Chance an URM rising junior for a few schools :))

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student- US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities)- don’t want to be too specific in case I get doxxed- underrepresented state
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): public, slightly competitive
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): urm female
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):urm, women in stem

Intended Major(s) haven’t settled on a major, but biology, public policy, public health (pre-med)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.86
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): N/A
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank: not reported at school
  • ACT/SAT Scores: PACT was a 28 composite, psat was 1230… trying to study more so I can raise it to a 1400+

Coursework
Math level: geometry…currently trying to find summer algebra 2 classes
AP classes: US History (pending), don’t plan on taking any more AP classes
FL level: Spanish 4 next year, not taking Spanish senior year
Courseload:
Freshman year: 3 honors classes, 1 accelerated (got 3B+, a few A- in Spanish, science)
Sophomore year: 3 honors classes, 1 AP class (1 B in biology so far… May end with a B+ in geo honors, got 2 A- last term in biology, geometry)
JR and Sr year: planning on taking dual enrollment classes, and aiming to get my associates degree along with my high school diploma
Junior year, first semester (at cc):
College Precalculus
College biology
College English
Foreign language at school

Awards
6th place at a scioly tournament my freshman year
8th place at the same scioly tournament
Scholastic writing award-honorable mention in poetry
Won a county public health award with a tobacco advocacy group!

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
State council-5-7 hrs/week
Outreach director-for school FRC robotics team
Women advocacy club co-president
Multicultural student union treasurer
Member of student government
Co-president next year of my school’s anti-tobacco group
Hold a board position with an NPO
Work around 30 hours a week at a clothing store (during the summer)
Summer 2022: working on a campaign and have partnered with 1 organization regarding providing awareness against genocide, human trafficking, and helping fundraise
Volunteer as a tutor, and at a local library
Apart of a district council
Make and design clothing for fun

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Would like schools with great need-based aid, merit is fine too

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
    Instate safeties

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    State flagship

  • Match
    Macalester, northeastern, umich (not sure if it’s a reach or match) Boston university, haverford, Wellesley

  • Reach
    Harvard, Yale, Stanford, northwestern, Penn, uchicago, Princeton

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I feel your reaches are likely out of reach. I would move Michigan and Wellesley to realistic reaches worth applying for. BU might be a reach as well, so I think you need more matches.

Separately, your goal of getting an associate degree concurrently with your high school diploma might cause problems with undergraduate admissions, but I would like others to weigh in on this.

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Why do you think they are out of reach? Personally, I believe that my extracurriculars definitely compensate for my grades, and my sat practice tests are now around a 1450. My grades, after this term, will likely be closer to a 3.9. I appreciate your opinion, but I don’t think my reaches are extremely unrealistic.

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That’s not an issue College courses taken prior to HS graduation do not jeopardize one’s ability to apply as a first-year.

That said, without knowing more about the HS, the decision to forgo advanced classes at to HS to take cc courses may (or may not) be a problem, depending on courses offered by the HS and by the cc.

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I think you are a bit early but that your matches, except maybe Mac, are reaches. Much will depend on EA/ED at schools like Northeastern and you are a URM and that could have impact.

Keep working hard. But for example, where you have a Northeastern, add a Pitt. Where you have a Mac, add a Kalamazoo. For a Michigan, an IU.

Not sure why you won’t give your state. You have zero chance of being identified. But you state school is likely fine too.

Good luck.

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Thanks for the reply. My school offers around 10 AP classes, but taking CC/university courses is very common at my school. Personally, my main motives for doing so is to save time (2 years) if I go to my state school (which I’m perfectly fine with attending).

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Additionally, I would like to add that I’ve taken the most rigorous classes possible at my school freshman and sophomore years.

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My daughter just graduated college, she came in with 9 AP classes and graduated in 3 years, plus had the rigor of 9 AP classes. I think your matches are reaches, I think they would be been for my daughter and she had a 3.9 and 34 ACT. Admission is crazy.

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I think your matches are reaches. I would add more match schools.

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Another thing to add: being low-income, I really don’t have much of an option but to take college classes. I get that taking AP classes and college classes would provide a boost to my application, but in my situation, taking cc classes is the best option for me.

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Thats the thing, you think your ECs will be better than others but its not up to you, its up to the admissions department. The out of state acceptance rate for U of Michigan is about 20%.

Apply to schools that interest you that your family would likely be able to afford.

You have in state schools you say you could afford and be happy to attend.

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I did not say that they were “better” than others, I just said that my extracurriculars compensate for my grades.

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Unless you are a recruited athlete or have a one-of-a-kind exceptional EC. EC’s do not “compensate” for grades at reach schools.

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ECs do not compensate for grades at reach schools unless the ECs are on the order of winning an Olympic medal. Your ECs are fine but not on the level of changing a decision at a school where the rest of your application is average.

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You have one women’s college on your list; I’d encourage you to consider others as well. Bryn Mawr is very closely intertwined with Haverford and is in the Quaker Consortium with UPenn & Swarthmore. Smith and Mt. Holyoke are in the 5-college Consortium with UMass Amherst, Amherst College, and Hampshire. Scripps is in the Claremont Consortium in California. All meet full need and could be great for your interests, and admissions odds are better at reputationally-equivalent women’s colleges vs. coed schools, just by virtue of a smaller applicant pool. Also, you haven’t named any choices in the south, but Agnes Scott in Atlanta has a fantastic undergrad public health program that includes grad-level classes at the Emory University school of public health. Agnes Scott undergrads can cross-register at both Emory and Georgia Tech. Atlanta is a great city, and Agnes Scott is a diverse, leadership-oriented women’s college that would appreciate your EC profile. (Emory could also be a reach to consider. Being across the street from CDC headquarters is great for students who are interested in public health.)

You might be a good candidate for the full-ride Morrill Scholarship at Ohio State. MSP | Office of Diversity and Inclusion, The Ohio State University And just outside of Columbus, Denison University meets full need, has a strong commitment to diversity, and has a Global Health major that might be of interest.

I agree that most of your matches are reaches, and your reaches are super-reaches. Without a “hook” (URM status in your case, but other hooks include being a recruited athlete or a legacy applicant), your “mix of A’s and B’s” grades probably wouldn’t give you a meaningful chance at most of these schools - they get so many applicants with 4.0 or near-4.0 unweighted GPA’s. And not all URM advantage is equivalent. (For example, there are quite a few highly-qualified Hispanic female applicants; it’s still an advantage, but not like being a biracial Black+Native American applicant, as a hypothetical example.)

You’ll have great prospects, but you need to beef up your list of real matches.

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Have you looked into Questbridge? I dont know the timing and others here know much more about the process than I do but if you are low-income it may be something to start looking at now so you are well prepared before your senior year.

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Thanks for the replies! I think you’ve all given some really helpful information. I’ll definitely take it into consideration when creating my college list. Question:I am both black and hispanic, would that provide a boost in my application? Also, my school regularly has people with 3.9 gpas going to top schools like NU and Yale. Definitely should have mentioned that in my original post. Thanks again!

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Yes, Black+Hispanic is typically a bigger boost than Hispanic alone, although these things all vary from school to school, and the biggest boosts often come at schools that might be more diversity-challenged than you might want.

Agree that you should look in to Questbridge if you qualify, income-wise. They have a program for juniors that you could apply to next year (app opens in February I think) in addition to the Match program for seniors. QuestBridge | College Prep Scholars Program

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My opinion. Until you have your junior year PSAT score (that’s the one where you might qualify for NMF), your end of year junior GPA, and your real SAT or ACT, it is impossible to chance you for any school.

But based on what you have written so far, I think your matches are also reaches.

Does your school only offer one AP course? The strength of your high school coursework WILL be considered and especially by those schools you have listed as reaches and matches. They expect students to take the strongest courseload possible in high school. So if your school offers AP courses but you choose not to take them, that will be noticed when you apply. Your school counselor will need to indicate the strength of your HS courseload. So…keep that in mind.

I see your plan to do dual enrollment instead of AP courses at your HS. IF you do a premed intention, please keep in mind that those CC courses will be included on your medical school application. Some medical schools are less receptive to accepting CC courses. You may need to take upper level college courses during your bachelors courses. Just FYI on that. Also, it won’t be an advantage to apply to medical school as a 20 year old…if you go that route.

At this point, are you hoping to do a premed intention wherever you attend undergrad?

And my opinion….ECs do NOT make up for less than stellar other parts of your application…like your GPA, standardized tests, and course rigor. Please don’t assume that your ECs, regardless of what they are (unless you are an Olympic medal contender) will make up for the weaker components of your application…especially at your reach and match list…where most applicants will be strong overall and still most won’t get accepted.

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First, you are clearly a great student with some awesome accomplishments, and you will get into a great college. Congrats on your successes so far!

One thing, however, to keep in mind is that admissions for the most selective colleges and universities have, in most cases, gotten significantly more competitive over the last two years. And, that’s continuing a trend (for many schools) of getting gradually more competitive for much longer than the last two years. So, admissions data from your high school that is two years old or more, may not be very accurate as to your chances for those schools today, or in a year.

For example, several years ago, Northeastern had an acceptance rate around 25%-30%. Last year for the high school class of 2021 it was 18%. This year, for the high school class of 2022, it was a shocking 6.7% This year’s really huge drop may be partly due to huge over-enrollment the prior year, so maybe the acceptance rate will go back up a bit in future years, but even it it went into the low teens, I wouldn’t call it a match for anyone. Also, bear in mind that the total acceptance rate at NU includes its Early Decision applicants, who have a much nigher acceptance rate. Ie, for the class of 2021 the ED acceptance rate was around 50%, and for the class of 2022 the ED acceptance rate was around 33%. So, the acceptance rate for a regular decision applicant is actually less than the 6.7% for this year or 18% from last year.

Just as another example, just this year BU had a 14% acceptance rate, compared with a 46% acceptance rate just ten years ago. It had a 6.7% increase in applicants just this year, and it had a 24% increase in applicants last year. I would also be very hesitant to put BU in a “match” category given those numbers.

Those schools are just two examples but my guess is that many of the schools on your list have had similar explosions in the numbers of applications and a coordinating decrease in acceptance rates in the last two years. So, instead of looking at Naviance data from your school (unless it’s from within the past two years), I’d take a look at the Common Data Sets for each school, starting with last year’s admissions cycle (HS class of 2021) to get a clearer picture of where things stand today.

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