Chance me for some top schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Chance me for Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Harvard, Brown, and Cornell. As well as schools where I can get thick merit aid.

Major: biology/chemistry White middle-class male from midwest. I go to a small rural public school.

GPA: 4.0uw Class Rank: 1/160 Course load: All honors, dual enrollment, or AP classes. Taking AP psych and stats. Self-studying for AP bio, chem, USH, and macro. Taken dual enrollment chem, calc, trig, algebra, literature, speech, writing, anatomy 1, anatomy 2, and anatomy 3. (Anatomy is like bio) ACT:36C (35, 36, 36, 36) SAT Subject Tests: Math 2: 800, Chem: 760, Bio E: 750 Essays: Personal statement 8.5/10 Lor: 9/10, 8/10, 7/10.

ECS: FCCLA:Chapter Vice President, State Vice President of Public Relations, National alternate 2016/2017 & 2017/18, Helped plan food drives, Halloween safety, and Cancer fundraiser. Published Press releases. wrote articles for state newsletter. Designed and published state newsletter.

Wrestling: All-tournament team 2017/18. Scholar athlete 2016/17/18. Letter 2016/17/18. 2017 and 2018 state team champions. 2016 9th Grade state champion

LEO: Member 4 years, Chapter Officer 2 years, Attended LEO leadership camp in 2017 and helped organize several community service projects.

HOSA: 1St place in Medical Reading state. Attended 2018 International Leadership Conference. 2 year member.

Student gov: Student council VP, Class officer student liaison, prom committee. Plan prom, homecoming, snow week, and other school events.

Lifeguard/WSI: Worked at pool for 3 years. Taught swimming lessons 17 & 18.

Student activity representative: Plan schoolwide events, publicize school events, encourage students to attend events.

Mentorship: 2 publications through Mayo Clinic on 3-d modeling and anatomical modeling.

Community Service: 500+ hours through FCCLA, LEO, and church.

Awards: ExCEL Award (Awarded to 30 juniors in the state for excellence in school, community, and leadership)

City Congeniality Ambassador

Honor Gaurd

2018 Norman Borlaug Science Achievement Award (awarded to 25 juniors in the state for excellence in science)

Wrestler on the 2016 Cadet State national team. Greco/Roman Team National Champions and Freestyle 4th place team.

NHS

2

You sound like a strong candidate for Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and Cornell. I’d be surprised in you did not get into ND and at least one of the other two.

At Brown, you might be able to play a version the diversity angle: There are probably not a ton of rural white Midwestern wrestlers applying to that institution. Still, it’s a reach for all and sundry.

Unless your last name is Bush, Clinton, or Obama, your chances at Harvard are just like everyone else’s: abysmal.

Duke, Rice, and WashU are peer schools that offer merit aid, but the competition is fierce.

If you set your sights a bit lower and investigate private universities in the 20-50 range (e.g., USC, Wake Forest, Tulane, U Miami, etc.), you’ll find that a number of them offer generous merit scholarships in an attempt to lure Ivy-level applicants to their campuses. The same could also be said of many top LACs (e.g., Davidson, Washington & Lee, and numerous others).

Finally, there are public universities that employ the same strategy. Some of these are gunning for ultra-elite candidates (e.g., UVA, W&M), while others offer awards to applicants who are a notch down on the otherworldly-achievements totem pole (Alabama, UT-Dallas, etc.).

3

Your stats are great, but it’s no guarantee at these schools. Be sure to put down some decent backup schools. Also, if you’re concerned about financial aid, you may want to consider scholarships. The elite schools offer the best financial aid, but they routinely reject applicants with the exact same stats as yours. If you do get into one of the schools on your list, it’s not uncommon to get screwed with your financial aid package. Non-ivy private schools are notorious for this. It happen every year on this forum like clockwork.

My advice, make sure you have a scholarship as a backup. That’s something you can count on if you apply by the deadline and get the offer. At Alabama, you would get a university guaranteed full tuition scholarship with a full year of room and board. TCU and Baylor would give you at least full tuition, and financial aid would help with room and board.