Chance me for selective top schools? I'll chance back!!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I’m a junior girl from a competitive state (think NJ, NY, etc.) & I’m currently trying to figure out where I want to apply to. It would be really helpful if you guys could help me determine if I’m competitive enough for some of the schools I’m considering. This isn’t a solid list yet (more a general list) so I’d welcome any suggestions!!

My school is extremely STEM-focused and I’m pretty much one of the few humanities-oriented kids in my school haha

Objective (tweaked for privacy):
ACT: 36C (36E, M; 35 R, S)
GPA: 4.45 weighted - I don’t know my unweighted GPA but my counselor informed me I’m in the upper tier; I’ve never gotten any Bs or lower
School doesn’t rank
APs: Biology (5), Comp Sci (5), Chinese (5), World History (5), Calculus BC, Chem, Lang, US History
SAT IIs: 800s on Math, Chinese, 780 on Bio E
PSAT: 1500 (likely NMSF)
Senior Year Courseload: AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Physics C, AP Spanish, Multivariate Calculus, AP Stats, Creative Writing
Awards: YoungArts finalist in writing, Just Poetry!!! national winner, 4 Scholastic Art & Writing regional gold keys this year (nat’l results pending), honorable mentions from three university poetry contests (Princeton, Hollins, Gannon), winner of three other national creative writing competitions, USACO Gold

Subjective (tweaked for privacy):
Main Extracurriculars: Writing (attended YoungArts week in Miami, been published in a few selective journals, I serve as poetry editor for a fairly prestigious literary journal & as EiC of my own literary journal, and I was interviewed and featured on an int’l lit mag recently), computer science (NCWIT honorable mention, soon-to-be President of the Computing club at my school, and also I’m a web designer for several clubs and organizations), debate (I’m a captain and I judge tournaments or help the middle schoolers with their practice rounds, & this year I’ve reached several early elimination rounds at nat circuit tournaments, think double or triple-octofinals, and also I’m ranked top 200 on vbriefly), NHS, SNHS, piano (passed level 10)

Summer Activities: A paid computational biology internship over last summer, a previous internship at a computer museum, I participated as a mentee in a few online writing mentorships, and I volunteered and taught basic literacy / math skills at a nearby elementary school. This year I’m applying for a mix of humanities / scientific research programs, and my english teacher has also asked me if I wanted to be a teaching aide for his summer writing class, so that’s a backup.

Schools:
I’m really interested in schools that offer both strong CS/EE and creative writing programs, because I’m not sure whether I want to go into STEM or humanities after college. I’m also really bad at categorizing reaches / matches / safeties so my list might be inaccurate lol

reaches: Yale, Stanford, Brown, University of Pennsylvania, Carnegie Mellon, Swarthmore

matches / safeties (???): UCLA, Georgia Tech, UCB, UCSB, USC, UiUC, U of Iowa, Virginia Tech

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Can you afford these schools?
The California public universities do not give any money (financial aid) to OOS students.

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@“aunt bea”

Yes, my family’s income bracket is pretty high and my parents and I decided that we’d be able to afford the UC tuitions.

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If you are humanities oriented GT may be too heavy STEM for you. I have been accepted at GT and I’m not sure it is the best fit for me. Look at their course catalog and see if they offer enough humanities classes for you. However you do say you want to study CS/EE so maybe it would be a good fit for you. I wouldn’t count GT as a safety. Read the GT 2021 threads and you will see a lot of rejections and deferrals of students with similar stats as yours. @grandlv

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So, your list as-is looks pretty good. Your reaches will be, as you expected, reaches. (If you’re applying to Carnegie, I’m assuming you’re looking at their BxE program? That looked super cool, but also borderline impossible to get into)

If you’re looking for CS/EE, maybe throw in Princeton and Columbia. Honestly, there’s no school you won’t have a shot at, so shoot for the moon. All those top colleges will have what you’re looking for, so just visit some and see what you like the feel of and where you can see yourself. Good luck.

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@STEM2021 According to College Kickstart GT is a low target school for me, given my stats. I do agree with you on the uneven STEM/humanities split, so I guess I’ll have to do more research before I decide if I want to apply or not!

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Your GPA/test scores are great and definitely won’t hold you back, and you have a good mix of EC’s that show your interests well and definitely back up what you want to study. Honestly, your lists are pretty on target- Ivies and the other schools you listed are extremely competitive and reject qualified candidates every year, but it’s always good to have a few reaches in there. Your matches/safeties looks good too, with the exception of GT- not quite that easy to get into even with great stats. Best of luck!!

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OMG, I was feeling like our writing & humanities stuff were a bit too similar until I realized who this is. (We travel in the same writing circles… You were a mentee in the workshop I mentored at last summer, I believe. Not like I’d share your post or anything! :slight_smile: )

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Regarding this post, though, I definitely think you should apply to Stanford EA. It’s obviously incredibly strong in CS, but I know they’re making a concerted effort to take in more writers. That you can fit both the current atmosphere of the school but also bring that writing strength will make you a very, very strong applicant for them specifically. Obviously you have a chance everywhere, but that specific combination seems best suited for Stanford.

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Good luck to you! College visits really helped me narrow my list down. So if you have that opportunity go for it. I ruled out UCSB, Berkeley, USC and several east coast schools after visiting, all for different reasons. @grandlv

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CS/EE and Creative Writing? I would look into Michigan.

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@writergirl0316 Ahhh what a small (writer’s) world!! :slight_smile: Yeah, I’m definitely considering Stanford - a few people from my school got in last year, and they’re currently doing really well there!

@yikesyikesyikes Thanks! I’ll look into Michigan.

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Stanford has the experimental CS + X program where you can joint major in CS and Humanities. You could do a program in CS + English or CS + Comparative Literature for example. Sounds ideal for you. Good luck!

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I would add that normally trying to double major in CS and an unrelated field like Comparative Literature is extremely difficult. The course requirements and workload for CS are very heavy. Combine that with having to also satisfy a school’s gen ed distribution requirements and there is very little time to pursue a second major in an unrelated field. One school where this might be doable is Yale, where there CS requirements are comparatively lower than most CS programs. As I mentioned above, Stanford is piloting a program that makes combining CS + a Humanities major doable. So far, it seems to be quite successful.

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Keep in mind with more than 100,000 applicants each, UCB and UCLA are matches and safeties for no one.

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hey! i think you are all set for safeties you seem like a pretty competitive applicant but your EC’s are just average. I’m not saying that their not great but you seem like every other applicant who is going to apply to the ivies that’s why the person who commented right before be keep in mind that you have 100,000 applicants to schools like the UC’s you seem live every other applicant and there nothing that makes you stand out especially when it comes to the EC’s. You have great EC’s but, you just have the basic ones that everyone else would normally have. You still have A LOT of time so don’t get to worried about it. Try to take initiative when it comes to your clubs start up a club or do something thats super community oriented. Try to reach out to middle schoolers by teaching them about women in the stem field do things like that that are out of your comfort zone. Also you don’t specify any community service hours sooo idk what you did. with that being said, here is what I think.

UCLA - accept
Georgia Tech - accept
UCB - waitlist/accept
UCSB - accept
USC, - reject
UiUC, - waitlist
U of Iowa - accept
Virginia Tech - accept
Yale - reject
Stanford - reject
Brown - accept
University of Pennsylvania - reject/waitlist
Carnegie Mellon - accept
Swarthmore - not super familiar with this school but accept/waitlist

Chance me back?

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@gumbymom, maybe you can shed some light on the data for chances for UC’s. ^^^

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@softiestudies I actually have a few hundred volunteering hours, as well as several other EC-related outreach initiatives that I didn’t include in my original post. I’m not really interested in community service, and I don’t want to start a club just for the sake of getting into college (besides, I have other leadership positions anyways).

Out of curiosity, what’s wrong with having basic EC’s? I agree that my EC’s are pretty typical (although doing humanities is pretty unusual from where I live) but I think colleges focus more on extracurricular depth / passion through achievement and leadership rather than how “average” the applicant’s EC’s appear to be. I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Thanks for chancing! I’ll chance back as soon as I can.

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Stanford is a high reach for anyone, so I would say your chances are low. Yale and UPenn are reaches as well, but you have better chances with them than Stanford in my opinion, Brown is a reach too, but I think you have good chances. The rest of the schools you seem to have great chances with, and I’d say you’d be accepted to all.

Chance me back? http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/cornell-university/1967883-cornell-rd-chances-again-lol.html#latest

20

^ I disagree… I think OP’s blend of CS & humanities means she will fit into the Stanford community better than at her other schools, and “fit” is so incredibly important.