School: Private UW GPA: 3.84/4.00 (main weakness, some circumstances to explain)
Location: East Coast (very competitive private school)
Test Scores:
SAT 1: 1550 (780 WR / 770 Math)
SAT Subject Tests: Math II 800 Chemistry 780 US History 770
AP: All 5’s
ECs: Research internship at university biochem lab for past 4 years/summers (1,400+ hours)
Siemen’s Semifinalist.
Regeneron STS Scholar (Semifinalist)
1 submitted publication (co-author)
Region Sci Fair ( competitive region) 1st award in category
State Science Fair (competitive state) 4th in my category
Participate in sports, competed in tournaments (achieved 2nd place in two seperate events).
In Club, that teaches STEM and science to students (leader role, organizer).
Volunteering:
Local Hospital/medical clinic for 3-4 years, 15 weeks every year
Essays: good
Recs: should be good
Northwestern (Safety) UC Berkeley (Safety) UCLA (Safety) JHU (Safety) Duke (Safety) UCS (Safety) Amherst (Safety) Williams (Safety) Pomona (Safety)
@ma402016, none of those schools are safeties, for anybody.
You may be too angular for the top LACs. They want well-rounded kids with well-rounded interests, and you mentioned previously that your deficiencies in GPA come mainly from non-STEM courses.
Pomona, Amherst, Williams are reaches for every applicant. They turn down some 60-80% of students with a similar academic profile as you. Furthermore, you mentioned that you’re from a competitive high school on the EC, and there will probably be others from your schools applying as well. They tend to take no more than 2 students per high school given their small size, so I don’t think you’ll get in if there are other strong compelling candidates with higher GPAs or better LORs.
Your GPA is on the low end for out of state UC Berkeley admits, but your SAT is on the higher end. Selectivity will depend on the program you applied to. You should get into other UCs/USC.
JHU/NU/Duke are all selective and reaches for every applicant, but they may be more keen on your accomplishments and research experiences. They’re going to be easier to get into than the LACs.
Your STEM research and passion is certainly unique. But, I need to know your W GPA and course rigor before I chance you accurately.
Schools evaluate your GPA based on the context of your school. If your in the top 10% or above, then its fine. Top 1-5% is even better.
Pomona- likely
Amherst-likely
JHU- If you’re applying for BioMedEnginnering, it’s going to be competitive.
Duke- likely
Williams- likely
Northwesten- likely
USC- likely
UCs - The good thing about the UCs is that they don’t practice AA. Berkely engineering is very difficult to get into due to the limited spots and their preference for in-state students, and they weigh GPA over everything else. I think you have a good shot. Good luck! 
Rigor: Taken 8 APs and 13 Honor Courses, some are postAPs, school doesn’t weight and doesn’t have rankings.
Nah, you aren’t a likely for those colleges. They will all be competitive. When I think likely, I think of likely letters- applicants who are so strong that in committee they pass by without any contention. That only describes maybe the top 10% of admitted students. As I mentioned above, there are weaknesses in your application that will be noticed and discussed. I think you have a very good chance in the end, but it is disingenuous to claim that your chances are likely (60% plus admit rate) to schools with a 9-12% acceptance rate. Even Williams, with its deceptively “high” 17% admit rate, is extremely selective given the self-selecting pool that applies given its small size and isolated location.
Sure your school may not rank- the majority of private schools don’t- but you will be compared, GPA wise, to other applicants from your schools and applicants from the previous years. Furthermore, your school sends a profile detailing the percent of students who get a particular GPA, and many colleges extrapolate your rank based on that. Does your school offer Naviance? If they do, maybe you can see if people with similar credentials as you have been admitted to these colleges before.
With Siemens and STS you should be fine
Agreed. ^^ Siemens and STS are huge accomplishments. Even top schools will be impressed.
Yes, those are huge accomplishments but do not make any of the schools safeties.
You are much too angular an applicant for LACs. I don’t really see you fitting in at a school like Pomona, Amherst or Williams. I think your best chances will be at the more research-heavy institutions you’ve listed. Good luck!
With Siemen’s and STS semifinalist, coupled with your scores, you’re pretty much competitive anywhere. Good luck.
Sorry for my stupidity, but I don’t see why becoming a Siemens Semi-finalist is such a big accomplishment (although I’m sure it is). Out of the 1600 projects submitted last year, 498 became semi-finalists. That means about one out of every three projects makes the cut. Seems like many smart kids who participate are awarded with a semi-finalist title…
some of the 498 students are part of team projects, probably around ~300 total projects are awarded semifinalist
Some of Siemens projects are pretty laughable… But it is a standard of science competition for HS kids. That said, one could complain the competition is gear towards kids in private schools, special program schools or have access to research investigators in Universities or Medical Schools. Imagine how impossible for an inner city kid or even one just go to regular public school to have this opportunity. Also, one can argue the conception of the project ideas are less the work of the kids themselves vs the “soft-handed” guidance from school teachers or the research mentors. That said, having a semi-finalist in Seimens is better than none, even it comes with the above caveats. JMHO
What was the purpose of the comment above? Are you trying to imply that majority of people who earn semifinalist didn’t work hard for it?