/ tons of extra-curricular that "normal" students rarely get in.
To get into these schools, you need to have some kind of edge like having family that went to the school, being in a prestigious family, winning a major competition of some sort, being a strong athlete, going to a well-known or elite private or public high school (T.J. for example), etc. Once you factor in these people who have an "edge" over you who also have equal level qualifications (they may or may not be smarter/harder working than you), there are very few spots for the really smart and talented "normal" guys.
The best advice is to not sweat it. Go to whichever school accepts you, do well and move on with your life. Many non ivy league schools have programs just as good (if not better) than many ivy league schools. If you have your heart set on a certain program or career path, do the research and find out how you can make it happen.
edit: You also need to realize that if Harvard/Stanford/MIT/etc wanted to, they could limit their acceptance to only those who scored above 2350 (or higher) on the SAT with ease. The competition at the top is fierce so if you are not above 2300 and you don't have one of my above mentioned "edges" than you are going to need a miracle or the best set of extra-curriculars known to man. RedMochi is sadly, a perfect example of this.
I think you misunderstand me. I would not be surprised if I was rejected from the ivy leagues since the competition is incredibly harsh. But it's a complete surprise for the stats that I have to be rejected from so many UC's, even UCI. I expected at least UCI and maybe UCLA or UCB.
On March 25 2011 12:26 chameleonism wrote: I've seen a lot of people mention that everyone with high scores is getting turned down to the top tier colleges but what you have to understand that schools like Harvard/Stanford/MIT get so many applications from students around the country with 99 percentile SAT scores w/ tons of extra-curricular that "normal" students rarely get in.
To get into these schools, you need to have some kind of edge like having family that went to the school, being in a prestigious family, winning a major competition of some sort, being a strong athlete, going to a well-known or elite private or public high school (T.J. for example), etc. Once you factor in these people who have an "edge" over you who also have equal level qualifications (they may or may not be smarter/harder working than you), there are very few spots for the really smart and talented "normal" guys.
The best advice is to not sweat it. Go to whichever school accepts you, do well and move on with your life. Many non ivy league schools have programs just as good (if not better) than many ivy league schools. If you have your heart set on a certain program or career path, do the research and find out how you can make it happen.
edit: You also need to realize that if Harvard/Stanford/MIT/etc wanted to, they could limit their acceptance to only those who scored above 2350 (or higher) on the SAT with ease. The competition at the top is fierce so if you are not above 2300 and you don't have one of my above mentioned "edges" than you are going to need a miracle or the best set of extra-curriculars known to man. RedMochi is sadly, a perfect example of this.
I have a question to people who attend the cream of the crop schools. When you get there, are the students all what you expect out of a top tier school? Do they all have amazing credentials and achievements with super amazing intellect? I can't imagine that one school could be filled with nothing but these geniuses all with outstanding achievement
On March 25 2011 12:00 RedMochi wrote: 4.2 weighted gpa 2240 SAT 35 ACT 800 Math II 790 Chem 790 US history 770 Bio 740 Physics APs: Calc BC, Bio, US History, Physics B, English lit&comp, compsci A, Euro All 4's and 5's. Mostly 5's 250+ hours volunteering National and International Awards for Piano State and National Awards for Science competitions AMC 12- 88.5 AIME- 2 <--- yeah i know it sucks National Merit Finalist Some clubs but nothing that important National Honor Society
Accepted: UCR Cal Poly Pomona
Rejected: UCI UCSD UCLA UCB
Waiting: Columbia Harvard Princeton Yale
I have officially lost all faith in the college admissions process.
On March 25 2011 12:34 StarcraftAnomaly wrote: From WA:
3.98 unweighted GPA 2000 SAT 560 SAT Chem 780 SAT Math II 250+ Volunteer hours Vice President of NHS President of Model United Nations President of Mathletes
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology - Accepted University of Washington - Accepted Harvey Mudd College - Rejected Western Washington University - Accepted Standford - Waiting
You have an extremely similar profile to mine. Except I have a lower math score and higher chem score, otherwise everything else pretty much the same. US SC for MUN and a few others. I'm also contemplating Rosehulman and got accepted, will you go?
Also, UCSD is confusing me. I see you guys with such high credentials getting rejected, and I had a friend with 1850 get in. I'm 1990 SAT and I got my ass landed in waitlist...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
hope to keep my grades/activities the way they are at the moment in hopes to get into Northwestern/Stanford/other top tier schools.
(goals) basically through my 2nd year and my goals i'm 3.86 unweighted (4.whatever weighted) 3 year football starter/captain 3 year track study abroad (going to France this summer to study) I've got a 4 on the AP US exam freshman year, and have AP gov in may...hope i can get at least a 4 on that as well.
Not sure about what i'm aiming for on the SAT/ACT seeing as i'm not particularly knowledgeable about them...
On March 25 2011 09:45 xoreyy wrote: Holy shit, I always figured that Starcraft enthusiasts were probably an intelligent bunch, but damn, I didn't expect numbers like this. No wonder my area is considered "demographically challenged" (poor and stupid). I post some of the most impressive academic stats around here and people consider me to be really smart, a label which I wholly reject; there is NO ONE like you guys within a 50 mile radius of where I live.
4.48 weighted GPA (have only had 2 semester b's), 4's and 5's on 6 AP exams (5's on BC calc, psych, english lit and comp) SATs were mediocre. 700 verbal, 680 math, 710 writing. 740 on the Math II Extracurriculars are awful aside from sports (4 varsity years for cross country and soccer) Won a lot of academic awards from the school and school system, but I doubt those count for much. Have shit for clubs and service. Only National Honor Society and a few volunteer hours.
Schools: JMU - Accepted Pitt - Accepted UVA - Find out tomorrow at 5pm, but I got what is called a "likely letter", so I'm fairly confident.
Congrats to everyone in here
Dude likely letter = in. They send it out to like the top 5% of their applicants, to keep them interested in UVA. congrats! I may see you there, depending on whether I get in or not....
Thanks! I was just about to quote your previous post until I saw this one. You should definitely get in with a resume like that. Do you live in VA?
I'm also contemplating Rosehulman and got accepted, will you go?
If I can get some more money from them. What they offered me won't be enough. I'm going to write a letter asking if they can give me anymore, because I really would like to go. UW would then be my backup, but it's so huge... Definitely do not expect to get accepted to Stanford.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
For every white friend of yours, I can name at least five (I originally typed ten, but that might be pushing it) Asian friends with equal or better stats, what's your point? I never said it was easy for "white".
This is a well-known issue, called affirmative action.
I don't blame them, diversity is important.
Anyway, this is derailing the thread. Good luck to everyone.
So I have a friend who got rejected by yale. He had a 98 GPA, a 2400 on this SAT, he's been principal clarinetist in the local youth orchestra for the past 3 years (I'll finally get a chance next year!), he has 16 5's on APs, he was a finalist in the international clarinet highschool competition, he's on varsity tennis, and he's captain of the math team, and he's the regional champion in chess.
However, he's chinese...so gets rejected by yale and MIT...at least he got into REMS which is awesome!
I knew someone who was chinese and probably had about the same amount of 5's on APs, valedictorian of our high school, and probably really high SAT. He got into MIT. Your friend should've gotten in, but he probably didn't have a strong essay or something. It's not just because he was chinese
I went to MIT, and for a while you were able to get your admissions paperwork from their office and see what they wrote during your admissions process. No guarantees it still works this way, but it's probably similar (and similar at other top schools too). Also, I'm doing this from memory, so the details might not all be exact.
They condense your application to a one-page summary. That includes SAT scores, GPA (recalculated by them to standardize). They combine your academics into some sort of overall number score. They then have a series roughly 5 attributes they can check off, to the best of my memory - academics, co-curricular, diversity, interview, and recommendations. Then there is a little box where each of the two or three people who read your whole recommendation can write a couple sentences. That page then goes to the people who actually make the decisions (and presumably borderline people there then get their application looked at again).
As far as I was able to tell, you either get the diversity check or you don't, and that's all that matters there (whites and asians don't get it). The academic check is extremely hard to get. I had straight As, 1600 SATs (before it increased), perfect SAT II scores, and 5s on all of my 10 APs, and I didn't get it. (Those things go into the number they calculate - to get the additional check you presumably need to have won the Intel science fair or something.) I got the interview and recommendation checks, as well as the co-curricular one (several major extracurriculars). I got in early, so that (and my number) was apparently enough.
Acceptances are kind of random. It's extremely hard. There are a lot of extremely smart people, and they don't care about sports and that sort of stuff (other than the general value of extracurriculars, of course). The admissions committee is not perfect. There are lots of geniuses, but also a couple people who aren't all that smart. There's just only so much you can tell from a college application. They get it right more than they get it wrong, but remember that it's kind of random. Don't take a decision (either way) personally.
AFAIK they only released them if you were still in your first year. Not very well advertised at all (probably intentional). I didn't know about it till I was a sophomore.
On March 25 2011 12:34 StarcraftAnomaly wrote: From WA:
3.98 unweighted GPA 2000 SAT 560 SAT Chem 780 SAT Math II 250+ Volunteer hours Vice President of NHS President of Model United Nations President of Mathletes
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology - Accepted University of Washington - Accepted Harvey Mudd College - Rejected Western Washington University - Accepted Standford - Waiting
You have an extremely similar profile to mine. Except I have a lower math score and higher chem score, otherwise everything else pretty much the same. US SC for MUN and a few others. I'm also contemplating Rosehulman and got accepted, will you go?
Also, UCSD is confusing me. I see you guys with such high credentials getting rejected, and I had a friend with 1850 get in. I'm 1990 SAT and I got my ass landed in waitlist...
On March 25 2011 12:42 Jombozeus wrote: WHY UCSD, WHY SO CONFUSING?
I just had to:
On topic:
Accepted: UIUC MIT Berkeley
Rejected: Caltech
Waiting: Harvard Stanford
Stats: 3.95 UW GPA. 36 ACT 2260 SAT [Sucked on writing] SATII Math II: 800 SATII Physics: 760 SATII US History: 720 APs: Euro, Chem, Calc BC, US History, Physics C,[Taking Studio Art: 2D, Bio and Psych currently]: All were 4's except for Calc and Chem.
Extracurriculars: National Merit Finalist Math Team - Top 10 scorer in the state. AIME qualifier sophomore and junior [and now senior] year, 4/3 Acadec Lego.
Ethnicity: Korean. Hopeful major: MatSci?
Was deferred from MIT, and expected a rejection because of my craptastic essays, but somehow got in. Pretty sure it was thanks to the art portfolio of Lego I sent in, lol.
As weak as it sounds in comparison to the people in this thread, I was accepted to Cal Poly and the University of Washington for Electrical Engineering and was pretty excited.
Attending UW, can't justify Cal Poly's price. @op, I have a friend that is very similar to you and also got denied from Stanford. Sounds extremely tough to get in :/
I have a question to people who attend the cream of the crop schools. When you get there, are the students all what you expect out of a top tier school?
No.
Do they all have amazing credentials and achievements with super amazing intellect?
About ~30% yes. About 30% I wonder how they even got in, in the first place.
I can't imagine that one school could be filled with nothing but these geniuses all with outstanding achievement
Welcome to the wonders of enforcing diversity, maybe?
Caveat: This is based upon 3 months~ of TAing experiences. Interpret at your own risk...
PS. In the sciences, I wouldn't worry too much about what undergrad you go to. To be quite blunt, the only thing that changes there is how much student debt you end up accumulating. (Optimal situation imo, is to get accepted to a decent research university + merit based full-ride scholarship)
Have some self-discipline in college, ace your classes, get stellar letters of recommendation, and you'll likely get in wherever you apply. (At least, grad school admission criteria seem far more logical)
Oh, and do research. Your PI(s) recommendation there will make or break your grad school application.
11 years of orchestra and 7 years of band. Drum major That's pretty much all my extra curriculars..
Making UCI my backup school was probably really risky this year...and it's so depressing seeing people with much better stats than me get rejected everywhere T_T (RedMochi - I am so sorry...)
On a different note, it's extremely frustrating to see stupider people at my school get accepted to UCSD and UCLA....
SAT: 1610 =D never studied for it took it junior year havent taken it since ACT: never took it
I have like 60 college credits too from running start probably have my AA before I graduate too =D
4 years in football 3 year varsity starter took 3rd in state 2 of my varisty years countless hours volunteering with youth football and volunteering at a Together! center probably 500+ easily
On March 25 2011 12:56 CPTBadAss wrote: You crazy kids. How do you have a GPA that's more than 4.0??
They cheat. Any honors or AP course is graded on a 5.0 scale(A=5,B=4...), and then weight it into your overal gpa And almost every school will recalculate your GPA to standardize it with all their other apps. So if your school doesn't weight it it doesn't matter the school will do it for you
What do American high school marks mean in Canada? O; And what's the difference between Universities and Colleges? As far as I know, I've only applied to universities?
I really wish they didn't look at it at all so hard, but I can see they have little else to examine.
It's quite possible to run into a bad teacher for example... My AP Chem teacher from 11th grade had 11 students in our class. One person ended with a high B average after the year was done, I was in the middle with a low B, and over 5 of us got D/E... Either the teacher did not teach us or would give us work that did not pertain to what we were supposed to be studying for that time period.. Something like this can drop your GPA a lot :/
On March 25 2011 12:59 Blisse wrote: What do American high school marks mean in Canada? O; And what's the difference between Universities and Colleges? As far as I know, I've only applied to universities?
Basically Universities are larger and a collection of colleges that specialize in various things, IE your University will have a school of Business
Was deferred from MIT, and expected a rejection because of my craptastic essays, but somehow got in. Pretty sure it was thanks to the art portfolio of Lego I sent in, lol.
Reall cool. Did you send the art portfolio after your deferral or before? At the top top schools, deferral is almost always a polite rejection.
TIL everyone on TL does really well in school. This thread makes me feel so lazy.
It seems like US schools are so hard to get into. I basically slacked and skipped class most of high school and didn't have any extracurricular stuff and got into engineering at UofT here in Canada which is a decent school here. I've been pretty lazy all of university and only had a GPA barely over 2 but I'm only going to have about $25k in debt when I graduate in a year with 4 years of school plus a year of exchange where I dropped out and just traveled. It's so easy to get free money here from grants and such.
Maybe some of you should apply to Canadian schools? Seems like it's way easier to get into. Oh but I guess it's too late for September.
I got a 1420 on my SAT...back when a 1420 was actually a pretty decent score!
This numbers all seem very important pre-college, but once you get into a school they become meaningless. I'm applying to medical schools and not a single one asked what my SAT scores were, how many AP's I took or what my high school GPA was. (Of course there are different tests to take for graduate programs).
The reason I say this is not to disparage hard work in high school, but to let everyone who doesn't have an excellent high school "resume" know that college will give them another shot - so make the best of it!
On March 25 2011 13:14 Keitzer wrote: Why do all the Asians have insane GPA/score reports?
Can someone give a detailed-enough response for me please?
Because we work harder on average. I don't know how detailed it has to get. If you have a decent IQ above 110, spends the time, you will be able to get 2000+ SAT.
I've heard that most schools just look at unweighted because of the strange differences between schools on weighting. I have a friend whose school actually gives +/-'s, so an A+ would have a different GPA than a A. It was the first time I heard of such a thing.
On March 25 2011 12:59 Blisse wrote: What do American high school marks mean in Canada? O; And what's the difference between Universities and Colleges? As far as I know, I've only applied to universities?
Basically Universities are larger and a collection of colleges that specialize in various things, IE your University will have a school of Business
Huh, didn't know that. So colleges make up a university sometimes. Yet in the U.S. there are some single schools that are named ____ college. Seems really arbitary.
Was deferred from MIT, and expected a rejection because of my craptastic essays, but somehow got in. Pretty sure it was thanks to the art portfolio of Lego I sent in, lol.
Reall cool. Did you send the art portfolio after your deferral or before? At the top top schools, deferral is almost always a polite rejection.
Thanks! I sent it before the deferral. After deferral I didn't send in anything else, minus the midyear report; kinda gave up.
Yeah what the hell. Why do Canadian Universities look so terrible compared to American ones. 98 average getting declined? Insane.
I've been working my average up since grade 9. It was 92 the last few years and I've finally pulled it up to 94. Aiming for 95 by the end of the year. Second term marks due today. You guys are total nonsense.
My reasoning for Asians working harder is because more of them are immigrants, and they realized that their parents sacrificed a lot to bring them overseas, so disappointing them is really not an option. I can't speak for South Asians though. Maybe some are just naturally more disciplined.
On March 25 2011 13:14 Keitzer wrote: Why do all the Asians have insane GPA/score reports?
Can someone give a detailed-enough response for me please?
Because we work harder on average. I don't know how detailed it has to get. If you have a decent IQ above 110, spends the time, you will be able to get 2000+ SAT.
Although, many asians are lacking in the EC department.
Best way to get into a top college in US is to have strong grades, high test scores, and some high achievement in an area. For example, if you make mop for math, a science olympiad traveling team, or are a sick athlete or were a national debate champion, on top of good grades you stand a pretty strong chance. And there are typically enough people like this to fill up a lot of spots in top schools, which makes it hard to get in if you dont have this type of profile.
On March 25 2011 12:56 CPTBadAss wrote: You crazy kids. How do you have a GPA that's more than 4.0??
They cheat. Any honors or AP course is graded on a 5.0 scale(A=5,B=4...), and then weight it into your overal gpa And almost every school will recalculate your GPA to standardize it with all their other apps. So if your school doesn't weight it it doesn't matter the school will do it for you
Oh so that's why everyone's GPA was so high. I'm doing IB and A is a 4.5, so I was like wtf b/c some people had >4.5 GPAs which quite frankly I thought was ridiculous.
On March 25 2011 08:05 cerka wrote: Acceptances: University of Michigan California Pyrotechnical Institute: San Luis Obispo Southern Methodist University UCSB UCI
Rejected: Washington University in Saint Louis UCLA UCSD
Waiting to hear back from: Berkeley Cornell University Lehigh University Vanderbilt University Wesleyan University
Stats: 4.72 weighted HS GPA (Freshmen through Junior year) 2260 SAT SAT II: 800 Math II 770 US History 740 English And a ton of extra curricular activities, leadership, etc.
Damn you didn't make WashU? I'm there right now and my GPA is below yours lol 4.21. SAT better tho 2300. GL on Berkeley. I've always been a strong believer of the LA/Berkeley Tradeoff. If LA rejected you you just might get Berkeley
There is something you aren't telling us. You'd get into washington U if you really had all this leadership stuff, etc.
well that's one helluva sassy way to put it lol from what i hear wash u loves to accept a lot of their early application peeps and waitlist / reject a lot of the rest (the people who apply early usually have more motivation to go into wash u etc.) and thus their numbers (for # of students invited / # of students accepted) look really good on paper. kind of a dickish way to mess with the statistics imo
Freshman at WashU here. They had wayyyy more people accept offers than they expected last year, so the number of people admitted here is down 15% from last year even though the # of applicants increased by 15%. It also depends a lot on the major/area of study you applied for.
Applied Early Decision to Carnegie Mellon, got accepted, so I'm going there. So happy! I also applied to USC's scholarship program (before my CMU decision) and got it, although its kinda stupid cos I can't even go there now hehe.
Stats: IB Diploma student, 41 predicted 3.85 unweighted, 4.05 weighted SAT: 2110 first try, 2320 second 780 Physics, 800 Math II, 720 US History APs: 4 US History, 5 Calc AB, 5 Microecon ECs: Varsity rugby, student council Rec letters: I think they were pretty good, although theres no way of knowing for sure etc,etc...
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
Top tier universities are worth it in the sense that they can open up many more opportunities. In a tier 3 or tier 2 school, you won't be tossing your 15-30 experience away; in a tier 1 school, you can choose to toss your 15-30 experience away. I think that is the difference there. But of course there is a premium you have to pay on this choice, whether it is financial or time sacrificed in HS. When I was younger, it wasn't something I thought much about, but not that I've worked a few years, I've noticed that people do regard you different if you come from a tier 1 school. And by different, I mean both sides of it--admiration/respect as well as jealousy. Shrug, it is what it is.
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
Top tier universities are worth it in the sense that they can open up many more opportunities. In a tier 3 or tier 2 school, you won't be tossing your 15-30 experience away; in a tier 1 school, you can choose to toss your 15-30 experience away. I think that is the difference there. But of course there is a premium you have to pay on this choice, whether it is financial or time sacrificed in HS. When I was younger, it wasn't something I thought much about, but not that I've worked a few years, I've noticed that people do regard you different if you come from a tier 1 school. And by different, I mean both sides of it--admiration/respect as well as jealousy. Shrug, it is what it is.
What is 15-30 experience, and what is a top tier school.
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
Top tier universities are worth it in the sense that they can open up many more opportunities. In a tier 3 or tier 2 school, you won't be tossing your 15-30 experience away; in a tier 1 school, you can choose to toss your 15-30 experience away. I think that is the difference there. But of course there is a premium you have to pay on this choice, whether it is financial or time sacrificed in HS. When I was younger, it wasn't something I thought much about, but not that I've worked a few years, I've noticed that people do regard you different if you come from a tier 1 school. And by different, I mean both sides of it--admiration/respect as well as jealousy. Shrug, it is what it is.
What is 15-30 experience, and what is a top tier school.
15-30 experience is your life when you are 15-30 years old. He's saying that you can throw away your youth by staying shut inside studying and not doing anything "fun". A top tier school is a school that is considered among the most prestigious. Probably talking about U.S. Universities e.g. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, etc
still waiting for my private universities... got into UC Berkeley and other random UCs, but holding out. So many people getting rejected though I'm worried >.<
I'm asian and I'm terrible, about third-tier in my school, if UCB/UCLA was 1st tier, and UCI/CalPoly was 2nd tier.
Probably going to American University in D.C. as a polysci major. Not too bad for my grades, they gave me a full ride ^^
Got rejected from UCI, UCD, CalPoly...still waiting for BU, but it seems like I'm grasping at straws here.
Sigh...I don't deserve much anyways. Haven't done well in school by my standards. Thought going to a top 40 HS in US would help, but apparently it doesn't.
Best of luck to those of you guys who've achieved better, you guys really deserve it.
in general if you're smart and a hard worker (and know what that actually means) you will do well. That said, there are some jobs that almost exclusively hire from top tier schools (HMPSY) right out of undergrad, especially in finance( private equity, venture capital, hedge funds).
There are a lot of professions though where undergrad hardly matters at all (law, medicine).
Coming from someone who is about to graduate from university, I just want to say congratulations to everyone in this thread and hopefully you all got into the school of your choice.
After reading through this thread, there is one thing I have to say: Holy shit.
Getting into a university/college in the USA seems really hard. If I understand it correctly, you need to have the best grades, do extremely well on some test and have extra-curricular stuff...and even then you're not guaranteed to go to top universities? :| Good luck everyone.
Good luck to everyone! I remember this crap last year.
Anyone applied to Middlebury College?
^Yes getting into top universities can be amazingly difficult, it is such a huge coinflip actually. There are just so many students with very high grades, great test scores, and fantastic achievements that get rejected by many of the top schools. Still, there are significant tipping factors like being an athlete, a minority, or having a connection to the school that can make it relatively easy to get in as well.
Waiting: Harvey Mudd (should be coming any day now) Duke Columbia
4.46 weighted GPA 2400 SAT 800 SAT Physics 800 SAT Math 2 790 SAT Chem AIME Qualifier, 6th place at Stanford Math Tournament, other competitive math stuff FBLA Awards, etc Tech Museum Tech Challenge participant Some volunteer work Guitar, etc
Meh, didn't expect to get into MIT or Caltech, i really lack anything spectacular (MOPer, US Physics Team, Intel Semi, etc) oh well.
^Another super qualified soul rejected at MIT/Caltch...very sad. My friends got into Caltech but we're east coast. They were pretty good at math too, almost USAMO, but I think more importantly they would've been pretty good on Caltech's tennis team or something lol.
GL with the other three. I think you have a solid shot with Harvey Mudd. Columbia/Duke are pretty tough tough; I think you can definitely get Duke, Columbia far more iffy unless you did columbia engineering.
Only applied to three schools, don't plan on leaving Florida for a long time. UF: Accepted FSU: Accepted UCF: Never replied? Applied in October and never heard since. I have no interest in going anyway, just applied as a backup for the backup.
Have wanted to go to UF since I was a little kid, so I was pretty fucking stoked when I got in.
GL to everyone that has yet to hear from the first choice school!
On March 25 2011 10:51 hypno_toad wrote: I'm not the greatest student around, have average grades and some extracurricular activities..
Got into Becker College for Game Development, gaming is what I've always done, and what I do best, so why not turn it into a career
Woot! Another game developer I remember seeing Becker College at a booth while I was at PAX East I believe.
Are you studying to be an artist or something else?
Looking towards the programming end of it, seeing as I've never been the greatest artist :x.. I might dual major with Game Design as well because when I was looking at the classes you take for Development and Design, they both had a lot of the same classes.
Taking AP CS and am not finding it too difficult atm, and once I start in college I'll start taking my classes very seriously.
Remember kids: college doesn't make you, it's you that makes you.
Even though I'm at a state university in a non-engineering major (CIS), I make more than alumni as a student with a career job. Depending on the field you plan on going into, experience will get you much further than college ever will.
On March 26 2011 00:31 ChrisXIV wrote: After reading through this thread, there is one thing I have to say: Holy shit.
Getting into a university/college in the USA seems really hard. If I understand it correctly, you need to have the best grades, do extremely well on some test and have extra-curricular stuff...and even then you're not guaranteed to go to top universities? :| Good luck everyone.
The people posting in this thread are attempting to get in the top 1% of schools. Plenty of mid tier and lower level schools to attend if you aren't a 4.0 student. all of the schools being listed here are pretty much world class schools, and unbelievably expensive unless you are instate for University of Cali or U of Michigan.
Can anyone tell me what the diffrence is between college and university? In Europe, ppl go to University (if ur smart) or some other, lower specialized education (such as becoming a elementary school teacher)
On March 26 2011 06:20 ScrubS wrote: Can anyone tell me what the diffrence is between college and university? In Europe, ppl go to University (if ur smart) or some other, lower specialized education (such as becoming a elementary school teacher)
i THINK that university is looked at as a 4 year place to study. College is only 2 years (i could be totally wrong lol). However, University is also loosely refereed to as College (very very oftern), but never the other way...
For those wondering how the College/University system works in Canada, I will break it down:
In high school we have two types of classes: Academic (University credits) and Applied (College/nothing credits)
Universities in Canada require you to have Academic credits in order to be accepted.
College's will accept Academic AND Applied credits.
Now...Colleges are usually diploma or certificate programs. By these I mean, any trade (welding, electrician, mechanic, etc.) or you can take a diploma program, things such as business or whatever.
You DO NOT get a degree from a College, only a diploma, certificate, etc.
Universities on the other hand, are where you can get your Bachelors, MBAs, PHDs, etc.
Some people (like me currently) have to go to College first, receive my diploma, and then go to University, since in high school, I did not have Academic classes. However, many Colleges have what we call "articulation agreements" with Universities, where, if we completed our College courses and received our diploma, we can jump into the last two years of a 4 year degree. (note: Articulation agreements are school specific, and are something you should look into before you go to College, hoping to go to University.)
I think that covers how the Canadian system works. Lemme know if you have questions or if someone from Canada wants to add anything to this : )
On March 26 2011 06:20 ScrubS wrote: Can anyone tell me what the diffrence is between college and university? In Europe, ppl go to University (if ur smart) or some other, lower specialized education (such as becoming a elementary school teacher)
I believe the terms are interchangable, however some public universities I believe are more of the level of ''HBO'' in our country. Either way, I was wondering what does regents accepted/rejected or regents mean?
I have a 2.6 GPA 180 out of 260 rank got a 32 on the ACT and am into UMD (university of minnisota duluth) one of the captains of my schools FIRST team that went to nationals and placed in the top half there.
I applied to michigan tech and a couple other places and got in everywhere. but all in all I don't think its really that hard to get into a decent college in america it costs quite a bit is the real sticking point you can get scholarships to places if you got the grades or (being frank here) are of a minority poor or am female. I am none of these so I'm going to have to go to a good paying career even if I really don't like it. (my current girlfriend wants to be a social studies teacher so I might have to help her out to if we make it though college together)
a Bunch of my friends are even going to community college for 2 years to get all their generals done before transferring to a real university beacuse its a lot cheaper.
On March 26 2011 06:20 ScrubS wrote: Can anyone tell me what the diffrence is between college and university? In Europe, ppl go to University (if ur smart) or some other, lower specialized education (such as becoming a elementary school teacher)
As far I can tell, there really is no major difference. But if I were to generalize (a lot), colleges tend to be smaller and also tend to be liberal arts focused. Even then, the term "college" is interchangeable with "university". For example, I couldn't really tell you why Dartmouth is a college while Brown is a university.
A long time back it would have been ridiculous in the 1600s to call Harvard a university because it started with just a few students and couldn't compare to Oxford/Cambridge in the least. The name kind of stuck around until much later and I guess the same is true for a lot of American colleges?
On March 26 2011 06:20 ScrubS wrote: Can anyone tell me what the diffrence is between college and university? In Europe, ppl go to University (if ur smart) or some other, lower specialized education (such as becoming a elementary school teacher)
I believe the terms are interchangable, however some public universities I believe are more of the level of ''HBO'' in our country. Either way, I was wondering what does regents accepted/rejected or regents mean?
In the US they're largely interchangeable. Technically I believe the difference is that universities offer post-graduate degrees or have multiple separate "colleges" within them (college of sciences, college of law, etc.). Places that use "college" tend to be smaller, but there are plenty of colleges that are extremely prestigious. This is unique to the US, I believe - everywhere else "college" is much less prestigious.
On March 26 2011 06:38 jahre wrote: Best of luck to all attending. I graduated last December, and I wish I was starting over again. The real world sucks. Enjoy your time.
In the united states, you typically use "college" to refer to going into higher education at all - example, a highschool graduate would say "next fall I am going to college" regardless of the actual school they're attending. You don't really hear people say "I am going to University"
As far as the actual distinction, which institution uses which name, as far as I can tell, it's about the size. For example, classes at Cornell University are separated into seven more specific areas, named "colleges" that function as independant units, choosing which students to accept, which courses to offer, which professors teach those courses, offering advising and other academic programs, etc. The colleges together make up the University that is Cornell. Many other schools operate by this system, including the one I attend. My twin sister however, attends a much smaller school than I do (literally about 1/6th the enrollment) that does not hold this separation. It uses the title of college.
tl;dr - university is a conglomeration of multiple "sub units" - these sub units are called colleges, but colleges can also be separate, not part of a university.
i thought college was just an american thing down here in New Zealand we use college somewhat interchangeably with high school (e.g. i went to Saint Kentigern College for year 9-13). We use University, uni or varsity for higher education, or we just call it tertiary education
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
It's worth it if you're getting a job. It's less important if you're going to grad school
Congrats to everyone getting into any school! It already puts you in a very high category in comparison to the rest of the world. Every college is different, but please don't go to college (esp. top schools) for the sole purpose of getting a degree, or just so you can leave and go to graduate school (or even worse.... just so you can flaunt your resume). You'll either find things impossibly hard or find other destructive ways to dump your stress. You are not your grades, your achievements, your failures, your school, or your resume - you are you. Find out what you like, work hard, and grow up. This coming from second-year junior applying to grad school next year who nearly did exactly that.
On March 26 2011 06:37 sermokala wrote: I applied to michigan tech and a couple other places and got in everywhere. but all in all I don't think its really that hard to get into a decent college in america it costs quite a bit is the real sticking point you can get scholarships to places if you got the grades or (being frank here) are of a minority poor or am female. I am none of these so I'm going to have to go to a good paying career even if I really don't like it. (my current girlfriend wants to be a social studies teacher so I might have to help her out to if we make it though college together)
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
It's worth it if you're getting a job. It's less important if you're going to grad school
If you know that you want to go to grad school it's probably just as important to go to a top university. As someone who is in grad school now, and has seen many people go through the application process, I can say that students from top schools have a huge advantage when it comes to grad admissions at other top schools.
Personally, I think in the end it is better go to a cheaper state university unless you really know what you want to do after undergrad. You can always transfer to another school. I mean..... having a B.S. and not knowing what to do with it after is just pointless.
I would however suggest going to a bigger university with a lot of programs, so you can pick and choose later when really deciding on what you want to major in.
Professional schools outside that of just going to grad school will take into account criteria that goes beyond just what school you come from. A specific major won't be required entering them. So GPA and such will vary from what kind of major you have had even within the same school.
In the real world... your boss won't care about your GPA or what class you took. If you can't get the job done, they will find someone else better to handle that position regardless of how awesome you look on paper.
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
It's worth it if you're getting a job. It's less important if you're going to grad school
Of course, it's easier to get into, say, stanford grad school if you went to stanford.
Probably means nothing to you crazy scholars, but I got into Engineering Science at the University of Toronto. Waiting for response from University of Waterloo though under Software Engineering.
4.1366 GPA (weighted) 2210 SAT -740 Reading -690 Math -780 Writing 720 SAT II Biology 780 SAT II US History (would have been higher, but I took it ~9 months after my history class ended) 690 SAT II Literature 5 US History AP Exam 4 Chemistry AP Exam --> Taking AP Physics, European History, and Literature this year
4.0 GPA UW 2400 SAT (one sitting) 790 Physics 800 Math 2 790 Literature 5's on: Physics B, Chem, Calc BC, World History, US History, Lang
Science Olympiad president (we're decent...) Baller violinist Community service organizations and stuff Music organizations and stuff Some other stuff
Accepted to: University of Chicago Likely letters from: University of Pennsylvania, Duke Rejected from: MIT (yeah, well, I don't like you anyway) Waiting for: Harvard Princeton Yale Columbia Some others, but I stopped caring about them after Penn. =/
sorry to hear that. and really the school you choose should be based on your major. UCI is kind of a commuter school compared to some other UCs, so just be aware of that.
On March 26 2011 08:12 LosingID8 wrote: sorry to hear that. and really the school you choose should be based on your major. UCI is kind of a commuter school compared to some other UCs, so just be aware of that.
Really? I never heard that.
I'm going to UCI in the fall; my stats are pretty damn terrible though. I got rejected, appealed, and rejected again. Then I took a gap year to do basically nothing, applied again, and got accepted. Early, in fact. I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
On March 26 2011 08:10 DrivE wrote: Rejected from USC =/ I'll most likely be going to UCI now; TL'ers from UCI: How's UCI in your opinion?
I love UCI. I've been in Irvine since second grade and hanging out at UCI since freshman year of high school. I'm still in love with the place. It's beautiful, and the girls are awesome if you're of the Asian persuasion.
will probably be heading to UCI or UCSD depending on how much money i get offered. if im awarded insufficient amounts to live on campus, i'll probably be commuting to UCR from home. not a particularly inviting prospect but i'll take whatever i can get this point. my family is so fucking appallingly poor that its a wonder i even have the opportunity for that kind of education.
On March 26 2011 08:12 LosingID8 wrote: sorry to hear that. and really the school you choose should be based on your major. UCI is kind of a commuter school compared to some other UCs, so just be aware of that.
Really? I never heard that.
I'm going to UCI in the fall; my stats are pretty damn terrible though. I got rejected, appealed, and rejected again. Then I took a gap year to do basically nothing, applied again, and got accepted. Early, in fact. I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
On March 26 2011 08:10 DrivE wrote: Rejected from USC =/ I'll most likely be going to UCI now; TL'ers from UCI: How's UCI in your opinion?
I love UCI. I've been in Irvine since second grade and hanging out at UCI since freshman year of high school. I'm still in love with the place. It's beautiful, and the girls are awesome if you're of the Asian persuasion.
many many many people who go to UCI are from the OC and live within 30 minutes of campus. so as soon as thursday classes are over, campus and the immediate surrounding areas are completely dead until monday morning.
i haven't experienced this personally, since i didn't go to UCI but i've heard it from several friends of mine that have gone there.
Man once u newbs get into university, your just going to realize how stupid it was to put in all that work. Your gonna look back and be like damnnnn that was so foolish. :<
On March 26 2011 08:34 timestep wrote: Man once u newbs get into university, your just going to realize how stupid it was to put in all that work. Your gonna look back and be like damnnnn that was so foolish. :<
Yeah most people see it the opposite way and college is the time where most people settle down and take their lives seriously after freshman year... Not sure what you're doing.
How are you guys calculating your unweighted averages? At my school they just bump the AP courses from a 5.0 to a 6.0 so I figure just whatever my weighted GPA is, minus 1.0 is my unweighted?
Also, it seems a large portion of you guys are having amazing math credentials, SAT scores, SATII scores, and you are still being rejected. My first assumption is maybe your essays were lacking or maybe you guys are all from California since I see a large amount of California schools. At least in Texas top 9% is guaranteed a spot in any university here, I'm setting my sights on more of the top tier schools though... kind of feeling like I may be lacking though since I'm not a USAMO, or Intel Sci, or something spectacular like that. Do I really need something incredible like that to be even glanced at?
On March 26 2011 08:42 Pinkie wrote: Two questions, from a sophomore in hs
How are you guys calculating your unweighted averages? At my school they just bump the AP courses from a 5.0 to a 6.0 so I figure just whatever my weighted GPA is, minus 1.0 is my unweighted?
Also, it seems a large portion of you guys are having amazing math credentials, SAT scores, SATII scores, and you are still being rejected. My first assumption is maybe your essays were lacking or maybe you guys are all from California since I see a large amount of California schools. At least in Texas top 9% is guaranteed a spot in any university here, I'm setting my sights on more of the top tier schools though... kind of feeling like I may be lacking though since I'm not a USAMO, or Intel Sci, or something spectacular like that. Do I really need something incredible like that to be even glanced at?
Unweighted is usually A = 4.0 B = 3.0 C = 2.0 D = 1.0 F = 0 No extra points for APs/honors classes
My opinions from looking back on college admissions.
If you want to go somewhere like MIT or Caltech, or some super insane school, you're pretty much going to need at least one thing spectacular. Intel Semi, USAMO (or MOP more likely), US Physics Team, Synopsis or Siemens science fair winner, or a host of other things that really set you apart.
Every person at my school who made Intel Semi got into MIT. Pure grades/SATs/minor ECs (2400 SAT/4.46 weighted for me) won't cut it most of the time. If you aren't that crazy, and want to go somewhere slightly less insane like UC Berkeley, you can get in with numbers/some ECs some of the time.
My advice: Find your passion, and then do something spectacular with it. If you like math, go and win some competitive math award, do some math programs, score top of USAMO and make MOP, etc. If you like science, do science fairs, write research papers, do summer research programs, etc. A lot of the times, the professors/things you learn at research programs will become the starting point for a really good Intel/whatever science fair project. Of course, you're probably going to have to like the subject, and if you do, this stuff will be pretty fun.
Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
All you ballers don't hesitate to post what you feel are essential/helpful information please *lurks*
On March 26 2011 09:18 Z3kk wrote: Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
On March 26 2011 09:18 Z3kk wrote: Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
2400 easy eh?
what ethnicity?
i got an 1850 (my best was Math with a 740)
I'm worst demographic: Bay Area Asian male... <_____<
I just said that based on
On March 26 2011 08:05 ScythedBlade wrote: Its so easy to get a 2400 on the new SATs now that they decreased the vocabulary needed.
On March 26 2011 09:18 Z3kk wrote: Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
2400 easy eh?
what ethnicity?
i got an 1850 (my best was Math with a 740)
I'm worst demographic: Bay Area Asian male... <_____<
On March 26 2011 09:18 Z3kk wrote: Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
2400 easy eh?
what ethnicity?
i got an 1850 (my best was Math with a 740)
I'm worst demographic: Bay Area Asian male... <_____<
On March 26 2011 09:18 Z3kk wrote: Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
2400 easy eh?
what ethnicity?
i got an 1850 (my best was Math with a 740)
I'm worst demographic: Bay Area Asian male... <_____<
I just said that based on
On March 26 2011 08:05 ScythedBlade wrote: Its so easy to get a 2400 on the new SATs now that they decreased the vocabulary needed.
.__.
I got a 2400 too, and i'm a Bay Area Asian male, lol (though I'm a senior this year)
Let us commence pointless self congratulatory discussion about how great we are because of an arbitrary test score!
MId-Atlantic Asian Male have it worse . . . a large chunk of the best public schools in the country are there (something like a third of TJ gets into MIT).
On March 26 2011 09:18 Z3kk wrote: Wow, you guys are freaking good...congratulations to all! :D
I'm getting so nervous reading these, because all I have going for me right now is a 2400 SAT (first try as a sophomore--still am a sophomore), and apparently even that is easy.... T____T
Good luck for the decisions that remain to be sent! Dream school is MIT and I also think the Harvard campus is amazingly beautiful...won't settle for UCs, which I'll admit is somewhat naive/odd (not being arrogant, just don't really want to go to a UC), but we shall see.
2400 easy eh?
what ethnicity?
i got an 1850 (my best was Math with a 740)
I'm worst demographic: Bay Area Asian male... <_____<
I just said that based on
On March 26 2011 08:05 ScythedBlade wrote: Its so easy to get a 2400 on the new SATs now that they decreased the vocabulary needed.
.__.
ah, right..
well good luck... cuz i don't know what I'm going to do... got rejected from USC, UCLA, Case Western (local), and Miami University (waiting list)....
~3.4 gpa (weighted, ) no ECs (except freshmen basketball) and like 3 service hours
so tbh, i'm not surprised, but i don't know wtf i'm gonna do...
Just go to CC then transfer. Save yourself (or your parents') money.
Got into UCSB and UCSC, rejected by UCD and UCSD, UCSD I don't really care about, but getting rejected by UCD made me a bit miffed, don't know if I should appeal to them though, since I don't really know what their Japanese program is like. It seems that only cities that have the name Santa in them like me. I better get a ton of Christmas presents this year then!
I want to become an English teacher in Japan as my future career (yes, genuinely want to do it instead of just doing it to get a free ticket to Japan, and actually hoping to stay as one for a long time even though I won't have a crazy salary), but I'm not exactly sure what major I should be going for. I put down Linguistics, but I generally want to go to the university that has the better teacher training programs and better Japanese/East Asian studies programs.
UCSB seems to have a more well-rounded Japanese/East Asian studies program than UCSC, who doesn't seem to even have the option of a Japanese/East Asian studies major/minor, but my parents want to stalk me forever want me to stay close to home, since UCSC is in the Bay Area where I live. UCSB and UCSC's price range shooould be around the same, right?
Can anyone from UCSB/UCSC tell me about their school's teacher training/Japanese/East Asian studies programs, along with their school's atmosphere? People who have heard about those school's programs can contribute too. I will most likely make a blog post asking about general college stuff later. Information and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Not trying to derail this thread, because I honestly enjoy the posts about stats and college postings. That said
Dream school is MIT
Same here Z3kk, looks like you and I shall be competing in 2013 Seems pretty insanely difficult to get into though if a poster on here really did make Intel Semis and great grades/ECs and didnt make it....
Why does your ethnicity matter in American university admissions? In Canada we go purely by marks and extra curriculars. There are some universities here state that don't even allow their admission officers to see the name of the applicants when looking at their applications.
On March 26 2011 08:12 LosingID8 wrote: sorry to hear that. and really the school you choose should be based on your major. UCI is kind of a commuter school compared to some other UCs, so just be aware of that.
Really? I never heard that.
I'm going to UCI in the fall; my stats are pretty damn terrible though. I got rejected, appealed, and rejected again. Then I took a gap year to do basically nothing, applied again, and got accepted. Early, in fact. I DON'T UNDERSTAND.
On March 26 2011 08:10 DrivE wrote: Rejected from USC =/ I'll most likely be going to UCI now; TL'ers from UCI: How's UCI in your opinion?
I love UCI. I've been in Irvine since second grade and hanging out at UCI since freshman year of high school. I'm still in love with the place. It's beautiful, and the girls are awesome if you're of the Asian persuasion.
Hahahaha, totally right there's tons of Asian hotties! I went to UCI for grad school (only place I got in), walked in single, finished with my PhD a week before getting engaged to my Taiwanese lady, so best of luck to you in that field. It's also warm all the fuckin year, so...skimpy clothes can be a year-round phenomenon.
There can be a lot to do there if you're willing to look, but, the area can be fuckin pricey. Most of the undergrads I interacted with were on the Ultimate team, and they were a pretty awesome crowd and seemed happy to have gone to UCI, so I can guarantee that you can find some pretty good crowds. I'm pretty sure they have a starcraft team too. At least, a friend of mine told me that they do. Since I was there for grad school, I can't really tell you about shit outside my dept, but the have a pretty baller physical science and bio sci program. Most prof's I remember encourage undergrad research and you can land some pretty damn good summer jobs that way. Best of luck there, feel free to PM.
MId-Atlantic Asian Male have it worse . . . a large chunk of the best public schools in the country are there (something like a third of TJ gets into MIT).
That school is ridiculous it seems, I see them in every competition in the world getting top billing... kind of makes me wish I was there but at the same time I bet its even more competitive than my super Asian school...
OP Congrats on your acceptances, good schools. Any idea where you want to go? I live in San Diego and everyone talks about UCLA being awesome. Some of my good friends go to UC Berkley and they say its not all that, but still, its UC Berkley.
Your résumé looks almost identical to my sisters just without the internships, however she has her own lists of extracurriculars to add. She got denied from UCSD and UC Berkley, Berkley not that surprising. But UCSD kinda shocked me because we are from SD and it's in state. Apparently like no one got accepted there. They have a ridiculous amount of asians there.
I'm only a sophomore and am riding on Lacrosse to get me recruited, very excited for when it comes my time to choose a college.
Same here Z3kk, looks like you and I shall be competing in 2013 Seems pretty insanely difficult to get into though if a poster on here really did make Intel Semis and great grades/ECs and didnt make it....
Yeah... T__T
Well, we can both get in and celebrate our TLness Though the chances of that are saddening...those were some beastly statistics he had >\\\< ...okay, I'm off lol
On March 26 2011 09:36 The_LiNk wrote: Why does your ethnicity matter in American university admissions? In Canada we go purely by marks and extra curriculars. There are some universities here state that don't even allow their admission officers to see the name of the applicants when looking at their applications.
not to derail the thread but simply answering this question (and i'll post my stats later waiting till all colleges send everything)
basically, the whole slavery issue and mistreatment of non-whites throughout america's early history lead to extreme protests/civil rights movements. basically, the govt's way of giving back to minorities is supplementing them through: college, jobs, welfare, etc. this is a term more commonly known as affirmative action/equal-opporunity employment. moreover, universities want to boast of their "diversity," which being white isn't really diverse.
for example, I'm a white male intending on becoming an engineer. talk about typical.
as for saying that the admissions officers don't see names is amazing, however, on our applications we have to put race/ethnicity. the main problem is affirmative action. I personally am for equal-opportunity for all by which i mean: only the most qualified get the position for whatever it may be regardless of race, ethnicity, background etc.
On March 26 2011 09:36 The_LiNk wrote: Why does your ethnicity matter in American university admissions? In Canada we go purely by marks and extra curriculars. There are some universities here state that don't even allow their admission officers to see the name of the applicants when looking at their applications.
not to derail the thread but simply answering this question (and i'll post my stats later waiting till all colleges send everything)
basically, the whole slavery issue and mistreatment of non-whites throughout america's early history lead to extreme protests/civil rights movements. basically, the govt's way of giving back to minorities is supplementing them through: college, jobs, welfare, etc. this is a term more commonly known as affirmative action/equal-opporunity employment. moreover, universities want to boast of their "diversity," which being white isn't really diverse.
for example, I'm a white male intending on becoming an engineer. talk about typical.
as for saying that the admissions officers don't see names is amazing, however, on our applications we have to put race/ethnicity. the main problem is affirmative action. I personally am for equal-opportunity for all by which i mean: only the most qualified get the position for whatever it may be regardless of race, ethnicity, background etc.
Canadian universities are amazing in that they judge the candidates purely on marks (and ECs if you are borderline).
This is why there were "complaints" about schools having too many Asians taking away spots from "Canadians". lulz...
Really, being a Bay Area asian male isn't that terrible. I fall into that exact demographic, and I got into all the top UC's, along with Duke, while some guys I know, also Asian males, got into places like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Their scores weren't even that amazing - strong, but nothing around 2300+ SAT scores. You need to be pretty good (around a 4.0 weighted, 2100+ SAT, some good extracurriculars) but you don't need to be a ridiculous 4.6 GPA 2400 SAT/36 ACT student with thousands of hours of community service and 6 different extracurriculars (I'm exaggerating at this point but you get the idea) to get into a good school.
Congrats to everyone who got accepted into great undergrad programs! Just remember; it isn't the prestige of the school that ultimately matters, it's the grades you get at the place you're at. I'm currently applying to Law School, here are my creds:
LSAT score: 166 undergrad GPA: 3.6 graduate degree in Public Policy (Science and Technology)
I plan on entering fall of 2012, so I haven't sent out applications yet. Here is a list of schools I will apply to.
- Georgetown - Emory - University of Minnesota - SMU - UNLV - Colorado Boulder
On March 25 2011 12:36 GhostKorean wrote: I have a question to people who attend the cream of the crop schools. When you get there, are the students all what you expect out of a top tier school? Do they all have amazing credentials and achievements with super amazing intellect? I can't imagine that one school could be filled with nothing but these geniuses all with outstanding achievement
I'm a Harvard graduate. I'll share my story as I had the exact same thought before going to college.
If you are at a party with 100 people and one of them went to Harvard (or another HMPYS school), you'll probably be able to either tell or notice that person is somewhat smart. Now let's say you're at a party with 100 Harvard students (or other Ivy schools), you'll probably won't see or get the sense of anything special.
At the time, I didn't realize it, but now in retrospective I can say I studied with a lot of smart people. The majority of the my classmates plus the people I knew (or barely spoke, or heard) were smart, including myself. At school you could tell the people there were top of their classes in high school and stuff like that, like high SATs and extra curricular activities. Geniuses? Maybe not. Genius is a very big word, and it refers to something you don't see every day.
Every now and then I came across a "gifted" or a "special" case. Someone who had a slight edge or something really worth of a "wow", other than a good sat score. One day in my freshmen year, I met this girl, again pretty smart, very bright, but not a "genius" per se; she was a very smart and hardworking dedicated nerd -actually she was kind of pretty-. I have had a few classes with her, but we never got the chance to sit down and talk. To make the story short, we began talking about GPAs and it turned out that her high-school GPA was straigth As. Nothing really impressive right? Well here's the thing: it wasn't like she got a 95 here a 91 there, and her gym teacher helped her to get 100... no. She actually had scored 100/100 in every single class during high school. This means, As in exams, As in homework, presentations, everything, every single freaking assignment in every class. Of course once in college the streak came to an end, but still that shocked me, I mean it's a shocking thing. I remember that day as if it was yesterday.
There was another guy, who was going for two degrees, and it was something crazy like Math and Economics, and he ended up graduating summa cum laude on both; he particularly was the closest I would dare to call a genius I ever met while in college. He was really smart.
Other time, I was in a class regarded as the hardest of the program, with a professor that had a reputation of being criminal with exams (making them impossible hard); it turned out the in paper, all students registered, were the smartest of our generation or the ones with higher GPA so far at that point. There was this japanese guy, name's Ken -I'll never forget him-, who came transferred from supposedly the toughest university in Japan, and he was regarded as a "genius." He won some international math Olympics, and he got like second place on the Physics Olympics too; at that point he had straight As all over the place. We met, and I never really thought much of him, I mean again I could see he was very brilliant, but nothing really like Einstein or whatever. Ken would always score the highest score of the class, it didn't matter what class he was in, or who was he with, teacher, or classmates, he was always the highest grade of the room. One day, the professor decided to throw a mid term in surprise fashion manner, of course all of us were caught of guard. Not only the exam came with us unprepared, thing was the exam was as hard as it could be. The professor would have rather tossed it written in greek and it would have been similar. It was a 35 point exam, and when the grades came it was like everyone had 2/35, 3/35, 6/35, 5/35 (me), 10/35, 11/35 was the second highest, and Ken scored 31/35. We were all shell shocked. I remember I was with some buddy of mine who had shared like 7 classes with Ken at that point, and in each one of them he came in second in highest grade, right after Ken -who was always #1- It was funny because he said "ok!! now, I'm really getting tired of Ken stepping on all of us!!!" It was funny. I remember this as if it happened yesterday as well. Ken ended up graduating summa cum laude, then went to MIT to become a physicist and now works on research.
There were like 5 more guys with really awesome achievements/accomplishments, but you can pretty much get the picture. Like I read from another post, all of that doesn't matter/it's forgotten. If you have seen the movie "A beautiful mind", there's a scene near the end, when Nash goes to visit the Dean's office, who's the guy that beat him at GO when they were students and he says to Nash something like "it was college, we were just being competitive and stupid." There's a lot of competition and a lot of "good envy" if you know what I mean, around college years in those environments. You're pretty much on your own, for one trying to succeed at your career and for other, trying to be the best -or at least better than the guy sitting next to you-. I had my own collection of accomplishments too -or things I was known for- and I'm sure that if this question was asked to any of my classmates from college, they would probably mention me just like I mentioned Ken or David or Monica.
What I'm trying to say, is that all in all at the time you're studying there, you don't really pay attention or appreciate the people you're around with, but it all comes up that it's a nice experience. I still keep in touch with these people -via facebook and stuff- and every now and then I throw them a random joke, like reminding Ken of that exam. I wouldn't be surprised of tomorrow a huge announcement came that some Harvard/MIT japanese-american scientist discovered some Einsteinish like theory, because I met the guy and I know what he's capable of, or that a double Math/Economics summa cum laude guy got announced as CEO of Goldman Sachs or whatever.
It's funny because during admissions, I only had one really big extra curricular activity, which was playing tennis. I used to be really good, I won a few junior tournaments. Yes I scored 1590 and had straight As through high-school and was president of our math and chess club, but other than that my academical achievements weren't that big. I mean I didn't really win anything or was as good as math or chess like I was at tennis; when I was in Senior year in HS, I thought of myself as a very good tennis player who happened to be good at school, math and chess. In college, the story turned out different and my academics really started to show, and I became more known as a really really smart guy who happened to be good at tennis
Anyway, I hope this helps and inspires a lot of people. Man writing all of this made me nostalgic.
On March 26 2011 10:01 Barca wrote: I hate threads where people aren't humble.
This is a college admissions thread man. The entire purpose of the college admissions process was to not be humble and brag.
When I applied to colleges, I bragged the hell out of myself.
When I talked to anyone else, I didn't.
But hey, it's your call.
I've kept pretty humble too.
I also believe it's because we're on the internet, and we have that extra layer of anonymity, so people can brag all they want without care. Also, I think the posting of all their stats/ECs is probably helpful to those gauging their chances for colleges next year, but just my thoughts
reading this thread makes me kind of sad. 4 years ago when i had just gotten into college there was a similar thread (it's made every year) and every other page there'd be at least 1-2 people who were accepted into several top tier schools (ivies, stanford, mit, nwestern, etc etc).
i myself was accepted into every school i applied to back then (save for northwestern), including johns hopkins engineering, but i didn't have anything near the high school resumes that you guys are posting in here (2250 SAT, a few 800 SAT2's, probably only 5-6 5's on APs, various band/orchestra achievements etc). shocking how insane college admissions have gotten in such a short time.
On March 26 2011 10:01 Barca wrote: I hate threads where people aren't humble.
This is a college admissions thread man. The entire purpose of the college admissions process was to not be humble and brag.
When I applied to colleges, I bragged the hell out of myself.
When I talked to anyone else, I didn't.
But hey, it's your call.
One can't even verify the authenticity of some of the claims here.
Hey guys, I got into Harvard!
See how I did that? (No, I didn't even apply to Harvard)
Well, that's the difference between TL and say... 4chan... (not comparing, contrasting)
Where people here post positive (mostly), truthful (mostly) feedback, and not trolly garbage, especially when it comes to what schools they got rejected from
Binghamton University - Rejected SUNY Albany - Accepted SUNYIT - Accepted with scholarship College of Staten Island - Accepted Hunter College - Accepted SUNY Oswego - Accepted Alfred State - Accepted with scholarship New Jersey Institute of Technology - Accepted Rochester Institute of Technology - Accepted
applied to mcmaster - life sci - waiting mcmaster - environmental and earth sciences I - accepted western - health sci - accepted york - life sci - accepted guelph - life sci - accepted carlton - life sci - accepted u of t - life sci - waiting
average is 87%, volunteer at hospital and senior home (over 100 hours combined), i recieved the queen elizabeth the II scholarship and waiting on mcdonalds scholarship (i work there )
ive decided that im ganan go to mcmaster, right now for environ and earth sci, but if i get accepted to life sci then i might change my mind and go there isntead
UCB-Rejected Northwestern-Rejected MIT-Rejected Carleton College- Accepted U of M TC- Accepted w/ scholarship UW Madison-Accepted Boston University-Accepted Cornell-Waiting Duke-Waiting Stanford-Hwaiting
On March 26 2011 11:27 JitnikoVi wrote: applied to mcmaster - life sci - waiting mcmaster - environmental and earth sciences I - accepted western - health sci - accepted york - life sci - accepted guelph - life sci - accepted carlton - life sci - accepted u of t - life sci - waiting
average is 87%, volunteer at hospital and senior home (over 100 hours combined), i recieved the queen elizabeth the II scholarship and waiting on mcdonalds scholarship (i work there )
ive decided that im ganan go to mcmaster, right now for environ and earth sci, but if i get accepted to life sci then i might change my mind and go there isntead
but mcmaster in hamilton either way
Why McMaster's? All my friends that applied to McMaster's are using it as their backup, most people are going to Western or UofT for health/life sciences.
On March 26 2011 11:27 101toss wrote: MN Student here
UCB-Rejected Northwestern-Rejected MIT-Rejected Carleton College- Accepted U of M TC- Accepted w/ scholarship UW Madison-Accepted Cornell-Waiting Duke-Waiting Stanford-Hwaiting
St. Olaf > Carleton, but I go to Olaf so I am biased. In all seriousness though, I would avoid carleton if possible. The people there are generally...weird, and they dont know how to party.
Honestly I only applied to the University of Texas at Austin, because they have an amazing Computer Science program and since I was in the top 5%, there was pretty much no way I would be rejected.
I'm currently my third year in and CS has really only gained glory in my mind since I came in. Compared to other majors, it is certainly rigorous. To me, it seems like there are some majors that are kind of like "critical thinking, creativity, high workload choose 1 or 2" but CS certainly includes all of those things if you want to be halfway successful.
On March 26 2011 12:03 Triscuit wrote: Honestly I only applied to the University of Texas at Austin, because they have an amazing Computer Science program and since I was in the top 5%, there was pretty much no way I would be rejected.
I'm currently my third year in and CS has really only gained glory in my mind since I came in. Compared to other majors, it is certainly rigorous. To me, it seems like there are some majors that are kind of like "critical thinking, creativity, high workload choose 1 or 2" but CS certainly includes all of those things if you want to be halfway successful.
you're at UT right now? one of my friends is a turing scholar here, the dude is sick. he's going to work for microsoft this coming fall after graduation.
On March 26 2011 17:54 Wala.Revolution wrote: Depends on many different circumstances. Country of origin, visa status, financial status, academic status...
On March 26 2011 11:27 JitnikoVi wrote: applied to mcmaster - life sci - waiting mcmaster - environmental and earth sciences I - accepted western - health sci - accepted york - life sci - accepted guelph - life sci - accepted carlton - life sci - accepted u of t - life sci - waiting
average is 87%, volunteer at hospital and senior home (over 100 hours combined), i recieved the queen elizabeth the II scholarship and waiting on mcdonalds scholarship (i work there )
ive decided that im ganan go to mcmaster, right now for environ and earth sci, but if i get accepted to life sci then i might change my mind and go there isntead
but mcmaster in hamilton either way
Why McMaster's? All my friends that applied to McMaster's are using it as their backup, most people are going to Western or UofT for health/life sciences.
I'm assuming an Undergrad degree in Life Sciences is being referred to here? (B.Sc?) I did mine at York, and after I got over the stigma of the fact that apparently if you can hold a fork you cna go to York, I realized it was a decent school. I got to live at home during my undergrad and save up for when I really need the money.
Essentially it doesn't matter at all where you do your undergrad degree when it comes to a basic B.Sc unless there's something special about the program (McMaster I believe has a pre-Med stream or something, for example.) I would say factor in cost, location, and what kind of a school it is before making your decision, don't base it on whather it's a 'good' school or not. All of the undergrad degrees in life sciences in the province of Ontario are weighed equally in terms of postgraduate positions/work.
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
It's worth it if you're getting a job. It's less important if you're going to grad school
Of course, it's easier to get into, say, stanford grad school if you went to stanford.
Honestly depends on the school and the program. UChicago Math does not accept any Uchicago undergrads for example.
If you know that you want to go to grad school it's probably just as important to go to a top university. As someone who is in grad school now, and has seen many people go through the application process, I can say that students from top schools have a huge advantage when it comes to grad admissions at other top schools.
Of course top schools do have an advantage, but I don't think it's as huge as you think it is. Most people who end up going to grad schools stand out no matter where they go into. If you make the most out of the school you attended you should have no problems getting into a good grad school, although "most out of the school" varies quite a bit.
I honestly don't think undergrad institution matters as much -- it could "look" that way quite easily since "smarter" people go to "better" universities over all.
OH NOES No one has been accepted to Columbia. I hope all of you guys get off the waiting list (well, all the BW players anyway). Then you can come to Columbia and we can play. There's one dude who used to be C-, but he switched over to SC2. I can't find anyone else here who plays BW at all, much less plays it somewhat seriously. I'm a C- Terran, and I only get to play BW with random people on iCCup that I don't know.
Oxford, Magdalen College - Rejected Imperial College - Accepted (in my final year~) UCL - Accepted Durham - Accepted
All for the Physics MSci course. I was pretty gutted when I was rejected by Magdalen but Imperial has been more than awesome for me. Also, the Oxford interview process was pretty unique and I'm happy I got to experience it.
edit: Oops, didn't read the '11 part in the title ^^;; my bad.
GPA: 4.6 (unweighted) SAT: 2400 Volunteer hours: 10000 5's on 10 AP tests Age: 13 Bench press: 400 Lbs. Starcraft rank: number 1 in masters APM: 350 (no spam)
President or captain of : The football team, the wrestling team, track and field, the school, my class, the chess club, the honors society, the gay-strait alliance and my local MENSA chapter.
I once took a test bigger than my face!
I helped poor people in Africa become president of USA!
Rejected: UW WSU Western Arizona State Green River Community College
On March 26 2011 11:27 JitnikoVi wrote: applied to mcmaster - life sci - waiting mcmaster - environmental and earth sciences I - accepted western - health sci - accepted york - life sci - accepted guelph - life sci - accepted carlton - life sci - accepted u of t - life sci - waiting
average is 87%, volunteer at hospital and senior home (over 100 hours combined), i recieved the queen elizabeth the II scholarship and waiting on mcdonalds scholarship (i work there )
ive decided that im ganan go to mcmaster, right now for environ and earth sci, but if i get accepted to life sci then i might change my mind and go there isntead
but mcmaster in hamilton either way
Why McMaster's? All my friends that applied to McMaster's are using it as their backup, most people are going to Western or UofT for health/life sciences.
McMaster excels in Life Science if anything. The school pretty much revolves around the health sciences and they can be ridiculously hard to get into.
Hi all. Thought I'd post my results. I applied to schools in both the US and the UK.
US UC Berkeley- Accepted UCLA - rejected University of Washington- Accepted University of Wisconsin- Accepted Rice University- Rejected UChicago- Waitlisted (same as rejected? I don't know)
UK (Scandinavian Studies and History) University of Edinburgh- Unconditional University of Aberdeen- Unconditional UCL- phone interview next week, I have 3 AP's at 5 (US History, Euro History, Eng Lang) and I'm taking 4 others with predicted 5's, so I'm hoping for an offer of one 4.
Any idea of what you are going to pick? My brother went to Carleton, it is amazing there, campus is awesome, and Ottawa is really sick too : )
yeah I heard from others that Carleton is pretty sick. Too bad it gets so much sht from people in my area (only because Carleton tries harder to get people in their uni, cuz waterloo/mcmaster/uoft take the best students from where I am from). im going to end up going to uoft (if I get accepted there). if not then guelph. if neither of the above then heres my order: mc master, waterloo, carleton, queens. I hate queens because of their stupid user system. where are you going to ?
Any idea of what you are going to pick? My brother went to Carleton, it is amazing there, campus is awesome, and Ottawa is really sick too : )
yeah I heard from others that Carleton is pretty sick. Too bad it gets so much sht from people in my area (only because Carleton tries harder to get people in their uni, cuz waterloo/mcmaster/uoft take the best students from where I am from). im going to end up going to uoft (if I get accepted there). if not then guelph. if neither of the above then heres my order: mc master, waterloo, carleton, queens. I hate queens because of their stupid user system. where are you going to ?
I go to Cambrian College right now, I'm almost done, then I'm going to university in China : )
Any idea of what you are going to pick? My brother went to Carleton, it is amazing there, campus is awesome, and Ottawa is really sick too : )
yeah I heard from others that Carleton is pretty sick. Too bad it gets so much sht from people in my area (only because Carleton tries harder to get people in their uni, cuz waterloo/mcmaster/uoft take the best students from where I am from). im going to end up going to uoft (if I get accepted there). if not then guelph. if neither of the above then heres my order: mc master, waterloo, carleton, queens. I hate queens because of their stupid user system. where are you going to ?
Yeeaaah! UofT! I had a few friends that got into UofT engineering, so admissions are rolling out already. I'm the stray dog in my school, I only applied to local universities because my parents don't want me to go out. Though, even if I go to UofT, I'm going to move out. I don't know anybody in my school that applied to Carleton, it's got a pretty bad reputation as an ez mode uni. My school's all about getting into hard mode(relatively speaking) because we're masochists like that.
On March 26 2011 18:03 WaveofShadow wrote: I'm assuming an Undergrad degree in Life Sciences is being referred to here? (B.Sc?) I did mine at York, and after I got over the stigma of the fact that apparently if you can hold a fork you cna go to York, I realized it was a decent school. I got to live at home during my undergrad and save up for when I really need the money.
Essentially it doesn't matter at all where you do your undergrad degree when it comes to a basic B.Sc unless there's something special about the program (McMaster I believe has a pre-Med stream or something, for example.) I would say factor in cost, location, and what kind of a school it is before making your decision, don't base it on whather it's a 'good' school or not. All of the undergrad degrees in life sciences in the province of Ontario are weighed equally in terms of postgraduate positions/work.
My english teacher who went to UofT says the unofficial student moto of UofT is "Friends don't let friends go to York." Though in terms of business, I really respect York for its Schulich BBA program, its damn good. They got this international variant where you have to learn a language to graduate and you have to go study abroad. It's too bad my marks were just slightly too low to get into.
I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
On March 25 2011 12:43 Mailing wrote: My question is...
Is it worth it to go to a super top tier University?
Sure places like Mudd have a high "graduate income", but you can get a good career making good money at almost any University if you put the work and time in... is 90k-120k a year as opposed to 50-60k a year worth throwing your entire age 15-30 experience away?
Not only that, but you basically HAVE to succeed in these schools, or you get out with massive dept and loans (over hundreds of thousands of dollars)?
I rank colleges/units as low/medium/high/top. I am 3 years into Uni at a mid level institution and am doing fine without massive stress or anything that I hear a lot of top uni students get..
It's worth it if you're getting a job. It's less important if you're going to grad school
Of course, it's easier to get into, say, stanford grad school if you went to stanford.
I believe stanford grad school has a policy of not taking its undergrad students in order to get new blood into the system
On March 27 2011 10:22 etheovermind wrote: Did anyone here get into Carnegie Mellon? What was your GPA + SAT score?
stupid question to ask, you can look up statistical make-up of previous classes if you want a range; just asking a few people will give you a stupid skewed sample. and GPA+SAT is only so important
GPA: 3.7 / 4.0 (unweighted, no weighting at my school) SAT I : 2270 -Reading: 790 -Math: 750 -Writing: 730
SAT II: Biology (molecular) - 780 Math IIC - 700 US Hist. - 650
Approx. 150 hours of community service?
Majoring in Biology! =)
Congrats to everyone else above me ~
And no I didn't make an account just to post here, my other account is "KeSPA_Wannabe" but made a new acc so that I could have a tl.net acc name that was the same as my b.net name LOLL
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
On March 25 2011 08:57 Scap wrote: Mildly offtopic, I'm going to Graduate School! So here's my list: MIT - rejected Northwestern - Rejected UNC-chapel hill - accepted Georgia Tech - Accepted UMass Amherst - Accepted SUNY Stony Brook - Accepted
Go to Fairfield University in Connecticut 3.86 GPA presently (4.0 in major) Chemistry Major Physics Minor Mathematics Minor GRE: 780 Math, 600 Verbal (don't laugh, that's 90 percentile right there). 5 on writing. Chem GRE: 720/990, 72 percentile (I'm told that's good for domestic students, but I don't believe it anymore) I've done research as a rising junior all the way til now. Done stuff with organic chemistry, some materials work, and the development of sensors for CERN in the physics department (My roommate got to actually go TO CERN. Much jealousy from me.) Edit: I also tutor a fuckton of organic chemistry and TA an advanced chemistry lab.
Applied to polymers/materials work at all my schools, focus is on organic solar cells.
Fairfield huh? My sister plays softball there.
Transfer Request to U of Washington (from Linfield College) - Accepted
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
Monster. Where are you from? My school, the kids that get mid-high 90s have zero life outside of the classroom. They don't have extra-curriculars, not part of clubs or anything and no jobs. But then people with your type of extra-curriculars still pull in high80s-low 90s.
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
You'll get SE for sure. Waterloo is pretty much purely mark-based, you can write "I like eating hot dogs" on your application under "Interests" and they would still probably admit you, provided that your marks are high enough. They really only look at ECs if you are borderline or below the cut-off, their attempt to create a more diversified environment (be prepared for massive number of Asians and dudes).
I'm just curious, why do you want to do SE over CS?
Also regarding the PC and Mac comment, during my time (pre E5, the new Eng building), Waterloo engineering is almost exclusively Windows PC, I did not see a single Mac or *nix box in any labs for student use. E5 (I'm not even sure if SE is in E5) should have some new equipment, but I doubt they'd deviate too far from Windows PCs.
MC has a bigger selection of machines, and almost all CS (you'll get to choose some courses from CS) coursework is built for *nix.
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
Monster. Where are you from? My school, the kids that get mid-high 90s have zero life outside of the classroom. They don't have extra-curriculars, not part of clubs or anything and no jobs. But then people with your type of extra-curriculars still pull in high-low 90s.
Basically I'm just too lazy to study. I would rather play. So I don't really study much. Just cramming the day before tests or exams.
The guy that's getting the highest at my school, a 96 average, is only on the soccer team, I think. Not sure about this year. He apparently studies quite a bit more than me, but he's pretty popular as well.
I think there's a huge element of luck involved, depending on how you relate to your teachers, what teachers you get and your schedule. I think I got off really easy this year, considering my last two year's averages were hovering around 91-92, but I think only taking courses I'm interested in (screw you English) helped a lot.
EDIT.
@Cambium, I'll be honest, I'm only doing SE because my parents want "an Engineering program" and they didn't accept CS because it'll be harder to get a job, yada yada yada. I like programming and they know that, but they don't really have any idea what SE is, and they don't care since it has Engineering in it and only accepts 100 or so people (-.-). It'd be CE or SE, but CE is more hardware from what I've read. CE is my second choice after SE though.I honestly don't know why I want to get into SE, since I like maths more, but it seems to be a better degree if I want to find a job after my bachelors.
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
Monster. Where are you from? My school, the kids that get mid-high 90s have zero life outside of the classroom. They don't have extra-curriculars, not part of clubs or anything and no jobs. But then people with your type of extra-curriculars still pull in high-low 90s.
@Cambium, I'll be honest, I'm only doing SE because my parents want "an Engineering program" and they didn't accept CS because it'll be harder to get a job, yada yada yada. I like programming and they know that, but they don't really have any idea what SE is, and they don't care since it has Engineering in it and only accepts 100 or so people (-.-). It'd be CE or SE, but CE is more hardware from what I've read. CE is my second choice after SE though.I honestly don't know why I want to get into SE, since I like maths more, but it seems to be a better degree if I want to find a job after my bachelors.
No offence to your parents, but that's an ignorant reason to decide your major. I did engineering at UW, and I honestly feel that the quality of teaching (for CS-related courses at least) is much lower in Engineering than it is in CS. The good thing about SE though is that you are enrolled in both departments, so you can take as many CS courses as you like without having to fill out petition forms.
If you like computer science, either theories (this is ALL maths btw) or applications, I would go with CS. If you like to learn about software engineering methodologies (like how to manage a project, how to manage people, how to resolve conflicts, etc.) then go with SE.
I suggest you research a bit more into this, because I know a lot of people who were very confused about the difference between the two, and ended up switching (not that it's too hard, afaik).
SE is not a better degree than CS. Assuming you do co-op, job opportunities are almost identical for CS and SE. Almost every job posting will list both. I'm not pushing for CS, I just wish you (and your parents) to make an informed decision. I wish you the very best.
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
Monster. Where are you from? My school, the kids that get mid-high 90s have zero life outside of the classroom. They don't have extra-curriculars, not part of clubs or anything and no jobs. But then people with your type of extra-curriculars still pull in high-low 90s.
Basically I'm just too lazy to study. I would rather play. So I don't really study much. Just cramming the day before tests or exams.
The guy that's getting the highest at my school, a 96 average, is only on the soccer team, I think. Not sure about this year. He apparently studies quite a bit more than me, but he's pretty popular as well.
I think there's a huge element of luck involved, depending on how you relate to your teachers, what teachers you get and your schedule. I think I got off really easy this year, considering my last two year's averages were hovering around 91-92, but I think only taking courses I'm interested in (screw you English) helped a lot.
What's the average for those courses in your school? Our english average is 78 for my semester right now and I'm right on the mark. I didn't go asian 6 pack so I don't really know all the science averages but for Chemistry its around 57%. My friend that's getting 73% is 2nd highest in his class (dude likes it up his ass).
I feel so inadequate right now. I'm hovering at 88% average with almost zero extra-curriculars. I was in the computer club this year but it's so terribl., It's just a bunch of grade 9s lead by a grade 12 that is totally terrible at starcraft playing on LAN for 2 hours after school every wednesday. I got an executive position though (I'm vice-president of Starleague, i arranged the first intramural starleague in our school. kids are terrible here). I have 49.5 (sad I couldnt get an even 50) hours of volunteer hours. I got so lazy last semester after winter break, I almost failed my computer science exam; got 54 on the exam and finished the course with 75 (I was at mid 80s before exam).
Did you get accepted on Waterloo Comp Sci before winter break? I have a friend that has roughly the same marks as you but actually ZERO extracurriculars and he got his acceptance into Comp Sci the Friday before winter break started. I don't think he even had to write the AIF. He's going to major/specialize(not sure what's the right term) into Computer Science.
On March 26 2011 11:27 JitnikoVi wrote: applied to mcmaster - life sci - waiting mcmaster - environmental and earth sciences I - accepted western - health sci - accepted york - life sci - accepted guelph - life sci - accepted carlton - life sci - accepted u of t - life sci - waiting
average is 87%, volunteer at hospital and senior home (over 100 hours combined), i recieved the queen elizabeth the II scholarship and waiting on mcdonalds scholarship (i work there )
ive decided that im ganan go to mcmaster, right now for environ and earth sci, but if i get accepted to life sci then i might change my mind and go there isntead
but mcmaster in hamilton either way
Why McMaster's? All my friends that applied to McMaster's are using it as their backup, most people are going to Western or UofT for health/life sciences.
McMaster excels in Life Science if anything. The school pretty much revolves around the health sciences and they can be ridiculously hard to get into.
pretty much sums it up, western is arguably a better school than mac, but mac excels in its life sci program as was stated, my brother is also a second year life sci student at mac as well, so i guess its nice to just be able to see my brother whenever i want, at least i have some family nearby
If you know that you want to go to grad school it's probably just as important to go to a top university. As someone who is in grad school now, and has seen many people go through the application process, I can say that students from top schools have a huge advantage when it comes to grad admissions at other top schools.
Eh...for the sciences I'll phrase it this way:
The research recommendation letter effectively decides your chances of admission (if you don't have one, 99% chance you won't get in). A "X student was in my course(s)" recommendation letter might help a lot if the professor was a grad student/postdoc in one of the faculty's groups, but this is fairly luck-based and is almost impossible to plan for.
Generally, higher-caliber universities have more research opportunities, and generally more students take advantage of them.
Thus, indirectly undergraduate name value may seem to help, but isn't really a causative factor in the admissions decision.
Practically, this means that researcher standouts at "mid-level" state institutions will have pretty good chances at getting into any grad school. Its also worth noting that grad school apps, unlike undergraduate institutions, are not crapshoots -- indeed, the admissions staff are looking for very specific things.
I don't want to make it sound like going to a "mid-tier" school is an easy way into a good grad school. You will have to work your ass off all the same. However, it can be a good financial decision.
Of course, it's easier impossible to get into, say, stanford grad school if you went to stanford.
My phrasing is more accurate.
Generally top-tier grad schools don't accept undergrads from the same institution. At the very least, I'm reasonably certain Stanford doesn't.
I'm sure many of rejected students and college hopefuls for the big colleges (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton, MIT, etc) are blaming their failure/possible failure on the numbers. "Not high enough SAT score", "3.999 GPA, oh no!", "Dang it, I haven't cured cancer yet!", and so on. To those, I want to direct you to this article.
While yes, it was written about MIT, it can also be applied to many other top schools. Basically, colleges accept you as a person, not as a resume. You should do what you love, because that way, you get accepted to places where there are others with the same drive and passions as you.
On March 27 2011 12:28 The_LiNk wrote: What's the average for those courses in your school? Our english average is 78 for my semester right now and I'm right on the mark. I didn't go asian 6 pack so I don't really know all the science averages but for Chemistry its around 57%. My friend that's getting 73% is 2nd highest in his class (dude likes it up his ass).
I feel so inadequate right now. I'm hovering at 88% average with almost zero extra-curriculars. I was in the computer club this year but it's so terribl., It's just a bunch of grade 9s lead by a grade 12 that is totally terrible at starcraft playing on LAN for 2 hours after school every wednesday. I got an executive position though (I'm vice-president of Starleague, i arranged the first intramural starleague in our school. kids are terrible here). I have 49.5 (sad I couldnt get an even 50) hours of volunteer hours. I got so lazy last semester after winter break, I almost failed my computer science exam; got 54 on the exam and finished the course with 75 (I was at mid 80s before exam).
Did you get accepted on Waterloo Comp Sci before winter break? I have a friend that has roughly the same marks as you but actually ZERO extracurriculars and he got his acceptance into Comp Sci the Friday before winter break started. I don't think he even had to write the AIF. He's going to major/specialize(not sure what's the right term) into Computer Science.
Basically my school somehow gets people to understand their potential. Meaning many students don't take courses they know they can't pass well. And many students are not afraid to drop courses.
Our average in English under my teacher is 67. The other English teachers are 75 or so. Our Chemistry average is 74 I believe. It was 80 first term, but people bombed the tests. Functions was mid 60s, but a lot of students dropped it, so now it's low 70s. Biology is the class I didn't take, and the highest mark is 85 I think, with the average in the 60s. Calculus is pretty skewed since we only had one mark in before report cards, but I'm expecting it in the low 60s. The Data average is 51 or 55. There are 8 students in my class, beginning at 20+, and 12 in the other, also beginning at 20+. I'm not sure about Physics, but a lot of kids complain about our teacher since he can't teach.
I got accepted into CS Feb 10 I think. Be glad, I have 45 hours of volunteering from one place. 9 hours that I haven't handed in, and 30 hours that I may or may not get.
A lot of people I know hover at the high 80s mark as well. It's just one or two marks dragging them down, which is the hardest thing about an average. You need to keep all your marks up, or it plummets. Consistency is probably the hardest thing to do. I try never to get lazy and take the easy route. I always go for the hardest or most work required, with good reason. Everytime I get pressured into not doing that (stupid groups), my marks are worse than they probably would have been. I'm lazy, but I like getting things done well.
I really wish they could do acceptances faster and earlier. It's driving people crazy having to wait.
Oh, to anyone who is going to University of Chicago (or accepted and thinking about it), and thinking of doing Economics/Statistics/Math (or "fake" Econ to go to finance/business), PM me and I'll definitely help you guys out and let you know what it is like :O
On March 25 2011 12:26 chameleonism wrote: I've seen a lot of people mention that everyone with high scores is getting turned down to the top tier colleges but what you have to understand that schools like Harvard/Stanford/MIT get so many applications from students around the country with 99 percentile SAT scores w/ tons of extra-curricular that "normal" students rarely get in.
To get into these schools, you need to have some kind of edge like having family that went to the school, being in a prestigious family, winning a major competition of some sort, being a strong athlete, going to a well-known or elite private or public high school (T.J. for example), etc. Once you factor in these people who have an "edge" over you who also have equal level qualifications (they may or may not be smarter/harder working than you), there are very few spots for the really smart and talented "normal" guys.
The best advice is to not sweat it. Go to whichever school accepts you, do well and move on with your life. Many non ivy league schools have programs just as good (if not better) than many ivy league schools. If you have your heart set on a certain program or career path, do the research and find out how you can make it happen.
edit: You also need to realize that if Harvard/Stanford/MIT/etc wanted to, they could limit their acceptance to only those who scored above 2350 (or higher) on the SAT with ease. The competition at the top is fierce so if you are not above 2300 and you don't have one of my above mentioned "edges" than you are going to need a miracle or the best set of extra-curriculars known to man. RedMochi is sadly, a perfect example of this.
I have a question to people who attend the cream of the crop schools. When you get there, are the students all what you expect out of a top tier school? Do they all have amazing credentials and achievements with super amazing intellect? I can't imagine that one school could be filled with nothing but these geniuses all with outstanding achievement
I sort of want to address both these points. I'm a junior at Princeton atm, and got into Harvard as well. I don't have any family alumni, nor are they important people. I didn't win any major competitions, I didn't even make it to the USAMO. I did some speech and debate, but never even went to the national competition. I had 50-100 hours of service, so nothing too too special there. I'm middle-income, white, male. In other words, there's almost nothing special about me.
That said, I had perfect scores and grades. 800's/A's across the board, with a whole lot of IB courses thrown in there. If you really do have the numbers, at least in my case, that can be enough to get you into Ivy League, as long as you aren't horribly lacking in other areas. Maybe things have changed drastically in the last few years, but I don't think it could possibly have changed that much.
When I got to Princeton, I definitely expected everyone to be super-amazing geniuses. They definitely aren't. It honestly feels like all the personalities from high school are still there, the only difference is now everyone knows that eventually you do have to get your shit done, and they're all - not necessarily super-smart - but they are very efficient at getting it done to acceptable standards in very little time, and they're willing to pull all-nighters if thats where procrastination puts them.
About the credentials, I'm sure everyone had a sterling highschool resume, but you wouldn't know it. It's just not something you really talk about all that much. I think people overestimate how hard it is to make a college application look really, really good, and really that's what college admissions are a test of - how good can you make yourself look, much more so than how good ARE you.
I hope this doesn't sound bitter, or like I'm bragging, because I actually really enjoy Princeton. And while not everyone is a super-genius, as a math major, I definitely do have some of those super-geniuses in my classes. (Definitely not one of them myself!)
On March 26 2011 10:12 HolyArrow wrote: Really, being a Bay Area asian male isn't that terrible. I fall into that exact demographic, and I got into all the top UC's, along with Duke, while some guys I know, also Asian males, got into places like Harvard, Stanford, and MIT. Their scores weren't even that amazing - strong, but nothing around 2300+ SAT scores. You need to be pretty good (around a 4.0 weighted, 2100+ SAT, some good extracurriculars) but you don't need to be a ridiculous 4.6 GPA 2400 SAT/36 ACT student with thousands of hours of community service and 6 different extracurriculars (I'm exaggerating at this point but you get the idea) to get into a good school.
I disagree. I'm a Socal Asian, and I know multiple people in my graduating class with 36's or nearly 2400's (2350+) along with Siemens award semifinalists, Chemistry and Math Olympiad competitors, people w/ 1000's of volunteer hours and titles to boot. They are the ONLY people going to Stanford/Harvard/MIT. Only people above 2100 even made UCLA/Berkeley unless they were not Asian or had above at least 4.5 weighted GPA.
It might just be that my graduating class got screwed since we were the most competitive class in decades at my HS. You seriously do need those numbers to set yourself outside of the demographic box when applying to colleges today, unless you're from Missouri or Lousiana or some other underrepresented state.
Accepted: University of North Carolina Greensboro Appalachian State University (Going to attend) East Carolina University
Rejected: University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Reason: Lack of foreign language credits)
I was a really poor student in high school and I just couldn't get myself motivated to do any work, I just passed the tests needed to wind up with a D in the class I ended up doing three years traditional High School before I transfered out and did two years at my local community college's Middle College program. After the first semester, I got rolling with my high school classes and started doing college course work. I was at school from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM doing full time high school and college. After my first year at middle college, I was making A's and B's in both my High School and College courses,
I think I did fairly well on my SATs (It's been about a year since I actually looked at the scores, they were around 720~ on both math and english) and I kept my college GPA at around 3.5 for two years but I couldn't salvage my high school GPA after three years of mediocrity, I was around a low 2.something by the end of high school. I just kept putting off getting my foreign language because the Community College I went to only offered Spanish and Russian (I'm not enthusiastic about Spanish and I wasn't brave enough to try Russian, so I was really afraid I'd fail and kill my two years of work).
I wanted to get into Chapel Hill so badly just so I could show all my high school teachers my acceptance letter and thank them for pushing me even when I wouldn't listen. I had friends and family going there and I was so excited when a female coworker I talk to and like was applying too. I sent all my paper around early January and then I had the longest and most nervous wait I ever had in my life. In March, I started receiving my acceptance letters one by one from all the other schools I had applied to all the while I grew more and more anxious (I started making almost daily mistakes at work because of how nervous I was).
Finally the last letter came and I don't need to tell you how it turned out, I just sat in my car for about an hour and did nothing The next day, I told my friends that I was rejected and then went to work and told my coworkers the same. I'm over it now but for a little while there, it felt like I had worked so hard for nothing.
So last week I sent my reply to Appalachian because I know some cool people who go there. I just want to chill out and have fun (Not be lazy and fail but I mean grow as a person because I feel like my schedule in between work, school, and gaming I've had little time to really explore who I am and what I want to do).
Well, it's March 24th. Early applicants should have heard from their schools already and the rest of the regular decision applicants should be rolling up within the coming weeks!
For myself (from NJ): Stanford - Rejected UC Berkeley - Accepted UCLA - Accepted Carnegie Mellon - Waiting University of Illinois Urbana - Accepted Rutgers - Accepted
4.57 weighted GPA (at the end of my junior year) 2230 SAT 780 SAT2 Bio 800 SAT2 Physics 800 SAT2 Math 2 300+ volunteer hours summer internships at SIEMENS and Columbia University research with NJIT professor programmer on an indie game AP CS AB, Stat, US history - 5
I applied for computer science at all the schools. Post yours!
Good luck all!
Why did you apply to California schools and not Princeton? Was Rutgers just a safety or are you considering it if they give you a bunch of money? Never mind, I figured it out
GPA: 3.6 SAT: 1960 Service Hours: 400+ Extracurriculars: Eagle Scout, First Robotics Team (Leadership positions in both). Race: White Fantastic High School with the best API in the district.
Accepted: Lewis & Clark University UC Santa Cruz San Diego State University University of Colorado Boulder University of Pittsburgh Ohio State University James Madison University George Mason University
Rejected: UC Berkley UC San Diego UC Davis UC Santa Barbara Boston University University of Texas Austin
I've scored a provisional place to spend a year at University of Colorado Boulder! Studying English Lit in the UK at the moment, but this should be a great experience. Any TLers at UoCB?
Accepted: Northwestern University UC Berkeley UCLA USC UC San Diego GA Tech UT Austin Penn State Texas A & M Baylor
Wait Listed: Washu U of Chicago Rice Cal Tech
Rejected: MIT Stanford John Hopkins
Waiting: a ton lol XP 4.8 gpa 34 act 2260 (750 reading 800 math 710 writing) tons of ap classes school clubs leadership,church leadership, "dj" (soundboard) ,volunteering, competions, music
On March 27 2011 09:39 Retgery wrote: I have a couple of questions for any students going to Waterloo, or Carleton. Are they mac or pc schools? I'm applying for university next year, and those 2 are my number one choices. I'm going for Engineering, not entirely sure which field to specialize in yet
The professor in a Software Engineering lecture at Waterloo I attended said it doesn't really matter, but you'll generally see more PCs than MACs.
I have a 94 average. English mark is killing me. 83* English - 94 Chemistry - 95 Physics - 96 Data - 96 Functions - 100 Calculus One sports team. Elected Captain of one school club. A part-time job as a tutor. A first place in McMaster's Engineering and Science Olympics. Minimal volunteering.
University of Toronto - Engineering Science - Accepted University of Waterloo - Computer Science - Accepted Queens - Computing for giggles - Waiting University of Waterloo - Software Engineering - Waiting
I want to get into Software Engineering at Waterloo.
I still want to know how averages from the U.S. translate over to Canada.
Do not come into Engineering Science unless you have a hyperbolic time machine in second year because AER201 is a fucking time vampire. Only come into this program if you wish to tr0ll with the Profs from UTIAS.
Going into Waterloo Software engineering is your best choice because it's less WTFMATH than Comp. Sci afaik. Also remember though EngSci and basically all Waterloo programs are course intensive meaning you'll definitely have twice or more hours than your art (sometimes even science) friends.
From Florida University of Central Florida - Accepted and attending there! Pennsylvania State University - Accepted Drexel University - Accepted Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Waiting Spring Hill College - Accepted Hofstra University - Accepted University of Florida - Rejected
3.99 weighted GPA (at the end of my junior year) 1820 SAT Math - 690 120+ volunteer hours AP Calculus AB and BC -5 AP Physics C - 3 AP Bio - this year
I know that there should be roughly 10 times as many people applying to US schools as Canadian schools. And that the chances of someone applying to Ottawa are fairly low compared to some other schools. And that not everyone would be accepted. And that few of those who accepted would actually choose to come here.
But I've read through this entire thread, and haven't seen a single person apply to uOttawa.
Accepted: Rutgers University New Brunswick Washington College American University The College of New Jersey
Rejected: None
(From NJ)
Edit - 4.15 Weighted GPA 29 ACT 1880 SAT Volunteer work/community service National Honor Society Clarinet/trombone player: Symphonic/Marching Band APs: Euro, US, Macro 5 on Euro, taking US and Macro now.
4.04 weighted GPA 29 ACT 1850 SAT 550 SAT2 Bio 610 SAT2 Math 2 internships at a law firm violin @ school orchestra jv cross-country yearbook photo/copy editor
Overall, I'm not a very impressive by-the-numbers candidate, but I still managed to get into my top two: UBC and UMich. Now I just need to decide if I want to go to Vancouver or Ann Arbor.
I'm not sure if I should feel bad about not accomplishing a tenth of what others have in this thread, or good that I'm in pretty much the same position as them with a tenth of the effort.
3.8 GPA, three easy AP classes senior year, zero extracurriculars or notable activities throughout all four years of high school. 12 volunteer hours that were required for Government class (we were supposed to have 15 but I was lazy). I did alright on my SATs (2200) and wrote a pretty good essay about Carl Sagan.
I applied to a single (fairly prestigious) university well before the deadline and got my acceptance letter a few days later. Maybe it was the fact that my dad attended there with outstanding performance, maybe they really liked the essay, maybe I just got lucky.
My biggest worry is that this do-nothing, 'big rewards for zero effort' attitude will carry over into college. So many kids in this thread worked their asses off to get into higher education. So far, it's been handed to me on a silver platter.
Sorry if this sounds like bragging, but this thread really put things into perspective for me.
On March 28 2011 04:40 sevia wrote: I'm not sure if I should feel bad about not accomplishing a tenth of what others have in this thread, or good that I'm in pretty much the same position as them with a tenth of the effort.
3.8 GPA, three easy AP classes senior year, zero extracurriculars or notable activities throughout all four years of high school. 12 volunteer hours that were required for Government class (we were supposed to have 15 but I was lazy). I did alright on my SATs (2200) and wrote a pretty good essay about Carl Sagan.
I applied to a single (fairly prestigious) university well before the deadline and got my acceptance letter a few days later. Maybe it was the fact that my dad attended there with outstanding performance, maybe they really liked the essay, maybe I just got lucky.
My biggest worry is that this do-nothing, 'big rewards for zero effort' attitude will carry over into college. So many kids in this thread worked their asses off to get into higher education. So far, it's been handed to me on a silver platter.
Sorry if this sounds like bragging, but this thread really put things into perspective for me.
4.04 weighted GPA 29 ACT 1850 SAT 550 SAT2 Bio 610 SAT2 Math 2 internships at a law firm violin @ school orchestra jv cross-country yearbook photo/copy editor
Overall, I'm not a very impressive by-the-numbers candidate, but I still managed to get into my top two: UBC and UMich. Now I just need to decide if I want to go to Vancouver or Ann Arbor.
Come to ann arbor :D we have a pretty decent starcraft scene here.
I'm a junior, but I was wondering what a weighted GPA is? Is that with AP classes too? And Idk what I'm going to do I have like no extracurricular, not the best grades, and I haven't taken the ACT yet.
Also, I have no idea what I want to do in college anyway lol.
I graduated from Stanford in 2009. I've been working in industry for the past 2 years and here are some of my observations.
1) School matters a lot less than you think. I don't see that much of a correlation between performance at work and the prestige of the university you went to. 2) Your life isn't set once you get into a top school. There's still fierce competition for good jobs/graduate schools. Similarly, you can do a lot even at a "not so good school". The individual matters far more than the school here. 3) The average student isn't very impressive even at a top school. You still have tons of people who cannot execute mechanical procedures to solve computational problems on math exams for example. 4) I think the only time people actually cared what school I went to or what my SAT scores were was during senior year of high school after admissions decisions came out.
On March 28 2011 09:07 chenchen wrote: Yeah, I actually wasn't expecting this much douchebagery in a college acceptance thread.
To all you overachievers, stop bragging, it makes you look insecure and immature.
To all you underachievers, stupidity and laziness are not virtues, they do not get you far in life.
Seriously. I dont get why people started putting gpa/achievements here, especially weighted since it works differently in different schools. I thought people were just goingto post where thy got accepted, etc. Bragging just makes people look dumb.
On March 28 2011 09:07 chenchen wrote: Yeah, I actually wasn't expecting this much douchebagery in a college acceptance thread.
To all you overachievers, stop bragging, it makes you look insecure and immature.
To all you underachievers, stupidity and laziness are not virtues, they do not get you far in life.
Seriously. I dont get why people started putting gpa/achievements here, especially weighted since it works differently in different schools. I thought people were just goingto post where thy got accepted, etc. Bragging just makes people look dumb.
So people who are also applying know where they stand with their own marks and extracurriculars? No one here is bragging as far as I can tell. Except maybe sevia.
It's as much an accepted thread as a waiting thread. There are tons of people waiting for their own acceptances, and it may give them some hope to see other people near their level getting into the same programs or universities. Few people have embellished their achievements.
If anything, I think you guys are just jealous that some people have gotten where they wanted, and that they have better marks than you...
On March 28 2011 09:16 StarDrive wrote: I graduated from Stanford in 2009. I've been working in industry for the past 2 years and here are some of my observations.
1) School matters a lot less than you think. I don't see that much of a correlation between performance at work and the prestige of the university you went to. 2) Your life isn't set once you get into a top school. There's still fierce competition for good jobs/graduate schools. Similarly, you can do a lot even at a "not so good school". The individual matters far more than the school here. 3) The average student isn't very impressive even at a top school. You still have tons of people who cannot execute mechanical procedures to solve computational problems on math exams for example. 4) I think the only time people actually cared what school I went to or what my SAT scores were was during senior year of high school after admissions decisions came out.
lol. damn straight. I got into Johns Hopkins for Pre-Med on a full sports scholarship for lacrosse. My foot surgery dropped me from the team, and I couldnt afford to keep going there. Transfered to UMD, and started med school. 3 years later I'm working in the same damn hospital as half the JHU grads, no one really cares.
TBH what college you go to doesn't matter, mostly every company you will go to has a set of criteria. Only if there's a tie with multiple candidates (almost never) is when where they got their education comes into play a little, and even then most of the consideration goes into personality: they could care less if you were a harvard grad if nobody your working with likes you. Companies are getting big into synergy, why? Because it is proven to increase work productivity, and that is the only thing they care about.
I'm not saying that it isn't awesome to get into your dream school, because it is. But unless your on a large-full scholarship, the massive amount of extra money isnt worth it. It will never pay itself off. (unless your a psychologist. one of the few jobs where you can shamelessly flaunt your degree to people that didn't go to college, to make them feel like your better than all the other psychologists.)
The basic point of this is: as the prestige of the college increases so does the cost. But the actual value of your education generally stays the same. Atleast thats how I see it.
Edit: As Chill will always tell you. Check the male:female ratio of a college before applying.
On March 28 2011 02:31 Impervious wrote: I know that there should be roughly 10 times as many people applying to US schools as Canadian schools. And that the chances of someone applying to Ottawa are fairly low compared to some other schools. And that not everyone would be accepted. And that few of those who accepted would actually choose to come here.
But I've read through this entire thread, and haven't seen a single person apply to uOttawa.
As a few of the posters above me have said, it's more about YOU than your college. Are you an introvert who studies his/her ass off-ends college with a 4.0 but isn't able to interact socially in a work environment? At the end of the day, it's going to come down to a couple things: who you know, whether or not you interviewed well, and if you can do what your job requires of you(intellectually/socially).
It's very sad that this is an after thought for many: did you have fun in college?
Holy Christ this thread takes me back to high school haha It feels like a lot of TL people are from the west coast (tons of UC applications), Asian, and into some sort of engineering field such as EE, CS, both, MatSci, etc. etc. INTERESTING KEKEKEKE
Personally I'm an Asian EECS major at Berkeley myself.
On March 28 2011 09:58 jadedpi3 wrote: Holy Christ this thread takes me back to high school haha It feels like a lot of TL people are from the west coast (tons of UC applications), Asian, and into some sort of engineering field such as EE, CS, both, MatSci, etc. etc. INTERESTING KEKEKEKE
Personally I'm an Asian EECS major at Berkeley myself.
It's true that there's a huge difference between EE and CS...right? The former is hardware and the latter is software, so even though the departments are usually the same, the two fields are still very different from each other...right? Which are you?
On March 28 2011 09:07 chenchen wrote: Yeah, I actually wasn't expecting this much douchebagery in a college acceptance thread.
To all you overachievers, stop bragging, it makes you look insecure and immature.
To all you underachievers, stupidity and laziness are not virtues, they do not get you far in life.
Although it might not matter to you...some people who are still in high school might want to see what other people have done and to judge their chances of getting into college. It you don't like it then why even read through the thread =\
If you go through the 2010 thread it's been like that too.
On a more related note...I think CMU is getting to me by tomorrow...they still use mail =\
On March 28 2011 09:07 chenchen wrote: Yeah, I actually wasn't expecting this much douchebagery in a college acceptance thread.
To all you overachievers, stop bragging, it makes you look insecure and immature.
To all you underachievers, stupidity and laziness are not virtues, they do not get you far in life.
Although it might not matter to you...some people who are still in high school might want to see what other people have done and to judge their chances of getting into college. It you don't like it then why even read through the thread =\
If you go through the 2010 thread it's been like that too.
On a more related note...I think CMU is getting to me by tomorrow...they still use mail =\
I know that feel bro... according to CC CMU is going out Monday 12:01 EDT (online), so that means 21:00 today PDT for us people in the west.
On March 28 2011 09:58 jadedpi3 wrote: Holy Christ this thread takes me back to high school haha It feels like a lot of TL people are from the west coast (tons of UC applications), Asian, and into some sort of engineering field such as EE, CS, both, MatSci, etc. etc. INTERESTING KEKEKEKE
Personally I'm an Asian EECS major at Berkeley myself.
It's true that there's a huge difference between EE and CS...right? The former is hardware and the latter is software, so even though the departments are usually the same, the two fields are still very different from each other...right? Which are you?
On March 28 2011 09:58 jadedpi3 wrote: Holy Christ this thread takes me back to high school haha It feels like a lot of TL people are from the west coast (tons of UC applications), Asian, and into some sort of engineering field such as EE, CS, both, MatSci, etc. etc. INTERESTING KEKEKEKE
Personally I'm an Asian EECS major at Berkeley myself.
It's true that there's a huge difference between EE and CS...right? The former is hardware and the latter is software, so even though the departments are usually the same, the two fields are still very different from each other...right? Which are you?
No. Systems software ( e.g. cars, microwaves, cellphone, defibrillator) is generally designed for specific hardware, and the interaction between hardware and software guys is crucial.
Good luck young ones. To keep your spirits up if you have a bad start, here's my own experience.
I'm done my 6th year of university (cut a little early unfortunately) and going back to finish my bachelor in biochemistry in Moncton in september... I haven't applied yet but it's not a strict university on applications and it's not a program with limited spots. Needed a break after the disaster that was this year but I'm going to get things in order in April (well, I took care of every thing not school related at least).
Going to end up taking me 7 years to have a 4 year bachelor T_T... wasted 3 years in university of Montreal in pharmacy. Sucks, but I'm pretty eager to get back to research.
With my masters after that it's going to be close to 10 years total. I am one of those eternal students apparently. No plans on a PhD at the moment but maybe once I get there.
Well, I don't mind living the (very) poor life as there's really nothing I want beyond a job I enjoy and I like learning so it's not all bad. Sucks to waste 3 years but it was an experience nonetheless and now I know what I really want to do.
On March 28 2011 09:58 jadedpi3 wrote: Holy Christ this thread takes me back to high school haha It feels like a lot of TL people are from the west coast (tons of UC applications), Asian, and into some sort of engineering field such as EE, CS, both, MatSci, etc. etc. INTERESTING KEKEKEKE
Personally I'm an Asian EECS major at Berkeley myself.
It's true that there's a huge difference between EE and CS...right? The former is hardware and the latter is software, so even though the departments are usually the same, the two fields are still very different from each other...right? Which are you?
No. Systems software ( e.g. cars, microwaves, cellphone, defibrillator) is generally designed for specific hardware, and the interaction between hardware and software guys is crucial.
Hm, so how much does each field carry over into the other? Are the electrical engineers supposed to understand programming languages, and the software engineers supposed to understand circuitry, etc.? I know very, very little (i.e. only the most basic rudiments) right now, but I would like to enter EECS in the future, and thus am very interested in knowing.
On March 28 2011 09:07 chenchen wrote: Yeah, I actually wasn't expecting this much douchebagery in a college acceptance thread.
To all you overachievers, stop bragging, it makes you look insecure and immature.
To all you underachievers, stupidity and laziness are not virtues, they do not get you far in life.
Seriously. I dont get why people started putting gpa/achievements here, especially weighted since it works differently in different schools. I thought people were just goingto post where thy got accepted, etc. Bragging just makes people look dumb.
So people who are also applying know where they stand with their own marks and extracurriculars? No one here is bragging as far as I can tell. Except maybe sevia.
It's as much an accepted thread as a waiting thread. There are tons of people waiting for their own acceptances, and it may give them some hope to see other people near their level getting into the same programs or universities. Few people have embellished their achievements.
If anything, I think you guys are just jealous that some people have gotten where they wanted, and that they have better marks than you...
I was worried the post would come off like that. Sorry if I sounded like a dick.
What I meant it to mean is that even if you haven't done a whole lot in high school (even next to nothing) you've still got a chance at acceptance. I was initially really worried that I would be rejected, I already had several other schools as back-up plans because I was almost sure that a good uni wouldn't someone like me. Plenty of kids in this thread are probably thinking the same thing, so I'm just saying, those fears are probably unfounded.
People who have great GPAs / community service / extracurriculars should be commended and deserve a good school. But to those who aren't sure where they stand, have some confidence and you might just get lucky.
On March 28 2011 08:45 USApwn wrote: Better off going to a community college then xfering from there for a BA/BS degree.
Master degree is where the big money should be spent.
That's what I'm doing, College - BA - Masters (shooting for Yale or Schulich for business)
How about fast tech BBA/BCOM -> MBA.
Cuts 2 years from the College to Bachelor and then cuts another year or 2 when you go from Bachelor to Masters.
I don't see how this College->Bachelor->Masters is superior in anyway except spending more money.
My high school grades are not good enough to get into University because I focused more on eSports during those years than schooling.
So I have to go to College first, and due to personal reasons I am finishing the full 3 years and earning the diploma, then I should be able to take advantage of an articulation agreement, and cut my Bachelors down to 2 years instead of 4. Then I have to work 2 years, then apply for Masters via relevant work experience and recommendations.
I don't plan on getting on any waitlists. I can't risk not going to the schools I'm already in hoping to get into waitlists.
Yeah CS is pretty difficult to get in, unless if you're a girl...
Did you get into any other universities that you wanted to get in? I think generally you pay a deposit or something saying you want to go there, but don't have to commit beyond that, until you actually go. I could be horribly wrong though >_>;;
I don't plan on getting on any waitlists. I can't risk not going to the schools I'm already in hoping to get into waitlists.
Yeah CS is pretty difficult to get in, unless if you're a girl...
Did you get into any other universities that you wanted to get in? I think generally you pay a deposit or something saying you want to go there, but don't have to commit beyond that, until you actually go. I could be horribly wrong though >_>;;
I can put myself on as many waitlists as I want, right?
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for CIT and SCS... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
I got waitlisted for CIT and SCS for CMU... From what I hear, they pretty much don't take any off their waitlists, so I'm not banking on CMU anymore at all.
I guess I'm appealing Berkeley... I have no idea where I'm going anymore.
I don't plan on getting on any waitlists. I can't risk not going to the schools I'm already in hoping to get into waitlists.
Yeah CS is pretty difficult to get in, unless if you're a girl...
Did you get into any other universities that you wanted to get in? I think generally you pay a deposit or something saying you want to go there, but don't have to commit beyond that, until you actually go. I could be horribly wrong though >_>;;
I can put myself on as many waitlists as I want, right?
Yeah, you can be on as many waitlist as you want. I'm saying like if you're not off a waitlist by the time you have to make a decision, you can say i wanna go here, but if you happen to get off the waitlist later you can go to the school you were waitlisted from with like losing a small deposit. Yet again, I'm not sure if this is completely true.
I'm not going to say anything about probability of getting off the waitlist, because I honestly don't know. I did get waitlisted from CS, but I was probably really low in terms of getting off, cause I was already in CIT(So CS wasn't even first priority)
On March 28 2011 13:36 HolySpear wrote: Nothings showing up for CMU in my box...does this mean rejection?
There are always a few people who don't get updated right away... just wait for your letter in the mail and if still nothing shows up then go ahead and call them.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for CIT and SCS... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
I got waitlisted for CIT and SCS for CMU... From what I hear, they pretty much don't take any off their waitlists, so I'm not banking on CMU anymore at all.
I guess I'm appealing Berkeley... I have no idea where I'm going anymore.
From what I heard they have this thing called a priority waitlist and people off that list have a decent chance...so just gotta wait for the mail and see if they give us a priority waitlist option :\
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for CIT and SCS... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
I got waitlisted for CIT and SCS for CMU... From what I hear, they pretty much don't take any off their waitlists, so I'm not banking on CMU anymore at all.
I guess I'm appealing Berkeley... I have no idea where I'm going anymore.
From what I heard they have this thing called a priority waitlist and people off that list have a decent chance...so just gotta wait for the mail and see if they give us a priority waitlist option :\
People on the priority waitlist have a good shot for H&SS. For SCS or CIT, it's effectively zero. Even with that said I know I'm going to pay the deposit/whatever. I'm just not expecting anything.
It feels terrible to not live up to the standards of other Intel STS Semifinalists.
On March 28 2011 09:58 jadedpi3 wrote: Holy Christ this thread takes me back to high school haha It feels like a lot of TL people are from the west coast (tons of UC applications), Asian, and into some sort of engineering field such as EE, CS, both, MatSci, etc. etc. INTERESTING KEKEKEKE
Personally I'm an Asian EECS major at Berkeley myself.
It's true that there's a huge difference between EE and CS...right? The former is hardware and the latter is software, so even though the departments are usually the same, the two fields are still very different from each other...right? Which are you?
EE/CS are grouped into one major at Berkeley (at least in the College of Engineering; Letters and Science only has pure CS and the courseload is slightly different), as well as a number of other institutions. In a practical sense, the two are closely related, but in general people choose to focus on one discipline or the other. I have a basic understanding of circuits, but my major focus is CS.
I do know people who are definitely jack-of-all-trades-ish in the sense that they are very well learned in both EE and CS, but those people tend to be among the most brilliant (and hard working) and are fairly rare (at least in undergrad).
On March 28 2011 13:42 l10f wrote: Alright, I'm getting on these waitlists >____> But it seems like I'll have to settle for NYU..
That happened to my salutatorian last year, of 14 schools 11 wait listed her probably because she had steller stats and nothing else. As I far as I can tell, no one knows where she goes now
Accepted: Carnegie Mellon (SCS and CIT) Northwestern KU (I live in Kansas lol) UIllinois Urbana-Champaign Wheaton(MA, I applied here as a joke, made up random stories for the essays)
Rejected: MIT
Still waiting to hear back from: UPenn Duke Cornell Johns Hopkins
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for CIT and SCS... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
I got waitlisted for CIT and SCS for CMU... From what I hear, they pretty much don't take any off their waitlists, so I'm not banking on CMU anymore at all.
I guess I'm appealing Berkeley... I have no idea where I'm going anymore.
From what I heard they have this thing called a priority waitlist and people off that list have a decent chance...so just gotta wait for the mail and see if they give us a priority waitlist option :\
People on the priority waitlist have a good shot for H&SS. For SCS or CIT, it's effectively zero. Even with that said I know I'm going to pay the deposit/whatever. I'm just not expecting anything.
It feels terrible to not live up to the standards of other Intel STS Semifinalists.
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Waiting :/ Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for CIT and SCS... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
I got waitlisted for CIT and SCS for CMU... From what I hear, they pretty much don't take any off their waitlists, so I'm not banking on CMU anymore at all.
I guess I'm appealing Berkeley... I have no idea where I'm going anymore.
Wow I'm really sorry you didn't get into cmu, I don't have the intel award and you have higher test scores =\ I remember my brother was an intel semifinalist and a siemens semifinalist as well and he eventually went to MIT...
On March 29 2011 15:41 christianc750 wrote: Just to give some of you guys hope.
Im in the class of 2013 at UPENN and major in CIS.
SAT: 1980 SATIIs:700 690 670
Other notable accepts: Northwestern, CMU (Legacy -Dad)
GL!
If I were a Junior I would have begged for your secrets. You could write a book and a million parents would buy it--and guest speak at cram schools//test-prep places.
On March 29 2011 15:41 christianc750 wrote: Just to give some of you guys hope.
Im in the class of 2013 at UPENN and major in CIS.
SAT: 1980 SATIIs:700 690 670
Other notable accepts: Northwestern, CMU (Legacy -Dad)
GL!
If I were a Junior I would have begged for your secrets. You could write a book and a million parents would buy it--and guest speak at cram schools//test-prep places.
No offense to Christianc750, but his ethnicity probably helped more than anything else. Unless he did some crazy EC's that he hasn't told us about :D
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected (Appealing) Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Rejected Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for SCS and CIT... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
Where do you think you're going to go? I'm mainly debating between UC Berkeley and UIUC at the moment. I think UC Berk's computer science program is a tad better than UIUC's but UIUC gave me more money. Oh the decisions. =\
On March 30 2011 07:41 b3h47pte wrote: Where do you think you're going to go? I'm mainly debating between UC Berkeley and UIUC at the moment. I think UC Berk's computer science program is a tad better than UIUC's but UIUC gave me more money. Oh the decisions. =\
Berkely and Nothwestern so far, but we'll see tommorow
On March 25 2011 08:06 pikaaarrr :3 wrote: Accepted: UCLA UCSD (regents) UC Davis (regents) UC Berkeley!
Rejected: MIT
Waitlist: Washington University St. Louis Stanford
waiting on brown...
i have a good GPA and my ACT was pretty good, but i don't know what to expect. my extracurriculars sound okay on paper but who knows TT. bioengineering/biotechnology for all~
news in bold~
didn't expect to NOT get rejected from stanford...but i'm probably not going to get a spot since my activities since application are sorta meh (and my grades too )
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected (Appealing) Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Rejected Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for SCS and CIT... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
And that's how the cookie crumbles.
Honestly, that's ridiculous...I'm really sorry to hear that. Some people from my school don't really deserve the spots they've gotten. What did you apply as?
On March 25 2011 08:41 Loser777 wrote: GPA: 3.80UW -UC GPA was something shitty like 4.00 SAT: 2310 SAT IIs: 790 US 790 Physics 800 Math II
ECs: Mixture of various science clubs, competitions and fairs, marching band for four years, few community service hours (~100)
Major Awards: Intel Science Talent Search Semifinalist
UC Berkeley: Rejected (Appealing) Harvey Mudd College: Rejected MIT: Rejected UC San Diego: Rejected Stanford: Rejected Carnegie Mellon: Waitlisted for SCS and CIT... as good as a rejection UCLA: Accepted UCI: Accepted UCSB: Accepted UCR: Accepted UCD: Accepted USC: Accepted UIUC: Accepted University of Michigan: Accepted University of Texas Austin: Accepted Georgia Institute of Technology: Accepted Cal Poly SLO: Accepted
And that's how the cookie crumbles.
Honestly, that's ridiculous...I'm really sorry to hear that. Some people from my school don't really deserve the spots they've gotten. What did you apply as?
Yeah. Some people that got into LA it was like o.o
On March 30 2011 07:54 Loser777 wrote: I'll probably send an SIR to USC and see what happens with my appeal. I don't think I got much money at all from any schools (other than USC)
On March 30 2011 07:54 Loser777 wrote: I'll probably send an SIR to USC and see what happens with my appeal. I don't think I got much money at all from any schools (other than USC)
On March 30 2011 07:54 Loser777 wrote: I'll probably send an SIR to USC and see what happens with my appeal. I don't think I got much money at all from any schools (other than USC)
On March 30 2011 07:54 Loser777 wrote: I'll probably send an SIR to USC and see what happens with my appeal. I don't think I got much money at all from any schools (other than USC)
rejected from standford, caltech waitlisted to carnegie mellon accepted to ut austin honors (all comp sci) nothing too surprising, 2220 sat, 34 act, 800 sat II math, 760 sat II physics
On March 30 2011 13:13 The_LiNk wrote: Accepted into UofT Scarborough. Still waiting for St.George.
I'm relieved that I'm at least going into UofT.
Yeahhhh Scarboroughh. What program? Actually, what school are you at right now? UTSC is like 10 mins from my house driving. oO
The UofT acceptance letter is SO boring. So formal. Waterloo was like in huge letters, CONGRATULATIONS, on the front page and stuff. Very colourful. UofT is gray and text.
On March 30 2011 13:13 The_LiNk wrote: Accepted into UofT Scarborough. Still waiting for St.George.
I'm relieved that I'm at least going into UofT.
Yeahhhh Scarboroughh. What program? Actually, what school are you at right now? UTSC is like 10 mins from my house driving. oO
The UofT acceptance letter is SO boring. So formal. Waterloo was like in huge letters, CONGRATULATIONS, on the front page and stuff. Very colourful. UofT is gray and text.
Gotta keep you in suspense~
I logged into the join.utoronto.ca site and this giant pop up blocks the screen with big white text in size 32 font on grey background surrounded by (UofT) blue trim "Congratulation! You have been excepted into University of Toronto Scarborough - Management and Economics..."
Offer their hand out to me for a congratulatory handshake.
"...(Pre-program)"
Psych! Slaps me in the face.
I didn't get my letter yet. I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad. I'm relieved though because I don't have to go to Ryerson or York but then I'm not guaranteed in the program. I finished last semester with 83 average (I got a 75 in 1 subject that I'm not having in my top 6 and my acceptances goes to shits).
Edit: Oh man, I feel so dumb. Even though it's says preprogram, it's the same as any other business school where you go into the business program in the 2nd year, just that there are a set of conditions I have to meet to guarantee a spot. I thought I'm got into a general arts program as an alternative or something.
So awesome. I just spent almost 2 hours reading the whole thread. Wish I was in the US! Colleges sound so fun T.T Wish I can experience the culture. Good luck everyone!
(And of course there are so many high GPA people in this forum. This is the lair of nerds / closer nerds all over the world <3<3)
On March 30 2011 14:38 kellymilkies wrote: So awesome. I just spent almost 2 hours reading the whole thread. Wish I was in the US! Colleges sound so fun T.T Wish I can experience the culture. Good luck everyone!
(And of course there are so many high GPA people in this forum. This is the lair of nerds / closer nerds all over the world <3<3)
College may be fun, but the college application and admissions experience is far from it.
On March 30 2011 14:38 kellymilkies wrote: So awesome. I just spent almost 2 hours reading the whole thread. Wish I was in the US! Colleges sound so fun T.T Wish I can experience the culture. Good luck everyone!
(And of course there are so many high GPA people in this forum. This is the lair of nerds / closer nerds all over the world <3<3)
College may be fun, but the college application and admissions experience is far from it.
Haha. And to think I'm applying to singapore management university!!
I'm confused after reading a few posts from chinese people complaining about not being accepted to schools like Yale even with amazingly good grades. It's amazing to me that such good candidates would be knocked back purely on the basis of their ethnicity. Would this qualify as racism? If this is indeed true, I'm surprised these selection practices aren't subjected to public scrutiny.
On March 30 2011 14:38 kellymilkies wrote: So awesome. I just spent almost 2 hours reading the whole thread. Wish I was in the US! Colleges sound so fun T.T Wish I can experience the culture. Good luck everyone!
(And of course there are so many high GPA people in this forum. This is the lair of nerds / closer nerds all over the world <3<3)
College may be fun, but the college application and admissions experience is far from it.
Haha. And to think I'm applying to singapore management university!!
...Dude... don't come to Singapore... It's Summer all the time, rains like crazy during September, rent is crazy, it's humid as hell...
Congratulations to all the great students in this thread! My thoughts are that if you are trying to get a job out of college, go to the best school that you can. If you are shooting for graduate school (in my case law school) your undergraduate university does not matter as much. Focus on getting at least reasonably good grades, doing extraordinary on the LSAT/ GRE / GMAT/ MCAT, and doing interesting EC to weave an compelling story that will set you apart from the other applicants. Here are my stats, sorry i'm not as smart.
LDAS GPA (basically a regular 4.0 scale, which my college used anyway) 3.83 LSAT: 166
Accepted: Boston University George Washington University Loyola University Chicago (my undergraduate school)
Waitlisted: Illinois UCLA
Rejected: Stanford (huge reach but w/e) U Chicago Northwestern Georgetown
On March 30 2011 17:19 LilClinkin wrote: I'm confused after reading a few posts from chinese people complaining about not being accepted to schools like Yale even with amazingly good grades. It's amazing to me that such good candidates would be knocked back purely on the basis of their ethnicity. Would this qualify as racism? If this is indeed true, I'm surprised these selection practices aren't subjected to public scrutiny.
It's more complicated that that - while high grades are one of the most important criteria that schools want, it's also important to take into account other things like extracurricular interests, what subjects students are likely going to major in and how they think they are going to interact with the university. It's important to maintain diversity as well, so there will be students who gain an advantage because of their background, and those who suffer. Unfortunately there's no perfect system
Congratulations to everyone getting accepted anywhere! Competition for Universities is really absurd these days.
A bit of advice: Make sure you go somewhere where you feel comfortable. The Big Name, the low price, anything else you might consider is secondary to an environment that makes you feel like you can succeed.
And if anyone ends up in Cambridge Massachusetts for any reason... Lets have a LAN!
Hmm. Apparently if CMU puts you on the waitlist they still give you a financial aid estimate haha. Man. Now I really want to get into CMU..they gave me so much more money than anywhere else TT
So I got waitlisted into Penn... The website says decisions will be available beginning mid-May but I need to reply to UCLA by May 1. Does that mean if I apply to UCLA and get into Penn I cancel with UCLA? My chances don't seem very good with the tone of the letter though. "You should, however, secure a place at another institution prior to the May 1 reply date. "...
On March 28 2011 18:32 Galgorthion wrote: Accepted: Carnegie Mellon (SCS and CIT) Northwestern KU (I live in Kansas lol) UIllinois Urbana-Champaign Wheaton(MA, I applied here as a joke, made up random stories for the essays)
Rejected: MIT
Still waiting to hear back from: UPenn Duke Cornell Johns Hopkins
I got into: Carnegie Mellon (CIT) University of Michigan ($45k total Scholarship over 4 years. Out of State) University of Maryland (Scholars Program. In State)
I'm trying to decide between Michigan and Carnegie... Anyone want to help me with that?
My stats: wGPA: 4.33 GPA: 3.51 (I ended Junior year with a 4.8, and started Senior with a 5.0) SAT: 2130 APs: NSL - 4, CompSciA - 5, CalcBC - 5, World - 5, PhysicsMechanics - 5.
On March 31 2011 07:14 Archaic wrote: I got into: Carnegie Mellon (CIT) University of Michigan ($45k total Scholarship over 4 years) University of Maryland (Scholars Program)
I'm trying to decide between Michigan and Carnegie... Anyone want to help me with that?
Well, If UMich is in-state tuiton for you then go for that one, otherwise I would go for CMU no doubt, almost same price at that level.
haha some black kid at my school made princeton with a 3.7/36 and proceeds to tell me how he's better than me and how he deserves it and how "being black had nothing to do with it". I have a 3.95/2350. Basically he's telling me getting 1 more point on the ACT makes up for getting 20 Bs as compared to 4 in high school.
Not to mention i completely pwn him in the extracurriculars department.
You have it so strange in the US... But it's getting similar here too nowadays (ie: stuff from highschool actually matters during admissions). During my time it was different - only internal uni exams and some science competitions mattered - so I finished highschool with <3 average, on a 1-5 scale. Was ok though, as I did great during internals and highschool knowledge is 100% useless at the university anyway.
On March 31 2011 07:14 Archaic wrote: I got into: Carnegie Mellon (CIT) University of Michigan ($45k total Scholarship over 4 years. Out of State) University of Maryland (Scholars Program. In State)
I'm trying to decide between Michigan and Carnegie... Anyone want to help me with that?
My stats: wGPA: 4.33 GPA: 3.51 (I ended Junior year with a 4.8, and started Senior with a 5.0) SAT: 2130 APs: NSL - 4, CompSciA - 5, CalcBC - 5, World - 5, PhysicsMechanics - 5.
On March 31 2011 08:16 [Azn]Nada wrote: haha some black kid at my school made princeton with a 3.7/36 and proceeds to tell me how he's better than me and how he deserves it and how "being black had nothing to do with it". I have a 3.95/2350. Basically he's telling me getting 1 more point on the ACT makes up for getting 20 Bs as compared to 4 in high school.
Not to mention i completely pwn him in the extracurriculars department.
Funny black kid
It's kind of mean and bitter to say someone got into a school only based on their race, even if it is true. Honestly, it is a lot easier for black people to get into top universities, but that doesn't mean you should confront them about it and make them feel worse about their accomplishment.
On March 31 2011 08:16 [Azn]Nada wrote: haha some black kid at my school made princeton with a 3.7/36 and proceeds to tell me how he's better than me and how he deserves it and how "being black had nothing to do with it". I have a 3.95/2350. Basically he's telling me getting 1 more point on the ACT makes up for getting 20 Bs as compared to 4 in high school.
Not to mention i completely pwn him in the extracurriculars department.
Funny black kid
It's kind of mean and bitter to say someone got into a school only based on their race, even if it is true. Honestly, it is a lot easier for black people to get into top universities, but that doesn't mean you should confront them about it and make them feel worse about their accomplishment.
From the information that [Azn]Nada gives it seems like the other person is the one who is being aggressive and confronting him about it and not the other way around. Haha. oh well =\
On March 31 2011 08:14 jw232 wrote: Affirmative action sucks... is it required to put down your ethnicity on applications? I guess even if you didn't they could still tell by your name.
Yeah it sucks big time
They probably assume you're Asian if your last name looks like it and you don't put anything for ethnicity.
Stanford is ridiculous, a acceptance rate of about 6% this year... Waste of time, effort and money.
Alright, I'd admit my jealousy towards every near perfect student here that is/was accepted into elite universities.. Since I attend CCNY as opposed to these overly reputable schools, get my drift?
Ive also heard about a significant slash of funding for the entire UC system.
On March 31 2011 08:16 [Azn]Nada wrote: haha some black kid at my school made princeton with a 3.7/36 and proceeds to tell me how he's better than me and how he deserves it and how "being black had nothing to do with it". I have a 3.95/2350. Basically he's telling me getting 1 more point on the ACT makes up for getting 20 Bs as compared to 4 in high school.
Not to mention i completely pwn him in the extracurriculars department.
Funny black kid
It's kind of mean and bitter to say someone got into a school only based on their race, even if it is true. Honestly, it is a lot easier for black people to get into top universities, but that doesn't mean you should confront them about it and make them feel worse about their accomplishment.
From the information that [Azn]Nada gives it seems like the other person is the one who is being aggressive and confronting him about it and not the other way around. Haha. oh well =\
I think they're both a little bit aggressive. But what can ya do? However the system works, I guess we just have to live with it. Diversity sells, doesn't it? Follow the money.
On March 31 2011 08:14 jw232 wrote: Affirmative action sucks... is it required to put down your ethnicity on applications? I guess even if you didn't they could still tell by your name.
Yeah it sucks big time
They probably assume you're Asian if your last name looks like it and you don't put anything for ethnicity.
This is becoming more prevalent these days, why dodge the truth? All that hard work just to be put down by mere politics or social/race stereotypes.
On March 31 2011 06:31 GhostKorean wrote: So I got waitlisted into Penn... The website says decisions will be available beginning mid-May but I need to reply to UCLA by May 1. Does that mean if I apply to UCLA and get into Penn I cancel with UCLA? My chances don't seem very good with the tone of the letter though. "You should, however, secure a place at another institution prior to the May 1 reply date. "...
Getting in off a waitlist is pretty unlikely (it's around 10% at Georgetown, where I was waitlisted). That said it isn't impossible, and if you truly like a school its worth trying. And yes, you will have to accept the offer of another school while you are waiting for the waitlist decision (and then cancel later if you are accepted). All you will lose is the deposit you made to the first school. While that can be a lot of money, it's small in comparison to overall tution, and thus accepting off a waitlist is a good idea if you truly prefer that school. Best of luck to you (and all the other poor souls suffering from our situation)!!!
Accept: MIT, KAIST Waitlist: Harvard, Princeton Reject: Stanford (international + applied for financial aid so barely any chance in the first place xD), Yale
I believe Harvard, Princeton, and Yale don't distinguish international applicants from domestic ones, but MIT and Stanford do. I (as a Korean) am not disadvantaged for KAIST obviously.
SAT 2400 SAT II: 800, 800 GPA: Sucky (still around top 3 percent though). Couldn't be helped when I used to play sc 8 hours a day, literally (almost). Took senior math/physics courses as freshman "decent" extracurriculars, nothing too spectacular though. (Though made USAMO this year which is considered good I guess)
Wrote crappy CommonApp essays, feel lucky to even have gotten waitlisted at Harvard and Princeton ;p.
Currently go to Virginia Tech but I hate it here so I'm transferring to JMU hopefully as a junior. I have a 3.63 GPA with 69 credits after this semester and my GPA will probably go up a little too. I don't anticipate trouble getting in but I don't find out until the end of next month unfortunately. If I don't get in.... there's no backup plan.
I feel like a 3.63 is a pretty good GPA for college. It feels like one or two B's and your GPA plummets haha. It's definitely harder to get good grades than high school but there's less overall work, in my experiences so far. If you pick up concepts fairly easy and have good test taking skills college will be pretty easy for you.
Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
On March 30 2011 14:38 kellymilkies wrote: So awesome. I just spent almost 2 hours reading the whole thread. Wish I was in the US! Colleges sound so fun T.T Wish I can experience the culture. Good luck everyone!
(And of course there are so many high GPA people in this forum. This is the lair of nerds / closer nerds all over the world <3<3)
College may be fun, but the college application and admissions experience is far from it.
that and the cost + crummy job outlook.
great experience for sure though. smart hot women... beer... classes...
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
Do you mind PMing GPA? I know you don't want to be a jerk, which is reasonable, but my stats are fairly similar, and I"m just curious how GPAs compare.
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
Do you mind PMing GPA? I know you don't want to be a jerk, which is reasonable, but my stats are fairly similar, and I"m just curious how GPAs compare.
If there's anything I learned through the college application process, it's you can't compare stats accurately beyond a certain threshold. I would call that the 4.0+ GPA 2200+ SAT mark where you just can't predict where you're going to be accepted relative to someone else. People who are "less qualified" scores and grades wise may get in, but that says pretty much nothing about your chances.
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
Do you mind PMing GPA? I know you don't want to be a jerk, which is reasonable, but my stats are fairly similar, and I"m just curious how GPAs compare.
If there's anything I learned through the college application process, it's you can't compare stats accurately beyond a certain threshold. I would call that the 4.0+ GPA 2200+ SAT mark where you just can't predict where you're going to be accepted relative to someone else. People who are "less qualified" scores and grades wise may get in, but that says pretty much nothing about your chances.
Meh. I know that in my brain. However my lack of common sense wants to know >.>
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
Do you mind PMing GPA? I know you don't want to be a jerk, which is reasonable, but my stats are fairly similar, and I"m just curious how GPAs compare.
If there's anything I learned through the college application process, it's you can't compare stats accurately beyond a certain threshold. I would call that the 4.0+ GPA 2200+ SAT mark where you just can't predict where you're going to be accepted relative to someone else. People who are "less qualified" scores and grades wise may get in, but that says pretty much nothing about your chances.
Meh. I know that in my brain. However my lack of common sense wants to know >.>
I would recommend you stop asking around (especially with friends) about their GPAs/Scores/Extracurrics. In the end it does nothing to help you if you're already so motivated and it'll just lead to more tension come decision time. Trying not think why you didn't get in when you know someone else had a lower X, Y and less Zs is not fun at all--especially during the time of senior year when you're supposed to be enjoying yourself.
First of all, Stanford is pretty much unparalleled in athletics, if you consider athletics to be more than football and basketball (which it's still sometimes competitive in).
The NACDA Learfield Sports Directors' Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics... The University of North Carolina won the award for best Division I collegiate athletics program in its inaugural year. Since then, Stanford University has won it sixteen straight years, winning sixteen out of the seventeen years it has been offered.
Second, in regards to who the people are like, you will find the gamut of people, from people who you think, "How the hell did they get in here," to "Umm.. this person is going to win the Nobel Prize someday." Most people are pretty normal skewing a little geeky.
When I graduated from Stanford (this was quite a while ago, I'm class of '94 so things may have changed), I didn't think being from Stanford made that much of a difference. Looking back, though, it made a huge difference. I got my first job because I went to Stanford. I got my most recent job because of a friend from Stanford. For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Looking back, it wasn't about what the place taught, but who you met, and I didn't appreciate that at the time. 15 years later, though, most of my Stanford friends are making 6 figure salaries and have 1 million dollar + homes. Of course, we all live in the silicon valley, so that's not really actually that big of a deal. If I were to look for a new job, either a friend or a friend of a friend can help out and give me an "in" at many companies since I have so many friends pretty high up at many different companies.
When I graduated, of course, I appreciated none of that. And that's not to say that you can't do well without a top-tier school name, but I think it's certainly easier when you have a network from school.
As to getting into a top tier college, I know things have gotten harder, but my gut feeling is that what it takes to get in is to be unique in some way. Getting straight A's is a great accomplishment, but not unusual let alone unique. It's not about marking off all the checkboxes the colleges are looking for.. it's about convincing them that YOU have something unique to offer THEM.
Maybe that unique thing is growing up in an LA slum and making it out while having to work and go to school at the same time while you were homeless for a couple years and thats why you don't have a lot of extra curriculars. You have a unique perspective to offer your classmates.
Maybe you sailed around the world when you were 16 and visited remote indigenous tribes. That's pretty unusual.
Maybe you just come from a small state. Sometimes that's enough.
Maybe you're just a really nice or interesting person. Sometimes that's enough. You think I'm joking don't you? Well I'm not. You have to get multiple recommendations and write an essay. I had the luck to go to school in the year the courts ruled that student's had a right to view their admission records. Before this ruling, most universities kept admission material instead of shredding them. After this ruling, most universities starting shredding the material after it was no longer needed (I think). But to comply with the law, universities had to give students a chance to see the existing admissions materials before destroying them.
So I got a chance to see what got me in. It was my essay and to a lesser extent my recommendations. Two of the three people who reviewed my application specifically wrote that they thought I would be a good fit at Stanford from the essay I wrote. I used that same essay at 6 other schools: Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Penn, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis. I got into all of them, and I'm pretty sure my essay had a lot to do with it.
With that said, there is still a lot of luck involved. I had a friend get into Harvard but not Yale. I had another friend who got into Yale but not Harvard. You have only a couple people reviewing your application, and it all depends on whether those individuals like or dislike what you have to say.
I really dislike what it takes to get into college these days. And I'm sad that my sons probably won't be able to enjoy high school as I did. But maybe they can coast into Stanford because their dad went there! (OK, just kidding on that part... well mostly at least.)
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Hmm, so I ended up getting accepted to a few nice universities. Carnegie Mellon, Rensselaer Polytech, boston college, boston U, but I really can't justify paying for those lol. I mean, I can see the appeal of going to a private institution and getting a top-notch education, but with total costs ranging from 52 to 57 thousand dollars per year, is that a sort of investment an 18 year old can responsibly make? 200 thousand dollars could buy a house. Meanwhile, my state school, which is still a very good education, has a total cost of 18 grand per year, and has a guaranteed in-state scholarship to pay for most of the tuition.
All along, my parents have been telling me that they are going to pay for me either room and board, or 10 thousand a year, whichever is higher. While I appreciate this, the private institutions that pay for 'all demonstrated need' find a different number for what my parents should be paying, and the difference is pure debt for me. Again, is it really responsible for an 18 year old to be diving into debt so young? Can you justify getting the same degree for thousands of dollars more simply for an unmeasurable quantity of 'better education'?
I suppose I'm ranting and this is probably something everyone here has already thought about and decided for themselves at some point in time.
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Depended on for the position. At some point they pretty much tossed you if you didn't have a PhD. Times have changed though. They want to hire 6000 people this year, and there just aren't enough people who are both qualified and interested out of that small pool of schools.
On top of that Google used to be the "IT" place. It's still highly coveted, but the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, etc (all of which have yet to go public) have taken a toll on the Google prestige factor.
The combination of all those factors means that Google is casting a wider net these days.
In regards to college tuition, based on a lot of politics, supposedly a lot of the top universities now offer much cleaner and easier financial aid. For example this article:
suggests that you get free tuition to Stanford if your parents make less than 100k/yr. I don't know how accurate that article is, or how many caveats there are. I know that Harvard, Yale, and Princeton have similar policies.
But, I don't have any first hand knowledge, so maybe someone who got into one of the schools with a new policy can shed some light on how legit it is.
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Depended on for the position. At some point they pretty much tossed you if you didn't have a PhD. Times have changed though. They want to hire 6000 people this year, and there just aren't enough people who are both qualified and interested out of that small pool of schools.
On top of that Google used to be the "IT" place. It's still highly coveted, but the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, etc (all of which have yet to go public) have taken a toll on the Google prestige factor.
The combination of all those factors means that Google is casting a wider net these days.
I hope you aren't saying MIT falls under the "wider net" (implying it is in a lower class than top ivies or Stanford) ;p. In fact, MIT should be even MORE prestigious considering the technological expertise working for Google and other IT places requires.
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Depended on for the position. At some point they pretty much tossed you if you didn't have a PhD. Times have changed though. They want to hire 6000 people this year, and there just aren't enough people who are both qualified and interested out of that small pool of schools.
On top of that Google used to be the "IT" place. It's still highly coveted, but the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, etc (all of which have yet to go public) have taken a toll on the Google prestige factor.
The combination of all those factors means that Google is casting a wider net these days.
Zynga is ridiculously easy to get in, no one would consider it if they got offers from Google or Facebook. It's not on the same scale.
This waiting list is making me really nervous... I heard for the better schools waiting lists are practically late rejections sooo... any way I can pull ahead of the crowd?
I hope you aren't saying MIT falls under the "wider net" (implying it is in a lower class than top ivies or Stanford) ;p. In fact, MIT should be even MORE prestigious considering the technological expertise working for Google and other IT places requires.
Oh sorry, no I was just commenting in general that the school you went to matters less now. To be clear, I'm referring to a long time ago. I dug out the quote, since I vaguely remembered it. From Fortune in 2003:
"For the most part, it takes a degree from an Ivy League school, or MIT, Stanford, CalTech, or Carnegie Mellon--America's top engineering schools--even to get invited to interview. "
Zynga is ridiculously easy to get in, no one would consider it if they got offers from Google or Facebook. It's not on the same scale.
Huh my bad. I didn't realize that. Most/all of my friends won't work at Zynga on purely moral grounds. But I've heard that it's making money hand-over-fist (or whatever that expression is), but maybe the employees can't get in on that action. In which case, it would indeed be a pretty bad place to work.
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Depended on for the position. At some point they pretty much tossed you if you didn't have a PhD. Times have changed though. They want to hire 6000 people this year, and there just aren't enough people who are both qualified and interested out of that small pool of schools.
On top of that Google used to be the "IT" place. It's still highly coveted, but the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, etc (all of which have yet to go public) have taken a toll on the Google prestige factor.
The combination of all those factors means that Google is casting a wider net these days.
Zynga is ridiculously easy to get in, no one would consider it if they got offers from Google or Facebook. It's not on the same scale.
What basis are you making this on?
I have a few friends in the software engineering program at Waterloo, which has a massive employment rate at top companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Zynga and of course RIM next door, etc,), the software program at waterloo is a massive recruiting ground for all top employers. Employers don't even bother showing up at their design project fairs (they had like 2 people listening to their presentations), because fat chance trying to get a software engineer there - everyone's already been hired a long time ago. Yet people in the program are going to Zynga, specifically because the culture and company is younger than facebook and google and more opportunity and flexibility is perceived to exist there (while still being on the up and comming).
On March 25 2011 08:06 Zhou wrote: Well, I originally went to Lehman College, but since I've decided on a Geography major, I've changed schools and recently have been accepted to Binghamton University. I've already accepted, seeing as my other option was further north in New York State to Buffalo, so yeah. I'm totally excited.
Looking forward to joining their SC2 team, or at least getting to know them!
Good choice. I got to Bing and love it. Not only are we slightly less cold than Buffalo but we're the best in the SUNY system
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
It looks like I might go to Chicago. yay chicago!
All my shit isn't as "impressive" as your guys' so for comparisons sake: SATs: 2200 combined SAT 2s: 740 Math2, 650 Lit 4 on AP Physics Mechanics and AP US History 5 on AP English Comp
0 Community Service never had a job =]
Accepted: Washington University in St. Louis U Chicago Pitt University of Washington Seattle Penn (engineering) Oberlin Brandeis NYU
Rejected: Columbia Brown Tufts Cornell
The things I think I did "right" were a) great recommendations b) be a pretty good oboist c) not be fake in the slightest in interviews/essays d) that's all.
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
It looks like I might go to Chicago. yay chicago!
All my shit isn't as "impressive" as your guys' so for comparisons sake: SATs: 2200 combined SAT 2s: 740 Math2, 650 Lit 4 on AP Physics Mechanics and AP US History 5 on AP English Comp
0 Community Service never had a job =]
Accepted: Washington University in St. Louis U Chicago Pitt University of Washington Seattle Penn (engineering) Oberlin Brandeis NYU
Rejected: Columbia Brown Tufts Cornell
The things I think I did "right" were a) great recommendations b) be a pretty good oboist c) not be fake in the slightest in interviews/essays d) that's all.
can you email penn and tell them i can have your spot
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
It looks like I might go to Chicago. yay chicago!
All my shit isn't as "impressive" as your guys' so for comparisons sake: SATs: 2200 combined SAT 2s: 740 Math2, 650 Lit 4 on AP Physics Mechanics and AP US History 5 on AP English Comp
0 Community Service never had a job =]
Accepted: Washington University in St. Louis U Chicago Pitt University of Washington Seattle Penn (engineering) Oberlin Brandeis NYU
Rejected: Columbia Brown Tufts Cornell
The things I think I did "right" were a) great recommendations b) be a pretty good oboist c) not be fake in the slightest in interviews/essays d) that's all.
can you email penn and tell them i can have your spot
haha i would love to, having a professor for a father definitely helped me out there.
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Depended on for the position. At some point they pretty much tossed you if you didn't have a PhD. Times have changed though. They want to hire 6000 people this year, and there just aren't enough people who are both qualified and interested out of that small pool of schools.
On top of that Google used to be the "IT" place. It's still highly coveted, but the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, etc (all of which have yet to go public) have taken a toll on the Google prestige factor.
The combination of all those factors means that Google is casting a wider net these days.
Zynga is ridiculously easy to get in, no one would consider it if they got offers from Google or Facebook. It's not on the same scale.
What basis are you making this on?
I have a few friends in the software engineering program at Waterloo, which has a massive employment rate at top companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Zynga and of course RIM next door, etc,), the software program at waterloo is a massive recruiting ground for all top employers. Employers don't even bother showing up at their design project fairs (they had like 2 people listening to their presentations), because fat chance trying to get a software engineer there - everyone's already been hired a long time ago. Yet people in the program are going to Zynga, specifically because the culture and company is younger than facebook and google and more opportunity and flexibility is perceived to exist there (while still being on the up and comming).
I did Systems Engineering at Waterloo and I worked all of my six co-op terms in CS/software engineering. I'm doing my Master's in CS right now.
The first four you listed are "top companies", Zynga and RIM are not. The top employers for CS are, without questions, Google, FB, Amazon, MSFT and maybe Apple. It's funny how you make an assumption that everyone out of a 70 people class is Google material, they are not. You have good people and bad people in a program, and the bad people have to go somewhere too. The good people at Waterloo are exceptional, the rest is very average.
On March 31 2011 10:12 Karliath wrote: Decision: The University of Chicago Major: Economics
Accepted: The University of Chicago Cornell University Northwestern University UC Berkeley UC Los Angeles UC San Diego UC Irvine
Wait-listed: Dartmouth College
Rejected: The University of Pennsylvania Brown University
GPA: 4+ (weighted) SAT: 2270 SAT II's: Bio - 800, Chinese - 800, World History - 770, Math 2 - 740 AP Tests: Bio - 5, European History - 5 Summer Studies: Micro-economics: A, European Art History: A- (UPenn, College credit) Volunteer Hours: 75 (Hours are not shown on my HS transcript) Major Accomplishments: Qualified for state in Speech/Debate, won karate sparring tournaments with minimal years of training, Treasurer for Academic Decathlon.
I realized too late how much I wanted to get into UPenn. For the most part of my HS career, I lived the life of a gamer, simply getting by with some "small smarts," as they call it in Chinese. Oh well, UChicago it is then. The only time I'm worried about is that the people might be too nerdy. I want sports, frats, and parties!
Does anyone on TeamLiquid go to UChicago, or live in the Chicago region?
It looks like I might go to Chicago. yay chicago!
All my shit isn't as "impressive" as your guys' so for comparisons sake: SATs: 2200 combined SAT 2s: 740 Math2, 650 Lit 4 on AP Physics Mechanics and AP US History 5 on AP English Comp
0 Community Service never had a job =]
Accepted: Washington University in St. Louis U Chicago Pitt University of Washington Seattle Penn (engineering) Oberlin Brandeis NYU
Rejected: Columbia Brown Tufts Cornell
The things I think I did "right" were a) great recommendations b) be a pretty good oboist c) not be fake in the slightest in interviews/essays d) that's all.
btw Milkis goes to UChicago, as posted in the thread.
and for the MIT acceptances--come to CPW and check out the CSL booth! I might be there even though I'm not really part of CSL since I don't play SC2!
On March 31 2011 11:36 AlienAlias wrote: Hmm, so I ended up getting accepted to a few nice universities. Carnegie Mellon, Rensselaer Polytech, boston college, boston U, but I really can't justify paying for those lol. I mean, I can see the appeal of going to a private institution and getting a top-notch education, but with total costs ranging from 52 to 57 thousand dollars per year, is that a sort of investment an 18 year old can responsibly make? 200 thousand dollars could buy a house. Meanwhile, my state school, which is still a very good education, has a total cost of 18 grand per year, and has a guaranteed in-state scholarship to pay for most of the tuition.
If you're doing engineering/science (just inferring, correct me if I'm wrong) and intend to pursue a doctorate, I personally don't believe undergrad name value matters that much. Either way ("prestige" school or state school) you'll have to work your ass off. The key is getting exceptional recommendation letters from your research advisor(s). I can't emphasize this enough.
There's plenty of people that go in-state for undergrad and go to a "prestige" grad school. Its not rare.
In addition, American economy prospects look...pessimistic in the long term so I would advise against accumulating tons of debt early.
Others, of course, may disagree. Furthermore, I'm not exactly the greatest authority -- you really should ask people in the field of your choice how much undergrad name value affects job prospects.
On March 31 2011 15:19 Milkis wrote: Yay chicago, welcome to hell >:D
Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha....ha.....ha............ha. T_T
What major are you? (sorry if it has been mentioned here already)
Econ major, and I also took a lot of math/stat classes. Let me know if you need anything.
EDIT: also reading this thread makes me go wtf considering I only applied to one school >.>;
Oh cool, I plan on majoring in Econ too. From your experience, do you find the core classes to be appropriate, or somewhat irrelevant to what you 'want to learn?'
I don't know how it was back when you applied for universities, but it's definitely the norm now. I mean, I expected to get into Brown and not into UChicago, but it worked the other way around. Which university would I have applied for?
Btw, do you know Ben C. Yu? He's the only other SC person I know at UChicago.
On March 31 2011 15:19 Milkis wrote: Yay chicago, welcome to hell >:D
Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha....ha.....ha............ha. T_T
What major are you? (sorry if it has been mentioned here already)
Econ major, and I also took a lot of math/stat classes. Let me know if you need anything.
EDIT: also reading this thread makes me go wtf considering I only applied to one school >.>;
Oh cool, I plan on majoring in Econ too. From your experience, do you find the core classes to be appropriate, or somewhat irrelevant to what you 'want to learn?'
I don't know how it was back when you applied for universities, but it's definitely the norm now. I mean, I expected to get into Brown and not into UChicago, but it worked the other way around. Which university would I have applied for?
Btw, do you know Ben C. Yu? He's the only other SC person I know at UChicago.
Eh, the only core I think I learned anything from is the sociology core requirement. The exposure you get in that class (especially if you take Power) is very nice, in terms of what you read and the discussions you get.
As for the other requirements, it depends on what courses you end up taking. I took world lit for humanities and the only thing it did was give me a good exposure to books but it didn't teach me anything. I also took a music civ class which did not teach me much overall. So in the end it depends a lot on which ones you take. Looking back I'd probably have chosen a different core for hum and civ, and probably went for the greeks or something
I don't really know Ben Yu but I've heard him mentioned before, don't remember under what context though since there are too many people with the same names around
On March 31 2011 15:19 Milkis wrote: Yay chicago, welcome to hell >:D
Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha....ha.....ha............ha. T_T
What major are you? (sorry if it has been mentioned here already)
Econ major, and I also took a lot of math/stat classes. Let me know if you need anything.
EDIT: also reading this thread makes me go wtf considering I only applied to one school >.>;
Oh cool, I plan on majoring in Econ too. From your experience, do you find the core classes to be appropriate, or somewhat irrelevant to what you 'want to learn?'
I don't know how it was back when you applied for universities, but it's definitely the norm now. I mean, I expected to get into Brown and not into UChicago, but it worked the other way around. Which university would I have applied for?
Btw, do you know Ben C. Yu? He's the only other SC person I know at UChicago.
Eh, the only core I think I learned anything from is the sociology core requirement. The exposure you get in that class (especially if you take Power) is very nice, in terms of what you read and the discussions you get.
As for the other requirements, it depends on what courses you end up taking. I took world lit for humanities and the only thing it did was give me a good exposure to books but it didn't teach me anything. I also took a music civ class which did not teach me much overall. So in the end it depends a lot on which ones you take. Looking back I'd probably have chosen a different core for hum and civ, and probably went for the greeks or something
I don't really know Ben Yu but I've heard him mentioned before, don't remember under what context though since there are too many people with the same names around
Holy shit, this Ben C. Yu kid. I don't know him personally, but I'm two degrees removed from him (he's a friend of a friend) in 10 different friend circles. I think we know 3 people in common from NJ, 4 people from the DC area, 1 at UChicago, 2 people for whom I have no idea what the connection is, and now someone on TL mentions a single person they know at UChicago, and it's Ben Yu.
On March 31 2011 15:19 Milkis wrote: Yay chicago, welcome to hell >:D
Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha....ha.....ha............ha. T_T
What major are you? (sorry if it has been mentioned here already)
Econ major, and I also took a lot of math/stat classes. Let me know if you need anything.
EDIT: also reading this thread makes me go wtf considering I only applied to one school >.>;
Oh cool, I plan on majoring in Econ too. From your experience, do you find the core classes to be appropriate, or somewhat irrelevant to what you 'want to learn?'
I don't know how it was back when you applied for universities, but it's definitely the norm now. I mean, I expected to get into Brown and not into UChicago, but it worked the other way around. Which university would I have applied for?
Btw, do you know Ben C. Yu? He's the only other SC person I know at UChicago.
Eh, the only core I think I learned anything from is the sociology core requirement. The exposure you get in that class (especially if you take Power) is very nice, in terms of what you read and the discussions you get.
As for the other requirements, it depends on what courses you end up taking. I took world lit for humanities and the only thing it did was give me a good exposure to books but it didn't teach me anything. I also took a music civ class which did not teach me much overall. So in the end it depends a lot on which ones you take. Looking back I'd probably have chosen a different core for hum and civ, and probably went for the greeks or something
I don't really know Ben Yu but I've heard him mentioned before, don't remember under what context though since there are too many people with the same names around
Holy shit, this Ben C. Yu kid. I don't know him personally, but I'm two degrees removed from him (he's a friend of a friend) in 10 different friend circles. I think we know 3 people in common from NJ, 4 people from the DC area, 1 at UChicago, 2 people for whom I have no idea what the connection is, and now someone on TL mentions a single person they know at UChicago, and it's Ben Yu.
Accepted : Duke, Cornell, UCLA, UCB, UCSD Waiting : Brown (technical difficulties, no confidence though) Rejected/waitlisted : all dem other private universities
Probably going to Duke; still thinking.
GPA unweighted: 4.0 SAT: 2290 SAT IIs = 800s
I had nothing that gave me a REAL edge though, had plenty of volunteer hours and did choir / guitar, but was not national level or any of that sort in anything. Thus I'm super happy I got into where I did... UCs were brutal this year though, from what I witnessed with my friends. Any other Duke bound people in here? :p
On March 31 2011 10:48 random user wrote: For a while Google pretty much tossed out your resume if you didn't go to one of the better Ivy Leagues or Stanford.
Er, is MIT included too? (I'm probably going there)
Depended on for the position. At some point they pretty much tossed you if you didn't have a PhD. Times have changed though. They want to hire 6000 people this year, and there just aren't enough people who are both qualified and interested out of that small pool of schools.
On top of that Google used to be the "IT" place. It's still highly coveted, but the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, etc (all of which have yet to go public) have taken a toll on the Google prestige factor.
The combination of all those factors means that Google is casting a wider net these days.
Zynga is ridiculously easy to get in, no one would consider it if they got offers from Google or Facebook. It's not on the same scale.
What basis are you making this on?
I have a few friends in the software engineering program at Waterloo, which has a massive employment rate at top companies (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Zynga and of course RIM next door, etc,), the software program at waterloo is a massive recruiting ground for all top employers. Employers don't even bother showing up at their design project fairs (they had like 2 people listening to their presentations), because fat chance trying to get a software engineer there - everyone's already been hired a long time ago. Yet people in the program are going to Zynga, specifically because the culture and company is younger than facebook and google and more opportunity and flexibility is perceived to exist there (while still being on the up and comming).
I did Systems Engineering at Waterloo and I worked all of my six co-op terms in CS/software engineering. I'm doing my Master's in CS right now.
The first four you listed are "top companies", Zynga and RIM are not. The top employers for CS are, without questions, Google, FB, Amazon, MSFT and maybe Apple. It's funny how you make an assumption that everyone out of a 70 people class is Google material, they are not. You have good people and bad people in a program, and the bad people have to go somewhere too. The good people at Waterloo are exceptional, the rest is very average.
I was accepted into Hampshire college but I have yet to hear back from Wayne state university or Oakland university (both in Michigan).
I'm actually kind of shocked I got in anywhere, my grades have always been mediocre at best and I have switched high schools a great deal so I don't exactly have great extracurriculars (almost none).
My GPA holds at around 2.4 Luckily I'm a pretty good tester with a 5 on the AP us history test (I got an F in the class itself) and a 27 on the ACTs.
I'm really concerned about college, Im really bad at working on things that I'm not intensely devoted to and my entire academic career has been mediocre or worse. I hope I can finid my calling before I start failing...
Here's to hoping for a new beginning.
Also im really excited to meet people who play starcraft in massachusettes!
On March 31 2011 15:19 Milkis wrote: Yay chicago, welcome to hell >:D
Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha....ha.....ha............ha. T_T
What major are you? (sorry if it has been mentioned here already)
Econ major, and I also took a lot of math/stat classes. Let me know if you need anything.
EDIT: also reading this thread makes me go wtf considering I only applied to one school >.>;
Oh cool, I plan on majoring in Econ too. From your experience, do you find the core classes to be appropriate, or somewhat irrelevant to what you 'want to learn?'
I don't know how it was back when you applied for universities, but it's definitely the norm now. I mean, I expected to get into Brown and not into UChicago, but it worked the other way around. Which university would I have applied for?
Btw, do you know Ben C. Yu? He's the only other SC person I know at UChicago.
Eh, the only core I think I learned anything from is the sociology core requirement. The exposure you get in that class (especially if you take Power) is very nice, in terms of what you read and the discussions you get.
As for the other requirements, it depends on what courses you end up taking. I took world lit for humanities and the only thing it did was give me a good exposure to books but it didn't teach me anything. I also took a music civ class which did not teach me much overall. So in the end it depends a lot on which ones you take. Looking back I'd probably have chosen a different core for hum and civ, and probably went for the greeks or something
I don't really know Ben Yu but I've heard him mentioned before, don't remember under what context though since there are too many people with the same names around
Holy shit, this Ben C. Yu kid. I don't know him personally, but I'm two degrees removed from him (he's a friend of a friend) in 10 different friend circles. I think we know 3 people in common from NJ, 4 people from the DC area, 1 at UChicago, 2 people for whom I have no idea what the connection is, and now someone on TL mentions a single person they know at UChicago, and it's Ben Yu.
On March 31 2011 15:19 Milkis wrote: Yay chicago, welcome to hell >:D
Ya-ha-ha-ha-ha....ha.....ha............ha. T_T
What major are you? (sorry if it has been mentioned here already)
Econ major, and I also took a lot of math/stat classes. Let me know if you need anything.
EDIT: also reading this thread makes me go wtf considering I only applied to one school >.>;
Oh cool, I plan on majoring in Econ too. From your experience, do you find the core classes to be appropriate, or somewhat irrelevant to what you 'want to learn?'
I don't know how it was back when you applied for universities, but it's definitely the norm now. I mean, I expected to get into Brown and not into UChicago, but it worked the other way around. Which university would I have applied for?
Btw, do you know Ben C. Yu? He's the only other SC person I know at UChicago.
Eh, the only core I think I learned anything from is the sociology core requirement. The exposure you get in that class (especially if you take Power) is very nice, in terms of what you read and the discussions you get.
As for the other requirements, it depends on what courses you end up taking. I took world lit for humanities and the only thing it did was give me a good exposure to books but it didn't teach me anything. I also took a music civ class which did not teach me much overall. So in the end it depends a lot on which ones you take. Looking back I'd probably have chosen a different core for hum and civ, and probably went for the greeks or something
I don't really know Ben Yu but I've heard him mentioned before, don't remember under what context though since there are too many people with the same names around
Holy shit, this Ben C. Yu kid. I don't know him personally, but I'm two degrees removed from him (he's a friend of a friend) in 10 different friend circles. I think we know 3 people in common from NJ, 4 people from the DC area, 1 at UChicago, 2 people for whom I have no idea what the connection is, and now someone on TL mentions a single person they know at UChicago, and it's Ben Yu.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
Naw they didn't give me a reason but I assume it has something to do with me being Chinese :\
On March 25 2011 07:21 Tiegrr wrote: Did you have any extracurriculars?
Kind of. Extracurricular as in sports..no not really aside from doing varsity swimming for 3 years. I was kind of banking on my indie game programming to get me in but oh well XD
Being Chinese (or Asian in general, maybe) sucks when it comes to admissions. We rack up good numbers and have a more than solid application, but there are just too many of us =.=
I have two white friends who were both around 2300, 790+ on SAT II's, 14-15 5's on APs, and solid extracurriculars (sciency, programmy stuff), who didn't really get into anywhere competitive (MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Penn).
So no, it's just that Stanford is rape hard to get into.
How the hell do you have 14-15 AP's... taken. Dude, I'm taking the most AP's you can in my school and it's not even possible to take 15? What the hell?
lol i doubt colleges care that much about random AP's.. Just probably care (only a little bit) about the core subjects like calc, bio, physics, and chem.
On April 01 2011 08:04 Froadac wrote: In unrelated news got back SAT scores. Didn't beat my 2310, but managed to get an 800 in writing (Ow at 730 math, 740 crit read.)
A 2310 is fine for SAT scores >> I doubt colleges will care much about the difference between a 2310 and a 2400.
On April 01 2011 08:04 Froadac wrote: In unrelated news got back SAT scores. Didn't beat my 2310, but managed to get an 800 in writing (Ow at 730 math, 740 crit read.)
A 2310 is fine for SAT scores >> I doubt colleges will care much about the difference between a 2310 and a 2400.
On April 01 2011 08:04 Froadac wrote: In unrelated news got back SAT scores. Didn't beat my 2310, but managed to get an 800 in writing (Ow at 730 math, 740 crit read.)
A 2310 is fine for SAT scores >> I doubt colleges will care much about the difference between a 2310 and a 2400.
Am aware. Just retook it for the hell of it.
Haha. As long as you know :p I probably should've taken my SAT's again and actually tried to study but I was just way too lazy to sit through another 4 hours test...Blah.
Accepted: Cornell, Mcgill, CMU, Imperial College London, Umass Amherst (honors college), Durham, Bristol, St. Andrews Waitlisted: Caltech, HMC Rejected: Cambridge, Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Bown, Princeton, MIT, Columbia SAT: 2280 (740M, 740 CR, 800 W) SATII: 800 French, 790 Math2, 740 Chem GPA: 4.4ish weighted, top 5 percent of graduating class AP: Chem 5 French 5 Bio 5 EnviroSci 5 EC's, 2 Instruments, 10 and 8 years Science Olympiad, many medals over time, got 5 gold medals senior year, went twice to nationals JETS top 10 in nation Science bowl did well in state Ocean bowl did well in state Envirothon did well state Did extra Physics classes at Harvard and MIT various other science-related activities Awards: 8th in the nation on National Italian exam 3 gold medals on National Latin exam National Merit Commended Lots of success at science competitions (see above) some other stuff Other I am European, living in U.S. since elementary school, know 4 languages, wrote decent but not great essays. Probably going to Cornell or Imperial
McGill? No UofT or UBC? Why did you apply to the 3rd rated university in Canada? What an insult! Durham? Isn't that University of Ontario Institute of Technology? More insults!
Well well, its that time of the year again folks, where kids/parents dream's are fulfilled and/or shot down and affirmative action qq. I kinda feel like running a regression on asian on black violence after the college admissions period. Wonder if it would be statistically significant. Where to find dataz though hmmm....
:D :D :D
There should be a grad school admissions version of this thread imo.
On April 01 2011 15:20 The_LiNk wrote: McGill? No UofT or UBC? Why did you apply to the 3rd rated university in Canada? What an insult! Durham? Isn't that University of Ontario Institute of Technology? More insults!
On April 01 2011 15:20 The_LiNk wrote: McGill? No UofT or UBC? Why did you apply to the 3rd rated university in Canada? What an insult! Durham? Isn't that University of Ontario Institute of Technology? More insults!
Queens > Mcgill imo, unless you want to party then Montreal would be better in that case.
On March 31 2011 09:06 LastPrime wrote: Accept: MIT, KAIST Waitlist: Harvard, Princeton Reject: Stanford (international + applied for financial aid so barely any chance in the first place xD), Yale
I believe Harvard, Princeton, and Yale don't distinguish international applicants from domestic ones, but MIT and Stanford do. I (as a Korean) am not disadvantaged for KAIST obviously.
SAT 2400 SAT II: 800, 800 GPA: Sucky (still around top 3 percent though). Couldn't be helped when I used to play sc 8 hours a day, literally (almost). Took senior math/physics courses as freshman "decent" extracurriculars, nothing too spectacular though. (Though made USAMO this year which is considered good I guess)
Wrote crappy CommonApp essays, feel lucky to even have gotten waitlisted at Harvard and Princeton ;p.
One of my friend got rejected from all the American schools he applied to (from Canada) while he was the best of his class with almost perfect grades, quite depressing for him.
On March 30 2011 17:19 LilClinkin wrote: I'm confused after reading a few posts from chinese people complaining about not being accepted to schools like Yale even with amazingly good grades. It's amazing to me that such good candidates would be knocked back purely on the basis of their ethnicity. Would this qualify as racism? If this is indeed true, I'm surprised these selection practices aren't subjected to public scrutiny.
well there's more to that.
but the gist is that, there is a CAP on the number of Asian students Ivy Leagues, Stanford, MIT, etc. have. it's called affirmative action. the reason why it's not illegal is because they are private schools which means they have authority over what their selection process is like.
this is why public schools like Berkeley and UCLA don't have a CAP on Asian students since affirmative action was deemed illegal in California through prop # something (don't remember)
BUT, in 2012, the UC system is changing their admissions process in order to incorporate more Whites into the process and less Asians without violating the prop _. Search it up if you want to know more about it.
I know both this and the affirmative action of private schools is racism when you define racism as using ethnicity/race as a factor in admissions (esp. given that in these schools, despite their public stance that they are doing affirmative action to promote DIVERSITY, we still see a White MAJORITY) but America is still a country with a White majority. And more importantly the top people of the country are White too. So you just have to deal with it and try to stand out even more than other extremely qualified Asians. It sucks but sometimes life is all about beating the ever-so-high odds against you, whether or not it's fair.
On a different note, I totally respect CalTech for devoting themselves to admitting only the best academically qualified students. They do not have affirmative action as they simply just want the best mathematical/scientific students; as a result you have more Asians + Minority combined than Whites on campus. Maybe liberal arts schools such as Harvard can publicly state that they value diversity but I feel such a technologically focused school such as CalTech and MIT should try to incorporate the best students as possible in their field. So props to CalTech for sticking to their mission.
Well there could be people like me who are waiting for wait-lists before announcing to TL their final decision
I'm personally waiting for CMU's priority waitlist which is coming out on May 6th so by then I'll know for sure where I'm going...in the meantime i'm putting my deposit at UC Berkeley. Hehe.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
he was probably asian
QFT. =.=
I'm going to UCB next semester! Who's going there? I need a roommate...not sure if I want to leave it up to lottery...
I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
On March 25 2011 07:19 drag_ wrote: You got rejected from Stanford?! As far as I can tell you're pretty much the ideal student, did they give you some reason why or was it just bad luck
he was probably asian
QFT. =.=
I'm going to UCB next semester! Who's going there? I need a roommate...not sure if I want to leave it up to lottery...
UCB! I submitted the SIR the other day. What are you studying? I'm in EECS so i'm trying to get housing at Foothills.
I'm sort of tempted to make a massive College Entrance tips/guide. ^^
There's College Confidential for that, but the level of competence here is also extremely high, and the CC forums are often a barren wasteland when there are specific questions, etc. It would be pretty cool to get a large compendium of information, advice, etc. Every time I read a thread like this I just get the urge to ask, even though it really doesn't belong. Boost the admission rates of TL and create even more of a reason to browse it haha ...not to mention recoup some of the massive losses in productivity!
On May 02 2011 13:53 HKriceboy88 wrote: Got into Seattle University! Got wait-listed in 09' then rejected. If you fall once, get back up and try again. Hwaiting.
Did you go to another university in the meantime or did you go back to high school?
On April 26 2011 18:55 japro wrote: I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
Well that's the other alternative I guess universities in North America aren't willing to take. There's not really much you can judge someone by after four years in high school since high school standards vary wildly, and the education system is pretty much trash. This year, we finally have a good English teacher, one that doesn't just hand over free marks. I know from my English tutor and professor that my English is terrible, but there are students that write a lot worse than me and still get higher marks because they have a different teacher. Also note that different courses require different activities, so some students don't perform well in oral focused English classes. Similarly, some students get unlucky with terrible teachers or lucky with three maths in one day. So universities need some way to distinguish these students from the others.
That, and universities have to conform to some ridiculous equal representation expectation, so that fair amounts of women and minorities get admitted and represented at the school, just like how some jobs will hire Hispanic or Black people so they don't look too racist, even if they're less qualified than the other guy. It's ridiculous for anyone to hire less qualified employees so the public image doesn't look bad. The most and best qualified should earn the position, no matter their ethnicity, gender or appearance. But hey, that's society here for you.
It's ridiculous that universities say, "you are amazing, but not for us," when they really mean, "you are amazing, but we have to represent the other races and genders equally."
On a less rant-y note, exactly one month until all Ontario universities acceptances, rejections or deferrals have been sent. And exactly one month until all Ontario students must make their final decision. Joy.
Still waiting on Software Engineering at University of Waterloo.
On May 02 2011 13:53 HKriceboy88 wrote: Got into Seattle University! Got wait-listed in 09' then rejected. If you fall once, get back up and try again. Hwaiting.
Did you go to another university in the meantime or did you go back to high school?
Congratulations btw.
I went to a community college around my area after completing high school in 09. Gonna finish up a transfer degree in my community college so that i go into the university with junior status.
Those are the only two I applied for. Majoring in Kinesiology/Excercise and Sports Sciences. I might minor, but haven't decided. At Baylor, their graduate program is sponsored by the Army, so you have to enlist in order to be accepted...and I don't know how I feel about that
On April 02 2011 07:44 hmmm... wrote: On a different note, I totally respect CalTech for devoting themselves to admitting only the best academically qualified students. They do not have affirmative action as they simply just want the best mathematical/scientific students; as a result you have more Asians + Minority combined than Whites on campus. Maybe liberal arts schools such as Harvard can publicly state that they value diversity but I feel such a technologically focused school such as CalTech and MIT should try to incorporate the best students as possible in their field. So props to CalTech for sticking to their mission.
This is such a poorly understood concept that I think you probably shouldn't comment without some knowledge. I went to Caltech and they definitely don't lower their admission standards, but they definitely value diversity and make huge efforts to create as diverse of an undergrad population as they can. You might be asking "well, don't these things come into conflict".
No, they don't. There are all kinds of things you can do other than lower your admission standards other than lower standards. For example: - For many years female students and minority students had their pre-frosh visiting weekends covered by the university (this is only for students that have already been accepted). - They also in the past have had one of the top need-based financial aid programs in the country (irrespective of race / gender). - They have resources available to deal with the unique issues of being a minority student or a female student at a university that does not have as many minorities / women. - They spend an effort recruiting female / minority applicants to apply.
I should also mention that all of these things benefit everybody at the university and further the university's goals. The university also has a high percentage of international students and having such diverse perspectives available to students improves the educational experience for everybody.
Edit: I should say that also, lowering Caltech's admission standards wouldn't help anyways because unlike some other "selective" schools, Caltech is incredibly demanding of even the nations top top students (plenty of intel semi-finalists, national merit finalists, etc. have flamed out after less than a year and transferred elsewhere). I think there are probably only 2 or 3 other schools where the entire undergraduate population is put through such a demanding workload. Even very few top engineering and science programs are as demanding.
I'm Canadian I never went through this whole process. I never have written an SAT. I just graduated from my highschool and got accepted to the one university I applied to which is the University of Manitoba and the school I wanted to go into, quite easily actually.
Does your undergraduate degree really matter that much on what school you go to for Americans? Some of you seem to be acting like your whole life depends on what college you get accepted to. Undergraduate degrees are easy to get so I'm confused as to why you guys care this much. Wouldn't you be more concerned about where you go after your undergraduate degree?
On May 04 2011 01:35 Razith wrote: I'm Canadian I never went through this whole process. I never have written an SAT. I just graduated from my highschool and got accepted to the one university I applied to which is the University of Manitoba and the school I wanted to go into, quite easily actually.
Does your undergraduate degree really matter that much on what school you go to for Americans? Some of you seem to be acting like your whole life depends on what college you get accepted to. Undergraduate degrees are easy to get so I'm confused as to why you guys care this much. Wouldn't you be more concerned about where you go after your undergraduate degree?
Going to a good college is like... instant credibility in the job market (and also makes it easier to get into a really good graduate school).
Any middkids 2015? I'm a frosh here right now, I could use some good sc2 partners lol, though I'm coaching a few of my friends. Right now I have to skype friends and I get pretty loud.
Congrats GlocKomA!! Cornell in particular has a great program for helping transfers transition into life as a big red. (my brother graduated from there ^^) You're going to have a blasty blast.
On May 04 2011 12:51 novabossa wrote: Congrats GlocKomA!! Cornell in particular has a great program for helping transfers transition into life as a big red. (my brother graduated from there ^^) You're going to have a blasty blast.
Thank you, that's really exciting to hear!
I am so under qualified when compared to people in this thread. I have a lackluster gpa. Not a ton of extracurriculars. But I did get recruited (lightweight rowing).
Never thought I'd get recruited to a school that was ranked so highly (currently number 3 behind Princeton and Yale).
I got accepted to University of Utah in SLC. Did 2 years at a local community college, 2 more and I graduate with a Bachelor's in Computer Software Engineering
On April 02 2011 07:44 hmmm... wrote: On a different note, I totally respect CalTech for devoting themselves to admitting only the best academically qualified students. They do not have affirmative action as they simply just want the best mathematical/scientific students; as a result you have more Asians + Minority combined than Whites on campus. Maybe liberal arts schools such as Harvard can publicly state that they value diversity but I feel such a technologically focused school such as CalTech and MIT should try to incorporate the best students as possible in their field. So props to CalTech for sticking to their mission.
This is such a poorly understood concept that I think you probably shouldn't comment without some knowledge. I went to Caltech and they definitely don't lower their admission standards, but they definitely value diversity and make huge efforts to create as diverse of an undergrad population as they can. You might be asking "well, don't these things come into conflict".
No, they don't. There are all kinds of things you can do other than lower your admission standards other than lower standards. For example: - For many years female students and minority students had their pre-frosh visiting weekends covered by the university (this is only for students that have already been accepted). - They also in the past have had one of the top need-based financial aid programs in the country (irrespective of race / gender). - They have resources available to deal with the unique issues of being a minority student or a female student at a university that does not have as many minorities / women. - They spend an effort recruiting female / minority applicants to apply.
I should also mention that all of these things benefit everybody at the university and further the university's goals. The university also has a high percentage of international students and having such diverse perspectives available to students improves the educational experience for everybody.
Edit: I should say that also, lowering Caltech's admission standards wouldn't help anyways because unlike some other "selective" schools, Caltech is incredibly demanding of even the nations top top students (plenty of intel semi-finalists, national merit finalists, etc. have flamed out after less than a year and transferred elsewhere). I think there are probably only 2 or 3 other schools where the entire undergraduate population is put through such a demanding workload. Even very few top engineering and science programs are as demanding.
My wife got into CalTech and they recruited her pretty extensively, more so than any other school. In the end, I think the fact that the ratio there is (or was at the time at least) so skewed that it made her not want to go there... and that becomes a hard cycle to break.
Edit: I had misremembered something so this post is less useful than it should be.
Low Stats: GPA: 3.87/3.9 UW, 4.3W. SAT I: 2000 SATII: Math 2-700, USH, 720, Physics- 700 (I just started the class when I took it) APs: Calc AB, APUSH, Eng. Lang- 4 :[ Extras: AFJROTC Vice Commander, Recipient of 4 medals -3 of which came from nationally recognized organizations- ROA, American Legion, and AFSA. high School starcraft club vice president JSA debate club/Financial Officer Tech Museum Volunteer Science fair participant- Won Innovative Engineering Project Award from Society of Professional Engineers and several honorable mentions for my technical paper School newspaper journalist, tennis team varsity 2, NHS, CSF, etc etc.
Low SAT Scores, I know, but it's okay. UCSD! here I come!
i'm lazy as fuck. i do nothing in school but chill. 28 act comp (34math, 22english lawl I dont know the dif between "." "," "-" etc.) 1900 sat I 720 math ii, 720 us history, 610world history (took 18months after completion of class) 4 on: us history, art history, world history (took bc calc/ap govt this year) 3.72/4.0 wgpa dunno uwgpa in an engineering class @ my high school for 4years (renowned in the state for the program) participated in several robotics competitions: best robotics, first tech challenge, first robotics challenge. Part of a rocketry program/aeroscience @ my school. junior year we made a rocket that carried 1lb payload to 6000feet and this year we researched/were going to make a rocket to take 30lb payload to 100k feet but no funding (needed 20k) cause apparently + Show Spoiler +
dropping $6m on an aquatics center no1 uses cause we have a YMCA is more important.
applied to like 11 colleges... and accepted to 2: uc santa barbara (attending. oh and visiting tomorrow) penn state u-park (all colleges were for engineering and a mixture of chemical, aero, mechanical, and electrical depending on what I felt like when I applied).
$18k/yr in grants to ucsb. still 34k/yr tho. outofstate . if any1 is going to ucsb or currently attends hit me up! brobocop.374
On May 12 2011 09:30 Sonikhawk121 wrote: GPA: 3.87/3.9 UW, 4.3W. SAT I: 2000 SATII: Math 2-700, USH, 720, Physics- 700 (I just started the class when I took it) APs: Calc AB, APUSH, Eng. Lang- 4 :[
hmm, decent scores, looks like he took some AP classes...
Extras: AFJROTC Vice Commander, Recipient of 4 medals -3 of which came from nationally recognized organizations- ROA, American Legion, and AFSA.
I just stumbled upon this thread. well, here goes: GPA: 97.3 (School neither ranks nor weighs). SAT: 2280 (CR: 800 Math: 770: W: 710) SAT 2: Physics: 800 Math II: 800 Math I: 800 Biology (E): 800 Chemistry: 800 U.S. History: 800 AP: Physics C (Mechanics 5, E&M 5) Calculus BC: 5 U.S History: 5 Chemistry: 5 Biology: 4 () Comparative Government: 5 Macroeconomics and Microeconomics: both 5 I'm also taking classes at Columbia and NYU. Extra: Captain of Robotics Team Life Scout (couldn't finish my eagle project T.T) Key Club, Track Team, Math Team, tutored at Kumon, National Merit, and some scholarships from fastweb.
Harvard (Accepted) Yale (Accepted) Princeton (Accepted) UPenn (Accepted) Cornell (Accepted) UMich (Accepted) CalTech (Accepted) Berkeley (Accepted) SUNY Binghamton (Accepted) MIT: Waitlist - (Accepted and going!!!!! ) Stanford: (Rejected - Top choice) *Edit* Just got into MIT today and I'm talking it over with my parents again. - 5/17/11 Accepted MIT's offer, going as a physics major. - 5/21/11
On May 13 2011 13:20 Senya wrote: I just stumbled upon this thread. well, here goes: GPA: 97.3 (School neither ranks nor weighs). SAT: 2280 (CR: 800 Math: 770: W: 710) SAT 2: Physics: 800 Math II: 800 Math I: 800 Biology (E): 800 Chemistry: 800 U.S. History: 800 AP: Physics C (Mechanics 5, E&M 5) Calculus BC: 5 U.S History: 5 Chemistry: 5 Biology: 4 () Comparative Government: 5 Macroeconomics and Microeconomics: both 5 I'm also taking classes at Columbia and NYU. Extra: Captain of Robotics Team Life Scout (couldn't finish my eagle project T.T) Key Club, Track Team, Math Team, tutored at Kumon, National Merit, and some scholarships from fastweb.
Got into the University of Waterloo for Software Engineering. Most likely going there, to see whether I'll stay in that program or transfer to another Engineering, Computer Science or Math, since that program is basically a link between them all.
Got destroyed at the York Engineering and Science thing and got destroyed by the Sir Isaac Newton Engineering contest, but didn't put those on the application.
Also got accepted into Queens, but they don't really have anything I'd want to go there for.
My application average was 94 with like three volunteer places for 45 hours, one which became a job, a sports team and a couple non-sports teams.
^ I quit Boy Scouts in Grade 2 because they were so mean to me. I replaced it with Kumon (lol). I wish I could've had both of them.
On April 26 2011 18:55 japro wrote: I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
Goddamn Europe is so much better than NA on so many levels.
On April 26 2011 18:55 japro wrote: I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
Goddamn Europe is so much better than NA on so many levels.
Nah man, Canada's got the best system. Weed out the week ASAP. Our admissions system is perfectly fine, none of the affirmative action bs. If you're poor you get money shoved up your butt because of financial aid. Practically every university has a co-op program, at least Ontario does.
Wait, did Disregard mean that he was surprised that MIT did not accept him, and was completely sure that his chances at Stanford were nil? (i.e. "wow, why didn't MIT accept you?", and "lol Stanford was impossible in the first place") :o Am I misinterpreting something, or missing some essential piece of information here?
My dream school has always been MIT, so whenever it comes up, my ears perk up and I want to glean as much information as possible hehe. Any general advice about chances, and/or information as to what kind of a school it is (atmosphere etc.)?
Also, this may not be the place to ask, but after seeing the lines of 5s marching down the page, I do have a question: how important are AP scores? Do colleges see them before they decide on admissions? Word around here is that scores are sent only after acceptance, and thus do not factor into one's chances, but surely this is not the case...?
Wait, did Disregard mean that he was surprised that MIT did not accept him, and was completely sure that his chances at Stanford were nil? (i.e. "wow, why didn't MIT accept you?", and "lol Stanford was impossible in the first place") :o Am I misinterpreting something, or missing some essential piece of information here?
My dream school has always been MIT, so whenever it comes up, my ears perk up and I want to glean as much information as possible hehe. Any general advice about chances, and/or information as to what kind of a school it is (atmosphere etc.)?
Also, this may not be the place to ask, but after seeing the lines of 5s marching down the page, I do have a question: how important are AP scores? Do colleges see them before they decide on admissions? Word around here is that scores are sent only after acceptance, and thus do not factor into one's chances, but surely this is not the case...?
yeah, MIT is one of the most prestigious schools in the world so I'm certain a lot of people are interested in as much information as possible. My MIT interview was a social one (social interview at starbucks). My interviewer seemed similar to me, even blurting out at one time that he was a boy scout back when he was a teenager also. The interview was one of the crucial factors of the admissions process. Right now, even if I were to get into MIT, I think I'd stick with Yale unless my parents were to persuade me otherwise because it was a tough decision choosing between CalTech, Harvard and Yale and I felt Yale had a more fitting environment. However, (I have been thinking about this for a while), MIT does have some interesting research labs. One of my friends is researching on autonomous vehicles and I was hoping if I got in, maybe I'd attach myself to that clique also. Anyway, time will tell and good luck to future seniors! *SIDE NOTE*: oh yeah, don't screw up in senior year...I've gotten likely letters back in like February or so and they requested my senior year report card so take senior year seriously.
Life Scout is still an accomplishment. I've been there. My 3 brothers are all Eagle Scouts, so me being the youngest I had no choice XD
Just kidding, it was worth it, Scouts is a great organization and congrats at Yale!
Scouts taught me most of the things I know today and it gave me some enjoyable experiences. Nice to meet another scout too . Yeah.. I turned 18 way too soon so I couldn't finish it haha but I wouldn't put all my blame on that. Thank you.
On April 26 2011 18:55 japro wrote: I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
Goddamn Europe is so much better than NA on so many levels.
Nah man, Canada's got the best system. Weed out the week ASAP. Our admissions system is perfectly fine, none of the affirmative action bs. If you're poor you get money shoved up your butt because of financial aid. Practically every university has a co-op program, at least Ontario does.
There are a couple of things I don;t like about the Canadian admission process, because there are some highschools that mark harder than others and their students don;t get admitted to certain high level programs, and a standardized test would fix this. Some universities even reject those without the proper extracurriculars or admit people based on their athletic achievements, which in my opinion shouldn't be relevant in a university.
On April 26 2011 18:55 japro wrote: I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
Goddamn Europe is so much better than NA on so many levels.
Nah man, Canada's got the best system. Weed out the week ASAP. Our admissions system is perfectly fine, none of the affirmative action bs. If you're poor you get money shoved up your butt because of financial aid. Practically every university has a co-op program, at least Ontario does.
There are a couple of things I don;t like about the Canadian admission process, because there are some highschools that mark harder than others and their students don;t get admitted to certain high level programs, and a standardized test would fix this. Some universities even reject those without the proper extracurriculars or admit people based on their athletic achievements, which in my opinion shouldn't be relevant in a university.
That's something you have to deal with, man . I went to a private high school that was crazy insane academically, didn't have many honors classes, you weren't able to take Advanced Placement classes (an American thing) until Junior year, so that the highest possible cumulative GPA you could get was around a ~4.45 (got that). I take it you're just talking about schools just within the Canadian PUBLIC school system, but whatever's harder, work harder to compensate so that the only limit is how many honors and related higher classes that you're allowed to take. GPA in the US at least is weighed quite heavily, more than standardized tests it seems. It would have been nice to go to a public school and grab a cumulative 4.8 out of possible 5.0 with less effort, but whatever. Can't have everything in life Best of luck to you.
On April 26 2011 18:55 japro wrote: I always thought this whole "getting accepted to your favorite college" thing was slightly exaggerated in "the movies". It's interesting to read about it here . Over here (Switzerland) the system works completely different... the admission criteria are purely formal. You need a degree ("Maturität") from a gymnasium (high school equivalent i guess) that the university accepts, fill out a form and you're in. The idea that extracurricular activities, playing an instrument or being an athlete are even relevant to a university application seem almost absurd to me. The mind set of the universities here is more like: we accept everyone who fulfills the formal criteria and then we weed out in the first year. Accordingly the dropout rates can go up to 70% in the first year for certain studies... There are only a few studies like medicine that require some sort of admission exam you have to pass.
Goddamn Europe is so much better than NA on so many levels.
Nah man, Canada's got the best system. Weed out the week ASAP. Our admissions system is perfectly fine, none of the affirmative action bs. If you're poor you get money shoved up your butt because of financial aid. Practically every university has a co-op program, at least Ontario does.
There are a couple of things I don;t like about the Canadian admission process, because there are some highschools that mark harder than others and their students don;t get admitted to certain high level programs, and a standardized test would fix this. Some universities even reject those without the proper extracurriculars or admit people based on their athletic achievements, which in my opinion shouldn't be relevant in a university.
That's something you have to deal with, man . I went to a private high school that was crazy insane academically, didn't have many honors classes, you weren't able to take Advanced Placement classes (an American thing) until Junior year, so that the highest possible cumulative GPA you could get was around a ~4.45 (got that). I take it you're just talking about schools just within the Canadian PUBLIC school system, but whatever's harder, work harder to compensate so that the only limit is how many honors and related higher classes that you're allowed to take. GPA in the US at least is weighed quite heavily, more than standardized tests it seems. It would have been nice to go to a public school and grab a cumulative 4.8 out of possible 5.0 with less effort, but whatever. Can't have everything in life Best of luck to you.
I'm taking Mcgill engineering next year so its not like i'm a dropout or anything haha, its just painful to hear about the retards across the street who have a class average of 95%.
EPT
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