Chance/Match CA student for T15s in BME [3.96 UW, 1570 SAT]

Demographics

  • US domestic
  • Rising senior
  • California
  • Private High School (super competitive)
  • Asian male wooooo
  • Athlete but smaller sport so only really MIT is interested. PWO offer from Princeton

Intended Major(s)

  • Biomedical engineering/anything related
  • Pre-med (?)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.96 (2 B+s in same class)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.42/4.8 (A+ = 4.3, A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, etc. Honors/AP add same weight of 0.5)
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1570 SAT (770 Reading, 800 Math), no ACT

Coursework
AP classes taken:

  • Physics 2 (5)
  • World (5)
  • CSA (5)
  • USH (4)
  • Calc BC (5, AB subscore of 4 somehow)
  • Chem (5)

AP tests taken (self-study):

  • Physics 1 (4)
  • Bio (5)

Dual enrollment (community college)

  • Quantitative Reasoning (4.0)
  • Intro to OOP: Python (4.0)

Awards

  • National [insert team sport] championships silver (2022) and bronze + all-american (2021)
  • 2x2nd team all-league playing a different position (school varsity)
  • TOC quarterfinalist 2023
  • Regional science/engineering fair 2nd place 2022

Extracurriculars

  • [insert team sport] 3 year varsity starter, will be 4 by next year
  • 2-year Varsity debate team captain
  • Research club VP
  • Maker club Co-Pres
    note: school only allows 2 club leadership positions at a time
  • COSMOS UCD 2022
  • Went to China alone to shadow/help at a university lab 2023 summer
  • Volunteer at a dog rescue non-profit. Raising money and helping social media
  • Coaching [insert team sport]. Helped a local coach since 2020 summer and am now an assistant coach for a team this upcoming season. Also co-founded and coach at a small org started w/ friends. Earned $15k ish over 2 summers and reached around 90 kids

Essays/LORs/Other

  • I’m sure they’ll be pretty good

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • Not much of a cost constraint but parents don’t think it’s worth to pay out-of-state tuition for any schools that aren’t top 15 ish/well-known schools

Schools

Safety

  • ASU
  • UW
  • UToronto
  • NJIT

Likely

  • UCI
  • UCSD
  • U Florida

Match

  • UT Austin
  • UMich
  • BU
  • CWRU (EA)

Reach

  • MIT
  • Rice
  • Duke
  • Vanderbilt
  • Cornell
  • UCB/UCLA?

Thought I should mention my senior year courses:

  • AP Lit
  • AP Econ (Micro and Macro)
  • AP Physics C (Mech and E&M)
  • Hon Data Structures + Hon Neural Nets (post-AP’s in CS)
  • AP French
  • Hon Multivariable Calc + Hon Differential Equations (more post-AP’s woo)

Georgia Tech?

UIUC has the world’s first engineering based medical school. Undergrads there have access to some research opportunities if that is of interest to you. Definitely worth checking out. Also Carnegie Mellon comes to mind. Mid D3 in most athletics so maybe worth pursuing your sport there?

I agree with the suggestion to add GT and UIUC.

UW not a safety. As an OOS applicant it’ll be a match at best.
BU and Michigan are both reaches.
UCSD more a match than a likely, I think but I’m not a UC expert.
Tagging @Gumbymom who is.

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My son’s friend with your same stats (plus NMSF and IB diploma) got rejected from CWRU, even though he visited campus. He got in plenty of other places (no problem with app). They have a reputation for yield protecting, and also like students to show lots demonstrated interest, so keep that in mind. It’s a great school with tons of biomedical engineering premeds so I can see why it’s attractive to you. They give lots of people good aid as well.

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I agree with @ColdWombat 's assessment of CWRU. You might want to consider UNC/NCSU for BME. Won’t be easy though.
As a piece of advise, no engineering program will do you favors as a pre-med. I see your scores in AP Physics and Calc AB. Something to think about.

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If you want to keep open the possibility of medical school, then I hope that you have budgeted for a full 8 years. The last 4 of these will be expensive and it will be important to minimize debt even for a future doctor. Of course there are other very worthwhile things that a person can do with a degree in biomedical engineering and I am pretty sure that I have personally benefited greatly from a few of them.

I am not sure which W is UW. I am guessing Washington, although Wisconsin is also a very good university. Either way I think that it is likely but not a safety.

Otherwise I think that you have a good list of schools and have probably categorized them correctly.

MIT might be a tough place to maintain a “medical school worthy” GPA. Toronto might also. However, some students clearly do at both schools and you seem to have as good a chance as anyone.

Mostly I think that you should make sure that your safeties really are safeties and also make sure that you would be happy attending any of them.

And if budget matters at all (particularly if you end up with 8 years in university) then keep in mind that you are in a WUE/WICHE state and you might think about whether there are any other WUE schools that you want to consider.

I would like to add: You are doing very well. Good job to this point!

For UCs, you want to recalculate your HS GPAs using GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub .

UCI and UCSD are probably reaches for BME.

ASU would be a safety if the price after scholarships (see estimator) is within your parents’ budget limit for a “non top 15” school.

For UW, which one? Wyoming should be a safety. Wisconsin and Washington would not be safeties, and Wisconsin has second year weed-out from engineering majors, while Washington has secondary admission to engineering majors.

UT Austin should be considered a reach for any student who is not a Texas resident with top 6% rank, and should be considered a reach to get into any engineering major.

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You have a great record! Congratulations!

You need to find out your relative/approximate class rank, from your college counselor. Look at the school profile(your HS will send it to colleges) for aGPA distribution to get an idea.
Based on your unweighted and weighted GPA, which is the same system as used at private schools near us(honors/AP both 0.5), you could be just outside of the top 10%, or as high as top5%, but it is not likely you are at the very top 1-3 spots.
How does your HS usually do with your reaches? Does 10% of your HS matriculate at schools in your reach range? If its less than that, and your rank is not within that rough range, it will make it much harder. Also, consider your rigor: it certainly looks good from an outsider perspective: but are there difficult APs you have not taken? Are there courses where you could have had a harder level and you chose the easier?
You don’t have to answer these: I just want to point out what it takes to actually have a realistic chance at your reaches. For unhooked kids, one has to have the rigor and the rank, plus all the other stuff.

Also: consider adding WUSTL: it is an excellent school and has many features that overlap with your other choices. It is likely another reach school, however.

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I agree with the all the posters that you are a competitive and accomplished applicant. That said, the UC’s have become highly unpredictable since going test blind so there are no guarantees even as a CA resident at the Mid tier and Top Tier UC’s.

2022 Admit rates based on the Capped weighted UC GPA.

Campus 4.00+ 3.70-3.99 3.30-3.69 3.00-3.29
Berkeley 17% 3% 1% 0%
Davis 58% 20% 5% 2%
Irvine 35% 10% 3% 0%
Los Angeles 13% 2% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 97% 95% 85%
Riverside 95% 83% 42% 17%
San Diego 37% 8% 1% 0%
Santa Barbara 41% 8% 3% 0%
Santa Cruz 69% 45% 16% 4%

2022 Bioengineering admit rates if available

Campus Bioengineering
UC Berkeley 9.1%
UC Davis No data but estimated <39%
UC Irvine 34.2%
UCLA 6.4%
UC Merced 92%
UC Riverside 90%
UC San Diego No data but estimated <10% Capped major
UC Santa Barbara Major not available
UC Santa Cruz 66%

UCSD should be in the Reach Category and UCI as a High Target.

You can also see the UC admission information for your HS with this link: Admissions by source school | University of California

Best of luck.

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No interest in JHU?

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This is how I would categorize your chances at the school on your list.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Arizona State
  • U. of Toronto (from what I understand of Canadian universities)
  • New Jersey Institute of Technology

Likely (60-79%)

  • U. of Florida: I’ve heard stories about top in-state applicants being denied, but I suspect that you’d get in. But things are getting more unpredictable here, and I would also suggest that you look into the situation between the state government and the public university policies to see if the situation would be a fit for you.
  • U. of Washington (assuming this is the UW you meant): That categorization is for acceptance into the college, but if you’re looking for direct entry into engineering, the odds would be lower (but I’m not sure how much lower). Just make sure you realize that even if you are accepted direct into engineering, you are still not guaranteed your choice of engineering major…you’re only guaranteed one of your top 5 choices of engineering major, and selection is done holistically, not based on GPA or similar (source). If that does not sound appealing to you, I would reconsider UW as a choice.

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Case Western: If you can really convince them that you’re interested, then I think you have a pretty decent shot here. But they have a high bar for being convinced when a student has stats as high as yours are.

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Boston U.
  • U. of Michigan
  • UC-Irvine: Based on the info provided by @Gumbymom

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • MIT
  • Rice
  • Duke
  • Vanderbilt
  • Cornell
  • UC-Berkeley
  • UCLA
  • UC-San Diego: Based on the info provided by Gumbymom
  • UT-Austin

Would you be happy to enroll and attend the schools I categorized as Extremely Likely for you? If so, I think your application list is fine. If not, I’d consider finding alternative schools for any that you wouldn’t be happy to attend.

I understand that your family doesn’t want to pay “out-of-state” tuition for a non-Top 15ish institution. But would something that would be at or below the cost of a UC work? Also, as @DadTwoGirls indicated, if you’re thinking about medical school, your family may want to be budgeting for 8 years instead of 4. The schools I mention below have a definite chance of being stellar values, depending on what kind of merit aid you end up receiving.

I’d take a good look at UC-Davis and UC-Riverside to see if you want to add them to your UC application, as they are both ABET-accredited for bioengineering, and UCR would appear to be an extremely likely admit for you.

  • George Washington (D.C.): If you show demonstrated interest, this would be a likely admit. Additionally, I think you’d be competitive for one of their big scholarships (source).

  • U. of Alabama – Birmingham: The school is well-known for its strength in the bio/health fields and you’d get excellent merit aid. This would be an extremely likely admit.

  • U. of Houston (TX): Not quite as close to the medical corridor as Rice, but there are lots of opportunities in Houston and I suspect they would be very happy to woo you to attend. Another extremely likely admit.

  • U. of Maryland – College Park: You must apply EA if you’re interested (they filled more than 90% of their slots in EA last year), but I think you could also be a contender for the Banneker Key scholarship. I’d call this a likely admit (provided you apply EA).

  • U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: This is another area that has definite opportunities for people interested in biomedical engineering. I’d call this another likely that might send you some merit to bring this below the price of a UC.

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For those of us not familiar with this…what is this abbreviation!

I am guessing Possible Walk On, but we’ll see if I am right!

Close: preferred walk-on.

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Thanks for letting us know. So what exactly comes with preferred walk-on status? Is that like a slight tip but not full support? Or does that mean that if OP gets in to Princeton, then there’s be a spot for him on the team? Or…?

A PWO, I believe, represents a form of initial athletic assurance (i.e., the student will be offered a place on the team — at least at the start of the season — should they attend the school). I’m not sure to what degree this level of support impacts admission chances, however, @AustenNut .

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I agree with what others said, you may be admitted to UCSD, but it is definitely not a likely.

Your title mentions T15. In your post, you mention that your parents won’t pay for anything less than T15 or “well known” schools. That is a high line to draw in the sand. To me, it sounds like they want you to attend a state school.

Look at other UCs as well as SLO. Spend time working on your UC Personal Insight Questions as well as your descriptions of your 20 Activities and Awards. Don’t assume the UCs are a sure thing and leave that application until the end.

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I second looking at cal poly SLO, and also possibly cal poly Pomona and cal poly Humboldt.