Awards
Not too many, NHS, Science Honor Society, AP Scholar w/ Honor, Nationa merit commended student (1460 PSAT)
Extracurriculars
Marching band - leadership position was Drum Captain, joined as a frosh violin player and learned percussion from nothing (one of my app essay points)
Also in a bunch of extra/co-curricular ensembles, nothing state/national tho - Out of school Charity Orchestra (sole percussionist and had to audition), Wind Ensemble (audition), Percussion Ensemble (leader and helped revive formerly disbanded ensemble)
Boy Scouts - Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, currently a Life Scout and will earn Eagle around March 2021
Worked for two summers at a Boy Scout Summer Camp as the Dining hall steward - ran sanitation and operations of every meal for 600+ adults/scouts weekly
Track and Field - Varsity thrower and team captain
Student Council - Class officer all four years
Peer Leader - community volunteering + offering help/guidance to freshmen
Waksman Student Scholars Program - was a team leader in this prgrm that collaborates w/ the labs at Rutgers to analyze DNA from duckweed samples
New Jersey Science League - was on my school’s team junior + senior yr and represented us at a couple state competitions due to my and my partner’s score
Given that you are in-state in NJ and a very strong student, I am glad to see Rutgers on your list. It is a strong university and should be relatively affordable. It will also prepare you well for graduate or medical school. I also know someone very well who went to Seton Hall for undergrad (it was affordable) and an Ivy League university for grad school.
Have you run the NPCs on Northeastern or BU? One daughter was accepted to both with similar stats but slightly lower test scores. They were both however seriously unaffordable for us.
In terms of admissions your list looks good to me. What I am concerned about is the likely affordability of the various schools other than the in-state public schools. I would be inclined to run NPCs.
Your guidance counselor would know better than I. However, your in-state public universities look good to me.
I think your list is good. You should get in to BU and Northeastern and most of the matches and safeties - the other 3 are more difficult, but since you have a balanced list, it doesn’t hurt to try. Make sure your essays are good and you can afford all the schools you are applying to (run net price calculators).
I think your list may be too heavy on the safety/match schools - be sure you’d really want to go to these schoolsif you got in. Too many apps sometimes screws up the quality of the overall process because of time constraints with essays, etc.
I agree with @suzyQ7 - too many safeties/matches. With those stats, I think that Rutgers NB is highly likely. I’d pick maybe two of your safety list and no more. Penn State will be expensive as a OOS student.
Your matches look good but again, I’d narrow down to ones that are likely to be affordable. Nearly all of these offer some merit and U MD has the Banneker Key which is a sweet deal. I don’t know what MCPHS is. Maybe pick 3-4 of these
Reaches: I’d say Northeastern and BU are reasonable aspirations. If you don’t like BU, don’t bother. The rest are high reaches for all. Have you run the NPCs? If your family does not qualify for need based aid, Brown and Princeton will be expensive. JHU has some merit scholarships but highly competitive.
Take a look at Case Western - good merit, has an integrated BS/MD program (highly competitive), a cool maker space. The area around the university has a big park and museums and nearby “Little Italy” looks a lot like central Jersey! Public transportation system is decent.
Bottom line: your stats are impressive but you’ll be competing with folks that look a lot like you. If you have safeties and matches you like, no harm in trying for some reaches if they are affordable for your family. Best of luck to you.
If you are concerned about cost and are looking toward expensive medical school, check the net price calculator on every college on your list.
Some of your “safeties” are out-of-state publics like Penn State that are likely to be quite expensive. If you cannot afford to attend, then it is not an actual safety.
