Chance an Unusual Asian Female for T20s

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Chance me for:
Reach: Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Cornell, Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, UMich Ann Arbor, Pomona, Northwestern
Match: UW Seattle, UW Madison, Northeastern, BU, Case Western, NYU
(before y’all come after me, yes, I have safeties, yes, my list is reach-heavy, and yes, I’m narrowing it down)
Major: Double major in Bioengineering and Economics
High school: Competitive Private, ranked 2nd in state
Demographics/Hooks: South Asian female, middle/upper-middle class, primary caretaker

Stats:
GPA (W): 4.3-ish (my school doesn’t calculate)
GPA (UW): 3.83
HS Courseload: most rigorous every year
ACT: 35 (36 R, 36 W, 34 M, 34 S), 12/12 Essay; retaking in September
SAT Subjects: 800 Math II, 800 Bio M, waiting on Physics & Literature (predicted high 700s/800)
AP Scores: 2 5s and 3 4s – APCS A, AP Calc AB, AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Lang

Senior Year Courseload: AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Chem, AP Mandarin, Multivariable Calc, electives

ECs:
Science: Olympiad Club (founder & president); MedTech club (founder & president); independent research in a physics lab; medical research assistant; CS research intern; creative portfolio (partnered with Google Glass)
Humanities: Speech & Debate; economic research; staff writer for a community journal; article submitted to a university law review
Arts: Literary Magazine Editor-in-Chief; solo and group visual art gallery shows; art displayed in various local venues; run a commission & print business (currently on hold); music composition (to be played by a local orchestra); will graduate high school with a nationally recognized diploma in piano performance
Service: international fundraising manager for nonprofit focused on girls in STEM; volunteer and tutor at a transitional housing center (set up a tutoring program with a rotating staff of students from nearby high schools)

Awards: nothing exciting – National Merit Commended probably, AP Scholar with Distinction, a few regional awards for speech and art

Subjective:
Essays: I’d like to think a 9/10 – I’ve been working on them for about a month
Letters of Recommendation: Honors history teacher – 10/10, said I was one of the best students she’d had in 20 years of teaching; Honors Physics teacher – 7/10, likes me but I struggled a bit in his class; Professor I worked under – 8.5/10

2

Which school are you applying early to?

3

I’ll likely be applying ED to either Columbia or U Chicago.

4

Wow, I’m so sorry about the fact that your parents are sick! I am sure that they will get better with time, but I admire your ability to take care of them and put that in front of everything else.
If you write effectively about this, I feel you have a very good shot at almost any college in the country. Can’t guarantee HYPSM-level schools, of course, but given that you have achieved as much as you have despite spending 5 hours a day helping your parents will certainly impress the admissions officers.

5

I am sorry that your parents need this sort of care. Your GC and teachers should be well apprised of this, so that they can bring it up in their LORs

You are , as you know, an excellent candidate with your stats. Your grades are still excellent , though not top 3-5 in class, most likely. How top colleges view their estimated class rank, Gpa for your school, who they accept is something your GC can tell you. Are younwithin accepted parameters in the past?

Because just as your teachers did not just give you A’s because of your situation, the very top schools are not likely to do so either. They prefer to see students who excel despite the adversity.

My dear friend’s DD took a year caring for her parents. It did cut down on her activities, , her grades were at 3.75 level UW in the most rigorous courses, top test scores and she did not get into her top choices. Her private school GC had some close relationships with college AOs as a lot kids gained admissions to those colleges. It was the grades, the colleges gave no more leeway than the highschool did. The GC gently suggested she stay local to school since she was so needed and likely to still be needed by her parents. It is not a hook

Some of those schools look like reasonable possibilities. You know what the lottery tickets are. Go on ahead and apply to them, but make sure you have those affordable safety schools in place. I am assuming you can afford all of them because unless you’ve run NPCs and they are all affordable, they are all reaches in more than one way.