Chance a not-so-special little boy [NJ resident; 93.8% GPA; 1580+ SAT; NMSF; genomics, bioinformatics, math, CS]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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chance a kid without much cracked stats

Personal: US Citizen | Decent school, in NJ | 400 kids in my class, 1st gen immigrant (Asian) | hook??: am triple advanced in math (3x above grade level is rare in my school) got moved up a grade early when I was younger.

GPA: 93.8/96.6 (UW = multiply course grade by credits of the course, then divide by total credits. W = same, but add +5% to honors or AP) | Unranked but assuming top 15% at least

Coursework:

6 AP Exams, 5 classes so far. APs not allowed for freshmen. All 5s (ab subscore too) - Chem, Bio, Calc AB, Calc BC (have to take AB before BC), Micro/Macro econ.

7 honors courses x 2 semesters each | 18 semesters regular | 3 extra semesters worth of summer school

Senior Year taking: AP Phys C (e/m, mech - 1 semester each), AP Lang, AP Spanish, 2 honors, 2 chill classes

Scores: PSAT: 1500+ | SAT: 1580+ (not saying exact, wanna be more anonymous)

Awards:

4x Regular Honor Roll | 3x Principal’s Honor Roll

National Recognition Program - Rural (Collegeboard)

National Merit for PSAT

PVSA Gold

UCSanDiegoX Genomics Course (no certificate, did Audit)

2 Udemy Coding Camps (40+ Hours just of content total, lot more time spent)

Won a 5k (idk if I can claim to be a competitive runner out of school by doing this 5k)

NHS

AP Scholar with Distinction

Seal of Biliteracy (non-native spanish)

Maybe AIME qualifying score

probably not but: Competed twice in gaming/trivia competition with thousands of players, got top 500 in 2022 and top 200 in 2023, and got some rewards points and online codes and money.

Extracurriculars (unordered):

  • About 170 hours volunteering has been tracked (did more untracked)

  • idk where all my volunteer certificates are (do i need them for college apps?)

  • some volunteering hasn’t even been tracked by the school red cross

  • JV XC/Track - 2 seasons XC, 2 Winter Track, 3 Spring Track (9-11)
    • 15 hours/week
  • 1.5 month unpaid free summer internship at local AI Analytics (11)
    • Learned how to run flask/python through terminal, had another small project too
    • should i ask for a letter of internship? do i need one to prove my internship?
  • Tutoring online underprivileged kids (100+ hours, PVSA) in english/math/science/history/SAT
    • does it matter how many i taught
  • Mentor to middle/elementary school students in toastmasters gavel club (10-12)
    • 1.5-2 hours/session, 28-30 sessions so 42-45 hours in total completed
      • idk where my volunteer certificates for this went. do i even need them?
  • Participating in my local religious place in following events
    • Creating a social media account and website, 20.5 hours (9)
    • Maybe: Learning an ancient religious language for 3 years (7-9)
    • Maybe: Taking religious classes and helping set up for events for 3 years (7-9)
  • Regular member of school clubs, no leadership
    • Red Cross, Unicef, Sustainability (9-11), maybe will do in 12th
  • Active on my own too as hobby (idk how i’ll be able to prove all of this though)
    • workout schedule of cardio, abs, weightlifting –diet messed up tho lol– (9-12)
      • not much gains though
    • 2 months of Badminton (9)
    • 1 month Table Tennis (9)
    • 3 months Basketball lessons (11)
    • Monthly Biking, Hiking, Ripstik, Camping (9-12)
  • Might get job for a local cafe for a couple months during the winter (11)
  • Gonna start a personal coding project, maybe enroll in competition – idk exactly what rn, but it’ll be another hobby – (12)
  • Signing up for a bunch of quality (prestigious) summer programs i’m interested in, hoping to land one (12)
    • advice on getting into one?
    • like SSP, Seaside, AEOP, Princeton LLP, BWSI, BU Rise, Simons, Columbia SPS, ASSIP, SIMR, HSHSP, Non-Trivial?

Essays/LORs/Other
My teachers know I’m an ambivert and can be a hard worker, and helpful to others (usually), so I can probably get like 6+ for 0-10 scale from all of them

please tell me if there is anything I can edit on this resume.

College Major for genomics/bioinformatics/mathematics/compsci…

Reach: Princeton, MIT (legacy), Harvard (legacy), CIT, GaTech, JHU, UPenn, UChicago, Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, WashU, Columbia, All the UCs (legacy), Carnegie Mellon, Emory, NYU (legacy), UMich, Tufts, Boston U, Boston College, UT Austin, Rice, UIUC, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Amherst, Pomona, Vassar

Target: CWRU, Northeastern, Lehigh, Purdue (legacy), RIT, Rutgers NB (legacy), UMD CP, U Miami, Syracuse, U Pitt

Likely: Virginia Tech (legacy), Drexel (legacy), Penn State, Texas A&M, UMass Amherst, American, Baylor, WPI, Marist

Safety: U Alabama, Stevens IT, NJIT, Simmons, ASU

IDK which to do ED/EA/RD to

Budget doesn’t matter I think.

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You are a legacy at 8 schools???

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Find out for sure what the budget is from your parents.

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Looks like 16 listed, but at least 10 of them (at least the 9 UCs and MIT) do not consider legacy in admissions.

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If you have no budget and you’re interested in the likely and down, then great. I mean, I’m guessing even UMD, Miami, Syracuse, Pitt are all golden.

So if you’re happy there- then great.

So two things:

  1. Budget always matters - your budget might be $100K a year but you have a budget. Make sure you know it before wasting time. Even a full pay family might say - but if you can go for $40K instead of $100K, we want you to do that. So find out the budget.

  2. I counted more than 20 reaches - not including the UCs - and then there is the target, likely, safeties - which unless you’re interested in Alabama at $20K vs. BU at $90K or UCs at $70K - you can trim, etc. But common app has 20 spots - and the essays to do all these schools will bring even the most focused of students in a tizzy.

So find out the budget or desired budget (does $20K or $40K win over $90K) - and then cut cut cut the list to something manageable.

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Something does not add up. 1st generation immigrant and legacy everywhere? He either has 13 older siblings or several extra parents…since cousins, aunts and uncles are not counted, and being 1st generation excludes grandparents …

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For the common app, you can list 10 activities and 5 awards so pick the ones that tell your story best. UC application can have more.

You’ll be a competitive applicant at any school, but you have WAY too many schools. Considered how many essays you’ll have to write for each application.

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Why would you apply to every UC?
I have seen students apply to all Ivies with 0 acceptances…
Why do you need to apply to soooo many schools? That absolutely makes no sense.
If you are not interested in merit money and full pay, I do not get it… Are you afraid not to be accepted anywhere?
You need 2-3 safety - you have 5?
Are you sure you need Drexel, Simmons, Penn State, or Marist?
Can I also ask, are you 16 or younger? If you are only one year younger than the rest of the students, then it is not a problem. If more, you may consider a gap year…
I have witnessed a very young student in college (like 13-14), and it did not end well…

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tbh idk how legacies work. it’s just that relatives went there. is legacy only like siblings and parents? I included uncles/cousins. i’ll fix it.

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sorry i misunderstood what a legacy is… i included cousins and stuff instead of just siblings/parents

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I included legacy for other family members. My only legacy should actually be Drexel. Sorry for the confusion!

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And also, UC’s should only be UCD and UCR. Sorry about that. Should I delete this post and fix it? I don’t know how to edit (I’m new to this website).

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Budget is actually 85k/year.

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Yeah I have not finalized the list. Just wanted to think about which ones I’d have more of a chance for within each category - safety, match, etc. - but I’ll only apply to a few of these.

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sorry, I was just looking for possible schools to apply to, but I didn’t actually want to apply to all of these. Just looking for my top 5 for each acceptance category (reach,match,etc.). I didn’t really know which ones I should think about, so I just listed a bunch of them.

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85k/year.

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also Drexel is legacy (sibling)

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I was thinking Drexel and U Alabama would be my main safeties.

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So you only need 1-2 safety, etc.

So your budget is $85K - and that will cover most, but believe it or not, all schools. You have to look at cost of attendance.

But let me ask you this:

Since you have Alabama on the list and you’re national merit - if they give you five years tuition, housing and $3500 a year - so you only have to pay food ($5-7K a year) and are getting $3500 back - so let’s say $20K net over four years - and Cornell is $88,150 (this year), which are you attending - Bama at $5K or Cornell at $88K.

You can make that comparison with any school - because if Bama at $5K for NMF wins, then the search is over.

If you’re not NMF, then you’re about $20K a year or $17K if Comp Sci - vs. $88K at Cornell.

Or maybe it’s Marist at x $ vs. Cornell.

You have too many safeties - but no matter which safety, likely, target you have - will you be excited by them?

If you said, I’d choose Cornell or NU or Harvard or Cal Tech - but if all I had was Bama and I’d choose it over Va Tech, Baylor, Drexel, etc. - then take your sure bet and go for the Hail Mary’s.

You don’t need a varied list of Safety, Match, Reach…it depends on what you’d choose.

Why UCD and UCR? That’s an unusual two from OOS. You know, they have four additional essays to write.

I think you need to look at the different financials of each school - and see where your family would stand given the various financials for each school (including merit at schools like Marist, ASU, etc.

Good luck.

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Are you sure that your parents are committed to $85k a year? With current inflation, it may be $90k the following year and $95k the year after.
What are you looking for in the college in addition to prestige? Do available majors, and research labs matter? Did you look at their course lists? I hope your list is not just a competition list with your cousins. If I were you, I would take the top school that will give you at least some money and save the rest for your hard working family.
From your reach list, I believe only GaTech is a cheaper ($50+K) school.

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