Your EC are great, your Standardized test scores are fantastic, and your GPA is average at worst. I genuinely think u have a competitive shot as anyone does in your pool, but the schools are very selective so you never know. But good work and good luck!
You DEFINITELY shouldn’t be worried at all about your slightly lower GPA because you have such strong SAT, PSAT, and ACT scores that make up for it big time!! Congrats on everything you’ve done so far, it sounds really rewarding both from a college standpoint and through personal growth.
Overall, USC is definitely a match for you, not a reach. Rice, John Hopkins, WashU and UCLA seem like you have a solid chance of getting in. I would say they’re low-middle reaches, and they are all really good schools that have great biology programs. Cornell seems to be harder reach, but you definitely have a shot. I’m not super familiar with admissions for Georgetown, UT Dallas, UT Austin, and University of Washington, but I’d say you actually have a really great chance of getting into those. Good luck on your college admissions!! 
60 posts and we still don’t know what brought your GPA down. Can you clarify? Eg, if some less important class like gym is the problem, that’s a whole lot better than it being a math-sci issue.
And no one can tell you your chances are near 100% or even great. You’ll compete in a fiercely competitive pool. That includes from TX.
So for now, my only advice is to really know what your targets look for. It’s not just stats and a few impressive ECs. It has a lot to do with your thinking and presentation.
Hi! Your test scores are, of course, amazing. I think getting your UW GPA to a 3.8 will ensure that you remain competitive for top schools. I don’t know if it would be possible for you to improve your rank at this point, but bumping it up just a bit to top 10% would likely help. Of course, it depends on the reputation of your school and what percentile of students are typically accepted to certain colleges. You have a strong background in your intended focus, and I think that your deep involvement with the Girl Scouts will be very interesting, especially if you can eloquently explain how it has affected you. If I were you, I’d consider doing ED to Cornell, as long as that’s financially feasible. Other than that, I’d say Hopkins, WUSTL, USC & Rice are solid reaches, though you’re definitely still competitive. Georgetown is an interesting choice – it doesn’t really seem similar to the other schools you’ve listed, so I’m wondering if they might think you’re not as good of a fit. Obviously, your UC GPA will be important for UCLA.
Good luck!
@SuperGymnast_04 I think I can definitely bring it up by the end of first semester, since my new school is a lot easier. Thanks for the advice!
@Drake1735 I think you’re right about the selectivity of these schools and I do think at the end of the day, my stats are pretty average so it will come down to the wire. Thank you for your honest response!
@chena77 thank you for chancing me and telling me what colleges are my reaches/matches!
@lookingforward unfortunately, my english and math classes from grades 9, 10 as well as my chemistry class from last year are what brought my GPA down (so it is partly math-sci which I guess is a problem). And I do think I included a few target schools in my list, namely UT Dallas and U Washington - Seattle. Do you recommend any other targets for me to look into?
@writergirl0316 Thank you for your feedback. I think I can raise my GPA to 3.8 by first semester since my new school is considerably easier; however, my new school is also known to be one of the most competitive in my state (it is ranked pretty high in the state) and thus I do believe my rank would be higher in other schools in the same district (I know this for a fact since my school showed us a graph of the GPA required to be in the top 7% at each school in our district and the GPA required for my school is the highest, by a lot). Also, I picked Georgetown since I have heard good things about its pre-med advising and counseling, but I actually recently decided that I will not apply there, and instead focus my interests on the other schools. I have not calculated my UC GPA, but since it is only looking at grades 10 & 11, I do believe it will be higher than my W GPA (because 7 non-weighted classes will be excluded). Once again, thank you so much for your advice!
I’m just going to say from personal experience that IVY league schools are more forgiving of lower GPAs. Schools like WashU and JHU really focus on GPA and academic credentials. It seems that IVY league schools are more willing to admit you if you really show a passion you have and will pursue at the school. ***My two cents
@BioGrade thank you very much for your feedback, and I was actually just thinking the same thing. I was thinking about applying to some other ivies besides Cornell, such as Brown (for PLME), Columbia, and Harvard (SCEA). Do you think that would be a good idea? How do you think my chances fare at these schools? Thanks so much!
If you want to aim high, you have got to know more about what those colleges value. That comes from deep digging on your own, first. Its more than stats and a resume. Your whole app/supp is a self presentation, ypu should know how to craft it well.
And I don’t know where anyone gets the idea Ivies forgive GPA issues, especially for stem. The competition is crazy fierce and lots of kids have “passions.”
@lookingforward Thank you for your clarification; I agree that much of the admissions process has to do with how you present yourself to colleges, and so I will be working on putting an emphasis on STEM and medicine. Also, I think what the commenter meant was that many Ivies value leadership and strength of ECs more than a perfect GPA; this is evident in the Ivies’ common data sets which usually indicate their lenience in accepting students whose GPA’s may be as low as 3.6 or 3.5 only because they show superior strength in other parts of their application (started companies, published books, etc.) Other colleges such as JHU and Wash U tend to value academic qualifications more than ECs. Once again, thanks for your clarification.
Try digging. It’s not founding a company or publishing a book. And, it’s more than your professional goals.
You’ve done some good things. But you need to really learn what a top school looks for. Sorry, yes, I’m being a bit cagey. But it’s because, imo/ime, this hunt for better understanding needs to start with the potential applicant.
You can look for what different colleges say and the sorts of kids they tout. And more. But the reaches will still be an issue, for a premed track, if you had some problem in chem and math. We never know what tipped in a kid with a lower gpa. Could be an athletic recruit, could be the lower grades were in driver’s ed and some elective.
Your extracurriculars are absolutely phenomenal- you’ve done a wide range of activities and excelled in them, showing a clearly defined spike and passion, something that’s especially important for a bio major- you show that you stand out. Honestly I think you have a great chance at the ivies because your standardized testing scores somewhat off-balance your lower GPA. If you can tie your experiences up in a well-crafted narrative that you will demonstrate with essays, I think you have great chances for the ivies! good luck!
@lookingforward I’m not exactly sure what you mean by what top schools look for. When you say I need to understand what sort of kids top colleges tout, do you mean personality/background of applicants?
Also, I do understand my GPA is a pretty big hindrance, but do you think its negative impact will be cushioned by my ECs and test scores? As in, if I were to be compared with a student who has a similar GPA but average ECs, would adcoms consider me vastly better than the other student or only slightly better? Thanks!
@ssm1002 Thanks for your advice! I have already started a few of my essays and am currently crafting a narrative; I am currently set on writing my essay about my position as Social Skills Coordinator at Abilities United. I wanted to talk about the research I did or when I built houses in Mexico, but I felt like those topics were very overdone in terms of essays. Is there any way you think I can include this other information as well? Thanks for your advice!
Hey! I think that your standardized testing scores show that you are capable of having academic success at any college you choose to attend. I don’t know how strong your extracurriculars are because I’m not familiar with them but I think they show that you are passionate about science. In my experience with seeing friends who have applied to med programs, really spend a ton of time on the supplements and apply to many. Best of luck!
I would definitely write about the experiences that made the most change to your outlook/passion, but I would say to emphasize on the parts of your experiences, passions, and skills that delineate you from the other applicants-perhaps your science research/projects that you have obviously so excelled in (as you’re also getting published- that’s quite commendable)
GPA in and of itself isn’t what will be the determining factor - colleges will look at the transcript and calculate their own GPA based on their weighting, so the class you took, the rigor of your transcript will be more important than a gpa number.