Final list: Chances of a stereotypical Indian dude

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Long story short: I know that my reaches are ultra reaches so I have no expectation of getting admitted which im fine with. My targets and safety are pretty good I think and I hope I can get into at least 1 bs/md or bs/do.

Schools: Cornell ED(reach), UPenn (reach), NYU (reach), Stony Brook BS/MD + regular (target), Binghamton (target), Syracuse regular + bs/md (target), Fordham (target), Hofstra bs/md + regular (target), Penn State (safety), NYIT bs/do (target), Adelphi (safety)

**all bs/md and bs/do programs are reaches but the regular undergraduate programs are targets

**test optional may or not help me for the reach schools?

GPA: 3.725 UW 3.8 W (4.33 scale)
Rank: N/A
ACT: 31 comp (will take again in Sept if it isn’t cancelled like the past 3 times) :slight_smile:
SAT 2: taking bio m, chem, math 2 in Oct (should all be 700+)
APs: World history (3), Physics 1 (3), Psychology (3), US History (5), English (5), Bio, chem, us gov, Spanish, calc ab

Execs:
-Research project under Hofstra professor for a spectrophotometer and using one in our research (poster sessions & everything)
-160+ hours of volunteer at a hospital
-Executive editor for a teen-led media organization that publishes news articles every day (1,000+ followers on instagram)
-Board position in a school club called High School Democrats
-Yearbook committee
-Model un club member
-probably going to do a few clubs this year like Science Olympiads, Quiz bowl, etc

Major: Neuroscience but I’ll probably apply undeclared

I live in New York and all of these schools are either in NY or PA.

Let me know how crazy I am :slight_smile:

2

Even though your HS does not rank, they can probably figure it out. It looks to me as if your GPA will be outside of the top 10% of your class? Is that correct? If not then what is your best estimate of where your class rank is?

Reason why rank will be so important this year is that many students will be applying without test scores. So rank is one of the few objective things left to measure performance.

Which college within Cornell will you be applying to?

3

I’m applying to Cornell undecided to the college of arts and sciences. I would say my class rank will probably be out of 10% but not by a a lot. I’m taking a a lot of AP’s next year so if I can do well I can definitely bump my gpa enough into the 10%

4

if you’re in ny please provide advice! you probably know these schools better than most ppl.

5

I live in NY, and I do know something about some of these schools. Yet, despite that, I have no particular insights about admissions to them, since I am none of : an admissions officer, a guidance counselor, or a very recent graduate of the same school who observed the results of their classmates.

My advice is to contact the guidance office at your school, they likely have substantial and recent experience with the admissions results of your predecessors , particularly with the regionally proximate colleges and universities.

If your school has Naviance you can see how the recent grads of your school fared at admission to these various institutions. Note, however, this information will be imperfect since it lumps all the colleges of multi-college universities together. And I doubt that it has admissions stats for combined BS/MD programs.

6

Your chance of getting into listed reaches are very low even if you make it to the top 10% of your HS class. I would say less than 1% but it’s low for all higher stats kids. For sure, stats are not everything and you have decent ECs. Unfortunately, Asian male is in bottom of the totem pole when it comes to admission ( I know it sucks but it’s a fact. I am an Asian parent).
However, it’s nothing wrong to get into a target/safety school then later apply to med schools. I have plenty of friends whose kids got into Ivies then later enrolled into in-state schools or much lower ranked schools with full-tuition scholarships.
You are certainly capable. It’s a long journey but you will get there with perseverance and hard-work. Good luck!

7

If your class rank is outside of the top 10% then ED1 to Cornell A&S is a long-shot. You will have a better chance at the CALS, since they have to take a certain percentage of NY state residents.

I also agree with @stempp. Being a desi and applying as a pre-med is about as competitive as it gets. If your ultimate goal is med school, then I would steer you towards colleges where you can get a very high GPA (> 3.8). Cornell is known for its grade deflationary policies. You would actually be better off at a small LAC. Less competition, and easier to stand out. Most desi pre-meds that I know are doing gap years after they finish college, and still struggle to get accepted somewhere. If you get into one of the BS/MD or BS/DO programs, they are well worth it.

8

Yea my school has naviance ill be sure to use that thanks!

9

Thanks for your advice. As I said before, I have absolutely no expectations of getting into my reaches and I’d be totally fine with that since they are ivies in the end. What do you think about for my safety and target schools? Are those realistic? Thanks for the inspiration I truly appreciate it!

10

By CALS are you referring to Cornell Agriculture & Life Sciences? I’ve never heard of CALS. I definitely agree with growing up as a desi and it is hard. Do you think my targets and safety are realistic? Thanks for your advice

11

CALS at Cornell is its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
https://cals.cornell.edu/

The various divisions of Cornell are listed here:
https://www.cornell.edu/academics/colleges.cfm

12

CALS may indeed have somewhat easier aggregate admit stats, particularly for in-state applicants, than CAS. (Though the admit stats for in-state vs. not are not published). That does not necessarily make it the best choice, or the easiest admit, for a particular applicant.

There are a few nuances that may be worth considering:

-My understanding is CALS admits to a particular major, not “undecided”. The individual majors are thought to be not equally easy to be admitted to. In my day, the biology major was thought to be one of the more difficult admits. More recently Dyson was a very difficult CALS admit, but I’m not sure if it is still considered to be within CALS purview. But the admit stats by major are not publicly available.

  • You will likely have to address why CALS, and why your particular major there, in your application. Directly or indirectly.
  • In addition to major requirements, the distribution and in-college requirements for CALS and CAS are not the same. Unless you choose biology, your major will be different. And a decent subset of the other 2/3 of your courses that are outside your major may need to be different.

Suggest an applicant look into all of this.

13

2nd decile is not a bad place to be. Certainly could be worse. But as a ORM, you will face an uphill battle applying to Cornell A&S as a premed. I would not recommend it. CALS would offer a slightly better chance, but overall you will have problems later on with grade deflation. Suggest to look into colleges where you can get a high GPA.

Binghamton and Fordham sound reasonable as targets. But the BS/MD programs are far from target, they are reaches for most everyone. Focus on lesser known schools that sends lots of people to med school.

Take look at these stats published by AMCAS, especially Table A2:
https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/students-residents/interactive-data/2019-facts-applicants-and-matriculants-data

Ignore the big state schools, they have thousands of premeds applying each year. Then focus your attention on the smaller, or less well known colleges. You’ll see that there are some surprises there:

University of South Florida
UT Dallas
LSU Ag & mechanical
Baylor University
Univ of Central Florida
Florida International
Clemson
U Houston
Mississippi State
Miami of Ohio
Vassar
Marquette
Hofstra
And the list goes on

14

I looked into in the common app and I think ill go with CALS instead. Thanks so much!

15

I definitely like Hofstra since Im super local to it and did research there so I’ll be getting a rec letter from one of their professors. BS/MD’s including theirs are def a reach but their honors college seems realistic.

16

Hofstra is a great option. Really under rated in my opinion. If you go to Hofstra and really kick butt, you’d stand a good chance for med school. Much moreso than going to a place like CALS and getting a mediocre GPA.

Med school admissions, unfortunately for ORMs, is much more competitive. So that means you’ll really need stellar college stats. The med school admissions committees generally don’t give extra points for college prestige. A 4.0 GPA from Hofstra would beat out a 3.0 GPA from Harvard College.

17

Sorry what’s ORM?

18

Over Represented Minority

19

Ah that makes sense