Chance me? [HS Senior, 4.0 GPA, 35 ACT, Biochemistry, Computer Science]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities): South
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Public
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional):
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):

Intended Major(s) Biochem or Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0 (may decrease to 3.9)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.46/5
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank: 66
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35

Coursework
AP Chem(2), AP World(4), APUSH(5), AP Bio, AP Calc, AP Physics 1, AP Micro (Online), AP Lang(4), AP Lit

Awards National Commended Scholar, AP Scholar

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Tutored for a summer (10)
Interned at a clinic for a summer (11)
Placed 2nd at Science Olympiad Regionals (11)
Placed 1st in Public Health HOSA, qualified for nationals (did not go) (11)
Member of HOSA (10-12)
Finalist (top 40) for JLAB (JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl) Leadership Bowl, Qualified for championships (did not go because teacher got COVID) (10)
17th Place for JLAB (JROTC Leadership and Academic Bowl) Academic Bowl Championship (11)
Platoon Leader for JROTC (10-12)
Member of Key Club (only like 20 hours though) (11-12)
Garden at my family’s garden(10-12)
Photographer for literary magazine (11)
Member of Knowledge Bowl (9-12)
(Most of my extracurriculars are in 11 and 12 grade because I transferred from a high school with bad extracurriculars to a school with good ones in 11th grade)

LORs
AP Chem: 4/10 (he’s not a good essay writer)
Precal: 8/10 (i don’t know about her essay writing skills, but she liked me good enough)
Counselor: 3/10 (the student letter my dad made me write was bad, don’t know her personally)

Essays: 3-6/10 (im not a good essay writer, trust me)

Cost Constraints / Budget
EFC: 0

Schools
Oberlin, Macalester, Case Western, University of Richmond, Wake Forest, Davidson, Rhodes, Tulane, Rice, WashU, Colorado, Bryn Mawr, Lehigh, Lafayette, Smith, Emory

2

I see you noted your EFC as 0, but do you have a budget set? Have you run the NPCs for each of the schools you have listed to see if they are affordable?

The first thing to accomplish (along with establishing the budget) is to find a safety school that is affordable, you will be accepted to, and that you like. Then worry about chancing at your other schools.

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I have. The NPCs usually give me a loan of 5k, 3k, or none depending on the school and an expected contribution of 1k to 4k. My budget isn’t really big since my parents won’t give me money. It’ll probably be around whatever I earn from work so like 1-3k.

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4

Class rank 66 of how many?

Which state - south - is not a state. Your state may have a program for you.

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5

Affordability is as important as admissions. Which university or universities do you consider to be a safety both for admissions and for affordability? Is your “safety” to attend community college in-state and then to transfer? If so then this can be a perfectly reasonable plan.

By “Colorado”, do you mean Colorado College, the University of Colorado, or Colorado State University? Regardless of the answer, have you run the NPC for “Colorado”? I would be mildly surprised if either of the public universities would give you a full ride out of state, but I know nothing at all about Colorado College’s policies on need based financial aid.

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6

A couple thoughts…

Your desired majors are CompSci and BioChem, yet your school list is not weighted toward schools known for STEM, exept Case - why is that? I would expect to see more schools like GA Tech, Cornell, UofM, etc. on your list.

Case Western practices yield management and in past cycles they deferred very high stats students like you under the assumption that you were using them as a safety. If interested in Case, demonstrate interest through campus visits, information sessions and your essays. On the plus side, they would likely throw a generous merit package your way.

7

So it sounds as if your parents are low income, without significant assets? If this is the case, then your best bet is the schools that meet full need, and fortunately, your gpa and act score can get you into them. Probably not the tippy tops, but possibly below them. Choose schools which meet full need but are a bit less selective, where your stats put you in the more likely range.

Meanwhile, get help with your essays! Go to your English teachers, friends who are good writers, from essay reviewers on here.

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8

You should look at your state’s public universities: not only would you likely get merit scholarship money from them, but you likely would be able to get into an Honors program/college as well.

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9

A high stats student who comes from a poor family is likely to get a much better financial aid package from private schools that meet full need than from a public college, to the point that it’s likely to be cheaper for them to attend the expensive private college than the cheaper public one. This kid has the stats to get into a meets full need private college.

10

No doubt, although some public universities can provide worthwhile packages (depending on the school). I’m just saying that the public options should not be ignored.

11

UWGPA 4.0, yet you rank 66?
35 on the ACT is very impressive.
To think, there are 65 more people in your HS better than you on paper.
Wow.

12

Yeah, my school has a lot of overachievers who have a GPA of like 4.7. I know of at least 4 of them, two of which have at least a 4.8. These were the same kids taking 8 APs junior year…

13

It’s more or less because my dad expects me to apply to private colleges when I apply out of state which cuts the number of STEM schools down, and then I also can’t apply to most colleges in the Northeast like Cornell and Boston which also cuts the number of colleges I can apply to down. At this point, I’m mostly applying to colleges I know are well ranked in the South and provide decent financial aid.

14

Colorado college, they say they meet 100%…

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15

If you want a download on CWRU feel free to message me.

16

Oh, I get it. I didn’t realize that your GPA was 4.0 out of a possible perhaps 5.0. That is a different story. Your class rank of 66 out of how many, despite the 35 ACT, puts you out of the Ivy category, probably also out of T20, unless you have a very compelling story of coming from an underprivileged background. If you are URM, telling about your experience of race in your essay might help, too. I think you definitely should add your in-state flagship, plus another 4 yr in state. Your reaches might be too high. For you, I’d say that safeties would have acceptance rates of about 50% or higher, matches 35-50%, and reaches 20-35%. I don’t think that you have a chance at anyplace with acceptance rates under 10%, and 10-20% rates are going to be very high reaches.

17

It sounds like your parents are limiting you geographically. Is that correct? Can you share where you ARE allowed to apply so that we can help find some match schools? And if your UW GPA is on different scale. Typically, a 4.0 scale is used where A=4, B=3, C=2, …

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18

I do not think that we fully understand what scale your GPA is on.

Usually a 4.0 unweighted GPA means that you have nothing but A’s in the full four years of high school. Is this the case? Do you have a range of A+'s, A’s, and A-'s?

I could see that in some high schools it might be possible to have nothing but A’s, and still be 66th overall. Is this the case? How many students is this out of? 66th out of 100 students would be quite different compared to 66th out of 1,000 students.

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19

The kid literally posted his weighted GPA is 4.46. It’s on a 5 point scale. Unweighted GPA is 4.0 which means he has all “A” grades so far. That’s why I am impressed because there are at least 45 other kids at his school with perfect grades.

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Sorry, make that 65 other kids with perfect grades.