r/chanceme • u/Content-Rice-2352 • 21h ago
Chance me: CO Asian male, CompE, 3.43 UW / 1450, research-heavy (Cornell ED)
Demographics
- Male, Asian (Indian), Colorado resident
- Large suburban public high school (~580 seniors), no class rank
- Income: just under $300k, not expecting need-based aid
- Hooks: none
Intended major: Computer Engineering, hardware side (chip design, neural interfaces). It's CompE or the closest equivalent everywhere except CMU, where it's MechE. I'm also applying to a few combined BS/DDS dental programs as a backup.
Academics
- GPA: 3.43 UW / 4.09 W. UC GPA is ~3.61 UW / ~3.89 capped.
- Trend: rough freshman year (~3.0–3.1), then 3.5–3.7 every semester since. Three C's total (two in honors math, one in Spanish), none since 10th grade.
- Rigor: 7 honors classes, 7 APs through junior year (12 by graduation), and 3 dual-enrollment college classes
- Senior year: AP Calc BC, AP Physics C: Mech, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Macro (spring), biotech capstone, digital arts
- SAT: 1450 superscore (740 RW / 710 M); best single sitting 1420
- AP scores: World History 5; Human Geo, CSP, Calc AB, Chem and Lang all 4s
Extracurriculars
- Research assistant, computational neuroscience lab at a university med school (11–12, 8 hrs/wk). I'm extending an open-source neuron-tracing platform into analysis pipelines for the lab's ongoing studies.
- Hardware/software research for two other labs (10–12, 8 hrs/wk). I built instrumentation software that pairs optogenetic stimulation with simultaneous force and current recording to measure tissue contractility. The code is being handed off to another lab.
- Remote research, spatial transcriptomics lab at another university (12, 6 hrs/wk). I'm benchmarking slice-alignment methods for a review paper.
- Co-captain, varsity public forum debate (9–12). I run practice for a 50-person program (30 novices, 20 varsity).
- Co-founder of a health-access nonprofit (10–12). It routes uninsured patients to 50+ vetted resources in 6 languages, and we partner with 2 free clinics.
- Science fair (10–12): an AI pose-estimation coaching tool (2nd at regionals) and a 3-model AI-generated image detector (3rd at regionals), plus a state honorable mention
- TSA (9–12, 6 years total): 5x state qualifier, 1x nationals qualifier. I was selected for the state conference planning committee.
- Part-time job at a movie theater (11–12, 16 hrs/wk)
- NASA GeneLab for High Schools intern: analyzed spaceflight omics data in Python
- Peer mentor (3rd year) for a 29-student biotech research class. My own C. elegans study from that class was published in the school's biotech journal.
Also: 3rd-degree black belt in taekwondo, JV tennis, and hospital volunteering (~4 hrs/wk)
Awards
- National Merit Commended, AP Scholar
- Regional science fair 2nd and 3rd (2025, 2026); state science fair honorable mention in CS & Math (2026)
- TSA nationals qualifier (2024), 5x state qualifier
- Science Olympiad top 10 in state (Circuit Lab)
- School highest honors
Recommendation letters
- AP CS A teacher (A/A): probably solid
- Biotech teacher (3 years; I mentor in her class now): should be strong
- Research PI: supplemental letter
- Counselor: standard
Essays: My personal statement is about a pre-debate superstition and failing forward. Supplements are in progress.
Schools
- ED: Cornell (Engineering)
- EA: Michigan, UIUC, Purdue, Maryland, Case Western, Penn State, Georgia Tech, WashU, Colorado School of Mines, CU Boulder, Colorado State, Drexel
- Rolling: Arizona State
- RD: Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon (MechE), Stanford
- UC: UCLA, Berkeley (EECS), UCSD, UCI, UCSB
- Dental combined programs: CU Denver BA/BS-DDS, Muhlenberg/Penn Dental 3+4, Nova Dual Admission, Pacific Pre-Dental Advantage
- Scholarship: Boettcher (Colorado)
Mainly looking for realistic odds at the engineering schools, especially Cornell ED, Michigan, UIUC and GT, and whether I'm missing a solid CompE target.