Chance a Stressed Asian Kid Worried About Going into STEM?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics: Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.)
I’m an Asian Male from a public high school in Massachusetts with roughly 1,000 students.

Intended Major(s): business/statistics

ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1500 SAT (750R 750M) 1440 PSAT

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0/4.0UW on UC scale and Rank 1/276

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc
Self studied AP Art freshman year and all honors, no AP available freshman year.
Four APs sophomore year, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Seminar, AP Statistics
Five APs junior year, AP World, AP CSP, AP Lit, AP Research, AP Chemistry
For next year, 3 APs, AP Bio, Calc BC, AP Physics

I’ve gotten a 3 on seminar and 4 in art, 5s on the rest.

Awards:
1st in State Mass DECA (10th)
4th in State Mass DECA (11th)
State Finalist in Mass DECA (9th)
Regional Finalist in Debate (10th)
Received $1,000 Johnson and Wales Scholarship

*Extracurriculars:
Debate - 4 years president + regional finalist

DECA - 4 years president + 2x international qualifier + 1st in State

CoFounded and Vic President of Stock Market Trading Club at HS

Tutored at Refinity -200 Hours

Freelance Photography business featured in local newspaper (9-11th)

President of Anti-Sexual Violence Group Chapter (10th)

NPO for Asian Americans Founder, roughly 1,800 followers on IG (11th)

Organized Climate Walkout (10th)

Gave a TedTalk on STEM (11th)

Essays/LORs/Other: My essays are strong I’d say. Lots of personal thought and growth on trauma, mental health, and my mother’s frequent medical events.

Schools: Chance me for the Stanford, Georgia Tech, MIT, UMich, Northeastern, UCLA, UCSD, WashU, Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, Yale, and UPenn

2

What is your college budget since UCLA and UCSD will be full pay at $65K/year and test blind for the 2022 admission cycle?

Overall you are very competitive for the UC’s.

Best of luck.

3

Other than pulling that list based on perception of rank, what unifies that list for you? The experiences and opportunities had at each will be very different. UCLA for example is 700% bigger than Wash U.

Ditto budget. Wash U is $76k per year and the other privates are in that same realm. Debt can kill your future. If it’s not debt, the opportunity costs are real too. The money not spent can grow to millions of dollars by retirement.

Engineering is very egalitarian. The doers rise no matter where they went to school. The directors of all of the NASA locations including JPL all went to public universities with the exception of one.

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OP’s intended major is business and/or statistics.

5

I do not understand why you would prefer UCSD at $65,000 per year (or more with prices generally rising) compared to U.Mass Amherst in-state for probably less than half that, or more like 1/3 with a very likely merit scholarship. U.Mass Amherst is very good for many STEM fields. I have worked with many graduates from U.Mass, the ones I know are all good and many of them are exceptional. If you are planning to major in computer science (for which U.Mass is excellent), then I do not understand why you would prefer 2/3 of your list to U.Mass. U.Mass also has a very good business school.

Do you know what your budget is?

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Well that’s an interesting crossup. I clearly missed that because the title says STEM, not an acronym I generally associate with business. :joy:

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