Chance me for Astronomy, Physics

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Female from Maine, family income ~$50k/year
Major: Astronomy or Physics

GPA: 3.22 UW 3.8 W
9th grade GPA: 3.25 UW 3.75 W
10th grade GPA: 3.17 UW 3.58 W
11th grade GPA: 3.25 UW 4 W
Class rank: 50/275

1370 SAT (700 R&W, 670 M, retaking Nov. 4)
Subject tests: Math 2 (620), Bio-E (650), USH (660) (retaking Math 2 and taking Physics in December)
APs: 10th grade - Biology (3), 11th grade - Language (3), US History (3), taking French, Calculus AB, Physics C - Mech, and Physics C - E&M this year

ECs: principal flute in local youth orchestra all 4 years, principal flute in school honors band all 4 years, student council all 4 years (secretary 11), science bowl since 10th grade (asst. captain 11), French club 10 and 11 (treasurer 10 and VP 11), math team all 4 years. Also do astronomical research and have presented at the state science fair twice.

Awards: Academic award (9, 10, 11), 3rd in category at state science fair (9), special award from US Navy Office of Naval Research at state science fair (10), volunteerism award for exemplary volunteerism work (9).

Volunteering: couple hundred hours cumulative, worked as co-coordinator for children’s village at folk festival and event volunteer for local symphony orchestra.

I also went to an elite summer program for astrophysics last summer that accepted 72 people out of 700 applications and is co-sponsored by MIT and Caltech. Alumni of this program typically go to MIT, Caltech, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, or other top-tier universities.

My scores and GPA are low so that’ll hurt me, but I think my recs, ECs, CA essay will help me. My SAT will go up when I retake it in a week and a half. I’m taking the ACT on Saturday as well. I believe my scores will have a somewhat large increase. My GPA is low since I’ve been dealing with mental illness throughout high school, including med changes that messed with me. I’ll mention that somewhere carefully.

The schools I’m applying to are University of Colorado, McGill, Case Western, Caltech, MIT, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Princeton. I have already been accepted to the University of Maine with a likely letter to the Honors College.

I know my stats are low for the reach schools on the list, so please don’t grill me on it. I am only looking for an estimate of my chances to either individual schools or in general, or even some shred of hope, please.

Thank you very much!

2

Bump

3

Bump 2.0

4

McGill is the easy one. You don’t meet the minimum requirements. The others are mega reaches.

5

save yourself some money- Dartmouth, Princeton, Cornell, Caltech and MIT are not possibilities for you Hope you appreciate my honesty Add some more realistic schools to your list Your GPA and SAT score will not get you into an Ivie

6

Astronomy and Physics are incredibly math intensive, and nothing in your grades or standardized test scores is going to give McGill, Caltech, MIT, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton or other highly selective schools confidence that you have the ability to succeed in their programs. Only chance for you to get to a top astro or physics program would be to focus on some match or slight reach schools where you have a better chance of admissions. Get a year or two of straight A’s in math and physics classes and then transfer to a better program