u/Every-Sprinkles-9716

I’m a STEM student applying to a pretty niche major, and by the end of junior year I’ll probably have around a 3.83 UW and somewhere between a 4.06–4.11 W cumulative GPA depending on whether I take 4 APs or not. Most of my Bs are in Spanish, plus one in chemistry (which is notoriously difficult at my school). Junior year alone will probably be around a 4.5 W.

For context, my high school is considered the best in my state and one of the most rigorous/T20 public schools overall. We also have grade deflation and use a straight ABCD scale (no A+ or A-). We are an ivy feeder mostly for brown, Cornell, and UPenn but every year we have 1-3 each go to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, stanford, etc… Unfortunately, my school doesn’t release class rank/percentile until graduation. I’m fairly confident I will be one of the only ones applying to Yale SCEA, and most definitely the only STEM applicant, not to mention SCEA.

My ECs are probably the strongest part of my application:

• Going to the Boiling River in Peru with the geoscientist who discovered it to deploy research nodes I engineered through a 501(c)(3). The org received multiple environmental/field research grants, and I may co-author research with him.
• Designed, engineered, manufactured, and oversaw deployment of a pollution-monitoring device that led to 36 schools and 3 school districts changing policy. Planning to submit it to multiple science fairs.
• Come from a blue-collar family (dad, grandpa, great-grandpa all worked in this industry) and developed an AI tool now used across 25+ job sites in the field. Submitting it to the Congressional App Challenge.
• Developed a custom wearable that tracks emotional state and potentially EEG signals from the wrist using ML. Planning to submit to my state science fair.
• Led a team of 5 students through a college internship program where we published a study comparing synthetic respondents to human survey takers, and we’re continuing to improve the project.
• Makerspace teacher: when I was 11, my favorite makerspace teacher left, and instead of waiting for an adult replacement, I applied for and got the role myself.
• Multiple hackathons
• Internships in San Francisco at a hardware AI company and CIT
• Planning to apply to more research institutions next summer

I haven’t taken the SAT yet, but on the PSAT 10 (without studying) I scored in the 99th percentile.

I’m going into junior year right now, and my dream schools are Yale (probably SCEA) and Stanford for something like Cognitive Science, Computer Engineering, or Information Science.

My main concern is whether my GPA hurts me too much for schools at that level. I’m especially frustrated about chemistry and stressing over whether I already messed up my chances. On top of this I'm worried my ECs are kinda weak on paper.....

Do I still realistically have a shot? Any advice would really help on how I could maximize my chances.

I’m a STEM student applying to a pretty niche major, and by the end of junior year I’ll probably have around a 3.83 UW and somewhere between a 4.06–4.11 W cumulative GPA depending on whether I take 4 APs or not. Most of my Bs are in Spanish, plus one in chemistry (which is notoriously difficult at my school). Junior year alone will probably be around a 4.5 W.

For context, my high school is considered the best in my state and one of the most rigorous/T20 public schools overall. We also have grade deflation and use a straight ABCD scale (no A+ or A-). We are an ivy feeder mostly for brown, Cornell, and UPenn but every year we have 1-3 each go to Yale, Harvard, Princeton, stanford, etc… Unfortunately, my school doesn’t release class rank/percentile until graduation. I’m fairly confident I will be one of the only ones applying to Yale SCEA, and most definitely the only STEM applicant, not to mention SCEA.

My ECs are probably the strongest part of my application:

• Going to the Boiling River in Peru with the geoscientist who discovered it to deploy research nodes I engineered through a 501(c)(3). The org received multiple environmental/field research grants, and I may co-author research with him.
• Designed, engineered, manufactured, and oversaw deployment of a pollution-monitoring device that led to 36 schools and 3 school districts changing policy. Planning to submit it to multiple science fairs.
• Come from a blue-collar family (dad, grandpa, great-grandpa all worked in this industry) and developed an AI tool now used across 25+ job sites in the field. Submitting it to the Congressional App Challenge.
• Developed a custom wearable that tracks emotional state and potentially EEG signals from the wrist using ML. Planning to submit to my state science fair.
• Led a team of 5 students through a college internship program where we published a study comparing synthetic respondents to human survey takers, and we’re continuing to improve the project.
• Makerspace teacher: when I was 11, my favorite makerspace teacher left, and instead of waiting for an adult replacement, I applied for and got the role myself.
• Multiple hackathons
• Internships in San Francisco at a hardware AI company and CIT
• Planning to apply to more research institutions next summer

I haven’t taken the SAT yet, but on the PSAT 10 (without studying) I scored in the 99th percentile.

I’m going into junior year right now, and my dream schools are Yale (probably SCEA) and Stanford for something like Cognitive Science, Computer Engineering, or Information Science.

My main concern is whether my GPA hurts me too much for schools at that level. I’m especially frustrated about chemistry and stressing over whether I already messed up my chances. On top of this I'm worried my ECs are kinda weak on paper.....

Do I still realistically have a shot? Any advice would really help on how I could maximize my chances.

I’m a sophomore at a pretty rigorous private high school thats a T20 feeder, trying to optimize my junior/senior schedule for top engineering schools (Stanford/Cornell-type goals). I already have a strong interest in building things (hardware + AI projects like a wearable device, sensor systems, etc.), and I want to make sure I actually have something real and impressive built before I submit applications early senior year.

Im really unsure (and its also stressing me) about what I want to major in just because I've done so many interesting things in STEM. My current choices are computer engineering, information/data science, CS, mechatronics

Here’s my situation:

Current GPA:

• ~3.76 UW / ~3.86 W (as a sophmore)
• Mostly A’s, a couple B’s (2 in Spanish, and one Chem)

Planned junior schedule:

• AP English(mandatory)
• AP Computer Science A(optional)
• AP Physics(mandatory technically)
• Precalc(mandatory technically)
• Spanish IV(mandatory)
• 1 more elective slot (this is the decision, I pushed APUSH to senior year)

Option 1 (Engineering):

• CAD-based engineering class (first part is learning CAD, later becomes more flexible/project-based depending on student initiative)
• Could potentially use it to design/build real systems tied to my projects
• The teacher did tell me that the course fluctuates based on what the people in the class want to really do.

Option 2 (AP Statistics):

• More traditional academic class
• Would likely give me a slightly higher GPA (like ~4.2 vs ~4.1 if I take engineering)
• I heard its somewhat of a english class, and I would take it bc its like the fundamentals of ML

Extra option:

• I might be able to take 7 classes and do both, but that could cut into my time for actual projects (~10 hrs/week right now) also be very stressful

Senior year constraint:

• I’ll only have ~2 elective slots
• Options then are:
  • Engineering 2 (advanced) (if i take engineering 1 jr year)
  • Independent Study (I really want to do this bc it'll show initiative plus i basically just get to work on whatever I want)
  • AP Statistics (if I dont take it jr year)
• I can only pick 2 of those 3

Is it worth taking AP Stats junior year for the slightly higher GPA, or should I take engineering and use that time to actually build things?

Also:

• What major would fit me? Given that I've done work in CS and AI, but also like doing real world tech (like a custom watch I designed to detect emotions: custom PCB, custom code, custom casing)

Would really appreciate advice from people who’ve gone through top STEM admissions or know how much this actually matters. Trying to balance GPA vs building something that stands out.

Heres some ECs incase ppl are wondering (sophmore btw):

- internship for SMU professor where I led a team of 5 and conducted studies for synthetic survey respondents

-(this summer) internship at an AI/hardware hybrid startup in SF (Im actually trying to decide if I want to do this or a UTD lab for deep dive AI, any input on that would help as well)

-Emotion detecting watch I mentioned: entering into SEF next year

- an AI app to find the cost of damage on cars from a picture (used in 20 autoshop locations)

-did a lot of decentralized tech commitments: 15+ nodes from companies like helium, karrier, wingbits, geodnet, and Wayru. I also built a custom system for CBRS onboarding to open5gs

-varsity crew, maybe captain sr year

-cofounder of tech entrepreneur speaker series

-AI club co lead

- (future planned): going to the Boiling River in peru to deploy nodes (that I also made) to locate illegal gold mining and deforestation to protect the river.

in terms of maker portfolio/misc projects:

- I have 2 IOS apps I made for fun, one being a social networking app

- created a 3d environment that tracks your head to simulate the illusion

-self moving chessboard

-rotating platform for 3d imaging

PSAT 10: 99th percentile, no studying