Chance me for UPenn M&T + reach other schools for Bioengineering (Asian Female)

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • Competitive Private high school
  • Female / East Asian

Intended Major(s)
Bioengineering / Computational Biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 5.89/6.1
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t do rank but I’ve been told at least 5% (not included in the application though)
  • SAT Superscore: 1570 (770 reading; 800 math)
  • SAT not super scored: 1550 (770 reading; 780 math)
  • SAT Math II: 800 (took one subject test before they were canceled)

Coursework
AP Classes and scores
Human Geo: 5; World History: 4; Statistics: 5; AB Calculus: 5; Chemistry: 5; English Lang: 5; Physics C: Mechanics: 5; APUSH: 5

Senior Coursework:
AP BC Calc, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics C: E&M, AP Amer. Gov and Politics; AP English Lit; AP Macroecon; Multivariable Calculus / Diff eq

Awards

  • AIME qual 2x (10th and 11th)
  • 4th, 6th, 10th for some math individual tests at a math national convention.
  • 1st in county science fair with naval and USAID special awards and state recognition
  • 1st in this research state convention that allowed me to qualify to present in a 2022 AJAS conference
  • National Merit Semi-Finalist

Extracurriculars

  • President (12th) and Secretary (11th) of Sigma Xi National Honor Society Led workshops to help students struggling with science fair; organized school science fair with 200+ projects; Editor-in-Chief for school’s research magazine.
  • President (12th) and Operations Manager (11th) of Science National Honor Society Organized daily visits to Boys and Girls Clubs for 100 members to expose kids to STEM; organized a materials drive to collect stationery and materials to do experiments at home and collected 50 bags; set up a new science peer tutoring program at school; organized lectures at local shelters; did a lot of activities like guest lecturers, beach clean-ups, a mini science fair.
  • Research Conducted my own independent cancer cell research in 9th and 10th grade and did a machine learning project on COVID-19 trends in 11th. Later worked with a professor at a top university in my state on machine learning in biostatistics. Published 2 papers in Journal of Emerging Investigators and in the process of publishing another with Journal of Student Research.
  • Secretary (10th and 11th) of Mu Alpha Theta Tutored students in math; wrote and graded diagnostic tests; competed and won some regional and national math competition awards.
  • President (11th, 12th) of Teen Advisory Board at a library for a local university Lead biweekly meetings to discuss library programs and services like planning enrichment programs and activities for children and teens to be exposed to writing, STEM, storytelling, and art.
  • Summer Research Program I applied to and participated in a summer research program for free at a research university that only accepted the top seniors in the state; took some courses and did research with a group of students that is in the process of publication with the Columbia Junior Science Journal.
  • Intern at a small company Learned how to use and did some work with Robotic Process Automation
  • FBLA Didn’t do FBLA much, got 4th in my state for business calculations in junior year.
  • Piano I played for over ten years and won some regional and state competitions.

Essays/LORs/Other

Essays I had my essays edited by someone in M&T and proofread by a couple of other adults; I think they’re above average but not too unique.

LORs Got one from teachers at my research camp and another from the professor I worked with on biostatistics who used to work for Stanford and I have a great relationship with. For teachers, I got from my Statistics and APUSH teachers all of whom I’m very close to. For some colleges, I switched out Statistics with my school research teacher who I’ve spent an incredible amount of time with, and she emailed my mother how much she loved me.

Schools
I applied to a bunch of in-state safeties.
Applied/Applying: UPenn M&T (Engineering + Econ) and SEAS ED, UCLA, UC Berkeley, MIT (EA), Georgia Tech (EA), USC, UIUC (EA), Case Western (EA), Brown, CMU, Columbia, Duke, Rice, Vandy, WashU, Yale

Thank you so much for taking the time to read through this! I’m just very anxious for ED to come out; really hoping to get into SEAS and if I’m lucky, M&T.

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Congrats. Your accomplishments are fantastic.

As long as your safeties would excite you, then you’re fine. With your combo of GPA and test scores you might look at Alabama and Arizona as well. They’ll be major money to you.

As far as your reaches, you are certainly more than qualified and capable. But so are many others. But you certainly have a reasonable chance-well relative to others.

You don’t list cost. These schools are hugely expensive and in many cases without merit so it’s ok if not an issue for you.

I hope great things for you and I’m glad you added your flagship as a safety. And you may look at the two I gave you…both have Honors.

Hope you get into one off your list…I suspect you’ll get into more than one.

Best of luck to you.

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Thank you so much!! :))

I’m fairly well off so cost isn’t too much of an issue but I’m still applying to a lot of merit scholarships. I will definitely check Alabama and Arizona out! I really appreciate the recommendations!

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you’ll be dirt cheap which is why i mentioned. The Honors dorm at Arizona is phenomenal.

Bama has more NMFs than any school in the country so there’s no shortage of smart people.

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Congratulations on all your hard work, accomplishments and credentials. You are an extremely competitive candidate for any and all of the schools you are applying to.

I can’t specifically chance you but you will certainly meet or surpass the quantitative criteria at any school and move into the qualitative assessment stages.

Given your ECs and hopefully strong LOR I think you will catch some AOs attention.

In terms of your list of schools I would strongly recommend you remain focused on fit vs cheapest option given your ability to do so. You have worked hard to be an elite student and seem to value the opportunities an elite school offers.

I can’t envision a student of your caliber attending a top school and not taking full advantage of it. I also can’t envision you looking back retrospectively and thinking I should have attended a lower cost option with a lesser fit and saved money that had already been set aside for college.

Good luck and please update as you get results.

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Thank you so much! Will definitely update and hopefully bring good news.

7

Congratulations sounds like you nailed it!!

At least now you can enjoy the rest of your year and focus on Penn.

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:)) Yep!! Super exciting! Thank you so much!

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