Chance me for T20 ED (WashU, Vandy, UChicago, Emory) and others

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Intended Major: One of Biochem/Neuroscience/English
Is high school competitive or a feeder school: Very competitive + reputation for being very tough, top 10 public HS in state. Not feeder.
Schools: WashU, Vanderbilt, Rice, UChicago, NYU, Duke, Emory, UMich, Northeastern, UNC, UCSD, USC, UCLA, Colgate, Vassar.
Demographics: The absolute worst. Upper middle class, northeastern USA.
Race: Indian.
First Gen or URM (Y/N): N
Income (optional): Not comfortable sharing but comfortably upper middle class.
GPA (UW/W): not sure about weighted but unweighted is about 3.78. After first half senior year, optimistically 3.8. Toughest courseload available
Ranking and Course Rigor: School doesn’t do rank, but top 20 percent definitely.
SAT/ACT w/ Section Scores: 1550 right now (760 english/790 math/18 essay) but will definitely improve (at least the essay).
SAT Subjects: 800/800 math ii/chem
AP/IB Scores: 4 chem, 5 apush, 5 micro (self study)
ECs:
1.) robotics captain - have participated in states/super regionals all 4 years, won several awards at state level with team
2.) scioly captain
3.) model un secretary
4.) part of school club that regularly works with town board/council to plan for future and renovate older buildings - may (possibly) become a member of a town committee in the future
5.) 100+ hours volunteering - teach adults sanskrit as part of cultural outreach program, and also volunteer as youth leader. Also am halfway to completing a bachelor’s degree in the language. Have been a part of said program since the first grade.
6.) have completed two years of graduate-level research - have an official paper to my name
7.) Have volunteered over 50 hours at local youth robotics association as a referee/mentor. Also, i’m not sure if this counts, but for robotics i have volunteered at an institute for disadvantaged an at-risk youth to spread stem awareness and robotics
8.) Tri-M/FLNHS/NHS member
9.) Have given multiple community concerts/regularly participate in local “Soul Band” - basically just do covers of famous jazz/soul/funk pieces. Still, though. I also have played classical Indian violin for 7+ years, and also do various community concerts and although I’m not sure I can say it, am a very advanced student in both.
Awards: have participated in state districts festival before i guess? also will (hopefully) be a merit finalist, most probably a semifinalist (no jinx please). NLE silver and gold winner .
Essays (out of 10) and additional info about them: Right now, about a 7 or 8. I’m getting an essay counselor so this will hopefully improve but it’s about the one robotics season that we came one point away from qualifying for world championships. Either that, or how jazz has impacted my life.
Letters of Recommendation (out of 10) and additional info about them: 9 - my apush teacher. we have a fantastic relationship and he knows how much college means to me. 7 - my chem teacher has a record of writing strong recs, and i regularly expressed in his class attentiveness and although i didnt get an A, i showed consistent effort to drag up my grade for the year.

So yeah. I’m getting conflicting reports as to whether or not I should be more safe or more “realistic”, and I really need to know where to aim.

2

First, with an SAT of 1550 you do not need to improve. There is no benefit in having 1570 or 1580 over a 1550. Your SAT and subject SATs are good enough for any college out there. You problem is in your GPA, and having an even higher SAT will not “compensate” for a lower GPA.

Vanderbilt, UChicago, Duke, UCLA - extremely high reaches, especially for an unweighted GPA of 3.78.
WashU, Rice, USC, NYU, UNC (OOS) - high reaches
Emory, UMich, Northeastern, UCLA - low reaches
Colgate, Vassar, UCSD - high matches
So you will need some actually solid matches and some safeties.

Your chances for UCLA and UCSD may be a bit better (or worse), but you need to figure out your UC GPA, i.e., your weighted and unweighted GPAs, based on their calculations (for example, they do not use freshman grades, and they only weigh IB and AP courses for OOS applicants).

Regarding UCs - as an OOS student you will be paying OOS tuition, no matter what, so these are likely going to be be the most expensive schools, though UMich and UNC will also likely be very expensive, for the same reason.

Your GPA is great, but your list of colleges are the most popular colleges out there, so you will be competing with kids who have unweighted GPAs which are higher than 3.9. Moreover, all of these colleges are extremely expensive, and this is even worse for upper middle class parents. Can they actually afford their EFC? The most popular colleges rarely have any real amount of merit money, and popular public universities are even worse.

Overall, you do not seem to have put much thought in figuring out which colleges would be the best for you. Instead, you seem to have chosen a selection of colleges based on their ranking by some corporate site, or some other measure of “prestige”.

So go back, and start doing some homework. Figure out what you want from college, and choose colleges based on those criteria, not based on whether it is a college which is highly ranked by USNews or a college which your parents’ friends think is “prestigious”.

3

Letters of rec are one of the most overlooked elements of a successful app to a top selective college IMO. The LORs are a chance for others to tell the college that you have the wonderful qualities that they are looking for and they’re also a chance to look for what is not said. Both are important and I think this chem LOR might fail on both points. You do not want a teacher - especially a teacher in a subject in which you’re considering majoring! - writing about how hard you ground away to get a B. Think about that for a minute. What does it say and also what does it not say?

Take some time with each of your top choices and research what they’re looking for. It isn’t the exact same thing at each one and they’re searching for more specific attributes than “smart” or “hard working”. When you know what they’re looking for, figure out how you can get LORs from people who can describe those things in you. Preferably in related subjects, but it would be better to have an on-target LOR from a non-STEM teacher than an off-target LOR from a STEM teacher.

4

Thanks for your honesty. In part, yeah, I was pretty ranking-obsessed. However, I’ve been pretty set on Emory after doing some more research the past week, and was wondering whether applying EDII would help my case? I think UCLA is off the table as well.

5

Your grades and rank are what hurt you for the most selective schools. There are simply too many applicants with very similar profiles AND top in their class. Not top 20-10-5% but top 3, not % but one of top 3 kids. That’s how competitive it is.

Your GC REC will be all important. Your GC should know how to position recs to best gain acceptance to top schools. Talk to the GC as to what your chances are, given your grades. Whether kids with your grades and test scores get into the schools you want. Look at Naviance.

Usually, you want a teacher writing your recs that can say you are that the top student, the best in 10 years, etc. a “B” Isn’t going to elicit those comments. Those are key words that

6

Do you have any schools that are your absolute favorites that you would be willing to ED to?

3.78 UW isn’t bad. Way better than my son’s UW GPA and he got into WashU for the Class of 2021.

And nothing wrong with having your Chem teacher write a recommendation even though you didn’t get an A. My son is a Biology major at WashU and his AP Biology teacher wrote a recommendation for him. Even with his AP 5 in Biology and a 790 on the Biology Subject Test, he ended up with a B+ both semesters.

7

Not to cut hairs here but UCLA OOS acceptance rate was 24% vs Rice overall acceptance rate of 15% and 16% for WashU.

8

Great list of 15 schools. It would be helpful, and interesting, to see your list broken down into most preferred groups of three to five schools each as then you could better evaluate use of your ED option–which should be used carefully as you are a full pay student and, therefore, will be bound by any ED acceptance.

9

Vandy 8
Rice. 9
.Wash U. 14
Emory. 15
Colgate 22
Vassar. 23
UCLA OOS. 17
UCSD. OOS 60

Most recent accept rates released. Waitlist admits may adjust some of them. Composite rates so early admits would have much higher accept rates in general, with RD lower. UCSD OOS accept rates an eye brow raiser. Is this in line with prior years? I still would categorize UCSD as a high match. Safeties recommended.

I’d apply ED to Emory if top choice, wit EA to UMich and UNC. A good solid safety school should be in the mix and an early app to it recommended to secure that acceptance. Options dwindle at many State schools as time goes on and seats are filled. I’ve seen devastated students when early results come in. One acceptance in the pocket is a soothing balm

10

If you apply ED2 to Emory, you would greatly improve your chances and even more if you applied ED1.

11

Your knowledge of sanskrit caught my eye. As a dying language, there is not much interest in studying this ancient language. This might be a way to help distinguish yourself from the pack.

I know that UChicago has a great program for South Asian languages, and I know that they offer a major in Sanskrit studies. They are always looking for students who are willing to fill spots in less popular majors.

But your stumbling blocks will be your GPA/rank. You might overcome this by putting together a good story of your “fit”. UChicago admits about 2/3 of its class during EA/ED1/ED2 rounds. So your best would be ED1.

Not sure if the other colleges on your list have a sanskrit major, but best of luck