APs:
Freshman: World History (4)
Sophomore: Calc AB (5), US History (5)
Junior (scores not released): Calc BC, Psychology, US Government, Language and Comp
Senior AP course load: Macro/Micro Econ, Statistics, Literature and Comp, Biology, Spanish Language
ECs:
Marching Band (9,10,11,12) year 12 holding Librarian Leadership role
Concert Band Clarinet and Bass Clarinet (9,10,11,12) with years 10,11,12 being in Honors Band
Link Crew (freshman leadership program thing) (11,12) senior year with board position
Asian Culture Club (10,11, 12) Treasurer senior year
National Honor Society (11,12) Community Service Chair board position
Community Service and Employment:
Volunteered at local hospital during the summers
Part Time position at local watermark
Currently organizing a book drive to send test prep books to underfunded schools in Chicago
I want to major in biomedical engineering with hopes of going to medical school. Thanks in advance
I think you have a good chance at Case Western. your sat score is decent and you have a good GPA. your class rank is a big selling factor too. If you did well on this year’s AP scores then academically you should be all set for Case Western
EC-wise, you are well rounded too, especially around music and service it seems (although Idk what a “local watermark” is, haha).
However, to an admissions counselor it may seem strange that as a prospective biomed engineering major you did not pursue any STEM extracurriculars or STEM AP courses until senior year. You might want to re-evaluate your true interests/major or think about how you’re going to explain your passion for biomed engineering in your essays.
Don’t worry too much, I know a lot of people with lesser academic stats than you who got into Case Western with full ride scholarships.
With your stats, I would recommend that you take a look at WashU in St. Louis as well as some public flagships like UMich Ann Arbor or U Maryland. Depending on where you live a public school might be a better option.
University of Rochester is often seen as a very similar school to Case—same general area of country, comparable strengths in terms of academic programs, about the same size, and equivalent in terms of selectivity and merit aid prospects. Rochester’s “cluster” approach is something that many find appealing and differentiates it somewhat from Case.
I’m not sure your stats would be competitive for a “full ride” at either Case or Rochester, but, if you were accepted at either (or both) of them, that acceptance would like come with some kind of meaningful merit offer.
I know a lot of people with lesser academic stats than you who got into Case Western with full ride scholarships.<<<<<<<<
In engineering? I doubt it. Case was a free application so there are a lot of high stats kids who would apply in the hope of merit.
Merit for OP has to be at schools where he is in the top of the bunch, even UA isn’t giving full tuition to a 32 ACT.
OP, what is your home state? You have full freight money for Case? AND med school?
My bad, I forgot to mention that the people I was talking about had special music/art talents or were athletes. The OP may or may not belong to one of these groups, but with those music EC’s I’d suspect he/she is not far off.
The non-specialty students I know who got 30K/year at Case were very strong students with 2260 SAT. Both went to Tufts instead.
@Sybylla I live in Illinois, near chicago. The whole money thing is kinda tricky. To be honest I probably wouldn’t be able to go without merit aid of atleast 25k per year. Sounds crazy I know but a girl can dream? My family is like in that weird grey area financially where we dont qualify for need based aid basically anywhere, but still arent well off enough to be able to pay for college easily.
@Sybylla also about physics and chem, I took honors chem my soph year and honors physics my junior year. My school doesn’t allow students to take an AP science course w/o taking the honors level class first. Weird I know. Drives me nuts sometimes
@IsoDidact My school doesn’t allow students to take AP science courses w/o taking the honors/regular level course first. So due to the amount of credits band has taken up for me these past couple years this is the first year I am able to fit one in my schedule. Nor are there really many STEM related ECs in my school or area. But yes, the biomedical engineering major is what concerns me the most. I guess the main reason I’m drawn to it is because math has always just clicked for me ever since I was kid, also problem solving has always been something I’ve enjoyed. I love the satisfaction when you spend an hour working on a problem and it works out, ya know? Then, later when I discovered how much I was fascinated by medicine I thought BME would be a good fit. I was kinda late to the game, unlike all those kids who knew what they wanted to do at like 12 and molded their school life around it.
However, I’m still open to other possible ideas for majors. The thing is, I don’t want to just take the “biology major” track to medical school. Nothing against people who do that, but I just want something a little more “interesting”…that’s probably the wrong word but hopefully you get what I’m saying. If you know of any good majors for med school that would be super great. Thanks
@IsoDidact Also, about the special talents thing. Even though I’m not going to be a music major or minor I still want to continue on with band in college on the bass clarinet over my b flat most likely. Would a music supplement on the common app be helpful? Sorry but I have no idea how the whole music supplement thing works for colleges. Kinda clueless
Against what COA? CWRU? That means you have a budget of 40K a year from your parents? How much is the coa at home, I assume you won’t get merit at uiuc.
CWRU has a lot of applicants as it is a free app and has some merit awards, but your stats are unlikely to get you any merit of significance and if you apply, you need to show them some love as they WL tons of eng applications with high stats because it is a nice extra app that kids might fill in hoping for merit.
Case seems to be a high match right now. Test scores are within range. I would also consider Tulane as a possibility as OPs GPA and test scores are in the range and Case and Tulane have similar profiles.
Bioengineering has competitive admissions at many schools. Assume when looking that your stats need to be much closer to the 75th percentile than the 25th if the school admits by major. At schools that don’t admit by major, you need to be clear on what you need to do to get into bioengineering and if it’s difficult.
I think if your home school is uiuc, 35K a year inc R&B at a very desirable eng school, I would have a hard time as a parent considering paying any more than that for anywhere else assuming you are admitted to major. Sure look for cheaper schools but I wonder if you have time for another crack at the ACT? Your stats are decent but your course choices are baffling to me for an eng/med , for sure I would look for BC calc if you have AB as a soph, and AP physics and chem which you could have taken with you course prereqs as you have listed?
@Sybylla The weird thing about my school when it comes to the AP science classes is that we are on a 4x4 block. AP science are given 3 terms. So 90 mins a day for 75 percent of the year. This weird class length thing made it impossible to take AP chem/AP Bio/AP physics before my senior year because I took Band and Spanish. So after my 4 core classes, band, Spanish, I only had 2 terms of credit left…so no room for an ap science. If I could have fit them in I would have, but the only way to do that would be to drop band which would be too heartbreaking to do. And I did take BC calc, expecting a 5 on it, but we’ll see in a couple days. I am also planning on taking the SAT again in August and the ACT again in September. Those are gonna have to be my last chance at those though
Sorry if I didn’t process the BC calc. A 5 would be fantastic .I think you seem a strong student and would expect a higher SAT/ACT with some focus. Look at old math as you advanced math kids often haven’t done ACT type math in years. For you it might be 6th grade for some of the stuff. And science is strategy.
@Sybylla The thing about ACT math is so true. I took algebra 1 back in grade 6 got a 99 in the class. Now, looking at this basic math, I’m actually befuddled. Ask me to do a volume of rotation, a complicated integral, that’s a piece of cake. It’s seriously so frustrating that I can’t seem to grasp this lower “easy” math like I used to.
Right, so focus just on math and science and you should nail a good score. That would really help your overall
package IMO. I think a lot of the schools listed here would be 34 and up for merit.
