Applied! What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97
Weighted GPA: 4.4
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 13/475

ACT: 32 C 35 E 29 M 34 R 31 S W 23…

AP (place score in parenthesis): Will have taken 11 APs by end of senior year. Freshman: Biology (3) Sophomore: World (4) Physics B (2) Junior: US History (5), Eng. Lang (4), Chinese (5), Calc AB (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Com Sci, AP Gov, AP Comparative, AP Calc BC, AP Lit, Chamber Orchestra, PE.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:
Violin 11+ years, 4 years of Chamber Orchestra (principal player), Orchestra leadership team, District honor orchestra 3x, Solo & Ensemble (1st violin),
Tennis 2 years
Piano 7 years
aced 2 classes in local cc
played violin for retirement homes
summer swim
HOSA, Key Club 2 years, Red Cross 2 years
Fluent in Chinese and English.

Job/Work Experience:
Interned at a high-tech chemical wafer manufacturing company this spring, committed over 90 hours. Learned a variety of work management techniques and ethics.
Babysitting count?

Volunteer/Community service:
100+hrs. from Key Club. Red Cross. NHS.
Chinese Mandarin Camp.
Hospital Volunteer

Teacher Recommendation: From AP US and Lang teachers. All had really good things to say (top student in US, and lang teacher exaggerated a lot)

Counselor Rec: Talked to her a few times, not super close, but should be decent.

Other
Applying for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology related
State (if domestic applicant): WA

Schools I’ve applied to so far:

Boston College
Northeastern University
SUNY Stony Brook
USC
UW Seattle
WSU
WUSTL

2

Um, pretty please?

3

You make all those colleges if your essays are solid (unfamiliar with USC though). You should probably look into applying to a few better schools.

4

@Insuperable
Thanks for the reply. I think USC, WUSTL, and Boston are on the high side for me already, but I am working on the harder schools for the January deadline.

5

@FireBallsDJ You are correct in that it is going to be harder to get into USC, WUSTL and Boston, but I still think you get into all three (again, assuming you have good essays).
Chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1837003-chance-me-for-uiuc-georgia-tech-and-carnegie-mellon.html

6

Honestly, don’t even bother applying to WSU, it’s so low of a match that they might deny you because you are soooooooo much higher than average stats…

7

@jackisawesome Well, I already applied lol. It took no extra time and I got my app fee waived so yep. I plan on doing the scholarship application to show interest.

8

I think you can get into all of the colleges btw :slight_smile:

9

WUSTL - High match/Low reach
Boston College - High match
USC - High Match
Northeastern - High match/Match
Washington - Low match
Stony Brook (OOS) - Low match
Wash State - Safety

Have you considered taking a shot at an Ivy- type? 32 is a hair low but wouldn’t disqualify you, and the 3.97 obviously is solid. I’m thinking a shot at Brown, Dartmouth, Penn CAS or Cornell has a chance – reach, but a chance – of bearing fruit.

That said, WUSTL is apparently an outstanding school and most of the rest are quite good also.

10

Fingers crossed :wink:

11

@prezbucky I have some reaches on my list for January: Stanford (legacy), Cornell, UChicago, Pomona, Northwestern
Applying to Stanford and Cornell for sure, still a bit iffy on the other 3. I am not sure about Brown, Dartmouth, or Penn because I mostly likely cant afford them (if I get in, of course), and because unfortunately I do not have SAT subject tests, and I think they require them for science majors?

12

Cool beans – take a shot! You have essentially three safeties already – and the University of Washington is really an excellent school and an outstanding safety – so fire away at the Ivy-types (WUSTL kinda is also).

As for not going after Brown/Dartmouth/Penn – that’s cool. I just wanted to give you some ideas, in case you hadn’t thought about that level of schools.

13

Washington is an excellent safety that is arguably the best school on your list for your intended major (WUSTL, WSU, and some of your reaches, of course, are also very strong in this area). Check out the new biology building you would enjoy during your junior and senior years:

http://www.biology.washington.edu/life-sciences-complex

http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/nrc41.html#area13

http://nturanking.lis.ntu.edu.tw/DataPage/countries.aspx?query=LifeSciences&country=USA&y=2015

http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldLIFE2015.html

http://www.shanghairanking.com/FieldSCI2015.html

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/biology-biochemistry?page=2

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/biological-sciences-rankings

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2015/biological-sciences#sorting=rank+region=+country=+faculty=+stars=false+search=

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2016/subject-ranking/life-sciences#!/page/0/length/25

Good luck with all of your applications.

14

It’s kinda weird how before when I posted all my colleges including the high reaches, almost everyone said I had little chance at any of them (including USC and WUSTL). And now in this thread I took out the highest reaches and now suddenly people are optimistic about USC and WUSTL? Just an observation haha.

15

^ I agree with prezbucky’s assessments in #8. You are an excellent all-around applicant.

16

@UWfromCA Thanks. And yeah, UW is actually my top choice, I just really hope I get a good scholarship, but heard they’re quite stingy. Excellent location except the homeless around west campus…

17

@Insuperable @jackisawesome @prezbucky @UWfromCA
Got my decisions from all these schools! Rejected by USC and wait-listed by BC
Boston College- Wait-listed
Northeastern University- Accepted
SUNY Stony Brook- Accepted
USC- Rejected
UW Seattle- Accepted
WSU- Accepted
WUSTL- Accepted with full-ride!

I am going to probably get rejected from all my other reach schools, though. Cornell isn’t out yet, but not looking likely. Also got wait-listed at UChicago.

Thank you for your inputs!

18

Congrats! You’ve already been presented with some attractive options. That full ride to WUSTL especially… nice!

Cornell, Chicago and BC – icing on the cake if you get into one or more, but I think you’re already in great shape.