Hey everyone, thanks for reading and commenting, I really do appreciate it!
State: Virginia
Gender: Female
Race: Black (Ethiopian)
Income: <100k
Intended Major(s): Depending on where I decide to go – Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Clinical Laboratory Science, Psychology
Here are the colleges I’m applying to:
Early Action:
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
Regular Decision:
William and Mary (In state)
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Dartmouth
Cornell
Columbia
Brown
Harvard
Virginia Tech*
I know that chancing for the Ivies is pretty much pointless because it’s going to be a reach for basically everyone (I’m going to try by best regardless), but I was wondering if anyone could focus on some of the lower-tier Ivies and the other schools I’m applying to?
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):n/a
ACT:
Best Composite: 33
Reading: 35
Math: 34
Science: 33
Writing: 34
Essay: 8
SAT II**:
Math Level II: 700
Chemistry: 640
I recently took Biology E and French but I’m still waiting for the results (I don’t think I did much better though to be honest)…
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.25
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/239 (Okay so my school does a weird ranking system–if you have a 4.0 weighted GPA or higher you’re automatically placed at #1…I’m not sure if the colleges can see this information or not though???)
AP (place score in parenthesis): English Language (5) Calculus AB (5) World History (4) Chemistry (3)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Junior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP English Lang, AP Chem, Dual U.S. History, French IV, Anatomy & Physiology
Senior Year Course Load: AP Psychology (took over the summer) Dual Government, AP Calculus BC, AP Biology, AP English Lit, Physics, AP French
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Voted Secretary of Senior Class
French Club (president) - (Grades 8-12)
Prevention Club (secretary) - (Grades 10-12)
Most active extracurricular activity; work alongside local chartered Prevention Council
Green Club - (Grades 11-12)
Key Club- (Grades 10-12)
Concert/Symphonic Band (6-10)
Debate Team (8-9)
Beta Club (only available to 12th graders)
Pep Club (10)
Volunteer/Community service:
Volunteered 115+ hours at local VA Hospital
Volunteered at local library 8-9th grade
Do the majority of volunteer work through school clubs (Key Club, Beta Club,etc.)
Summer Activities:
Took an online class, worked with Prevention Council to develop a Community Summit
Essays:
I’ve completed some applications and here are the essays I’ve done so far:
My common app essay is about moving to America
UNC/William and Mary essay was talking about my synesthesia
UVA essays were about losing a family friend to pancreatic cancer and my favorite word
Duke essays were about what I love the most about the Duke community and how I could bring more diversity (being a first generation immigrant) to the campus.
Teacher Recommendation:
2 Recs
I had one recommendation from my English Lang teacher that I think will be excellent. He writes very formally and I think he is the best writer out of all of my recs by far. I know my chemistry teacher on a personal level so I think her rec will be pretty good too.
Counselor Rec: I’ve had my counselor write me a rec before for another thing and it was good but not anything exceptional.
Additional Rec: I also had a rec from the head of the Prevention Council who I know personally. I think her rec will be good and give insight about me outside of the classroom.
School Type: Public (pretty small <1000)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, first generation immigrant, female interested in the sciences
*Virginia Tech: I was thinking applying to Virginia Tech would be a good safety school…what do you guys think? Also, if I do apply to VT do you think I should write the essays because they are optional?
**SAT IIs: So I was thinking of not submitting any Subject Tests (except maybe to UVA, UNC, and William and Mary) to the schools that don’t require them because I think they’ll hurt my application and because a lot of the schools I’m applying to take the ACT w/ writing as a replacement. What do you guys think would be the best move because I’m somewhat conflicted? I really don’t like my SAT IIs and I know they’ll probably bring down my application the most so how should I go about things?
I would really REALLY appreciate some feedback and some advice!
Thanks again!