Hi all! This is me trying to figure out a realistic list of schools to apply to and my potential chances. I am very grateful for any and all criticism, advice, and support you can offer me.
Stats:
Identity- Asian Female in Massachusetts public school
My interest is in Environmental Science but I am also looking to minor in history
ACT: 36 raw
PSAT: 1460 (possibility of being semifinalist since psat cutoff and overall scores dropped this year dramatically)
GPA: 3.93 UW (don’t know weighted, my school has weird 100 point scale)
APs: Chinese (5) Human Geo (3) Chem (4) Enviro (5) Calc BC (5) WH(5)
Also took: English Lit, Music theory, Physics 1, Stats, Bio, Modern World History this year
All my course work has been AP or honors level (except for PE but I don’t think it counts)
School: Fairly large around 1500 people (no rank though)
I know it seems like I may be taking a strange combination of AP classes but I just really wanted to maximize the learning opportunities that my school offered.
Duke is my ED school, but I am applying to all the UCs to act as my safety schools (relatives in CA) and also BU and the UMass system.
Academics:
- Four years science olympiad, made treasurer and then President
- National honor society
- Academic tutor for science at my school (3 years)
- Summer internship/shadowing at Duke
- Local volunteer work at a hospital where we see many uninsured patients every week (also helped raise couple hundred dollars through online fundraisers to try and support the unemployed patients at the hospital) past 3 years (received awards for my work)
- UCSB rmp
- Environment cleanup (crayfish removal, plant native species, beach cleanups) past 3 years
- Youth Ambassador for Habitat for Humanity (look at environmental impacts and potential solutions for low income housing)
I want to evaluate the effects of environmental degradation and the impacts it has on impoverished people (hope this makes more sense for some of my activities).
Please let me know if I am being unrealistic with my dream school, and what I can do to improve.
For the UC’s, can you afford the fees? OOS students pay full fees. That means $65K per year. It doesn’t matter that your relatives live there because you are a resident of Massachusetts. You won’t get a discount on the fees.
Oh, and because you are not a resident, the UC’s are not safeties.
Residents get priority. You will get a bump because you will pay full fees, but other than that, no other real advantages for a public UC as a non-resident.
@“aunt bea” Thanks for the quick response! I am still new to the college process so I might have mixed up the use of the word “safety”. It was to my understanding that some UC schools had higher admission rates so I used safety in the sense that it could potentially be easier for me to get into those schools. It is my dream to go to a california school (like UC Santa Barbra, San Diego, Santa Cruz) also am going to apply to U Mass Lowell, Amherst, Boston etc (where in state fees will be lower). I did not realize the issue of fees, so thank you for bringing that to my attention. I was wondering if you had any other advice for my chance at Duke ED.
A safety is one where your stats place you at 75% above the expected range of student stats, such that you would be in the top 25% of the students applying to the school. You also have to be happy to attend ,if you get in, and it HAS to be affordable. California is extremely competitive.
With the UC’s, non-residents are not eligible for state-funded financial aid because your parents do not support the schools through California taxes. It’s where your parents reside that is taken into account. So your parents would be on the hook for full fees.
I am unfamiliar with Duke since California is in-state for me. Massachusetts has great schools! It sounds like you have great stats and should get into your schools.
Your stats are great. I think that you are at least competitive at any university.
You need to find out what your budget is. As mentioned above you would be full pay at any of the Universities of California. I do not think that any of them are safeties, and compared to U.Mass I do not think that I would want to pay the out of state costs for the lesser of the UCs (at least Merced and Riverside) even though they are good universities.
U.Mass Amherst really should be a safety since you are in-state with such great stats. I do like to have a second safety which U.Mass Lowell would be. UVM would be another possible safety that is very good for environmental sciences. You would have a very good chance at a presidential merit scholarship there which would leave it still significantly more expensive than U.Mass, but not as bad as full pay.
If you and/or your parents are not okay with being full pay, then you should run the NPC for Duke before you apply ED. Show the results to your parents and make sure that they are okay with it before you apply ED. Also of course if you apply ED to Duke then if you get in you might never know whether you would have gotten into MIT or your other reaches.
I think that U.Mass is a solid safety for environmental sciences. Having such as solid safety takes some pressure off the rest of your applications as long as you would be okay attending U.Mass Amherst.
Your stats are amazing. Duke seems like a great fit for you! Make sure in your essays or personal statements to highlight your time at Duke and why you enjoyed being on campus. Make sure you research the enviro programs at the UCs (because applying to all of them might be expensive and unrewarding)
I think Duke is a great fit for you, like byemefui said. Of course, Ivies and Ivy level schools (MIT and Columbia) are always a lottery with anyone, but I think you’re absolutely competitive. Check out Emory University or Vanderbilt; I think you’d fit in great there.