legacy at oxford university (if they even do that)
Intended Major(s)
biology/biochem on pre-med
may switch to bioengineering in future
GPA, Rank, and Test scores
calculated 3.73 uw (school doesn’t provide)
no weighted offered
top 20% (no official rank)
sat: 1480 (790m, 690e) - retaking for 1500+
Coursework
ap/ib courses and equivalent are not offered at my school
all courses are pretty much at that level however
took the most rigorous ones offered
self-studied aps: ap biology (4), ap human geography (4)
Awards
choir solo/ensemble award (2x)
ambassador award (150+ service hours)
french grand concours bronze (1x)
Extracurriculars
(keeping vague)
summer research program (6 weeks, summer):
developed a project where I used machine learning to predict patient outcome
medical drug research (senior):
working with teacher to design compounds to treat viral disease
art club co-president: (soph-senior):
**really passionate about digital art
organize membership events, manage general board, collab with other clubs
society of black scientists treasurer: (junior-senior):
founding member, manage the club’s budget and finances, reach out to external resources, help organize events
general stem tutor (soph-junior):
tutor for school program, helped struggling students, helped teacher facilitate classes; earned 110 hours from this
independent graphics account (7 months, freshman):
created digital art using 3D app blender; posted media on instagram + managed account; amassed 1,500+ followers
summer hospital volunteer (11 weeks, summer):
volunteered (60+ hours) as a receptionist for maternal unit at local hospital
biotech summer program (10 days, summer):
competitive application required program where we learned about biotech and created a poster on it
chamber choir member (soph-senior):
sing in audition-required choir; perform at school concerts, events, and competitions; have solo/ensemble awards from it
vacation bible school volunteer (7yrs, summer):
lead and engage youth participants in faith-related games and activities
Essays/LORs/Other
common app essay (6/10): not too bad, still need to edit it a bunch; talking about my experiences growing up essentially ignoring my ethnicity and culture due to social pressures, but how I grew to appreciate it and how I incorporate it into my life
stem (8/10): teacher is really sweet and has written a rec for me before humanities (7/10): have been in multiple of her classes, and nominated me to be a writing tutor counselor (10/10): have a strong relationship with him, meet frequently extra lor (7/10): worked on project with her and is very kind, don’t know if she has lots of time though
Cost Constraints / Budget
not 100% sure but anything less than 60k a year is always helpful
Schools
safety: uiuc ea (see bottom), uic gppa rd
target: brandeis rd, lmu ea, case western ea, uw-seattle rd
reach: northwestern ed, usc ea, duke rd, boston uni rd
**my school is a HUGE feeder school for uiuc (70% of seniors get accepted) so I’m just assuming I have a good chance
please match me with other schools + chance me for the ones I have. tysm!
Here is my guess…I think UW Seattle should be a target, not a safety.
I think BU should be put in the reach category.
You have three schools listed as ED. You can only apply to ONE school ED. If you don’t get accepted, you can apply ED2 elsewhere. But you can’t apply to three schools ED. So…which one is it.
ETA…Op clarified that only Northwestern should be ED and edited their OP. So… the op can ignore the above paragraph.
The net price calculators are currently set for 2023 fall starting students…but they can be used to get an estimate of your net costs. Have you run the Net Price Calculators for these colleges to see if they come in at your price point?
oop that was my bad, I didn’t even realize I put down three schools as ED. it’s only supposed to be northwestern lmao. also thank you for the feedback!
One more thing. Case Western expects applicants to show demonstrated interest. If you don’t do this…CWRU isn’t a target…so show them a lot of interest!
Generally I agree with your school categorizations, but UIC GPPA (I assume BS/MD) is a reach as it has a single digit acceptance rate (UIC would be a safety without the GPPA program). Because you don’t have direct patient facing experience, I think your chances are slim, but encourage you to still try. Note that NU ED decisions will come in well before UIC GPPA…and if accepted to NU ED you would pull all other apps, so you would never know if you would have been accepted to UIC GPPA.
Spend more time on your common app essay…6/10 is not good enough for the reach schools on your list.
Run each school’s NPC to get cost estimates, note they won’t be fully updated until this Fall.
Make sure to demonstrate interest at the schools that consider that in the admissions decision (basically all your private schools, especially CWRU).
**to clarify, im in a high income bracket (200k+) so I will likely not be receiving any financial aid. talked to my parents, and they are willing to pay half-tuition/year. will be looking for merit scholarships
Half tuition at UIUC and UIC is much different than half tuition at Northwestern and BU, etc. So you have to figure out how to pay for your half of the tuition and who pays for room & board, fees, books, etc. If you can’t get scholarships to cover all of this, your college list needs to change a lot. You need to find schools that give a lot of merit.
@Momofthree24 thank you for your feedback. for the more prestigious schools (if I get in) I can negotiate with my parents for something more reasonable, otherwise half/year is the baseline. any lower-cost schools you recommend that fit my major + stats?
I would urge you and your parents to have a conversation about finances. You are only allowed to borrow up to $5500 your first year of college, about $6500 your 2nd year, and $7500 your 3rd and 4th years. Where are you going to get the additional funds? Applying for outside scholarships will likely merit you small amounts of money (perhaps $1-2k/year total). And this doesn’t even begin to cover the costs of room and board. For SY22-23, UIUC was about $16k for tuition, about $29k with room and board. So your parents would only be willing to contribute $8k for UIUC and expects you to come up with the rest? But if you go to Northwestern where tuition was over $63k last year, they would then need to pay $32k for half of the tuition, which is more than UIUC would be for a “full ride” from the parents.
I would strongly urge your family to come up with a budget. Perhaps they will cover UIUC (tuition, room & board) and you would need to get the costs of any other college down to that level via scholarships, work, and loans. Or maybe they would cover UIUC and then split the difference of the tuition amount with you (so if Northwestern was about $84k last year, they would reduce it by $29k (UIUC’s cost) to get $55k. Maybe they’d be willing to cover $27,500 and you’d have to get sufficient scholarships/loan/work for the other $27,500. Obviously, I have no idea what your parents are willing and able to do, but these are just some ideas.
Have your family run the Net Price Calculator and check. But, if you’re right, I don’t see how you can possibly ED to Northwestern. Even under the most optimistic scenario I described above (parents cover UIUC costs and 50% of the extra difference), you’d still need to come up with more than $27k/year to attend Northwestern. As Northwestern doesn’t offer merit aid, and you can only take $5500 out in loans, how would you expect to get the remaining $21,500? Frankly, it doesn’t look feasible to me.
Agree that UIC GPPA would be a reach. UW-Seattle has a ton of majors that are capped because there are more students interested in them than they are able to serve. I believe bio is one of those majors.
I’ll start thinking on these.
Have you thought about a major in digital art or medical illustration? So long as you fulfill your premed prereqs, you can major in anything you want.
@AustenNut thank you so much for your feedback! I think I definitely should talk with my parents more about finances since we’re at a tough spot. I have three other siblings who they’re also planning to help pay for college and since we likely won’t qualify for financial aid it’s kind of an awkward situation. however, like I said before, they’d be more willing to contribute more money to the more prestigious schools (since in their mind, it would be more worth it for the cost) so im a little more hopeful abt schools liked northwestern and duke. im also applying to as many scholarships, including external ones, as I can to try and cover the costs.
for uic, gppa is an application that will come separate after guaranteed admission into uic (which I categorized as a safety). sorry for the confusion, I didn’t mean to classify the gppa program as a safety.
while I think majoring in digital art would be nice, I don’t think it’s the best fit for me as a major (maybe as a minor)
Most of these schools are not going to win any prestige contests. But you can get a very solid education, and most of them will probably give you significant merit aid…such that I would not be surprised if a number of them end up below the cost of UIUC. You would also want to apply to any honors colleges available, which frequently will come with smaller classes, honors dorms, priority registration, etc.
Bowling Green State (OH): About 14k undergrads, strong digital arts program, several learning living communities related to the sciences, small classes, lots of science options, etc.
Iowa State: About 25k undergrads. Really well-reputed engineering programs, but also strong overall. Has a medical illustration degree which might be of interest.
Ohio U.: About 18k undergrads. Honors College has a very good reputation and also has a popular digital arts program.
Rochester Institute of Technology (NY): This school of about 14k undergrads really melds science, technology, and arts. The fact that you’re female will stand you in good stead here, likely to help you pick up additional merit aid as the population numbers are definitely skewed with more males. Has a medical illustration major that may be of interest, too.
SUNY Cortland: About 6k undergrads and they do a flagship match here with UIUC (all the SUNY schools, outside of Binghamton, do)
SUNY Oneonta: About 4900 undergrads, and again, tuition will match at UIUC. Has a popular digital arts program.
U. of Texas-Dallas: About 22k undergrads and this campus has a much more science-y and academically-focused reputation than some other Texas publics. They’ve been giving full rides (or nearly full rides) to National Merit Finalists, so there is definitely an academically strong portion to the student body here. Very popular digital arts program.
U. of Kentucky: About 23k undergrads, covers all the bases and has a popular digital arts program.
U. of North Carolina - Asheville: About 2900 undergrads at North Carolina’s public liberal arts college. Strong all-around academically and has a popular digital arts program.
U. of St. Thomas (MN): About 5900 undergrads and students can also take classes at Augsburg, Hamline, Macalester, or St. Catherine’s (source).
U. of Wisconsin - Whitewater: About 9400 undergrads and a popular program in digital arts
Also, a benefit of Ohio’s public colleges (such as Bowling Green and Ohio U) is that they will freeze tuition for 8 semesters at the price that you entered with, so no 4-5% tuition increases every year.
ETA: Somehow put “free” tuition instead of “freeze” tuition at Ohio schools.
I think you need to get a dollar amount for your annual budget. Half tuition varies wildly with the list you posted, and the remaining costs could be a LOT. You need to know who will cover those remaining costs.
So…get a dollar amount your parents are willing to fund, and also you need to do a hard dive into how the remaining many many thousands of dollars per year will be funded.
I don’t like your list. How will you pay the other half tuition at northwestern, a school with no merit aid ?
If you want merit aid, you need to apply to merit aid schools. These aren’t those schools.
Maybe Case could be, LMU - BU, USC and Duke highly unlikely for merit. NU impossible.
Then there’s your list - it’s either not cheap UW so where is the half coming from if you get in or these are reaches - BU, CWRU etc LMU abd UW are targets but LMU is not assured. Nor is UW with your stats as your test won’t be seen.
I’d seriously alter this list. Figure out what your parents will pay with no help from you. Then revise.
I think admission to USC is going to be quite difficult. The average GPA for accepted applicants this past cycle at was 3.9 and 40% of accepted students had perfect GPAs. Merit awards are incredibly competitive–only 2% of applicants applying EA received merit. The cost of attendance is also close to 90k.
For BU, the RD acceptance rate was @ 10% in 2023 so almost as difficult as USC. And it’s also-super competitive for merit. (My daughter applied last year and was accepted but didn’t get receive a penny with 4.0/4.8, 34 ACT.)
Have you considered Pitt as a target? It has an excellent reputation for science majors/pre-meds. They ranked #3 in NIH funding in 2022 so there are tons of research opportunities. There are also several hospitals within walking distance of the campus so shadowing and internships are easily accessible. (They also have a medical school.) It’s rolling admission so if you do decide to apply, make sure it’s early as that is a big advantage.
Cost for OOS is @ 55k.
I know how active USC has been in recruiting URM candidates. I worked at a high school that sent a number of students to USC-almost a feeder.
My sister attended USC and she didn’t have a perfect GPA, but close, like the OP.
Sister was heavily recruited, as a URM, with similar grades to the OP and high, not perfect, SATs for close to a full ride. Our son, was also heavily recruited in multiple areas for USC (sports, academics). We knew that his NMS win was an attractor for a number of schools who wanted NM winners.
Also, USC is very active in the local community and has articulation agreements with local high schools near the campus, which are heavily diverse. Every time I’ve visited USC, there is always a tour, with local students, going on at the campus somewhere.
The OP is a URM, and although the Court decided on equality in admissions, there are ways in which this OP can discuss how her culture has evolved her interests. She’s a strong student and appears to proactive in her EC’s and it comes through.
Based on my local experiences, I think this student has a good shot at USC. She wont know until she applies. (They work really well with the families.)
Edited to add: She’s from Illinois, so that is another point in her favor with geographic diversity.