This seems to indicate that you might be interested in the undergraduate study of physics and chemistry as foundational preparation for medical or dental school. However, if your goal is to become a physicist or chemist, you may want to look into the science programs — including aspects such as research opportunities and facilities — of your potential college choices carefully.
Don’t you have any idea of what decile that 3.7 UW GPA puts you at Stuyvesant? Certainly, Stuyvesant must send colleges a nomogram that gives them some idea of where in your class that 3.7 places you. And I’m sure that colleges understand that since Stuyvesant is admission by competitive exam, and that it is the one that requires the highest score of all the NYC exam schools, a 3.7 UW and a 1560 SAT correlate, are not an indicator of an underperformer. After all, the student body there consists only of students who were high achievers before they began Stuyvesant.
Honestly, I think you’re not overshooting in terms of selectivity in your college list. Schedule a meeting ASAP with your college counselor to discuss your chances coming from Stuyvesant, based upon recent years of acceptances.
6 Likes
With respect to Bates, (1) it accepts 48% of its ED applicants, (2) it enrolls 45% of its students from outside the top tenth of their high school classes (to the extent that information is available for this), (3) it appears to favor full-pay applicants, (4) your standardized testing results are uncommon for the school and (5) you will be graduating from Stuyvesant. With any type of ED application, I believe your chance of admission would be high there.
3 Likes
If you would like to balance chemistry and physics in a single major, then take note that some colleges offer chemical physics programs.
2 Likes
For the purpose of guessing your chances at McGill, what is your unweighted GPA by year? McGill will not care about your freshman year of high school (assuming that you passed).
To me this looks like a reasonable list. However, your guidance counselor might have more of a sense regarding how much difference your high school will make.
Middlebury does definitely look like a reach.
2 Likes
Your chances basically boil down to what your imputed class rank is, and how you compare to the dozens or hundreds of other Stuy kids applying. I don’t think the Stuy name will help you much if you are outside of the top third of the class.
2 Likes
Going ED really improves your chances, I believe. But I don’t think any of your schools are extremely likely, apart from Binghamton and RPI.
Personally, I’d be looking to add some “likely”(or at least, likelier) schools to your list. These are all strong schools academically that seem as though they might have some similarities to other schools on your list.
-
College of Wooster (OH): About 2k undergrads. One of the colleges that has a chemical physics major, but also robust chemistry and physics offerings.
-
Brandeis (MA): About 3600 undergrads
-
Bucknell (PA ): About 3700 undergrads
-
Butler (IN): About 4700 undergrads…and its location is prime if a career in pharmaceuticals is of interest.
-
Case Western (OH): About 5800 undergrads. Show a lot of interest if you are wanting an acceptance.
-
Clark (MA): About 2300 undergrads
-
Clarkson (NY): About 2900 undergrads
-
College of the Holy Cross (MA): About 3k undergrads. Its admissions rate has been dropping significantly over the last couple of years.
-
Dickinson (PA ): About 2200 undergrads
-
Franklin & Marshall (PA ): About 2100 undergrads
-
Gettysburg (PA ): About 2400 undergrads
-
Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2300 undergrads
-
Lehigh (PA ): About 5500 undergrads
-
Skidmore (NY): About 2700 undergrads
-
St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads
-
SUNY Geneseo (NY): About 4500 undergrads…which seems to be more aligned in size than Binghamton with the rest of your list
-
Union (NY): About 2100 undergrads
-
U. of Richmond (VA): About 3200 undergrads
-
U. of Rochester (NY): About 6600 undergrads
-
Worcester Polytechnic (MA): About 5200 undergrads
For OOS like you, UCSB (you list as match) is just as competitive as UCSD (you list as reach). Specifically with UCSB, I would consider applying to their College of Creative Studies (CCS). It’s their nearest equivalent to an honor college, has only 8 majors, including physics, and is amazing. You get a ton of face time with full professors, access to research and are like a VIP at the college with special housing, early access to register for classes (so you’ll always get what you want in a school where that is rare), priority on library resources, and the ability to register for an unlimited number of classes to try them out and decide what you want to keep. Find a video online of their graduation and listen to all the grad schools they are headed to.
As OOS for UC’s you’ll want to Google the UC GPA calculator and see how you score for unweighted, weighted capped and unweighted capped. They have a very specific and unique calculation process unlike other colleges and GPA (by their standard) is super important; they won’t even look at your SAT score. If your 3.7 is weighed down by Freshman year specifically, that could work in your favor since they only count sophomore and junior year grades. On the other hand, if your lower grades are 10th or 11th grade, that will hurt since only two years count. They will not weight any honors classes you currently take, only AP/IB or Duel Enrollment.
Good luck.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.