Chance a low ranked brown kid who got a B in gym for Brown & top20+

Chance Me / Match Me!
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**Demographics:**Male, Asian (Indian), Illinois, standard public school

Intended Major(s): For most schools, Cognitive Science. For others that didn’t have it, I either applied as a psychology major with plans to double major/minor or for Computer Science and Cognitive Psychology.

SAT: 1510 (780 M, 730 EBRW)

UW/W GPA and Rank: W 4.4, UW is ~3.8, not sure as our school doesn’t calculate. Our school also only shows either “A” or “B” on transcript (no + or -), so anything 90+ is a 4.0, 80-89 is a 3.0, etc. Got 3 Bs freshman year (1 English, 1 Spanish, 1 Math), 3 Bs Sophomore year (2 math 1 Spanish), 1 junior year (Gym lmao), all As first sem of senior year.

Rank: 45/515

**Coursework:**AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

Freshman: AP Human Geo, rest honors classes (only AP offered for freshman at our school

Sophomore: AP US History (4 on test), rest honors

Junior: AP Physics 1, AP Psychology (4), AP Lang (4), dual credit criminal justice class at local college through school.

Senior: AP Calc AB, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Chem.

Awards: Illinois State Scholar (12), Distinct Honor Roll (9,10,11,12), AP Scholar

Extracurriculars:

1.) Volunteer on National Crisis Text Line as Crisis Counselor (11,12) ~200 hours. Communicated with 100+ texters and helped them explore mental crises and brainstorm plans of relief.

2.) Coded Artificial Intelligence-based mental health hotline that matches texters with resources to increase accessibility to reliable help. Currently in talks with school principal and social work to get it released as a resource to be used around school (11,12) ~150 hours

3.)Religious Leadership (Hafiz) —- I briefly explain more what it is in the additional info

Daily revision of the Holy Quran; led nightly prayer daily throughout month of Ramadan for local community of 75+ members (9,10,11,12) (1 hour daily for 4 years)

4.) Internship in smaller suicide call line affiliated with the National suicide hotline (don’t want to disclose name here)

Received training for various befriending techniques; took calls on suicide helpline both individually and under mentor. (12) (200 hour commitment over 13 months)

5.) Work - Arabic and Quran Teacher @ local mosque

Taught introductory Arabic reading and pronunciation to a class of 15 kids aged 4-7 in a classroom setting to inspire Arabic learning. (12)

6.) Work - SMS chatbot developer @ local mosque

Coded SMS chatbot to automate lunch orders for a student body of 200+. Connects with students through text; provides easier logging and scalability. (11)

7.) Debate

Worked on a team that competed regionally to debate various congressional topics; 2x best speaker nomination (9,10,11,12)

8.) Psychology Club Organizer

Led school mental health awareness campaign in partnership with [place I interned at]; involved posters and informational tables. (12)

9.)E-Sports Competitor

Competed in e-sports tournaments; maintained a top 1% North American rank; built communication skills among teammates (9,10,11,12)

10.) Athletics: Wrestling

Wrestled on schools JV team
(10)

Essays/LORs/Other: Don’t know how to rank these, I like my essay. It talks about cooking and different lessons I learned. Supplemental essays mainly talk about ECs and my passion for CogSci. LORs are also good, one was from stats teacher and the other from psych, who was close with me throughout all my work with mental health projects and volunteer.

Cost/Budget: Upper middle class family with an 18k EFC. Around 20-25k per year is my max.

Additional Info: Further explain what Hifz is (the complete memorization of the Quran) as well as scheduling conflicts my junior year that limited the amount of APs I could take due to the dual credit course, as it took up 3 periods on my schedule.

Schools:

All RD

Safety/Match

Marquette (already accepted),

UIUC (instate),

Lehigh,

Target/Reach

Case Western,

U of Richmond,

U of Rochester,

Vassar College,

Reach/Heavy Reach

Vanderbilt,

WashU,

Rice,

Swarthmore,

Tufts,

Georgetown,

Northeastern,

Northwestern,

Williams,

Yale,

Brown,

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Congrats on your accomplishments. You’ve done a lot.

So I’m confused. I get psych. Is every school also comp sci or just some ?

I like your classifications although if comp sci UIUC may be a reach.

I think your target/reach are reaches. And your super reaches are that.

If you are ok with Marquette, then your list is great. Ok means you can afford it and you can see yourself spending four years there. I assume that’s true because if it wasn’t you wouldn’t have applied….right ?

I think you’ll get into more but it’s no sire thing. If just psych, you’ll definitely get into a few. Comp sci muddies the water. Good luck.

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Thank you for the feedback. It’s a weird degree, the Cognitive Science major is what is offered at most of my schools. It’s an interdisciplinary degree that is mainly Psych, Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Computer Science/Artificial intelligence (science of thinking from different perspectives). For all colleges that have this major, it’s under the college of arts and sciences, so I won’t have to worry about the CS or engineering acceptance rates for UIUC or other schools. On my list it’s only Georgetown and Northeastern that don’t have the major. I’ll be double majoring in CS + Psych and a minor in cogsci for gtown, and then for Northeastern they offer a Computer Science and Psychology degree which is very similar to cogsci.

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Regarding Marquette, I do like the, and its also the closest to me (excluding northwestern) at only an hour and a half away which is a pretty big plus. I got a 29k per year scholarship so far, I’m hoping for some more financial aid when those offers come out to hopefully make it more affordable.

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So did you run net price calculators on any of these ? Because if you need aid Gtown, Vassar, Swarthmore, Tufs, Yake, Brown, and Williams don’t offer merit.

Hopefully you checked their net price calculators first b4 applying. Some families can afford but don’t want to afford.

Checking those up front will give you a sense of the offers you’re likely to get from need based aid.

If being close matters, then why not Grinnell for example vs Vassar. Or Coe or Macakester or other closer schools.

Congrats on the Marquette offer. If that’s where you land it’s great you love it. The others are added bonus. Let us know as the decisions roll in.

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Thank you once again for the feedback. I ran the NPC for all of these schools, and they all fall within the 18k-24k range, which is right in line with what we are able to afford. The only school that was pushing it a little was Rochester at 30k, but this price isn’t completely unreasonable for us and I really like the school so I applied anyway just to see.

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As for being close, it’s a plus but not priority, and with me not being a huge fan of grinnel in general along with them not having my major (or anything closely related), I opted to leave it off my list.

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Plus you never know. The ZnocS are best guess. But by the time they get done with CSS abd IDOC maybe something you entered wasn’t exactly right and you can do better. Maybe.

That you did your homework on this is great !! As you said maybe you’ll get need aid too from Marquette although they don’t guarantee to meet need.

Understood on distance !!

You’re very well prepared !!

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Just for fun. I’ve heard great things about this school, it has your discipline and seems financially in range (if apply by Feb 1).

Did you consider Missouri S&T? Illinois students get a cost break.

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Thank you! I actually have not considered Missouri S&T, I’ll definitely take a look into it and possibly apply soon.

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Free app. It may not work. Rural , etc. I just thought if it when I saw your budget. It’s a tech school but seemed like it might fit. Free app it appears but scholarship deadline is Tuesday. If it’s an easy app maybe worth doing just for the heck of it. If it’s cheap you can do a deeper dive.

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Congrats on your achievements and acceptance at Marquette. Is Marquette affordable right now without getting more scholarship $? You won’t be able to use acceptances at other schools to negotiate higher aid from Marquette.

For the not so good news, it’s unfortunate you missed the EA round at the schools that offer it…the RD round is hard, especially at schools that offer EA.

UIUC psych RD is not a safety. It might not be a reach, but it’s not a safety. UIUC may be tough this year…EA apps have preference (some majors do fill up in EA) plus it’s their first year on common app (more apps) and they are targeting a class of 600-800 less than usual due to overenrollment (fewer spots).

Lehigh and Rochester are probably targets, all your rest are reaches. WIth that said, I think you will get some acceptances. Make sure to demonstrate interest at the schools that value that, Lehigh, Rochester, Case, Tufts, NEU, NU for sure. Check the rest.

Good luck.

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Good luck OP. Fit certainly matters including cost, academic setting, school environment etc. I don’t know if Yale “fits” or Missouri S&T does but I can’t imagine they both do. Urban vs Rural, Tech vs Ivy Liberal Arts, NE vs Missouri, etc.

FYI Missouri ST is 76% male with 220 students self identifying (as you do) as Asian and a 24% 4 yr graduation rate. Not sure if that works for you.

Stay true to where you think you can thrive and contribute.

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Are these all assured to be affordable?

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Oooh. I missed all RD. yeah RD at some publics (and privates) greatly reduces chances. Sorry about that.

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Thank you for the feedback. It is unfortunate about not applying EA, I felt my app wasn’t ready at that time and I would rather turn in a better application later than turn in one that I wasn’t proud of. What are some ways to demonstrate interest?

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From the NPCs, yes.

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For those that require it……webinars. Open their emails. Click on links, etc.

If you have any ‘intelligent’ questions…one where the info isn’t available on the webpage, email the AO and ask.

Visit if possible.

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Your rank is actually pretty good (top 10%). Thats nothing to sneeze at. Your SAT scores are also fine. Getting into any of the schools in your super reach category will be tough, I agree.

Regarding the other schools (target/reach): these schools like to admit students who really want to go there. So demonstrated interest is key. If there are any virtual or regional meetings, attend them. Go and signup on the admissions website for updates. Follow their twitter/IG/FB feeds. Like liberally.

A lot of these schools use predictive analytics modeling to see who is most likely to enroll. They use tracking cookies in the emails to follow you. Among other things, they can track how much time you spend on their website, and even which pages. So spend some time clicking on all the links and browsing the websites. Don’t ever clear your cookies. Send an email to the AO for your region for questions which aren’t clear from the website.

The schools in the super/reach category don’t really pay attention to demonstrated interested (except for Rice). So the predictive modeling is less of an influence there.

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Read here for more details on predictive analytics

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-admissions-algorithms-could-affect-your-college-acceptance