Congratulations on all of your accomplishments in high school. I think you will be a very attractive candidate to a number of schools. Have you thought about Howard, particularly its science scholar program? @ChangeTheGame knows more about it, and the students that make it are quite amazing.
I’m not as confident that all of your safeties are safeties. Hawaii Pacific, yes. The others, no. I believe that most of the sciences are impacted majors at U. of Washington and even strong in-state students didn’t get an acceptance (@bethy1, @JBSeattle might be able to give a better estimate). A student just posted this evening with a 4.0UW/5.7W GPA with a 1550 SAT and 5s on all 9 AP tests taken so far who did not get into the main campus at Penn State and was waitlisted at Pitt. If you apply to Pitt early (I’m talking August), you should learn quickly whether or not you got in…and once you have that admit in your hand, then you’re golden. But make sure that you would be happy to attend any of your safeties, especially since those might be your only acceptances. Any school where you can apply EA, apply EA, because many of the popular big state programs are filling up many of their seats via EA, leaving precious little for RD applicants.
I’m just noticing that you’re in Pennsylvania (doh!) so I think Penn State and Pitt are definitely likelies, I just don’t know if they’re so likely as to be considered a safety. Perhaps @Creekland has more insight?
As mentioned earlier, EA at Northeastern won’t be possible if you’re applying REA to Princeton. And frankly, I’d put all of these as reach schools. Once a school is accepting 20% or fewer of its applicants, and the vast majority of applicants are really high caliber students, then I think it’s a reach no matter how strong the applicant.
Some other schools you may want to consider include:
If Supreme court keeps affirmative action in place, you have a decent shot at any top school in the nation. If they rule to exclude consideration of race, you still have a chance anywhere, but then you are in the same position as all other unhooked applicants, will need good matches and sure thing safeties. I would recommend against sending the AP scores, since they show limitations, while your GPA, rank, and SATs are fantastic. If it is relevant, you can submit the APs for credit after you are admitted.
Congratulations on your exceptional record. As noted above, UC Berkeley will be a Reach school with an OOS admit rate of 8.6% in 2022. Also UCB is test blind and race/ethnicity blind so none of these factors will be considered in the admission process.
Best of luck and you will plenty of options from which to choose.
OP’s stats are excellent but Business and CS are the two most impacted majors at UW. There are roughly 30 more that are also impacted (out of roughly 100 majors). The sciences would be next in line after CS and business. Could be more of a match as I have seen 4.0 students not get admitted.
If OP was applying for another major then it would be different.
Came here due to @AustenNut 's recommendation, and yes, both Pitt and Penn St should be safeties for you. While it seems some high stat students didn’t get accepted this year, my thoughts wonder what might have been “wrong” on their application (perhaps nothing, but that’s where my thoughts went) as I’ve yet to see it happen where I work. Pitt will let you know early. If you’re happy with them, you don’t even need another safety since all schools will be affordable. They are also a really good school in the majors you’re looking at, so some students I know who “used” them as a safety ended up choosing them as their #1 after visits. That said, if you like your other safeties better, keep them, but only if you like them better.
I think you have a great shot at the schools on your list, but I’ll also second the thought of looking at the University of Rochester. It’s another terrific school for your interests and could be right up your alley. You’ll know if you can visit, at least, if you’re like other students I know. It’s not that far from PA and is a nice drive or a short flight away.
Best wishes to you. You sound like the type of student who will do well wherever you go!
Please understand…that even with perfect stats all around, you are not guaranteed admission to these colleges. They have low single digit acceptance rates and more than 90% of applicants don’t get accepted. This includes some very well qualified students just like you.
Now, having said that, you could be one of the ones accepted. But please…do things that are YOU. Don’t do things just because you think they will grab the attention of the adcoms at HYPSM.
You already are doing some great things. Just keep it up.
And make sure you also love your sure thing schools too.
Yes, I should’ve been more clear, I will be happy with any school I get accepted to and I know that I can accomplish just as much at state schools as HYPSM. However, for now, I would like to maximize my chances (while still being interested) of getting accepted I know the acceptances are absurd sometimes
I was a bit in disbelief over this. First that a company would hire someone in high school for an internship (not unheard of, but def unusual). And then within the course of a short internship to do enough work to be a named inventor on a patent?
From the start to finish of filing a patent application to final issuance generally takes about 2-4 years. Even the USPTO fast track program takes at least 12 months (assuming no issues with the examiner). If you’re a junior now, subtracting 12 months + the writing time would mean the work had to have been done when you were a freshman. Typically only the key people are listed on the patent, and typically have contributed a lot to the invention.
If this is true, and it may certainly be, please do understand that an admissions officer would find this unbelievable.
Hey, I understand why you are in disbelief. However, the company is owned by my family (I probably should have mentioned this there). Also, the patent was in process while I was a freshman, yes. The admissions officers will get more in detail about my experience in comparison to this vague mention of it on a thread with strangers
You are a strong candidate with excellent grades and scores. You should be a competitive applicant at all schools, however, that doesn’t assure you admission to your reaches. Make sure you are enthusiastic about your likely/safety schools just in case your reaches don’t work out (which is all too often).
In addition to feeling good about safety/matches make sure to show them the same love as the other schools.
I know more than one tippy stop student who did not get into an Ivy, but also got shut out of all their matches - not because they phoned it in, but likely got yield protected out.
Thank you for the clarification. No need to provide more details, as I understand. But looking at this from an outsider’s view, I am worried that this is going to backfire.
You have an excellent academic profile. Top scores, top grades and wonderful rigor. That alone would be enough to seal the deal at many schools. Your parents are wealthy enough to send you to expensive summer college experiences. But the part about working at your parents company and then being named an inventor on a patent reeks of nepotism. This will make the admissions readers wonder what else on your application was “helped” by your parents.
Tufts admitted 9.5% for class of '27. Not sure that that puts it squarely in the “likely” category. Especially if SCOTUS eliminates race-based consideration. If you were to apply ED to Tufts, I’d say it would be a near guarantee that you, as a full-pay URM with those stats, would get in.
Good luck on your process. As a parent of a senior, one piece of advice I would offer is to carefully consider your safeties and ensure they are true safeties that you want to attend and have a few others. I mention this because some of your “matches” might not come through. I expect that your process will end with you having options but I saw my own child get rejected from “matches” with sub-20% admission rates. He didn’t need them but one of the rejections was a little surprising (but potentially understandable when fully analyzed).
Your profile is amazing but sometimes I see similar profiles with lots of HYPSM rejections and I think about the messages in the blog above. Some students come across as collectors of accolades and ECs with the goal of getting into HYPSM and the schools find that something is missing or too good to be true.
Since you mentioned your race in the title of your post, the SCOTUS decision could add another unknown into the process next admissions season. That said, congratulations on all your accomplishments, you will do great.
During this process I heard something interesting that goes something like this….College admissions is not a game to be won but a match to be made.
Pittsburgh is rolling admission. So a given student may be highly likely to be admitted if applying as early as possible, but waitlisted or denied applying later after it is full.
You have an excellent profile that is competitive for all the colleges on your list. Both Tufts and Northeastern yield protect so be sure to demonstrate interest. Subscribe to their mailing lists and visit, if you can. I wouldn’t be surprised if you got into one or more of your reaches.
Several years ago, there was a similar Chance Me thread (i.e. high achieving AfAm female) and OP had excellent college outcomes earning admission to lots of top colleges.
Some posters have already mentioned potential changes to affirmative action and its effect on your college outcomes. There will be an impact, but perhaps not as large as people think. I don’t know about other colleges but Penn is already reviewing its admissions process to still build a diverse class of incoming students.
will be doing this
I know the acceptances are absurd sometimes