@collegemom3717 Is right on the money. Your essays will be important. You also have an additional hurdle in that you are Asian and going into STEM/medicine. Try to pull out something unusual that is non-stereotypical ( for anyone). It would frankly, be easier if you weren’t going into Stem as an Asian student. Have you ever thought of combining subjects, bio and ethics for example or Chem and econ. It’s much easier to gain acceptance to these top schools if you can paint a picture of what you want to do rather than showing a list of stats. And many med students have a varied background.
Also, I think BU is very attuned to being used as a safety. It’s highly unlikely you will pull it off. You should look at their program and find a way to discuss why you would pursue it. Also, BU (and Northeastern) have risen in ranking and accept a totally different student than was the case a decade ago. They will also likely know if you are truly interested or just pretending. Many students actually like the large student body and atmosphere of both schools. My spouse went to BU ( a long long time ago) and has a friend who is a Dean. They laugh about how hard it is to get into BU now. And BU has some great research programs that even Harvard doesn’t have. So very different and those getting accepted to these programs know why they want to attend.
I think you’re a very competitive applicant. Make sure that your essays are up to par. Good luck!
Ok, I understand. Be true to your heart. If STEM is what you really want, then faking an interest in humanities is not worth it. I wish you the best
Vanderbilt’s acceptance rate is less than 11%. You need to look at overall acceptance rates, not just where your stats fall. Vanderbilt is not a match for any student.
I agree that I think you need to rethink your list to have some true matches and safeties you would love to attend. It’s easy to find the reaches but you can’t count on them.
My D’s close friend was val at her school with perfect stats like yours. He did get into Vandy but with $0 merit, so for him that was as good as a rejection. He was also WL at Michigan and denied at a number of other schools on your list. He had a good outcomes though because he had a well balanced, affordable list, so was happy to pick a school that did offer him a full ride and tons of opportunities.
Look at schools like Case Western, Rochester, Lehigh, etc for your matches. And then demonstrate interest! Sign up for their mailings, request interviews where offered, etc…
While considering a top-20 school a match is usually a bad idea, Vanderbilt has traditionally been one of the most stats-based admission schools around and would be the closest thing to a match there is in that group.
When I last looked at our school’s scattergrams back in 2017, there was a very clear demarcation between who was rejected and who was admitted based upon their GPA and SAT scores, unlike every other top-20 school. This year about a dozen kids from our school got into Vanderbilt and Emma appears strong compared to that group.
Emma,
You are a competitive candidate for your reaches, but as others have noted, nothing is guaranteed nor should be expected. Your AP scores are a bit puzzling given your abilities and that will be scrutinized, but I don’t see other weaknesses.
Regarding the Harvard-MIT math competition, did your school send a team to HMMT in Cambridge? And you became a finalist as a sophomore? That’s a serious accomplishment given the national and international competition. Do you have other math accomplishments to go along with that such as AMC-10/12, and AIME scores?
In terms of a lower reach, take a look at Rice in Houston. It is simply one of the best schools around for pre-med because the world’s largest hospital complex, the Texas Medical Center, is literally across the street, allowing plenty of research opportunities while you are in undergrad. Rice, unlike Hopkins, is also in a super safe neighborhood which your parents will appreciate.
Fellow 2020 ISEF finalist here! You have a truly outstanding resume and nearly perfect stats. Those aforementioned factors would never be the reason you would get rejected. Write strong essays and your bound to get in to at least a few of you matches / reaches. Couldn’t be a bad idea to add a few more safeties though
@emmahuang : Four more schools highly recommended for you for premed/bio major:
- Stanford (reach);
- Columbia (reach);
- UC Berkeley (match);
- UCLA/UC San Diego (match);
@emmahuang: If you prefer to be “pushed to be the best you can be,” come to Cal (UC Berkeley)! 
“Anyway, to reiterate my acquired qualities at Cal: grit (guts, resilience, initiative, and tenacity), I had no idea how they came about. All I knew was the undergraduate education there was an unbelievable series of processes taken place in a “black-box” that took a collection of inputs and resources, performed some work with those inputs, and then yielded those qualities once you got out successfully from college. It’s just as simple as that.”
A passage quote from my thread, “my own public and private college exp. (Cal, Columbia, and Stanford).”