Chance Me for Rice, CMU, JHU, etc! Will try to chance back!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey all, this is my first post in CC so please bear with me! I'm a rising senior and preparing to apply for college, but I'd like to get some opinions on matches/reaches, etc. I think I have a pretty good idea of which schools are safeties and reaches, but I don't want to overestimate/underestimate myself. Thanks for the help!</p>

<p>My list of schools so far are among the following: Rice (dream school), Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, WashU, Northwestern, University of Maryland-College Park, Duke, Princeton, </p>

<p>Here's what I think:
Safety: UMD, WashU
Match/Low Reach: Rice, CMU, Northwestern
Reach: JHU, Duke, Princeton (very high reaches, I know)</p>

<p>I'm looking to major in Biomedical engineering/Bioengineering and go pre-med</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT I: 2220 M: 750 CR: 760 W: 710 (I have no clue why)
SAT II: Math 2: 760, Bio E: 670 (planning to retake)
ACT: none, but will take in the fall
Unweighted GPA: 3.71 (very competitive magnet IB program. I know that's no excuse, but MD is known for its rigorous academics so that might be taken into account)
Weighted GPA: should be ~ 4.40
Class rank: n/a, school doesn't do class rank
AP: US Gov (5), Psychology (5), Chinese (4), US History (4), Chemistry, Literature, AB Calc
IB: French SL (5, was 1 POINT AWAY FROM A 6), Math SL (7)
Senior Year Courses: IB Bio HL, IB History HL, IB English 12 HL, TOK, IB Anthropology SL, IB Physics, AP Statistics
Major Awards: None really, Hon. Mention at Congressional Art Competition?</p>

<p>ECs:
Volunteer Service Hours: 450+ registered
Lacrosse team (JV captain sophomore year, 1 year Varsity)
Art studio: 6 years, many awards from local/state shows
Red Cross Club: 4 years, VP 2 years
Science tutoring club (we go to elementary schools an hold interactive science lessons): VP, External relations
Model UN: 3 years
Science Honor Society
(Hesitant to put the actual name) Club that advocates education for rural students: Director of External affairs (2 years)
School Newspaper writer 2 years, Graphics Section Editor </p>

<p>Job/Work Experience:
(Here's where I hope to boost myself up a little bit)
-Research Internship at National Institutes of Health: 2 summers, 500+ hours. (I actually was able to volunteer in the same lab during the school year too) 2nd summer is paid. May be an author in a published paper soon! I work with cancer cells (sp. melanoma and breast), do cell culture, staining, data analysis, etc. I've really gained lots of valuable experience from my internship and now I'm hoping that could be something that can stand out to colleges? It's definitely something I'd love to write about in an essay.
-GEMS internship (engineering program)</p>

<p>Other:
Gender: F
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
State: MD
School: Public, Magnet IB program with 10% acceptance rate
Income: Upper Middle Class</p>

<p>I know my biggest weakness is my GPA, which is pretty much a result of my freshman year's foolishness. Plus the fact that I don't have any major awards and (not to be insensitive) I'm Asian.</p>

<p>I've visited Rice and absolutely loved the environment there, everything feels perfect to me (dorm situations, location (I was born in TX!), opportunities, etc). I've been looking through the stats of people from the class of 2014 who've been accepted/deferred/rejected, and they're all amazing. I just don't want to get ahead of myself and be in the wrong mindset.</p>

<p>Any help, suggestions, edits/adds to my list of school would be greatly appreciated! :)
Will do my best to chance back!</p>

2

<p>WashU is not safety school. It is also very competitive </p>

3

<p>@lotusg Sorry if I came off arrogant by saying that, should I consider it a match then? What I meant by safety school is really just a school I believe I can get into, not necessarily I school I will definitely get into. Thanks!</p>

4

<p>That’s not the CC definition of safeties so you might wanna refresh on that. People will get the wrong idea. </p>

<p>Based on the CC definition of safety which is that you will definitely get in. Here’s what I think </p>

<p>Reach: Princeton, Duke, WashU
Match: Rice, JHU, CMU, NW
Safety: UMD </p>

<p>if you love Rice, apply ED (25% acceptance rate). I’m assuming you’ve visited but if you haven’t, i went last march and it was amazing. I’m not applying ED but if I don’t get into Brown i’ll be applying so maybe i’ll see you there in a year. </p>

<p>Chance me back? </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1661456-chance-me-for-u-penn-tufts-and-brown-new-act-score.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1661456-chance-me-for-u-penn-tufts-and-brown-new-act-score.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Safety school means that has acceptance rate 65% or higher.</p>

6

<p>@marilo12‌ Thanks for the help! My bad, new poster here, should’ve read the rules first whoops. I did go visit earlier this year and loved it as well! I’m just worried about the money issue- Rice is pretty expensive (even if its cheaper than most ivies) and I’m just worried that I wont be able to get enough financial aid and that might keep me from going. I’m definitely considering ED anyhow. Good luck w/ your apps!</p>

<p>@lotusg‌ Thanks, I’ll definitely remember that now :)</p>

<p>Any possible other safety schools I could consider?</p>

7

<p>well you should use the net price calculator for rice. it’s pretty accurate considering they will give you 100% of your need so whatever the FAFSA says, is what you’ll get. </p>

<p>i would look at schools with 30 to 50 % acceptance rates with your stats as safeties. </p>

8

<p>Reach: Princeton, Duke
Low Reach/High Match: WashU, JHU
Match: RICE, CMU, NW
Safety: UMD</p>

9

<p>You should be fine even without taking the ACT. Here’s what I think:
Reach: Princeton, Duke
Match/Low Reach: CMU, NW, Rice, and JHU
Safety: UMD</p>

10

<p>Thanks phoebecaulfield and RacquetSmasher! It’s a relief to hear that :)</p>

11

<p>bump</p>

12

<p>Your GPA shouldn’t be too much of a problem. If colleges see that you improved throughout high school, you should be fine. My guidance counsellor told me that some colleges don’t even take freshmen year into consideration because so many students are adjusting to a new school environment and harder work load. Your credentials are impressive! I concur with what RacquetSmasher says. </p>

13

<p>Chance me back I’m new to this as well: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1666457-i-need-some-direction-in-my-college-search-johns-hopkins-wustl-purdue-emory.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1666457-i-need-some-direction-in-my-college-search-johns-hopkins-wustl-purdue-emory.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

14

<p>I agree with you mostly (except WashU) and no need to take ACT since you have a good SAT! And dont worry about your GPA, they take school into consideration!
Safety: UMD
Match/Low Reach: Rice, CMU, Northwestern, WashU
Reach: JHU, Duke, Princeton</p>

<p>Chance pls: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1666543-chance-me-jhu-yale-harvard-brown-case-western-osu-washu-uchicago.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1666543-chance-me-jhu-yale-harvard-brown-case-western-osu-washu-uchicago.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>Yeah UMD can maybe be considered a safety for you. Rice is a match I believe, and the rest are reaches imo. Though I believe you are a super competitive applicant at all these schools. </p>

<p>Chance Back: </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-notre-dame/1666594-a-somewhat-different-applicant-chance.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-notre-dame/1666594-a-somewhat-different-applicant-chance.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>Thanks all for the help! (Finished chancing back, whew)
Any other help/tips/schools would be appreciated as well! </p>

17

<p>bump</p>

18

<p>bump</p>

19

<p>Here are the soft definitions of safety, match and reach: </p>

<p>Reach-
•The school has an acceptance rate of around 35% or less. There are simply too many applicants and not enough spots.</p>

<p>Match-
•Your standardized test scores are within the 25th to 75th percentile range.
•The school has an acceptance rate closer to 50%.</p>

<p>Safety-
•Your standardized test scores are above the 75th percentile range.
•The school has an acceptance rate usually higher than 50%.</p>

<p>For example, if you look up the college data for CMU it says: the 50% range is M 690-790 (avg 729), CR 630-730 (672), and W is 650-740 (693) and 3.75%+ 51% of the students had that; acceptance rate is 28%</p>

<p>So at first you are in the the top of the 50% (25%-75%) range for SAT M and W and above 75% in W; however, the acceptance rate is 28%. This is a Reach school for everyone because of the low acceptance rate.</p>

<p>This is what I think (the % is the acceptance rate per college data):
JHU - Reach 18%
Wash U - Reach 18%
Rice - Reach 17%
Duke - Reach 19%
Princeton - Reach 8%
CMU - Reach 28%
Northwestern - Reach 26%
UMD - Safety/Match 47%</p>

<p>You definitely need at least 2 safety and 2 match schools. Right now you are very top heavy (reach). Students with perfect stats: 2400 4.0 are rejected from all of these reach schools above so that is why it is Reach! They don’t have enough spots so it is a crap shoot. All you can do is try!</p>

20

<p>Duke’s acceptance rate is not 19% it is 10.8%. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2014/03/27/duke-accepts-2697-applicants-class-2018”>http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2014/03/27/duke-accepts-2697-applicants-class-2018&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;