Chance me for BC, BU, Emory

FL resident
GPA: weighted 4.4/4, unweighted 3.8/4
SAT Superscore 1430, highest one time total 1400
SAT Subject test Bio E 670, Math 1 720
ACT 29 with Bio 31
Want to go pre-med, probably sciences
Public HS in FL
7 AP courses through junior year and 4 more in senior year (HS pre-med focused)
Attended 2 week Forensic Science summer course at BC this past summer
High School Varsity Soccer and Hockey team (yes, there is hockey in FL)
Over 100+ hours volunteering for local hospical
National Honor Society, National Honor Science Society, National Honor Math Society
Male white, no hooks

Also considering: Northeastern, BU, Tufts, Brown (stretch), UNC, Virginia, Univ of Florida, Emory and Carnegie Mellon

What are my chances for BC? Which on my list may be safe, good fits, or stretches?

thank you

The experts will weigh in, but you may have a decent shot with ED1. That would mean you would have to close out the idea of going to BC by application deadline of November 1. Have you visited Emory? Do you know that it’s a fit for you? It’s nothing like BC and I say that as an Emory grad who works in Boston and lives in the suburbs. The makeup of the student body is nothing alike. Since your 1440 is a better score than your ACT score, just submit that.

Using your SAT, I would call BC a low reach or a high match.

The rest:

Brown - Reach
UNC OOS - Reach
UVA OOS - Reach
Emory - Reach/Low reach
CMU - Reach/Low reach
Tufts - Reach/Low reach
Northeastern - Low reach/High match
BU - High match/Match
UF in-state - Low match

I think you’re pretty safe if you would be happy at BU or UF. You might consider adding another Florida state school (like FSU) to be 100% safe.

@prezbucky Thank you very much. Very helpful. And FSU is definitely on the list for safety (and actually like the campus)! I already submitted my ACT to BC because I used it to help get accepted to the summer program. I hope they don’t hold it against me and that they use my SAT and my subject tests because I think those are better.

@BCBoundMaybe
Chances for Emory are similar to Brown, I personally would ED1 at 1 of those schools for the best chance possible.

@ljberkow Thank you for responding. My perfect school is BC, so I don’t think I can do ED at Emory. I visited all the schools except for VA and UNC. I sort of felt like Emory was a nice in-between compared to a Tufts v Carnegie Mellon. Emory had more of a campus feel like Tufts, but closer in proximity to a city feel like Carnegie. I am originally from MA, so my hope is to get back to school in Boston and be close to hospitals like Beth Israel, Mass General, Brigham, and others. Thanks for giving me feedback.

Good luck and good strategy suggestion by VandEmory on going for ED1 at BC.

Just to clear something up: there is no ED1 at BC, and applying EA doesn’t really confer an advantage, as the strongest applicants apply EA for a chance at a Presidential Scholarship. Some say, then, that EA is actually more selective.

BC particularly values commitment to service. I agree that it is a high match/low reach if you are sure to demonstrate this commitment in your essays, and you convey that BC is your “perfect school” as you’ve mentioned. Another caveat: does your weighted GPA place you in the top 10% of your class? I was just within the top 10% of my class (~9%) at a public South Florida HS with a slightly higher weighted GPA than you (but a lower unweighted)… If your GPA places you outside of the top 10%, that would push BC more into the low-reach than high-match territory.

Good luck!

@sherlockhouse Thank you. I’m 22 out of 390, so top 6%. Do you think volunteering for Hospice and tutoring students for National Honor Society are helpful for community service? I also volunteered to clean up the beaches. I’m pretty busy with sports, so I don’t have too much more free time. My hospice volunteering is the most with over 100 hours.

@BCBoundMaybe – Ranking looks great, then! I assume your school uses the same grading scale as mine, but my school’s weighted GPAs might be relatively more inflated than yours. Certainly high match / low reach (more high match, I’d say?) given your ranking, especially since you have taken a rigorous courseload. And, yes, your community service does seem strong. Make your commitment shine in your BC supplement essay and check off on the Common App that you plan to continue similar activities in college. And I didn’t mean to dissuade you from EA. Your test scores are slightly above the median for BC so stats-wise you should feel comfortable applying in whichever round you choose.

I ended up dropping my list to BC, BU, Northeastern, UNC, Emory, UF and FSU. I got deferred at BC, so still crossing my fingers there. Thanks for everyone’s feedback.

@VANDEMORY1342 @prezbucky @sherlockhouse @ljberkow just wanted to thank you for your insight early on in this process. Wow, I wish I had a crystal ball 6 months ago. I think having BC as my dream school and #1 choice coupled with BC not having ED really hurt me. Since it was my #1, I chose not to do ED anywhere. And the end result was that I was waitlisted at BC, BU and Emory :-(. Looking back and knowing that I wouldn’t get accepted at BC, I wish I had applied ED to Emory. Not that it was a guarantee that I would have been accepted there, I’m thinking since I was waitlisted I would have had a great shot of getting in ED. Another lesson learned, I should have never applied to UNC from being OOS, chances were next to zero of being accepted and it really wasn’t in my top 3.

I sort of wish I applied to Tufts but I think the outcome would have been similar.

In the end, I’m landing at UF. I’m very happy. I was just hoping to land in the Boston area and at a smaller school. But UF has some great qualities and I think I’ll have the opportunities to be successful in my pre-med major and reaching my goals.

It’s been a crazy experience. Not sure what more I could have done. I can’t believe how tough the competition was and how many smart kids there are out there. I will say the college data website is definitely outdated and doesn’t really show the true picture of reality of what you need to be accepted at these schools, it’s somewhat misrepresented.

Just thought I’d close the chapter. Hope you or your kids were successful and thanks for your feedback.

Go Gators!

@BCBoundMaybe UF is a very good flagship university. Good to see that you are not down and it’s not worth it to second guess yourself. At the end of the day, there isn’t much difference between UF and the other schools. Wha you do there is more important.

I do agree with you on an ED1 at Emory. If you really want to go to Emory, Tufts, or BC, consider the transfer route as an option. Transferring is easier than an original application.

I am not a fan of the strategy that high school seniors have to implement to get where they want to be. It makes you choose and commit to a school even before you are really ready.