chance me for brown ed, yale, and vanderbilt!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

hey everybody!

I’m a junior from the San Francisco Bay Area (Silicon Valley to be specific) in California. After visiting Brown earlier this year, it has shot up to the top of my list. Also interested in other schools which I’ve listed below. I’m curious to get some feedback/opinions on my honest chances on admission.

Context:
Latino middle-class male from relatively competitive public high school
my school is an International Baccalaureate school (akin to AP; big difference is focus on depth of education as opposed to breadth of education)
academic family (would be 4th-gen Stanford student, uncle went to Brown, aunt went to Yale)
intended major: economics (maybe also political science, business, data science, international relations, psychology, music help i’m so undecided)

hooks:
Bilingual Latino
Passionate about the intersection of math and social sciences
Well-versed in communications (debate, public speaking)
Leadership experience (debate president, chair of governmental committee)
Musical (hella music stuff listed below)
full IB Diploma scholar with high ACT and GPA

Stats:
ACT: 35
GPA UW: 4.0
planning on taking Math II and maybe Spanish SAT subject tests (aiming for 750+ on both)
(will have taken) 1 AP class (Stats) 3 AP exams (taken Stats already and got a 5)
(will have taken) 11 IB classes, 6 IB exams (max possible for me because of 2-year courses)
full IB Diploma candidate (look it up if you don’t know what it is)

Academic Awards:
National Merit Commended
competitive School Math Award (all 3 years so far)
Nomination for County Outdoor Education Cabin Leader of the Year
National Hispanic Scholar
CSF Life Member

ec’s:
President of school’s debate team (11th and 12th) and nationally ranked parliamentary debater
Chair of the Immigrant Youth Committee of my county’s Youth Commission (governmental organization)
Worked all summer before 11th grade (and probably the summer before 12th too) at Cazadero Performing Arts Camp (as a Counselor-in-Training)
Volunteer on public service trip to Panama summer before 10th grade
Athletics: cross country, track (varsity)
Competitive jazz pianist (with classical background). (by the time I apply) piano for 14 years, clarinet for 8 years, bass clarinet for 4 years, alto saxophone for 2.5 years, percussion for 2 years
Pianist in competitive Stanford-based high school all-stars jazz big band. Placed third at Monterey Next Generation Jazz Festival.
Clarinetist in Peninsula Youth Orchestra (6th-9th grade)
Pit Orchestra musician (9th-12th grade). Highlights include having to learn percussion from scratch at a high level in one month (for The Addams Family), clarinetist in Fiddler on the Roof (iykyk)
Volunteered weekly at a local public middle school teaching music to 6th graders

future plans:
Organize/teach class at a local migrant academy for kids who have recently been released from detention centers at the border (still deciding what the class will be on, probably music)
Intern/work at percussion rental company in San Francisco
Putting together a high-level jazz combo
joining Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco
learning a third language (italian prob) at a community college

essay ideas:
(I swear I’m going to word it better than this. just a basic idea of my thought process)

My deep love/interest for baseball statistics (sabermetrics) began in 6th grade. My uncle invited me to join his office fantasy baseball league, which was coded by his boss, and used actual sabermetric data. It seemed like everyone in the league had PhD’s and worked at a top energy consulting company, and then there was me, a 6th grader. I loved it so much because it gave me a way to apply math and data to things that weren’t quantifiable. Essentially, I could find ways of predicting the unpredictable. This took on personal significance to me because that same year, within a few months, both my 7-year-old cousin as well as a dear friend and classmate of mine passed away in controllable, preventable, yet unpredictable circumstances. These traumatic experiences showed me the beautiful yet potentially disastrous consequences of the natural unpredictability of the world around me, beginning a deeply seeded relationship between numbers, society, and myself. Because of the beauty of the intersection between math and the humanities, I have always sought explanations where there aren’t any, I have always sought answers where there shouldn’t be questions, and I have always strived to find ways to predict the unpredictable.

Based on the information I’ve detailed above, what do you think my realistic chances of admission at a school like Brown (ED) are? For reference, here are some other schools I’m looking at (not in order):

UCLA (target/reach)
UCSB (target)
Tufts (target/reach)
Yale (reach)
Stanford (reach)
Vanderbilt (reach)
Indiana University (safety)
Rochester (safety)
Emory (target)
Penn (reach)
University of Washington (safety)
Northwestern (reach)
USC (target/reach)
WashU in St. Louis (target/reach)
UNC Chapel Hill (target)
Fordham (safety)

Thank you so much for any feedback/chances you might have for me. Much appreciated! I’m gonna go get to work on my English homework now. :sunglasses:

p.s. if any other schools come to mind when looking at my list, please feel free to recommend!

2

I think you might like Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).

3

You have a good chance for Brown ED, close to their overall ED acceptance rate (in the 20s now, I think.) Any highly selective college applied to RD is a reach for sure (Yale/Vanderbilt come to mind.) Rochester is now tied with Tufts on the U.S. News rankings – it’s not a safety by any means.

4

Almost all of your schools are reaches. Your safety schools are all out of state, which means if you get in, you will be unlikely to afford to pay triple the tuition plus room and board. Brown is a private university, and a high reach school for anyone. Just remember, even if you get in, there’s still a high probability you won’t be able to afford the tuition plus room and board. Those schools aren’t always generous with financial aid.

I recommend mostly scrapping the list and focusing on mainly California schools. Even then, as you know, living costs are ridiculously expensive in California, making dorms highly competitive. Since you live in the bay area, put San Jose State as your safety. It’s a school you can afford and you can commute if all else fails.

If you want to go out of state, there are scholarships available. If you apply for full rides, you’re bound to get one. The south and southwestern US are underrepresented areas. Right now, you qualify for a full tuition scholarship at Baylor and TCU. Also check out scholarships at Univ of Alabama and Univ of AZ.

5

@coolguy40 I would disagree - the OP’s stats are great and his race will help him at quite a few of the private colleges he applies to. I’d actually say that he shouldn’t focus on CA public schools due to their race-blind admissions process. Yes, his list is reach-heavy for sure, but he shouldn’t scrap it altogether.

On a different note, who in heck thinks UNC is a target from out of state??

6

@deneuralyzer yeah ngl i don’t know much about unc and i still don’t know if i’ll apply.

on another note @everybody: thank you for your feedback. I know my list is reach heavy, and I’m looking to add more safeties (University of Maryland, other UC’s). I’m at the beginning (relatively speaking) of my college search process, and I’m just looking to gain an understanding of where I’m at right now.

7

@Cake360 i’ve looked at CMU but it’s a little too focused on polar opposites (STEM vs. arts). That was my take-away from it. Is that consistent with the truth or am I totally wrong?

8

UMD would not be a safety for an out of state applicant.

9

@coolguy40 with all due respect, although my family isn’t the richest in the world and we live in a really expensive housing market, my family has been saving for college since the day I was born, and as a result, we will be okay financially. Obviously, colleges are really expensive, and I will be applying to different scholarships in order to piece money together here and there, but it seems a little bit too much to assume my financial situation based on the very little information I’ve given in the post.

Additionally, although I do need more safeties on the list, I’m not going to scrap it entirely. By your logic, every single California resident, no matter their income level, would go to a California college. You’ve failed to take into account the fact that I didn’t just put colleges on my list just to put them; I genuinely am excited about leaving California, or at the very least the Bay Area. So although San Jose State is a perfectly fine safety, it’s not what I’m looking for. I am going to continue looking for good, relatively affordable out-of-state schools, but in the meantime, you should focus on not assuming other people’s financial situations and leave the financial worrying to them.

10

@momofsenior1 again, thanks for the advice. I have plenty of research left to do on safeties when it comes to finding one that I can afford and that I genuinely would be happy going to.

11

Just as an aside, because I do not do chances, which I view as pointless, but don’t take a Subject Test in Spanish (unless it’s your 3rd) if you want to put together a strong application. Here is what Brown says:

https://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/content/how-would-brown-view-sat-subject-test-my-native-language

12

You have a very strong profile. As a 4th gen legacy and URM, why are you not applying early to Stanford?

13

@javimelon14 All I’m saying is that money is a finite resource and you’ll be amazed how fast it gets sucked away in an expensive place like college. The choice is yours, of course. They might have a wad of cash to send you anywhere. Great! Food for thought…save what you can, because a debt-free masters degree with the same money is worth more than a bachelors out of state.

14

I don’t think UDub is a safety. A few kids from my daughter’s school (also competitive bay area) with 4.0 or near-4 GPAs got rejected last year.

15

Surprised that Berkeley is not on the list of schools. It’s not a match by any means, but the OP has the grades/test scores.

If the OP is willing to take 3 SAT Subject tests, Georgetown might be worth targeting.

16

Georgetown EA, Brown ED seems to be the move.

17

Can’t. Georgetown is REA. And both deadlines are past anyway.

18

Whoops, haha.

19

@javimelon14 I am with sgopal2 above - why not Stanford ED, with legacy and URM? As a well rounded, academically strong student, in what looks like a mid to high SES Hispanic demographic, I think you have a pretty good chance than most at the reaches (but they’re still reaches). I don’t know which ED deadlines have passed, but some are Nov 15. I do agree that UMD and UW are not safeties, especially if you are looking for any of their limited enrollment programs.

20

I don’t have feedback on chances but I’m curious how, as a junior, you already know that you are NM Commended and National Hispanic Scholar.