Chance me for T20

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident)
  • State/Location of residency: N/A
  • Type of high school High School senior:
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity Asian Female:
  • Other special factors N/A:

Intended Major(s) Liberal arts / science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.00 (Straight As)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.4 (not sure what system; added 0.5 for AP classes and honors, added 0.2 for 0ver 96%)
  • College GPA (for transfers): NA
  • Class Rank: School does not rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT - 34

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

5 APs taken including Global, US Hist, Eng, Bio and Psych (3 scores of five, and 2 scores of 4); Will take 4 more in senior year incl Calc/Phys/Econ

Awards
National Honor Society
Rural Scholar

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Drama (consistently over HS, incl leadership )and a few others

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • N/A *

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability) Two state flagship schools and one lower ranked LAC
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable) - NA
  • Match - 5 schools from T20 to T50
  • Reach - 10 schools from T20

Pls criticize my selection.
Chance me for at least one acceptance by a T20
Chance me for some top-tier OOS public universities such as UF-Gainsville, UT-Austin, UCLA, UMaryland.
Which of the T-20 will give me best chance of acceptance for ED?

Thank you in advance for any advice.

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You have left a lot of items blank in the chancing template

  • you didn’t say if you were a US citizen or international applicant (I assume it’s the former)
  • you didn’t mention your home state
  • you didn’t specify your type of high school (“senior” is not a school type)
  • your weighted GPA is questionable (you don’t get extra weight for being over 96%)
  • you haven’t listed any extra circulars (does that mean you didn’t do any activities outside of school?)
  • you haven’t stated your budget

In short, you’ve provided very little information for us to guide you.

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OP did state that they were involved in drama and had some leadership with that, but you are right about the rest of the information.

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That is not how you should select a to apply ED to a college, nor should you select a college purely based on its ranking, which is what you seem to be doing.

Also, all the things that @DadOfJerseyGirl asked.

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Sorry for the lack of information. First time posting, and the window that opend was very small, and I was not sure how to fill it. Here are the clarifications for what DadOfJerseyGirl asked.

US Citizen
Home State: NorthEast - no good public universities
Public HS
Extra-curriculars -
Drama since middle school. Leadership positions in the last two years.
Tae-Kwon-do for two years (til lthe pandemic stopped that).
Volunteering with the local library, religious organizations, mentoring a middle school mentee (officially thru the school), volunteering with a local musical production (annually) since middle school, interning for an international NGO.
Again, school does not give a weighted GPA. I computed this on my own, using an algorithm from an internet website. Would appreciate if you could guide me to an acceptable system.
Parents said budget will not be an issue.

Thank you again for any advice

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@dimsum991 - Have you done any school visits yet? Are there things you liked about the schools in your subject line? Are you looking for a smaller LAC like Amherst? or a mid-size Jesuit School like BC or an Urban location like BU? It’s ok to have conflicts in your likes but if you can start to paint a picture of what you’re looking for the easier it will be to come up with a good targeted list of Reach/Match/Safety schools for you to consider that are going to be the best fit for you. Not a random list of the most selective schools you have a chence of getting into

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We are from the northeast.

Your comment that your state does not have good public universities makes me think that you are not in Massachusetts nor Vermont (nor New York). However, even being out of state with an unweighted 4.0 both U.Mass Amherst and UVM would be very likely, and your chances at a merit scholarship would be pretty good. Both are very good universities. UNH, U.Maine, and U.Conn would also be very likely. I might add that I know quite a few graduates from some of these schools, and they include a few self-made millionaires, at least four of the strongest software engineers who I have ever met, someone who helped me solve a problem that had stumped two MIT graduates, a few doctors (a few of whom were my doctor/specialist at some point), and someone who is currently enrolled in one of the top 5 DVM programs in the world (who has run into a small number of other DVM students from these same undergraduate schools).

With an unweighted 4.0 GPA (all A’s) and at least decent ECs you are competitive at the top 20 universities, but you should think of yourself as a typical applicant to these schools. Also, most top 20 universities use up some of their slots for legacy students, athletes, and underrepresented minorities. This means that you are an average applicant competing for something like half of the freshman slots at most top 20 universities. Being Asian will not help your chances. This probably puts your chances of admissions as lower than the overall acceptance rate at any top 20 school.

I think that UT-Austin and UCLA are similarly reaches, but reasonable reaches. UMD might be a bit more likely (low reach?). UCLA would be full cost since you are out of state. I do not fully understand why you might prefer UMD over UVM or U.Mass Amherst unless there is a very specific program that you like that I do not know about.

In terms of “which of the T-20 will give me best chance of acceptance for ED”, I would say “the one for which you can very clearly explain why it is a very good fit for you”. If you get an interview at a top 20 university, and the interviewer asks “Why is this school a good fit for you?”, being able to answer this well will help your chances. If you attend a top 20 university, expect to suddenly become average the day that you arrive on campus, and expect classes to be tough.

“Liberal arts / science” is a somewhat vague intended major. If graduate school is a likelihood, I will note that the top universities accept incoming graduate students from a very wide range of universities. As one example, I got my masters at a highly ranked university (Stanford, which was/is strong for my particular major), and the other students in the same program had come from all over the place. It was hard to find two students who had attended the same undergraduate program, with the exception of a small group of students from Bell Labs a few of whom were Rutgers graduates.

Applying to 10 reaches from top 20 universities seems like a lot. I would suggest that you carefully consider which schools would be the best fit for you. MIT really is not the same at Harvard or Dartmouth. Applying to 5 schools in the “top 50” range plus three safeties seems reasonable to me, again assuming that you are looking for a good fit.

I agree with @Novacat9191 that doing some visits to universities would be a good idea.

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This is a high-achieving student who has worked very hard. While some careers aren’t impacted by your undergraduate institution, some are highly impacted by your undergraduate institution. Since it is possible to receive a benefit from applying ED, it makes sense to apply that benefit to the most prestigious university (if you so choose). If someone wants to attend a highly ranked university, why not encourage them instead of telling them that is not how they should select a school?

Also, before you (or anyone else) brings up “fit,” she has said she is applying to 10 of the top 20, so “fit” has likely been accounted for before making this post. And, yes, a student is capable of being a fit at 10+ universities.

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Agreed and as she mentioned the parents are ok with paying full freight, there is no need to focus on cost either. Having said that, it is hard to advise - ED is a significant bump to all of them, whereas REA or SCEA or EA is not nearly as significant and results in you not being able to use ED to fullest advantage. Just to throw it out there, UChicago, Duke, Northwestern, Columbia, Vandy, UPenn, all love their ED applicants and fill a huge portion of the class with them. I also think you don’t need all those oos state schools as safeties -also UMD you have to apply EA to, they basically admit no one regular.

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All states have good schools. And many have Honors Colleges or other programs.

You could get into Gainesville and UMD - could - but also people with your stats have been turned down. The other two are reaches.

Parents said budget not an issue - are they prepared for $320K.

If you want big, Alabama and Arizona are huge auto merit and depending on the major could be solid. MS State, Arkansas, Truman State (for smaller) , Mizzou and so many others have great schools.

What do you want in a school - size, sports, greek, weather, in or near city or rural, etc.

For weighted use +.5 Honors and +1 AP - seems most common.

btw - ten of top 20 - so you get there and are miserable because you chose it and got in.

What’s the point - find the right school, not the top school.

My daughter’s valedictorian had a 4.0 + 10 or so AP and 36 ACT - and was 0 for 16 in top 20, NYU full pay and UTK where she goes.

So you’ve done great but there are no guarantees - and there’s tons of great schools 30, 50, 200 in rank.

And many great Honors College.

What’s your environment - that’s what matters.

Are you humanities, science, social science oriented?

They can afford to pay - but would they rather it be cheap so you go to a merit school?

This kind of stuff you need to answer. Thanks

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Thank you to everyone who responded. Your advice and comments are gratefully accepted, and taken due note of.

Yes, Grad School (med school specifically) is in the picture.

To DadTwoGirls: How likely is an interview at a T20 school prior to admission? I thought I only needed to submit thru CommonApp, and no interview was involved.

I accept that I am an average applicant. But am I an average applicant for the T20? If so, I am fine with that, since that would mean I have a 50% chance of admission :slight_smile:

I also accept that my extras are not stellar, and I dont have the hook (Nobel prize, Olympic medal) etc. But If I have a 15% independent probability at any one T20 school, and I apply to 10 schools, my probability class indicates that I have an 80% chance of at least one acceptance :slight_smile: (1 - (0.85^10)). Which is what made me think that if I apply broadly, I might have a chance at a T20.

Haven’t done campus visits yet. Summer was spent visiting family abroad, so will try to squeeze in some before winter.

Again, thank you for the advice.

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Agreed.

I don’t see any OOS safeties on OP’s list (although, I’m not as familiar with UF so can’t speak for that)

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You need to check Naviance or Scoir for your school. That gives much more accurate picture than CC comments.

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If med school is in the picture - look at med schools - they get graduates from everywhere - Boise State, UNC Wilmington, etc.

You need great grades, a great MCAT, shadowing and more. There are med school experts on here who will write more info.

But it’s $700, 800K - save your money up front.

For example and this is just an example - others may have similar - U of Alabama, where you’d go cheap, has the McCullough Medical Scholars…that would help you and you’d have $$ for grad school. Good luck.

McCollough Scholars – Pre-Medical Studies at the University of Alabama (ua.edu)

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Regarding ED:
I have heard that the acceptance rate for ED is very high. However, is it because all students with very high scores apply ED? Thus, could a student with good scores who might be accepted regular decision, get rejected ED since that student is being compared to the very best who also applied ED?

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You will have more kids ED at a higher end school - and yes there it will have an advantage - like Penn. However, a lesser known school will offer ED and it will have an advantage - but whereas a Penn is filling half their class from ED that lesser known school might be filling 5 or 10%, etc.

Med school = save money now!! Make sure your parents understand the 8 year ramification in cost. Some med schools are covered (NYU I believe) but in most cases if you get in, you’ll be full pay.

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If her parents want to pay, stop trying to convince her to go cheap. Also this is an Asian American student from New England. Most/many I know of this demographic would not consider the schools you suggest. At the very least they would really have to focus on the culture of the schools and the surroundings. As a parent I would much rather spend the money and go elsewhere.

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Sorry, that’s not how it works. Being an “average applicant” doesn’t give you a 50% chance.

Incorrect math, because there is correlation between admissions at these colleges.

No, the higher acceptance rate is because the college is able to meet its yield requirement. And “very high” is relative - it’s still under 20% or even 15% at the most selective schools.

No, ED provides higher chances of acceptance.

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I totally agree with both comments. Alabama isn’t always the right answer for every student in every situation.

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I honestly do not know. Years ago I did have an interview when I applied to MIT for undergrad. I did not have an interview for McGill but I think that is because they typically don’t do them for undergrad admissions. I did not have an interview for Stanford when I applied to graduate school. When one daughter was applying to DVM programs some offered her an interview, some just accepted her without an interview. Since she did this during the peak of the COVID pandemic all of the interviews would have been on-line (until she was accepted to her top 3 choices and declined the remaining interviews).

However, your sense of “fit” is also likely to come through in your essays.

I meant average for a top 20 university, and only in the rather highly competitive atmosphere of top 20 admissions. You are of course way above average compared to almost any other criteria. And no, being an average applicant to a school that accepts 4% of applicants does not give you a 50% chance of admissions (which I am sure that you know, having had A’s in your math classes).