u/Mountain_Shoulder184

I am a male from upstate Maine, small public school that is borderline rural (just over threshold), Latino, parents make 170k a year aprox.

Stats: 3.85 UW, 4.6 W, 6 APS (so far, STATS, LANG, APUSH, BIO, CSP, Pre Calc, Bio last year was a 4) (All As other than B+ in precalc) (Notable Grades : 100% in Honors Physics and AP CSP) DE Spanish, 1480 PSAT (760M + 720R)

ECs/ AWARDS:

Hackathon Veteran (organized 2 local ones, won 3 major ones (all 1st place) (300 person +) (Won a undergrad hackathon I larped at)

Head of Cubesat design Team - I wrote the software and lead the charge for designing and building a cubic satellite for the MIT LL competition. (not podium sadly)

Head of underwater robotics team - Mentoring younger students in middle school and placed top 40 at internationals, designed new modular systems to decrease maintenance times by 80%

Eagle Scout and Senior Leader at NYLT - Eagle and Highest position at National Youth Leadership Training, Eagle project was STEM related

Internship/Fellowship at Local Philanthropy Nonprofit - Lead charge to raise 10k and donate it to local causes, managed and passed grant paperwork, interfaced with orgs we donated to and now help with outreach (post internship)

Head of JROTC Unit and selected to staff National Cyber Training - Scored in top 1% for inspections national, good evaluations as a group and myself

Volunteer in Town GOV - Building multiple town websites, managing financial accounts, moving thousands weekly, hosting websites and services

Essays:

Mostly about finding my own way being latino in a rural town without much STEM access, working on projects, pushing myself and my why (my family and my community), not fitting in and finding my way to fit in ( I am sort of a weirdo if you cant tell ), weightlifting and music and how its my outlet, some more technical things

Programs applied:

NSLI Summer (korea) (rejected last year): >!Rejected final round!<

MITES SEM AND SUMMER : >!Rejected!<

USNA SUMMER SEM : >!Rejected!<

USMA SLE : >!Rejected!<

YC STARTUP SCHOOL: >!Accepted!<

BWSI (rejected last year): >!Commited UAS-SAR!<

LLRISE: >!Accepted!<

MIT Engineering Design Workshop (NICHE): >!Accepted!<

Hackclub Internship: >!Rejected!<

Harvard SRI: >!not out yet!<

Harvard Ventures Tech: >!Full Ride Scholarship!<

Any thoughts?

I feel like a chud because I got into legit nothing, I worked for so long on my essays and I thought they were fire, I had other people read them also and give advice.

Am I cooked for t20s?

HELPPP

Demographics:

- Male, Latino

- Massachusetts, small public HS (~350 students total, no advanced STEM other than AP Bio)

- Family income ~$195K (no need-based aid eligible)

- Hooks: URM

Intended Major(s): Computer Science + Electrical Engineering

Stats:

- SAT: Took May 2026, awaiting score (practice tests 1520-1540)

- PSAT: 1460 (760M + 700RW)

- UW GPA: 95/100 (~3.85)

- Class rank: not officially ranked

- Current/Past Coursework: AP Bio (4), AP CSP (predicted 4-5), APUSH (predicted 5), AP Lang (predicted 5), AP Stats (I dont wana talk about it (wont report probably))

Senior Schedule: AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Calc AB, AP Physics C EM + Mech, DE Engineering, 2 filler classes

- Anticipated AP Scholar with Distinction

Awards:

- 1st Place, MIT Blueprint Hackathon 2026 (largest HS hackathon, embedded MBTA tracker)

- International Research Olympiad (IRO) Semifinalist - Top 127 of 1000+

- 1st Place, Dream Venture Hackathon

- SeaPerch National Top 50 (team captain, underwater ROV)

- Computer Science Student of the Year (school)

- JROTC Unit ranked #1 nationally

- Hackathon win at undergrad-level competition as HS student

ECs:

1. Independent AlphaFold2 research - comparing prediction accuracy of viral vs human proteins. Solo, ~year long. Targeting Journal of Emerging Investigators + IEEE MIT URTC submission fall 2026.

2. BWSI UAS-SAR at MIT Lincoln Lab - 4 weeks, summer 2026 (accepted)

3. Hack Club Founder + Stardance Ambassador (NASA X Hackclub)

4. Sea Cadets - Petty Officer 1st Class, Head of Unit

5. SeaPerch Captain (Top 50 nationally), 4 years

6. Youth in Philanthropy - Raised and allocated $10K+ in community grants and Grant Panelist for 2026 Cohorts

7. Head of Team for CubeSat Design Competition and Head of Programming

8. Eagle Scout (in progress) + Head of National Youth Leadership Training

9. Town Volunteer (Intern??) - I run many websites and move money digitally for my town

10. Part-time at Grocery Store (continuous, 2+ years, 15+ hrs a week)

LORs: Strong AP Lang teacher rec (Have had him for many years, thinks I have aura) + Physics teacher rec (wrote my waitlisted MITES REC, I've had her for 2 years and she loves me)

Schools (17, will trim):

- Safety: UMass Amherst, RPI, UVM

- Match: WPI, UMD, USMA, USNA, USAFA, Georgia Tech, Northeastern, UF, Purdue

- Reach: MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Stanford, CMU, Caltech, Columbia

My dream school is MIT but I have accepted that it will only happen if it is meant to happen.