Coursework
APHG (4), AP World (5), AP Lang (5), AP Psych (5), APUSH (5), AP Physics (3, not submitting)
Senior year courses: APES, AP Calc AB, AP Bio, AP French, AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Lit
My school limits us to only aphg in 9th grade and world in 10th, I take all AP/honors where provided
Awards
National Merit Commended Scholar (projected, well above cutoff so should receive)
top 20 Robotics team in Texas Cup
PVSA
AP scholar with distinction (predicted)
phlebotomist certification
Essays/LORs/Other
LOR’s should be good, getting them from teacher’s I’ve known all of HS
Extracurriculars
BME Cardiovascular research lab, nothing published 10-11
Private tutor in math, science, taught english to refugees 9-12
Robotics team programmer/builder 9-12
Local community center volunteer since 2018, lead a youth group every sunday, 9-12
Dartmouth’s JSEP, worked with students from Greenland to conduct research on climate change, 11
Muslim Student Association President, over 300 service hours, raised 5k to donate 9-12
Summer program at well known science museum, got PVSA from this 11
National Honor Society, committee chair, over 97 gpa required, 11-12
Director of Finance and Logistics at npo, received 2k grant 10-12
HOSA
I also interned at an ophthalmologic surgeon’s office and will continue this senior year. I want to include this but I have no clue where to put it. If anyone could offer advice on which ec to replace it with that would be great
Cost Constraints / Budget
No cost constraints as of now
Schools
UT Arlington (auto admit)
UT Dallas (auto admit)
SMU
Baylor + bsmd
UT Austin (auto but may not get major)
UNC-CH
USC
JHU
Rice + bsmd
Duke
Brown + plme
Yale
Harvard
Wow - impressive - The three UTs are sure, SMU is likely and Baylor would be sans MB/MD.
The rest - tough - but why not you? You are certainly worthy of applying to any school in America.
Why did you choose these - there are differences - i.e. they don’t necessarily flow - i.e similarities.
Also, I assume you’re muslim (#6 above) - do all these schools fit for you from a comfort POV?
Finally - your safeties - UTD, UTA - if you ended up at one, would you be ok? Or would you feel like you “failed”. Wondering if you should look at a few more- like a Case Western, Rochester, etc. that would be a notch below your list.
That said, you can do pre-med with any major - so I really think, unless you’d go to UTD or UT Arlington over Austin, you can remove them (I’m assuming you’d rather be at Austin). I suspect you’d get bio - but even if not, you’d still be able to do pre-med through another major.
I’m happy with all these schools and have reasons I picked them/want to attend. I’m definitely okay with ending up at UTA or UTD though I would pick Austin over them.
Just as one data point, my D22 had a very similar profile in the last cycle (white female in suburban TX public, 8/583, 35 ACT, eight 5s & three 4s on AP, solid but not spectacular ECs, good recs from teachers who know her well) and was accepted at Baylor (EA), UVa OOS (EA, legacy) and Rice (RD, moved in yesterday!). Rejected Yale (RD) and Brown (RD). Did not apply to TX publics. The one significant difference is that D22 was applying as a religious studies major, which is far less popular than bio/pre-med and may have given her an advantage over similar applicants.
Major in anything you love. You don’t have to major in bio to be a premed - you can major in ANYTHING, absolutely anything. Languages, literature, sociology, history, anything. So if you are insanely in love with bio, great. But if not, choose what you love. You’ll get a higher GPA if you major in something you love, that you’re exceptionally good at.