Chance Me! - Many schools. Thank you!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I am currently a junior in high school. My grades have taken a huge slide after getting involved with some of the wrong people last year and over the summer and a bit this year but I do still have a lot of ECs and good test scores. This is probably going to be a long profile so if you read it all and reply, thank you very much!

PLEASE NOTE: I am an ASIAN MALE. This means affirmative action works strongly against me. Please take that into account while analyzing my profile and stuff.

Schools I’m interested in and would like to know my chances for:
NYU
Cornell
Purdue (Engineering)
UIUC (Engineering)
UMiami
UFlorida
Boston College
American University
UT Austin (Engineering)
Texas A&M (Engineering)
UCLA
Rensselaer
UNC
UVA
Georgia Tech
UMass Amherst (Safety)
It’s a lot of schools, I know, and you don’t have to do them all for me, just a few per reply is fine if you don’t have the time!

My profile:
GPA: 3.95 on a 4.33 = A+ scale, unweighted

Classes: Every class I have taken is the hardest level my school offers. I also am taking 5 APs this year and will take 6 next year

SAT: 1550
ACT: 33

SAT Subject Tests:
Math Level 2 - 800
US History - 800
Physics - 770

ECs and Leadership:

Latin Club - Vice President, probably same position next year
FBLA - Social Media Officer 9th/10th grade
Debate
Model UN - Co-Captain
Math Team
iCreate Lab - Student Leadership Team (This is our school’s technology lab)
Junior Representative to the School Education Foundation, will be senior rep next year as we serve 2 year terms

Community Service/Internship:
Volunteer at Saturday School as Teacher’s Assistant - 150 Hours
Volunteer at Community Food Bank - 30 Hours
Volunteer at Nursing Home - 10 Hours
iCreate Lab is technically considered an internship by our school so I have 120 hours with that

Sport:
I play varsity tennis, have started all years since freshman year, will be captain senior year

Awards:
FBLA Web Design - 1st Place at States
FBLA Web Design - National Finalist
FBLA Parliamentary Procedure - 1st Place States
FBLA E-Business - 1st Place States
FBLA Social Media Campaign - 3rd Place States
FBLA 3-D Animation - 3rd Place States
11x Debate Awards - Best two are 1st Place at Mt. Hope Debate Tournament and 6th Place at State Tournament
Wheeler Model UN - 1st Place
Brown University Model UN - Outstanding Delegate (2nd Place)
LynxMUN - Honorable Mention
President’s Volunteer Service Award Bronze 2017
President’s Volunteer Service Award Bronze 2018

And my biggest award and my biggest part of my application would be:
International Public Policy Forum (IPPF) - International Round of 32

Letters of Rec:
This may sound arrogant, but all my teachers do love me and I am confident I will get exemplary letters of rec. Sorry if that sounded arrogant

College Essay:
Again, may sound arrogant sorry in advance, I am a very good writer and I believe my college essays will also be top notch

That’s all! If you’ve read this far, thank you! Again, don’t feel pressured to chance me for all the colleges I listed, just a few each will be sufficient. And also again, keep in mind that I am ASIAN so affirmative action works against me. Thanks, and have a nice day!

2

How big of a slide could your grades have taken if you still have an UW 3.95? Downward trends are not great. Hopefully you’ve corrected that and gotten your studies back on track.

Are you from MA? I’m assuming that since you put UMass as your safety. If that’s correct, understand that the flagship schools are very selective for OOS applicants. I can’t speak for all the schools on your list but I will on those that I’m more familiar with:

Cornell - reach
UT Austin - reach (they only fill 10% of their class with OOS applicants)
UIUC -low reach for OOS for Engineering
Purdue - low reach/high match for engineering
GT - low reach/high match
RPI- match

Also note that publics are notoriously not great for merit money or financial aid for OOS applicants so if finances are a consideration, you need to reconsider your list.

3

Thank you for ur reply momofsenior1, I am actually from Rhode Island, not MA. And my gpa fell from around a 4.1 to where it is now at a 3.95. Financials aren’t a major problem for me right now but it would be great to also find a college that gives good aid and save some money. So your suggestion is that a smaller private school would give the most aid?

4

On the schools we looked into for D19, my opinion:
NYU - match but hard to get good aid
American - solid match IF you demonstrate interest. ( Any hint of them being a back up school - possibly their impression as your stats are really good - could lead to denial without it… my daughter’s naviance shows the highest-stats kids rejected or waitlisted at AU.)
Boston College - match

As already stated, a lot of the better publics are reaches for out of state applicants.