There is a reason behind my title. Yes, I’m an URM - but I am not banking on admission to ANY of my reach college choices. I’m worried over the uncertainty behind ‘holistic’ college admissions, and I feel that I need to use this thread as a means to communicate with others of my heritage background (African American) and those who are just curious about the admissions cycle in general.
I’ll start with this:
- African American
- Female
- Interested in STEM
A short and sweet synopsis:
- **3.97 GPA/b
- ** 32 ACT /b
- SAT II (tbd, I will be taking USH, Math2, & Chem)
- 10th Grade: 5 APs (Calc AB: 5, Calc BC: 5, Euro: 4, Chem: 4, US Gov: 5)
- 11th Grade: 2 APs, 7 IBs (CompGov: 4, Lit: 3)
- 12th Grade: 3 APs, 6 IBs (tbd
)
- invested a lot of time in community service and extracurricular activities
- landed a summer biomedical research internship at the NIH
** Reaches: **
- The Ivies (surprise, right?)
- Duke
- Vanderbilt
- Tufts
- Williams
- Amherst
- Swarthmore
- Georgetown
- Johns Hopkins
** Matches: **
Take your pick, guys. Comment your responses below. Call me insane i*, but that just proves my uncertainty. I never strive for anything below my best, so I guess I am doing my specialty: “20 schools for 2020.”
Other African Americans and members of races considered “URMs”, take heed. I don’t have the confidence that I will get into ** ANY ** of my reaches because I know how freakin’ competitive it gets once you aim high. Just do your best, and let the rest follow.
Which one will I end up at? Stay tuned.
Also, for those who think that I am doing this in search of the element of prestige, of course I am. But your reasoning will not change my aspirations. I need financial aid, and I need it bad. These top schools know just how to give it.
Peace out, from the atlantic coast 
I don’t think you should apply to every Ivy (just my opinion), but here’s my preliminary thoughts:
The Ivies
Harvard - rejected
Yale - rejected
Princeton - rejected
Columbia - waitlisted
UPenn - waitlisted
Cornell - accepted
Brown - accepted (maybe?)
Duke - rejected
Vanderbilt - accepted (if 34+ on ACT, w/ a 32 it’s hard to tell)
Tufts - accepted
Williams - rejected
Amherst - rejected
Swarthmore - waitlisted
Georgetown - accepted
Johns Hopkins - accepted (if non-BME)
UVa - accepted (if in-state)
UMD - accepted
UMBC - accepted
American - accepted
Hopefully this doesn’t seem too negative? A lot of these schools are really competitive and it’s not that you’re a bad candidate. With a 34 on the ACT your chances go up considerably at each school. It’s hard to know how good your ECs are and if they will make a difference, but being a URM with respectable stats is very good for STEM. Are you applying engineering or is it more of a physical/natural science path?
I understand that you’re trying to get into a “top” school, but you may want to change your list a bit. There are overlaps between some of the schools (Brown, Cornell, Tufts, JHU, and Georgetown are similar; as are Duke, Vanderbilt, UVa, and possibly Penn), but your list encompasses a lot of different schools that don’t have a ton in common. Someone who likes Columbia’s core will probably not be comfortable with the openness of Brown’s curriculum. Princeton and Cornell are the only two Ivies known for engineering, but Harvard has cross-enrollment with MIT. UPenn has a huge party culture like Cornell, but a lot of the other schools don’t have that reputation. I’d recommend trying to refine your list.
Thanks! I plan on doing a major in Molecular Biology or Biochemistry. Your chances are right around my own predictions for acceptances with my current score. I might trim down my list slightly due to the overwhelming number of essays, but I’ll still have to think about it.
Also, I don’t have much of a preference when it comes to a curriculum. Sure, I might like Columbia’s core slightly more, but I also wouldn’t mind the Open Curriculum at Brown. I don’t care where in the East Coast I end up either, though I’d rather steer away from my home state (MD) unless I manage to get a full scholarship to one of my local schools.
Where do you think I will ultimately end up at? Take your pick!
@micmatt513
It’s literally impossible to say what your decisions will look like come spring, and anyone that claims, either directly or indirectly, to have an “accurate” prediction of what they will look like is fooling themselves; we haven’t seen your recommendations, nor have we seen your essays. Therefore, answer as to where I think you’ll end up: I have no freaking clue, and neither does micmatt513. Not really.
Understandable. Will periodically keep this thread updated as the year progresses. Thanks for your input, though! @Prospective1998 :bz
@Prospective1998 - I was guessing for fun, not because I think that’s what will definitely happen. It’s not uncommon on this forum for people to just make blind predictions and see how accurate they end up being. I never claimed to have prescience, but I do enjoy a healthy amount of speculation.
Good luck! But holy cow 20 schools, imagine all the supplemental essays you have to write.
I would suggest that you cut down on some of your schools as the sheer amount of essays (especially the Why X School) will be very hard on you.
There’s a thread on here called: “What did I do wrong?” The guy applied to 19 schools and although he got into Berkeley EECS (Sub 7% admit rate), he did get rejected at the Ivies and such.
But, if you ever decide you need more schools to apply to, Stanford and MIT are great STEM options and have a lot of financial aid.
You can get into any of those schools or none of those schools. The 2 point improvement on the ACT would be nice but far more important would be writing killer essays. Maybe you can write 20+ great essays and maybe not. My personal recommendation would be to apply to far fewer schools and put more effort into them. I’m not sure how to get into the Ivies, but the LACs like you to show them some love. Visit, interview or if you can’t then interview with any reps that come to your town, and you’ll get into more schools than if you just throw out applications. Also, if you explore the colleges more you might decide that you don’t actually want to apply to all 20 of them.
If you are interested in JHU you should apply to HOME. It is for URMs and I am going…they fully pay for you to visit for a few days at the end of September. Look up Hopkins overnight multicultural experience and the application will pop up!
@Ohio2city I live about 50 minutes away from JHU so I don’t think I’ll be attending HOME. Thank you for informing me of the opportunity though!
I’m curious, what are your safety schools? I also think you should lower the list to at least 10-15. Think of how pricey the application fees are going to get. Also as someone mentioned above, think about all of the essays. Your grades and EC’s look above average which is great. I’d definitely sit down and really look into the colleges, visit (if you can), look into student reviews, and honestly with so many colleges you’re applying to, go ahead and start working on the essays now. You’re guaranteed to get into at least three since the list is so large. Other factors to consider, financial aid? Can your family afford to pay for you getting into Harvard for instance if you’re given very little grants? Also don’t feel inclined to apply to all of the Ivies just for the sake that they’re ivies. I see too many students on here who do that just because they can. If you really want to go for all the ivies then do it, but also think about if you actually want to go or if it’s just for the name. Also, are you applying to any outside scholarships? Again, more essays. Don’t stretch yourself thin. How much have you researched into every single one of these colleges? I’d make a list of pros and cons for each college to help lower your list. As a fellow African-American, I can tell you that affirmative action will help you out, that’s undeniable, but my concern is what did you base this college list off on? The diversity of these colleges and their locations don’t particularly show where you want to end up, besides the fact of having a well-known name and amazing education. What are you looking for in a college? party schools? Specific clubs? Sports? Research opportunities? Study abroad? Specific major? Class size? Population? Location? Urban, rural, suburban? The weather? Activities outside of school?
I’m not sure what I want in a college, so that’s mainly the reason why my list is so huge. I definitely want Study Abroad, but most schools on my list have that. My safe schools are pretty much UMD and UMBC. I’d be very lucky to attend the honor programs at those schools.
If you want to see more about my credentials, check out my chance thread under this account. I’m working on my ACT score and my subject tests for October. @Chopinspiano
@Princetonian2020 As a current UMBC student, I have a bit of info on scholarships (both general and specific) which are offered by this school. General scholarships are given to incoming freshmen who apply by the early action date (Nov 1). Awards range from $1000-$22,000 a year (although for instate the max is $15,000 a year. UMBC also has seven scholar programs, one of them being the competitive and prestigious Meyerhoff scholars program. This scholarship requires a separate application (and a school nomination). If selected for this program, students will receive tuition, room and board as well as special advising and amazing research opportunities. The requirements for this scholarship are:
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Cumulative High School GPA of a 3.0 or above (which you have)
Aspire to obtain a Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. in Math, Science, Computer Science, or Engineering (your major is biochem or molec. bio)
Display commitment to community service (already have)
Must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States (yes)
Minimum of 600 on the Math component of the SAT (this is what I’m concerned about). If you haven’t taken the SAT I then I recommend giving it a shot; I’m pretty sure you would get well above 600 on the math section.
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Additionally, you have an edge over other meyerhoff applicants because of your research at NIH and the many ap and IB classes that you’ve taken. Most applicants do not have access to IB so your application will definitely stand out.
In regards to prestige, although UMBC isn’t considered a top 20 school, the meyerhoff program is highly regarded by America’s top grad schools and there are only 1300 meyerhoff students (270 @ umbc) from across the nation. Getting into the program is competitive (50/1000 applicants are chosen yearly).
Anyways, be sure to check out this program and good luck in the college application process!
@Princetonian2020 Sorry! I just looked at the other thread and realized that you already took the SAT 1. Please disregard what I said before. If you can get it to a 2100 then you’re golden.
@leafgreen15 Hey, thanks! The Meyerhoff scholarship is actually one of the main reasons I’m applying to UMBC! I’ve always wanted to go into neuroscience and molecular sciences in general so it is a nice local twist to my potential major. :D/
Also, I got a 2100 on the SAT and a 32 on the ACT. I think my scores are okay (210 improvement on SAT and 3 point improvement on ACT from my first tests), but I will retake the ACT next week (September 12th). I think I should be able to get a 34 on that test, but I will have to see. Wish me luck!
Decided not to apply to UVA, but will replace that with UNC-Chapel Hill. Also submitted my UMBC application. Aside from that, no - nothing much to update on @MYOS1634
Update: Just submitted applications for all of my early action schools!
Good luck to you, especially Princeton!