Chance Me for Ivies, Stanford, BU, NYU, USC, UMich - 97.91/100 GPA, 1540 SAT [NY resident; computational biology, data science, bioinformatics, biology]

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics:

  • US Citizen, Domestic Student
  • Public High School on Long Island, New York
  • 17 Chinese-American Male
  • No legacies except for Fordham University
  • 108k annual income, but my dad is the sole source of income and he will retire in fall 2024 - will this be considered in my financial aid?

Intended Major(s):

  • Computational Biology/Biomedical Computation
  • Data Science/Bioinformatics
  • If the college doesn’t offer any of the two majors above: Biological Sciences

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 97.91/100 (edited by mod)
Weighted HS GPA: 102.48/100 (edited by mod)
Class Rank: No class rank, but I’m in top cohort (Weighted Average >100)
Estimated Rank: If I had to guess I’m like rank 15-20 out of 520 students
ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 SAT superscore (760 English, 780 math), 1520 composite (760, 760)

Coursework:

  • 3 AP’s: Music Theory (4), Chinese (5), and World History: Modern (5). Planning on taking AP Calc BC this May as well.
  • 7 IB courses: HL Math Analysis, HL History, HL Literature, SL Physics, SL Music Theory, SL French, and IB TOK - apart from physics and the SLs, these are the hardest classes available in the school (I got a 4 on SL Physics, other tests have yet to be taken)
  • IB Diploma Candidate, CAS Project was a community book drive initiative where we donated all books to the local Children’s Hospital. Extended Essay (EE) is on Music Composition

Awards

  • EXPLORAVISION Science Research Honorable Mention (Regional)
  • Two submitted co-author publications on DNA-Deficient Cancer research (International)
  • AP Scholar
  • High Honor Roll
  • PSAT Commended

Extracurriculars
In order on common app

1 - Memorial Sloan Kettering Pain Internship (Two summers, sophomore and junior year) shadowed attendings, did computational research, this is where my two publications came from

2 - Varsity Badminton Captain, four year starter, #1 doubles ranking in my school. I’m also a volunteer counselor at the summer badminton camp for our school

3 - Organized weekly community badminton training sessions at the local YMCA for the past three years. I also help train current and prospective Varsity players alongside my doubles partner, we invest a lot of time into this one!

4 - Varsity Fencing (for the school), we won League and County Championships, and were 2nd on Long Island. I was a starter for foil. I only spent one year on fencing

5 - Competitive Swimming (7 years) - competed in independent swim clubs, I qualified for regional silvers and metro age champs meets when I was 13-14, and I qualified for this huge meet in Maryland that got cancelled cuz of COVID… then I quit swimming bc it made me depressed. Go figure.

6 - Marching Band Drum Major (and former trumpet section leader), I did Marching Band all four years of HS

7 - High School Select Ensembles - 2nd chair trumpet player, 1st chair pianist, and tenor for Wind Ensemble, Pit Orchestra (School Musical), Chamber Chorus, Jazz Band, and Jazz Messengers (smaller version of Jazz Band and invite only, we play at fundraisers and community events, we got featured on local news once, that was cool)

I would often get home at like 7-8 bc I would have back to back rehearsals lmao but I like music a lot

8 - TRI-M Music Honor Society President… except I actually had to do a lot of work - reached out to local elderly homes and community library to organize music events where students could sign up to perform in the community. (I’ve been president for two years, a member ever since 7th grade)

9 - President’s Council - Student government group, but only for presidents of honor societies - we often go to leadership conferences and we meet with building administration to pretty much ■■■■ on everything wrong with the school and what we would like to improve.

10 - Chinese Culture - I’ve been attending a Chinese School that rents out a building at a local university, where I’ve been learning Chinese since kindergarden (I’m fluent now). I also was a TA for the Children’s Chorus at the Chinese school, sang Peking Opera and Chinese music at annual performances, was a master of ceremony for some of those very same performances, and briefly hosted some episodes of the Chinese School Children’s Podcast. I also went to a culture exchange camp in China (summer before COVID) where I performed a Peking Opera piece and got interviewed by a local CCTV news station

I also have entered in science research competitions (LISEF and NYSSEF, regional fairs that I would need to win to qualify for ISEF), and JSHS with a paper focusing on biomedicine and HPV cancer immunology - these accomplishments would help for waitlists, as I will get most of these competition results in February/March.

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Common App Essay on activity #3 (Community Badminton), I made it very cute, our group was named the Badminton Besties and I talked about how I wanted to promote the sport more within the school and community, and the challenges I had to overcome before settling down at the YMCA, and how I never originally expected to be asked to train other people but slowly began to appreciate it. (8/10)

  • Math Teacher LoR: He wrote a lot of LoRs, I think his letter is good but not outstanding or anything. (6.5/10)

Band Teacher LoR: I’ve known her for four years, she cooked rlly hard on her letter however I prioritized her letter lower bc music isn’t a “core” subject. (10/10)

Stanford Alumni LoR: He was the attending doctor and my mentor for research when I was at MSK. I’ve known him for two years, and he showed me the LoR - probably tied for best LoR along with the band one. (10/10)

Counselor LoR: Better than the math teachers LoR, me and my counselor are pretty tight. (8.5-9/10)

Schools:
EA:

UMich: General Arts and Sciences college, bio major

USC: Dornsife (Art + Science) school, Computational Biology major

Northeastern: Bio major

Fordham, UIC: Bio/Bioinformatics major, these two schools are my safeties

RD:

UCSD, UCI, UCSB, UCLA, UC Berkeley (All for data science/computational bio major) - I’m an out of state applicant

BU, NYU, Rutgers - all for data science/bioinformatics or bio major

Stanford - Biomedical Computation Major

MIT

All ivies except Brown and Dartmouth

Thanks for reading everything, I’m curious to see what you guys think I’ll get into. My first acceptance comes out December 1st for UIC (University of Illinois-Chicago, safety school)

2

Will your dad have retirement income…because that also will count as income for financial aid purposes…even if he is retired.

What is this really?

What does 17 mean here?

Question…did I miss what your parents can contribute annually for you to attend college?

And a second question…you have one academic reference…do you have a second one? Have you checked to see what these colleges want for LOR? Some prefer two academic references…one STEM and one humanities. And many colleges don’t allow extra letters of reference from additional people. Did you check this?

You have a nice academic and EC list here. You have a good variety of colleges on your list. I hope they are all affordable.

3 Likes
3

Adding…you know this already….these schools have very low acceptance rates. Even kids with perfect stats don’t get accepted at colleges with these low acceptance rates. So…just wait and see.

4 Likes
4

You look like a great student, but this is a very reachy list. And Fordham as a safety…Yes, you will almost certainly get in, but will you be able to afford it? It is pricey and that worries me. If you can’t afford it, it’s not really a safety.

7 Likes
5

Unfortunately, the UCs aren’t going to happen due to cost, unless you have a trust fund or something in addition to this income. They cost around $70K per year and there is no need based aid for out of state students. Have you asked your parents how much they can actually afford to pay out of pocket each year? You need to know this before going any further.

11 Likes
6

did you not apply to Bing and Stony Brook? Is UIUC or Fordham worth 20-50K more a year?

6 Likes
7

Congrats on your excellent record! You are academically well qualified for all the schools on your list. Unfortunately most of your schools have tiny admit rates because they get so many well qualified applicants, and many of them are very expensive.

Some of your schools (e.g. Ivys, MIT) have great financial aid, but these are the hardest to get into. Other schools are a bit easier to get into (e.g. some of the UCs) but typically provide no financial aid for OOS applicants, making the cost ~74K/yr for the UCs.

So, in my opinion, what your list lacks is a school that is excellent in your desired majors, and a sure thing admit, and a sure thing to be within budget. So, if it were me, I would apply to a SUNY that fit those criteria.

As a hypothetical: what if the only IVY+ school offer you get is Cornell’s (or USC’s) guaranteed sophomore transfer. Then wouldn’t you maybe want the option to attend Stony Brook for that freshman year, getting a quality education while saving up some money?

9 Likes
8

I would definitely add a SUNY as a safety.

9 Likes
9

A couple of notes: some schools specifically ask for two academic/core LoRs. Others request no additional letters (so check first)

In addition, don’t include activities that you did not participate in during HS (swimming).

1 Like
10

I’m not too sure about the swimming, since you did technically quit before or during 9th grade. And adding getting into silvers and the other stuff isn’t like a huge thing. For example on Long Island theres 1 major club (LIAC) and like 50 or more kids qualify each year for the Maryland meet. And most if not all make it to silvers or JO’s.

1 Like
11

This! Over and over.

2 Likes
12

One more vote for adding SUNY schools to your list. Consider Binghamton, Buffalo, and Stony Brook as some good options.

4 Likes
13

Yes, Stony brook! As for T20s, Your stats wont keep you out, but they probably wont get you in. Add some good LACs that might give you a lot of fin aid.

2 Likes
14

Can your family pay the OOS costs for UI Chicago and Rutgers?

3 Likes
15

@worriedmomucb may have made my point better and sooner than I. However, I do not understand how “University of California out of state” plus “108k income” plus “retire” go together. Is there some huge trust fund waiting for you that you have not mentioned?

You do not want to go in debt for a bachelor’s degree if you can reasonably help it, and it would be even better if you could leave a bit of money in the college fund in case you at some point are considering graduate work. For example, given your possible list of majors and your obvious very strong academics, I would not completely rule out the possibility of a master’s degree, MD, or some other “not fully funded” graduate degree, somewhere down the road.

MIT, Stanford, and the Ivy’s are all reaches, even with your excellent stats and ECs.

University of Illinois, Chicago, may indeed be a safety for admissions. However, given that you are out of state, I would expect it to most likely cost more than SUNY’s, and I do not understand what advantage it would have over them.

I would get an application into two or three SUNY’s as soon as is reasonably possible (and you should check the application deadline ASAP).

7 Likes
16

You might benefit if you were to research some well-funded LACs with available programs in data science.

17

Yes I’ve checked, generally I use my math teacher LoR and the MSK LoR, my music LoR is only when they take two teacher letters
17 is my age
And my weighted gpa is a 102.48/100, I forgot the decimal point lol

18

Have you run each school’s net price calculator? Will Fordham be affordable per the NPC?

We do need to know what your family can contribute each year towards college costs to best help you.

UIC and all all UCs will not be affordable. UIC likely won’t give you enough merit and UCs won’t give you any FA whether need or merit based.

Calling @sybbie719 to assist you in identifying some SUNY and CUNY schools that could work.

1 Like
19

Perhaps someone else can chime in. But my understanding is that colleges want two academic letters of reference…people who know how you learned and progressed in classes they taught. Your MSK LOR is not one of those. That would be a supplemental LOR, in my opinion.

I agree on the affordability aspect. It will do you absolutely no good to get accepted to some of the colleges on your list if you can’t afford the costs to attend.

@Mwfan1921

And…I do think you have a chance of being accepted at some of these colleges…but it’s a chance. And at the very well funded ones, they could be affordable. Agree with others. Take the time to run the Net price calculators to get an estimate of your net costs.

20

Your profile is impressive with a strong academic record, noteworthy extracurriculars, and impactful research experiences. Your commitment to community service and leadership roles showcases a well-rounded personality. The range of schools you’re applying to seems appropriately ambitious, and your well-crafted application materials, especially the Common App essay and strong letters of recommendation, will likely bolster your chances. Keep in mind that admissions can be unpredictable, but your dedication and achievements stand out positively. Best of luck with your college admissions journey!

1 Like