2019-20 College Admission Advice Needed!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys! I am currently a rising senior who plans to be a pre med student (majoring in Biomedical engineering) in college and I would like to receive some input to improve my odds into getting in my desired colleges. Below I listed a general idea of my application. Any help is useful! Thanks!

Also, I have taken way more AP’s than the average junior in high school and as a result, I received B’s in a couple of those AP classes. Will this play impact my college admissions by a considerable amount or will admission officers understand that my course rigor was very difficult?

Grade: Going to be a Senior this Fall
Location: Northern Virginia
Current GPA: 4.10 (Hopefully around a 4.3 by end of senior class through my planned course load)
Current SAT (Attempted 4 times) : 1560
Current ACT (Attempted 1): 33
Chemistry Subject Test: 760
Math 2 Subject Test: 800

Extracurriculars:
-Volunteered at the DC VA Medical Center for the last 3 years in OR, ER, and Pharmacy. I was able to gain insight in the medical field by shadowing doctors and the medical staff and watching surgeries while also providing help in the hospital such as handling prescriptions for patients, inputting patient surgery information, and distributing medical supplies throughout the departments. Accumulated over 400 hours within this organization and recognized for it. This year, I am working in the Research Department under a assistant professor of Georgetown.

-Volunteered at the Walter Reed National Military Center last summer in Occupational Therapy and Surgical Waiting Room. In Occupational Therapy, I helped my supervisor find technology for current and former US military personal who are disabled or impaired from combat to assist them in their current living situation. In Surgical Waiting Room, I comforted the patients families and helped them keep up to date on the current status of their loved one in the OR. Volunteered around 90 hours from Walter Reed

-Volunteered in the Red Cross for the last 3 years and accumulated 84 hours from this organization. Served as a Blood Donor Ambassador during this span and helped out in various events to promote general safety from homes to disasters

-Started recently volunteering in the Medical Reserve Corps to help improved health and safety of communities and provide emergency support in the case of a disaster

-Founded FBLA in my school and am a member of National Honors Society, Math Honors Society, and Science National Honors Society

Junior Year Course Load:
-AP Language/Comp: A-
-AP Psychology: B
-AP Calculus: B
-AP US History: B
-Academic Physics: B+
-AP Chemistry: A-
-AP Computer Science A: A-
-Study Hall

Planned Senior Year Course Load:
-AP Literature
-AP Calculus BC
-AP Biology
-AP Physics
-AP Human Geo
-AP Government
-AP Statistics
-Study Hall

Schools I am interested in:
-VCU
-Virginia Tech
-Penn State
-UPitt
-William and Mary
-University of Virginia
-University of Southern California
-NYU
-Baylor

My parents are generous enough to pay for all or most of my tuition.

Also, will my Subject Tests, ACT, and SAT scores help balance out my low gpa. Because even though my GPA is low, I feel like my standardized scores and extracurriculars are really good.

2

I think you have a good list. Maybe get some EA or rolling admissions schools cinched early so it’s all gravy thereafter.

You need to talk to your GC about the Virginia schools. They seem to me to be very GPA oriented for OOSers , but they will know the VA high schools and your gpa will be assessed in that context. I’ve found that the public school GCs are very knowledgeable about who is likely to get admitted to their state because they have a ton of experience and a lot of data to make predictions.

Most of tuition can be a heckuva lot with a school like USC and NYU. They do have scholarships but getting one is very difficult as the competition is fierce. As reach schools, great, but understanding that they are very expensive and you might want to discuss those kind of numbers with your parents.

3

UVA will be tough because they seem to be more GPA driven than ACT/SAT score centric. The rule of thumb when my daughter applied was take the most difficult core curriculum and get more A’s than B’s. In other words, yes to AP Calc, Bio and English - no to AP Psych and Human Geo.
What have you taken for foreign language?

4

@NoVa1031 As you are concerned with your GPA and attribute the Bs you earned in your junior year to overloading, if it were me I’d back off on the APs for senior year to up your GPA. In particular, two lab science AP courses taken simultaneously is generally not recommended. Which AP Physics are you considering for next year?

What is your unweighted GPA?