Asian boi, chance me for ED Columbia (legacy) and other colleges!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I am currently a junior, so I will put down what stats I have or will have at the end of senior year. I am planning to ED to Columbia with legacy. Chance? I want to major in biochemistry and am considering UC Berkeley, Most Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, and UCLA. What are my chances at these schools considering I’m an Asian from Massachusetts?

GPA: 4.86/5.00

SAT: 1530/1600

SAT subjects: Math2: 800, Physics: 800

APs: Will take 3 at the end of the year. Senior year, my school allows students to take college classes at WPI, so I will have an equivalent of 10-12 APs total.

Top 10 achievements:

PicoCTF top 200 Highschool team worldwide

Worcester County Math League Top 20 Individuals

WPI Science Fair Second Place Award (local science fair)

Massachusetts State Science Fair 3rd Place Award (MIT science fair)

Research Experience: Industrial Biomedical/Biochemical Lab Internship (2016-Present), Research project done under professor of T50 college (ongoing)

Massachusetts Math League Top 200 in State

Boy Scouts Eagle Scout, National Honor Society Brotherhood, Junior Assistant Scout Master, National Youth Leadership Training Participant

HiMCM Math Modeling Competition Meritorious

Massachusetts Science Olympiad #7 in state for 2 Events

AIME qualifier

Community service: a total of around 450 hours by the end of senior year mainly from mission trips.

ECs: Ongoing math team, volunteering, research project, and Boy Scouts.

Thanks for reading!

2

Cal and UCLA are going to to 65,000 for OOS. Are you willing to pay that much?

All the other schools are reaches. You have the grades/test scores, but Asian male in STEM is the worst possible demographic, so you will need a safety.

It sounds like your school doesn’t that many AP classes, which could be an advantage since you will be judged in your school’s content. It may make you seem less robotically Asian compared to your counterparts who load up on AP/SAT subject tests.

3

The Eagle Scout and Order of the Arrow Brotherhood might look favorable for your college apps. It looks like you’re not one of the ‘sash and dash’ Scouts since you’re remaining active and maintaining leadership as a JASM. Do you have any Palms?

4

I do not have any Palms yet, but am close to my first one. How much more beneficial are they than just Eagle scout on apps?

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Your parents are willing to pay for the UC’s per @Hamurtle?
Where are your safeties???

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Probably not. 65000 seems a bit steep. As for safeties, I will have WPI and Northeastern since the majority of my grade can get into those.

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An Eagle Palm doesn’t mean anything in the larger scheme of things. It does show that you are still dedicated to Boy Scouts. I am more impressed by the NYLT and OA Brotherhood, but not too many college adcoms might be familiar with those.

Depth of ECs is more important than sheer numbers.

Northeastern is pretty expensive. Can you get in to Honors/with merit aid as well? Remember that a safety is a school that is financially affordable as well as near guaranteed admission.

8

You need to realize nearly all your ECs except BS are stem related. What did you do for comm service locally?

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@lookingforward I have other non-STEM related things besides BS such as church league basketball, school badminton team, or tournament chess player. For community service, my church has a week where we go to New Hampshire and help residents with various house tasks. For example, this previous year, my crew helped redo a resident’s roof by scraping and reshingling it. If you’re interested the organization that runs it is called Work Camp NE. I also run a math team at a middle school which I volunteer to teach there for 2 hours a week.

@Hamurtle, I’m pretty sure I can make honors/merit aid as most of my school has done so in the past.

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Any other comment are welcome

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@waldenistrash - I’m not sure how welcome this will be but - you have my sympathies. You’re a great student a devoted Boy Scout and obviously very intersted in pursuing STEM. But for the schools you are aiming for… you look a whole lot like a lot of other kids. Every kid in the country who has your scores, background and grades will be aiming for those same schools and this a large country. That’s the thing that’s hard to comprehend - so many kids now all want the same schools that even fantastic grades / scores and a lifetime of scouting won’t give you much other than “a chance”. You have a chance at all those schools, that’s it.

I helped two white girls from California (my kids) apply to college and this is what I told them too - you’re qualified, you’re wonderful and unfortunately there are too many students who look just like you and they are all applying to the same schools. So here are my suggestions, I don’t blame you if you don’t like them:

  1. Open up your time a little this year to new experiences that may allow you to distinguish yourself. Don't ask me what they are, if there was a single way to be distinguished, doing it would no longer distinguish you. It kind of has to come from you, from what you are passionate about that isn't a science contest because you've done that.
  2. Open up your mind to considering more "matches" and "likelies" that aren't the schools everyone in your high school can get into. If truly all of your class can get into NE or WPI, you won't be happy going there. But maybe you'd be happy at RPI or GA Tech or UVA or Cooper Union or Harvey Mudd or.... Just explore a little. Let go of the idea that there are "the best schools" and everything else. You have a great record - many good schools would welcome you with open arms. But the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley and UCLA... you are simply going to have a hard time standing out from "the crowd".
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If you want to use NEU and WPI as “safeties”, can you afford them? They also consider level of applicant’s interest, suggesting that they may not want to be anyone’s low choice “safety”.

Unfortunately, it looks like UMass also considers level of applicant’s interest.

13

@CaMom13 Thank you very much for your opinions and advice! I don’t blame you for saying that I am very similar to other applicants. This is true. I will take your advice and try to find something which makes me special. Our school has a senior project which lets us do whatever we want, and I was planning on training for the varsity basketball team. Would making the team be something that would make me stand out?

EDIT: @ucbalumnus - Thanks for your advice. I will keep applicant interest in mind when I apply.

14

@waldenistrash - well if you love basketball, do it anyway. You need to enjoy high school if you can! I think sports is usually only a real hook if you’re able to play at college level.

The people I know who have gotten into elite schools in the last couple of years had a mixture of interests and pursued them independantly. All of them were stellar students too (note that lots of them were in theatre but that’s just because those are the kids I know well, lol)

White / Male / English / serious musical theater performer (UCLA)
White / Female / STEM / Started a program for low-income kids to learn computers (Stanford)
Hispanic / Female / Poli Sci / lifelong ballerina (Harvard)
Black / Female / Math / Theatre Geek (MIT)
White / Female / History / Student Council / Actor / Created sister city program after a summer abroad (Berkeley)

Think about who you are - what are you passionate about? What truly interests you? What do you want to offer the world as your part of being here? I think it’s those quirks and passions that a. give you a good thing to write about in your essay and b. set you apart. You’re still fighting the numbers game no matter what you do with elite schools but if you take time this year to start doing something you love and really give yourself over to it - it won’t hurt for admissions and even if it doesn’t get you into college it’ll enhance your life.

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@CaMom13 Thanks again for your advice.