Chance me EA Princeton, RD NYU, please?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi!

I’m planing on applying to Princeton early action and my GPA is admittedly lower than average, do you think I’m still competitive?

Major: wanna go into neuroscience so probably bio or chem

Gender: female
Race: Asian (Indian)
Religion: (does this matter?? Lol) Sikh
School: public, few kids go to ivies every year, really “good” in area, about 4,000 students almost 900 in my grade

GPA (W) cumulative 9-11: 3.7/3.8
GPA (UW): 3.4

SAT: taking in August probably around 1520-1560
ACT: taking in Sept probably 33-35

SAT II: literature - 770
chem - 760

AP scores:
Junior year:
AP World - 5
AP Lang - 5
AP Psych - 5
*also took AP physics class, didn’t take the test tho, got a B- in the class so

Senior year:
Planning on taking
AP Comp Gov
AP Chem
AP Stats
AP Lit

Extra Curricular Activities:

Volunteering:
104 hours at science museum for kids near my house
35 hours as an assistant coach for field hockey
10 science tutor hours through Science Honors Society
50+ hours interact club
*will be volunteering more for these organizations through the year
Also some hours through my gurdwara and am going to use this as a central point of my service supplement essay

Work:
Part time at parents hotel this summer
Part time Barnes and noble cafe this summer into the school year
Internship at my parents hotel last summer

Clubs - including senior year :
Psychology club (4 years) - secretary junior year and president senior year
Interact club (4 years)
Science fair club (4 years)
Science Olympiad (2 years) - won 2 gold at regionals
field hockey for school and club (3 years) - will not be doing senior year because I need a job t pay for college and have opportunity to direct and produce my own freaking play
Did other clubs but this list is long enough

National science honors society (2 years)
National honors society (1 year)
Maybe International thespian society (honors society for theatre lmao) next year and national English honors society next year ???

Other info:
Won several science fair first and second places
Won Lehigh valley psychological association award 2x
Won a scholarship to some college for 20,000 a year but not going

Might submit an arts supplement. Will have two really great recommendation letters! And a decent counselor one.

I’d appreciate any advice or responses you might have and will chance back

2

I agree that your GPA is a bit low for princeton. You should also work on your subject test scores if you still have time.

It seems like you are very interested in science in your EC’s, however you don’t seem to have taken any science or math AP’s yet.

Other than that, your extracurriculars seem pretty good. You should choose whether you want to focus on your arts or your science, whichever you are more interested in and talk about it in your essay because otherwise it looks like you don’t really have a specific direction (just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt).

good luck on your apps!

3

Your GPA is too low for Princeton and a bit low for NYU. You really need to boost your GPA senior fall.

4

I guess I should focus on the science because that’s what I want to major in? Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it! I’ll make sure to work on my subject scores too (:

5

@Burrito12 thanks for the advice!

6

GPA is a little low but you have done much volunteering and working which will be a big profit for you! Maybe choose APs that are more about science, since all your ecs are very related to it! Good luck!

7

@ivystateofmind Thanks so much for your advice, I appreciate it! Do you think I should consider doubling up in AP science next year, then?

8

I dont know what AP classes are offerred in your school but that would be a good idea

9

  1. I wouldn’t bank on just getting “33-35” or “1520-1560”. Even if you practice hard and use results from practice tests as a predictor, it’s not a guaranteed thing to maintain the same results. If you don’t get a 34 or above/1560 or above I wouldn’t bother applying.

  2. I would say your GPA is too low unless you shine elsewhere like SAT/ACT. Your subject tests don’t show that you have a mastery over bio/Chem and neither do your APs. This is a red flag to admissions especially when so many Asian students are interested in the same STEM-type major and have perfect or near-perfect respective scores on standardized tests and APs.

ECs- I guess they show some STEM interest but are pretty standard for high-level students.

I’m not going to say you’re out of the race, but Princeton is a VERY high reach. Work on GPA senior year and get good scores on testing. That’s all I can really say at this point.

Accept that you probably won’t get in. Princeton rejects thousands of extremely well-qualified students every year regardless of how much they want to get in. Good luck

10

I think you’re totally fine for NYU RD, but yeah princeton is always a reach. Why are you taking so few classes senior year? Do you have any study halls?

11

@angryturtle Thanks for the input! And those are my only AP classes, I`ll be taking honors french 4, economics, sociology, theatre and gym in addition to those classes. I just listed the “main” ones. In my junior year I took theatre, Precalc, Gym, and Physics 1 AP in addition to those classes listed.

12

@ams355 I might apply as a Psych major, actually, because I guess that aligns more with some of my interests. Thank you for your input. Youre absolutely right that there are no guarantees and I have to wait and see how I do on my tests. I will work on bringing those scores up and hopefully Ill be as close to that 1600/36/800 as possible. Thanks for your honesty, I appreciate your advice!

13

@ivystateofmind My school offers all of the science APs, but you cant officially enroll until 12th grade unless you double up or skip freshmen year science ( I skipped a year in science) so I guess Ill take bio and chem (thats a horrible combo at my school, yikes.)

14

When you say your ACT/SAT will “probably” be around those values, is it based off of PSAT scores or is it just a feeling? You need to pretty much ace the exams to make up the GPA for Princeton and NYU. Even then, I would think your chances at Princeton are <5% and <10% at NYU. I agree with @ams355 that your ECs are good but not particularly strong. If I were you, I would look at mid tier colleges with SAT score averages of 1400 or so. You might have a chance at honors college there which might be a better bet.

If you won a scholarship to a college for 20k per year, why are you not considering it?

15

If its a horrible compination then dont take it. You should first think what you can go through and what you like and then how it looks. Unfortunately i cant help you about that, you should ask your classmates, parents, or even a teacher that you trust in order to figure out whats better for you.

16

@Syrxis It is based off of test prep and consistently scoring above those ranges on the prep for both the SAT and the ACT. You are right that I wont know until those scores come back, so Ill keep that in mind. Thank you for your advice, I appreciate it! As far as the scholarship goes, it isnt the only one Ive received (I won them through science fairs for placing 1st) but they simply are not good colleges (this sounds awful) and do not have great science programs (the 20 k university has virtually no internship/research opportunities and it wouldn`t offer me the type of opportunities I would need to thrive.)

17

@ivystateofmind Its definitely something to consider. Thanks for your advice!