Chance for Ivies + t20s/ t5 LACs

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

State (if domestic applicant): CA

School Type: Public

Ethnicity: Asian

Gender: Male

Income Bracket: 0 EFC, Single Parent

Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Gen

SAT I (breakdown): N/A

ACT: 32

SAT II: 800 Math Level 2, 760 USH, 750 Bio M

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/260

AP (place score in parenthesis): USH (5), Lang (4), CSP (4), ES (4), Bio (3), World (3). The latter two were taken under unideal circumstances.

Senior Year Course Load: AP Spanish/Lit/Psych/Physics/Chem/Calc. Drama. TA for AP Bio.

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Brain Bee National Finalist, Stanford Neuroscience Scholarship, Coca-Cola Semi Finalist, UCLA Pre-Med Scholar.

Intended Major + Premed or Other Track: Pre-Med

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis +years):

  1. Started a 501©3 non profit: 10-12
  2. Stroke Research at Stanford: 11-12
  3. Neural plasticity research at UCLA: 11-12
  4. Neural Crest Cell Research at Local Uni: 11-12
  5. Speech and Debate (Debate Captain): 9-12
  6. Science Bowl (Competition Team): 10-12
  7. Langauge Teaching Club (Founder): 12
  8. Volleyball (JV 9-11/V 12)
  9. Writer for a somewhat prestige neuroscience journal: 10-12
  10. Hospital Volunteering (600+ LOGGED hours): 8-12

Job/Work Experience:

  1. Started a computer repairing shop in my garage
  2. Part time baby/pet sitter
  3. Worked at Baskin Robbins
  4. Worked at GoodWill

Volunteer/Community service:
Have around 50 hours through NHS/CSF. Not to mention hospital volunteering and my nonprofit.

Summer Activities:
Research, Research, Research.

Essays: Solid (9/10)

Teacher Recommendation: Club → nonprofit Advisor (10/10)

Counselor Rec: 9/10 (Started AP Spanish and AP Psych at my school, loved me for that)

Additional Rec: AP Bio teacher (8/10)

As of right now, I am a Questbridge finalist. How are my chances looking like? Any tips?

2

Class rank of 1/260; U/W 4.0 GPA: lots of volunteer & research hours related to your intended major & career suggests that you are a very strong QuestBridge applicant.

3

I think you’re a strong applicant. QuestBridge will help your odds too.

I would add some match and likely schools too, as anyone going for the tippy tops needs to do.

4

Any reason you haven’t listed your ranked QuestBridge schools?

5

What do you want to do and what are you looking for in a college? “Ivies” is a description of a bunch of very different colleges, and the only common characteristic is that people who go top one brag a lot.

You seem to be a very smart, ambitious, and talented young man, so I assume that you have plans that go on beyond “I want to get into a college about which I/my parents can brag”.

To which specific colleges are you applying, and why?

Your profile is great, and you are distinctly the type of kid who is accepted to great colleges through Questbridge. You have worked hard at high school, done a lot outside of school, and applied to Questbridge. So you have done 90% of what is required, in order to be accepted into a great college.

The best tips that I can provide are to decide what you are looking for in a college, which colleges have that, and which of them you would like to attend. That way you can, in your application, have a clear narrative as to why you would like to attend that college, and why you would be a great addition to that college.

Overall, nobody can actually calculate the chances of being accepted to a highly popular colleges with very low acceptance rates. However, you are a QB finalist, meaning that the admission statistics are known

While nobody will be able to give you an answer as to your chances for any individual QB partner college, the chances of you being accepted into at least one are pretty high, and compared to their average acceptance rates, the chances are extremely high. As a Questbridge finalist, if you ranked colleges, your chance of being accepted as a college match is about 17%, while, if you’re not selected, your chance of being accepted into a QB partner college is about 42%, which is what the chances are, if you didn’t rank colleges.

So, if you ranked colleges, your chance of being accepted to one of the QB partner colleges is over 50%. If you didn’t rank colleges, it’s about 42%.

For the colleges that are not QB partners, your chances are above their average, however, highly popular colleges have extremely low acceptance rates, so above average for a college with an average acceptance rate of 7%, can still be less than 10%.

Good luck - you have accomplished a lot, and, regardless of where you end up, you have a lot of which to be proud.

6

omg i completely forgot lol.

Here they are (in no specific order of preference): Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Williams, WashU, UPenn, Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, UChicago!

edit: i went test optional for uchicago.

7

Thank you for your kind words MWolf. As a pre med student, I’m really leaning towards brown. I would love to explore my curiosities but am fearful that I would jeopardize my gpa in doing so. Brown’s open curriculum is just the solution for that.

However, I do recall reading somewhere that their Pre-health advisings is not the best. UPenn, WashU, Columbia, UChicago, Vanderbilt, and basically all other colleges I ranked offer plentiful research opportunities. Although Williams is the only LAC on my list (and LACs do sometimes get the cold shoulder in regards to research and hospital shadowing), I really vibe with some of the students there, not to even mention their endowment per student ratio… I will also be applying to a few other LACs btw, like Middlebury, Bowdin, and Amherst.

I also have some match and safety schools that I won’t say due to location.

One question though: What is the other 10% I am missing for colleges?

8

You’re not missing anything. However, for colleges which are not QB partners which normally accept about 7% of their applicants, acceptance rates for people with your profile are likely higher, and I gave 10% as an example of what I meant by “higher”.

9

Let us know if you match, @MaybeIvy2020.

10

Ah I see. Thanks for the input! I am crossing my fingers for December 2nd.

11

Will do :slight_smile:

12

Im very excited to say that I’ll be on the big green next fall. Go Keggy!

13

Just got matched to Dartmouth!

14

Matched to Dartmouth :)!

15

Congratulations! Time to get some winter cloth and get ready for 7hr flights.

16

Hahahaha, yeap!

17

Congratulations!

18

thank you :)!