AP Chem (4), AP Calc AB (5), APES (4), AP Euro (4), AP Bio (5), APUSH (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP CSA (4), AP Physics C Mech, AP Physics C E&M, AP Stats, AP US Gov, APEL, AP Psych
ECs
Legitimate competitive research program at a t30, writing research paper in the field of computational neuroscience. (11)
Wrote and published 6 review papers for a international peer reviewed journal on the topic of neuroscience. President of the club at our school (10,11,12)
Lab Intern at a local r&d startup, mainly basic procedures, cultivated like 2000 plants too, also got involved with more advanced techniques (11,12)
Boy Scouts; senior patrol leader for my soph year, troop is around 120 scouts, led ~12 camping trips, raised $3000 in annual popcorn sales while I was leader (9,10,11,12)
Science Olympiad student coach, started off as a student and some of my good placements in certain events I was able to become a student coach (9,10,11,12)
Leading a cs/physics related project at a T20, collaborating with grad students and professors to make a commercially usable app for the field of biomechanics
Part time job at a math tutoring place (11,12)
Volunteer at Hospice Care, very worth it (11,12)
President of a “health” club at school: during covid we made masks for our community, outreach at a local middle schools’s afters hool program (10,11,12)
Substitute teacher at a school that teaches my mother tongue, a cultural ambassador and a role model sort of (10,11)
Awards (purposefully vague)
Eagle Scout
6 medals at science olympiad (2 nationals 4 regionals)
Grand Award at a environmental science related research symposium at a t40.
AP w/ WE Service award for engineering a filtration system
3rd at a regional neuroscience competition
Essays
My writing is on and off, but my common app essay so far has pretty good. Probably gonna be a 8/10 for my essays
Decent chance for Rice ED. They used to offer on-campus interviews, try to snag one. Rice is big on demonstrated interest. Even though you are applying ED, doesn’t hurt to show interest.
One thing that caught my attention: how did you manage to write 6 review papers as a high school student? Editors will typically seek out well established professors to write such things. It also sounds like you had a lot of good connections.
You will likely be a competitive candidate at most schools, but your school list is long. You will have quite a few supplements to write, hopefully many of those are already completed.
Have you already submitted your Pitt app? Get that in ASAP, and you should have a decision within a month or so. If you wait until January to apply, it won’t be a safety. With an acceptance there, you should then only apply to schools that you would go to over Pitt (and Pitt is excellent for neuroscience).
It’s my understanding that although ELC does guarantee a seat at a UC, it’s nearly always at Merced, and your major is not guaranteed. @gumbymom can better explain and also categorize your UC chances for neuroscience. What are your UC GPAs? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
Lastly, it looks like your family is likely to be full pay, have your parents agreed to that budget? Rice COA is around $75K.
I agree with the others that you have a good chance at anywhere you apply. Obviously your reaches are reaches for everyone so those are unpredictable, but I suspect you’ll have some positive news! I also agree that you should try to demonstrate a good amount of interest in Rice since it’s your ED school. Be sure to request an interview and visit campus if at all possible.
I also agree that those are a LOT of essays! You might want to prioritize your applications so you work on the most important to you first (including at least one safety and a couple targets). My D started getting burned out in the application process so as she started getting a few acceptances from places with EA she started crossing schools off her list. Like a previous posted said if you like PItt and apply early and get admitted, you could consider crossing off any schools you think you might not choose over Pitt.
Good luck to you! My D is a senior at Rice and LOVES it.
You are a very accomplished and competitive applicant.
For the UC’s, Calculate your 3 UC GPA’s, repost and based on the Capped weighted UC GPA, you can see where you stand based on the 2021 admit rates. These are not major specific so for example all Biological Science majors are Capped/Impacted at UCSD which makes the admit rate lower than the overall posted so I put UCSD in the Hight Match/High Target category.
Campus
4.20+
3.80-4.19
3.40-3.79
3.00-3.39
Berkeley
30%
11%
2%
1%
Davis
85%
55%
23%
10%
Irvine
60%
31%
14%
1%
Los Angeles
29%
6%
1%
0%
Merced
97%
98%
96%
89%
Riverside
97%
92%
62%
23%
San Diego
72%
25%
2%
0%
Santa Barbara
73%
28%
4%
1%
Santa Cruz
91%
81%
46%
9%
UC’s and CSU’s are test blind, so your excellent SAT/ACT will not be considered in the application review along with NM however, your EC’s are great so that will help with the UC’s. LOR’s may be requested by UCB but only a small percentage of applicants are targeted.
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation with an 8 semester honors point cap, they do consider EC’s but only the hours and no detail on the awards/activities can be listed on the application. SLO’s Biological Sciences major is very competitive so again, I would put your chances more in the High Target category.
You will have several wonderful options and wishing you the best of luck.
Guess I should’ve worded that differently, it was a youth journal, and I was invited to write papers by the grad students and professors that run the journal.
Yeah most of my supplemental essays are already finished.
I like the idea with UPitt, I might try it out. It’s allow me to take out around 200 bucks in app fees.
I added Trinity U because there wasn’t any fee or supplemental, so I thought it’d be a good option b/c they offer a lot of merit aid. I added Pitzer b/c I wanted to apply to an LAC.
My family probably won’t be full pay due to certain reasons, but they don’t think I can get into rice , so they said if I do end up getting in ED they’d find a way to pay for it. I’m also going to be seeking a work study, and I’ll keep my other job in college. Also applying to tons of outside scholarships, hoping a couple land.
Yeah I’ve written all my early essays already, I got started in summer, I think I’ll be set for all the applications. Hopefully I can get an early acceptance so I cross some out
Thank you for the information. All the UC’s and Cal states on your list are well within Reach for an acceptance. UC’s tend to be very unpredictable and even more so since going test blind. Your UC PIQ’s and EC’s will help differentiate you from the rest of the qualified applicants.
I would also put UCSC in the Target category and even SDSU is not a guarantee unless you are local in-service area applicant.
As noted by @ucbalumnus, the ELC default campus has been UC Merced but the popular/competitive majors many times do not have space for all the ELC referrals. If you want to use UCM as a Safety, then I would apply directly.
Amplifying this for OP, as it seems so many California students don’t understand this.
Yes, get the Pitt app in, but I question whether it will be affordable for you based on what you said about budget. The earlier your Pitt app is in, the greater your chance of merit aid (and merit aid is on the decline there). I don’t understand what you mean by the $200 in app fees…is that what your parents are allowing?
You need to get a firm budget from your parents then run each school’s net price calculator to see if they will be affordable. NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own real estate beyond a primary home, or own a business…are any of those the case for you? Here’s Rice and Pitt NPCs:
Ok on Trinity, makes sense, and do note that Trinity U is an LAC. Pitzer merit aid is typically hard to get and a low dollar amount, so once you know the budget, run their NPC and if it doesn’t look affordable, don’t apply.
Rice parent here. I agree with others that you have a decent chance at Rice ED if you show some interest (attend webinar/visit campus if possible), probably better than the published rate of 15%. As an Asian male interested in STEM, you’re in a very common demographic basket for Rice applicants, but ED will reduce that competition somewhat and I would guess that your ECs may be a bit stronger than most. Also, the share of domestic students in the student body from outside Texas has been edging upward, though I don’t know if that emphasis is enough to improve the chances of any particular applicant.
We don’t have a lot of financial info here, but I would suggest applying for financial aid, even with income of $200k; Rice has very generous need-based financial aid and might provide a small grant that would help your family bridge the gap between EFC and your actual ability to pay. Our family’s EFC was 35k, but our Rice grant actually brought our net cost down much lower than that.
That’s good to hear! I’ve already attended some info sessions but idk if I can do an in person visit before applying, hopefully it’s enough demonstrated interest
