Chance me for Penn, JHU, Gtown, Etc.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I will be starting senior year.

Resident of Pennsylvania
White
Male

I have a 4.3201/5 weighted gpa
I have a 95.76 unweighted gpa

Freshman year course: honors science, advanced computer tech, honors us history, honors algebra, honors English, honors Spanish, gym, and honors geometry.
Sophomore year course: honors bio, honors chem, honors alg 2, honors world history, honors Spanish 2, gym, honors pre-calc, and honors English.
Junior year course: honors Spanish 3, honors English, honors anatomy 1, honors chem 2, honors anatomy 2, honors psychology, honors government and civics, and gym.
Prospective senior year course: AP Calc, College English, College stats, College bio, AP Euro History, Honors economics, College history sem, College Spanish.
That is the most rigorous schedule possible. I am taking every AP and college level class my school offers.
Class Rank: I think I am around 7-10/354. Top 5%

SAT 1: 710 in Critical Reading, 730 in Math, and 610 in Writing. In my PSAT’s my writing score was much higher so I think once I retake I can get it to 700. My practice tests have me getting about a 730 in CR 760 in M and 710 in WR for a 2200 composite score.
SAT 2: Haven’t taken yet…but I think I will take Math 2, Literature, and Biology (M)
ACT: Haven’t taken and don’t plan to take.

Volunteer work: Around 300 hours. 260-270 came from tutoring and the rest came from mentoring 6th graders. I am also setting up volunteer work at my local hospital.
EC’s with years in parenthesis: Student Council (2), Science Olympiad (2), Mentor to 9th graders (1), Future business leaders of America (2), Varsity golf (4), Varsity lacrosse (2), JV lacrosse (1). I also did tae-kwon-do for 5 years and received my black-belt. I also participated in the People to People Student Ambassador program.

I am a first generation college student and will be the first generation in my family to not work in a local factory. I plan on mentioning this in my essays as a piece of overcoming expectations. I also plan on mentioning that my parents got divorced and my mom lost her job due to injuries throughout my high school experience. I plan on saying, I do not use this as an excuse…I use this as motivation. I want to strive to be something better than my family. And I don’t only want to be better, I want to influence my family to be better. I come from a low income family, meaning money is a huge obstacle to overcome in the college search. I don’t want this to ever be a problem for anyone in my family again.

Recommendation wise I am getting the teacher who taught me for Biology, both Anatomy classes, and will be my teacher for College level Bio. He is the best teacher I have ever had, and is the person who has been a major motivating and influential factor in my interest in medicine. I will also get my counselor who can attest to how I have matured and grown up over my high school years. I fully expect both of their letters to be fantastic.

I would like to major in either Biology or Business management. I plan on moving toward either Medical school to be a surgeon or law school to specialize in corporate law.

So here are the schools:

Penn
JHU
Wash U in St. Louis
Georgetown
USC
Boston College
NYU
Rochester
BU
Northeastern
Miami
Pitt

I know most of those at the top are pretty big reaches and I will probably only apply if I can get some fee waivers. Let me know anyway.

If you have any other suggestions let me know.

I know I wrote a novel but if you read the whole thing and leave me a comment it means a lot to me. Thanks everyone

2

Didn’t you already do one of these threads?

3

Yeah I did a thread a few days ago but I only had about 4 schools. Sorry I am not trying to flood the forums, but someone told me to get more schools in between my top schools and Pitt so I tried to find some schools from like 20-60. And I just wanted to know if these schools would be good or not.

Edit: The 20-60 is in reference to U.S. News University rankings.

4

I think you have a good shot at a lot of those schools, but if you want to get in to Penn, I think that you will have to raise your sat 100-150 points to be a very competitive applicant. Your subject test scores are also going to be important, but your ECs are looking pretty good. Like I said, if you can raise your test scores, I think that you have a pretty decent shot :slight_smile:

5

Thanks WaffleMan. Yeah I think Penn, JHU, Wash @ STL and Georgetown are my reaches. Pitt is my safety/match. The rest range from match to low reach.

6

Bump.

7

Bump again.

Also does anyone know which of these schools are strong for biology and/or business?

Thanks for any responses guys.

8

Bump.

I’m gonna add some state schools as well.

UNC, U Michigan, U Wisconsin, U Wash (Seattle).

Also what are those 4 like for need based aid for OOS students. I am from a low income family so I would need a lot. I think Wash is pretty bad, but I think UNC is pretty good.

Thanks for any responses again.

9

Opinions (especially since you don’t seem to have any particular love for the school):

=> Skip UNC- it has a limit of 18% OOS - including recruited athletes. Unless you have a compelling reason, skip it.

=> Skip WashU - good marketing and merit aid for students with high test scores has helped it rocket up the rankings, but I don’t see what it has to offer you irl, and it is need-aware.

=> Skip JHU- grade deflationary (punishing for applying to grad school) and will include loans in finaid (also have heard of a fair few people having their finaid packages get revised downward in 2nd year).

Consider a couple of the economically diverse [url=<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools%5DLACs%5B/url”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools]LACs[/url]. You would be a good candidate for just about any of those colleges.

10

Actually I do like UNC. I just forgot to put it in my OP and added it with the others. My aunt lives in Charlotte and went to UNC-Charlotte for her MBA. She also knows a lot of admission guys and people with some pull so she is gonna try to do what she can for me. I don’t know how much that will help but yeah. Plus I love UNC basketball and lacrosse.
I added the others just for some extra schools.

I read about the JHU thing before and that is a real bummer because I will most likely either be going to med or law school post grad.

Thanks for the response though Collegemom.

11

UNC Charlotte wouldn’t be my favorite of the UNCs- the big name, of course, is Chapel Hill, but my Ds love the Asheville campus best :slight_smile:

12

To collegemom3717, I guess I could have worded that better. The people she knows are all at Chapel Hill and that is the place I would go.

13

Bump