Chance An Asian Male not in CS!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics

  • Gender: Male
  • Race/Ethnicity: Asian
  • Residence: California
  • Type of School: Competitive Public
  • Hooks: Graduating A Year Early

**Intended Major(s): Poli Sci, Public Policy, Environmental Policy

Academics

  • GPA (UW/W): 3.95 / 4.31 W
  • Rank: N/A

of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.:

  • 9 APs, 2 Honors (Max Offered), 4 DEs (Intro to Environmental Policy, Stats (bc I cant take ap due to early grad), Physics (bc I cant take ap due to early grad), Intro to Poli Sci) at DEs were done at a popular state school instead of community college
  • Senior Course Load: AP Gov, APUSH, AP BC, AP Bio, AP Lang

Standardized Testing

  • ACT: 36
  • AP/IB: AP Calculus AB (5), AP Chemistry (5), AP World (5), AP CSP (5), AP Hug (5)

Extracurriculars/Activities

  • BSA - Eagle Scout
  • NGO Founder + Co - President
    • Works with a state school to learn about environmental policy in different regions of that state and how to how to bring awareness.
  • Founder and Chairman, City Youth Board
    • People from different walks of life in my city work together to implement environmental legislation.
  • Research at T100
    • Working with Professor to make research paper on Nuclear Energy Policy in a country and the country’s frequent changes in policy. Will be published and have my name on it by the time I submit my applications
  • Research at a State School
    • Working with Professor to make research paper on Environmental Policy in the region.
  • Research at Columbia
    • Working with Professor on research paper regarding health care and vulnerable populations and the need for sustainable development.
  • Internship at California State Assembly
  • VP Of Quiz Bowl + Captain JV Academic League
    • Went to HS Nationals for Quiz Bowl
  • Secretary Of MUN + Founder/ President Of Model Congress
  • Youth Fellow at National Democratic Organization
  • Teacher at Mathnasium

Awards / Honors:

  • PVSA Lifetime
  • Congressional Award Gold Medal
  • School Character Award (Awarded to one per year)
  • AP Scholar With Distinction
  • President’s Award For Educational Excellence

Essays /LORs:

Essays 8/10, Prolly gonna take about continuing research at columbia in its supps

LORs: Chem Teacher (9/10) , World Teacher (9.5/10) , Columbia Professor (7/10)

Schools:

Columbia (ED)
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
MIT
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UCSD
UCSB
Hopkins
USD
SDSU

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Not a hook. If anything, it’s a negative.

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I was speaking to an admissions officer from Hopkins and he said that as long as you show college preparedness, it could really help you.

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It may say you’re academically prepared but there’s a question of emotional maturity that they now have to consider.

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Would it help that I would be 17.5 when entering college? I want colleges to know that I am being forced to graduate a year early and that it is not by choice.

6

Can you please give more details as to what you mean by this? Forced?

If this is the case, why is the AO at JHU saying it’s a “hook?”

ETA: Your stats and ECs look great. Do you have any sense as to where you might rank in your class with your GPA? Also, how rigorous would your school describe your classes in comparison to other students in your grade? You look at first blush to be a strong candidate, but many of your target colleges are high reaches for anyone, so these questions might give us a better sense of your chances, with the caveat that no one really predict these things.

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Based on your academic interests, these sites may help you refine your choices:

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If rushing to college isn’t your choice, you might want to consider a “super-senior” year abroad through AFS or Rotary. Many overseas high schools have plenty of advanced coursework for you to take. This way, you could apply with a complete transcript of next year’s grades, EC’s, and AP scores, which would make for a stronger application; and the additional academic and life experience (and FL fluency) from the year abroad would make you a more distinctive and compelling candidate as well. And college admissions aside, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience that could genuinely enrich your life.

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How much can your parents comfortably afford to pay for each year of college?

Would you be ok going to USD or SDSU if none of your reaches worked out? If yes, that’s great. If not, you need to add some likelies and targets that you’d be happy at.

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Congratulations on being a competitive applicant. Do you have any budget constraints?

I also do not see a solid safety school on your list and SDSU is not a safety but a target school.

I will only address the UC’s and SDSU which are test blind.

First you need to calculate your 3 UC GPA’s using this calculator: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

For the UC’s, your DE courses if UC transferable will get an extra Honors point for each semester class taken the summer after 9th to the summer prior to 12th.

Below are the overall admit rates for the UC’s and are not major specific.

For SDSU, you can use the same GPA calculator but for DE classes taken you would list 2 grades and get 2 extra Honors points for each semester class taken. CSU’s only consider your capped weighted GPA with maximum of 8 semesters of qualified Honors classes.

SDSU only considers CSU capped weighted GPA, # of a-g courses above the minimum, major prep courses and grades, first generation and if within local service area. EC hours can be listed on the application but you cannot go into detail.

2022 Admit rates based on the Capped weighted UC GPA.

Campus 4.00+ 3.70-3.99 3.30-3.69 3.00-3.29
Berkeley 17% 3% 1% 0%
Davis 58% 20% 5% 2%
Irvine 35% 10% 3% 0%
Los Angeles 13% 2% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 97% 95% 85%
Riverside 95% 83% 42% 17%
San Diego 37% 8% 1% 0%
Santa Barbara 41% 8% 3% 0%
Santa Cruz 69% 45% 16% 4%

Specifically for your major choices:
UCB admits into the College of Letters and Sciences as Undeclared so the College overall admit rate for 2022 is listed below using the Fully weighted uncapped UC GPA:

GPA L&S
3.800-4.000 5.5%
4.001-4.199 8.9%
4.200-4.399 18.5%
4.400-4.599 28.6%
4.600-4.799 33.3%
4.800-5.000 32.5%

UCLA’s College of Letters and Sciences does not admit by major and the overall College admit rate for 2022 was 10%
GPA statistics for admitted freshman students:
GPA Median Middle 25% - 75%
Weighted GPA 4.58 4.40-4.73
Unweighted GPA 4.00 3.95-4.00

UCSD admits into the University first and then into the major. No specific data is available by major so the overall admit rate was 23.7%.
Middle 50% GPA range for the Capped weighted UC GPA: 4.12-4.30
Also the majority of Freshman admits had 25+ year long a-g courses throughout their HS career.

UCSB’s College of Letters and Sciences does not admit by major although you are a placed into a major or pre-major as a Freshman admit. The admit rate of the College of L&S was 27% with an average admit GPA (Uncapped Fully weighted) of 4.40 for 2022.

SDSU: Target
UCSB/UCSD: High Target/Low Reach
UCLA/UCB: Reach

Best of luck and find a solid Likely/Safety that you are willing to attend and is affordable.

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My Parents are moving after my junior year to Pakistan. I have never lived outside of the US and I do not want to move for my senior year and apply to college while adjusting to a new country, new school. Let me also mention, I don’t speak the language of Pakistan.

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It is not a hook. Also, being 17.5 when entering college puts you at a disadvantage because you will still be considered as a minor, for at least 6 months. You may not able to sign anything that requires a legal signature like a housing contract or credit. If you need any funding or loans in that period, you’ll have to wait for your parents or a guardian to sign any housing, loans, banking or notary paperwork.

Your ROI, for that major, may not evolve until later in your career, so you need to be very savvy about saving money. Starting off earlier in college means that you will have to be on a strict budget. I don’t know if your parents are moving to Pakistan, and it may be a financial issue. You need to be aware that they may not have a real choice.

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You didn’t mention class rank. Although many high schools don’t calculate rank, its easy for the colleges to figure out. Where do you stand relative to others in your HS? If you’re in the top 1% (esp valedictorian or salutatorian) then Columbia ED seems like a good choice.

But if not, then I think you may be risking it. You only have one ED app. You might consider using it on a school where you have a higher chance of acceptance. While you have a strong profile, I don’t think it will be easy at Columbia.

The moving to Pakistan really isn’t going to help you. But you should definitely explain it in the app, especially the counselor letter. But graduating a year early, by itself, doesn’t convey any sort of hook.

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I am in the top 4% in my class. The only reason that I am Eding to Columbia is because I have been doing independent research there with a professor and that professor is writing me the letter of rec.

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Top 4% is pretty good. The research with the professor may or may not help. I wouldn’t count on it being that big of a boost. Is that the main reason you’re applying to Columbia?

Do you have Naviance or SCOIR data that you can review from your high school? How many students with your stats were accepted to Columbia in the past?

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If that’s not your top choice, don’t ED. The professor has zero pull in admissions and their rec would be equally valued for any other college.

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I graduated college at 20. This felt perfectly natural to me.

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Are you a US citizen? If you’re classified as an international student, then you may need to have all 4 years’ cost of attendance available at the start of college.

What’s the budget? Have you run any Net Price Calculators? If so, has the price been affordable for your family? If not, you will need to look for schools that offer merit aid as well.

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With your interests in environmental policy, if you’re looking for some schools that would be extremely likely admits for you, you might want to consider:

  • Loyola Chicago (IL): about 12k undergrads
  • Ohio State: about 47k undergrads (and also in the state capital)
  • Rutgers - New Brunswick (NJ): about 36k undergrads
  • U. of Redlands (CA): About 2600 undergrads
  • Western Washington: About 14k undergrads. It’s also a WUE school, so your tuition expenses would be no more than 150% of in-state WA costs.
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Cost constraints?

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