2 time Worlds Qualifier for sparring and weapon sparring
Second place at Nationals for sparring
2 time District Champion in team sparring
3rd place at Nationals for team sparring
Consistantly in the top 10s for the ATA World Standings (my highest rank was 2nd for sparring and 6th for weapon sparring) for my belt level (black belt) and age group
Extracurriculars
Taekwondo for 6 years
Varsity Team Sparring for 3 years
Paid Ecological Internship (SIFT) for the Tyson Research Center (under WashU)
Assistant Teacher for my church’s Sunday School
*Independent Research on Honeybee Cognition (somewhat flawed b/c I don’t have the resources for a proper study)
Mission trip to Memphis Tennessee where we helped teach and provide for low income children + helped clean the streets (lasted 5 days and 4 nights)
Robotics Team Sophmore year
FCA member
Youth Group member for 7 years
Student Poll Worker
STEM Fest Volonteer (Elementary School event)
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
What was your math score on the ACT? Did you do better in math and worse in the English/reading sections? I ask because it isn’t common to see a 26 with 4.0. Many universities evaluate you in the context of what is offered at your school. You state, “3 honors and 4 APs (not great, I know)” which seems to be an admission that you did not push yourself very hard given what was offered to you. Is that the case or am I misinterpreting your comment?
Biology is a rigorous major. The first two years have large, year long, competitive courses (bio, chem, physics and math). You don’t need to answer to me, but ask yourself if you feel prepared for that level of academic rigor at the schools you are considering.
Not sure how you will get University of Michigan, Notre Dame, Williams, Chicago down to $25,000 a year.
Unless your family qualifies for significant need based aid. Have you run net price calculators for these colleges to see if your net costs will be in the $25,000 affordable range? You might want to do that.
But beside that…I like the variety of your list. Some more competitive than others with a true sure thing in the mix.
Also, have you checked to see that all of these schools are test optional? I think most are…but not sure Purdue is (@momofboiler1 )
Purdue University will resume SAT/ACT test score requirements for admissions, beginning with students applying for Fall 2024 admission
Might I suggest U of Arizona ? With the 4.0 you’ll hit budget with automerit…
There’s no way for you to hit at Wisc, Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan unless I’m missing something. Have you run their net price calculators ? While you say you can afford and what schools say you can afford may be two different things.
You might also look at schools on the Midwest exchange to see where they come in - loaded with flagships like KU and more regional schools. Good luck.
Nothing wrong with your profile but your selection list likely doesn’t match your finances.
Ps - did you take the most rigorous schedule or even close to at your school ? If not, your reaches are out of touch I think forgetting the $$.
I know I likely wont be able to afford most of my reach schools, but I’d like to know whether or not I could feasibly get accepted regardless of cost which is why I didn’t specify. I also still think Purdue is a target school even with my ACT score (but likely more of a hard target or maybe I’m just overestimating myself). Other than that, thank you for the compliment.
If you can’t afford, why apply. Run the Net Peice Calculators. Better to apply schools you can afford.
Purdue is a reach due to your ACT imho as they put the ACT in the Very Important category. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply. As it’s bio and not CS, you have a shot
But it’s still $40k ish so you get in, then what ?
Look at Berea. No tuition is you qualify.
Arizona is a solid large flagship like the others you list. It gives you $32k off so it’s a safety and slam dunk. It’s automerit on a 4.0’. It’ll hit right at budget and below when you move off campus. I believe they lock tuition all four years to protect future years as well.
When you need cost certainty, you need to apply smartly.
I don’t blame you for seeing it that way. It’s one of my biggest regrets to not go for more honors and APs during my earlier years. When I was in middle school, I got a strong impression that whatever your teacher recommended you on your transcript for the following year is where you should stay. Taking more advanced classes was harshly advised against. It wasn’t until the middle of my Junior year I learned that my highschool didn’t work the same way, and by then it was too late. In fact, most teachers recommended all their students to enroll in the average classes even if they were outstanding. I know I can push myself to that level because I simply can’t allow mediocrity (hence the intence regret even though I didn’t know any better). Plus, school felt rather easy because of my overall unchallenging classes.
Thanks for your recommendations. I’ll look into those for sure.
As for cost, I don’t mind taking on debt (though if it ends up being too much, I wont accept), and my parents said they’d help me a lot more if I end up getting accepted to one of my reach schools.
What are you intending to do with a degree in biology? Are you thinking premed, or biotech research, or something else?
With a budget of $25,000 per year, you will need to keep an eye on the likely cost of attendance for schools that you are applying to. Will your safeties meet your budget? Ensuring that they really are safeties and and will be affordable might be the first task.
And you probably should run the NPC on pretty nearly all of the schools that you are applying to. There is not much point to get accepted to a university that you cannot afford to attend. It is quite a bit of work to send in 10 applications . For example, you will want to put in effort on the essays, and for your reaches you should be able to give a good answer to the question “why is this school a good fit for you”.
Otherwise, there are a lot of universities that have very good biology programs.
Yes. Biology classes will overlap with premed classes. Both daughters had majors that overlapped with premed classes so I have heard stories about how tough some of the classes are. I think that they both waited for junior year to take organic chemistry which might have helped them to do better in the class. Definitely give some thought to spreading out the most difficult classes over four years, and making sure that you have the right prerequisites going into each of the more difficult classes.
Lucky for you, you can’t take on much, only $5500 the first year. The government is doing you a solid by limiting what you can borrow, especially for bio, where you can have (many do) success but the major doesn’t have overall success in the job market sans more schooling.
In regards to your rigor, no one is looking to criticize but it makes your reaches - Chicago, Williams, Notre Dame, far off vs lower ranked but still great schools like a Franklin & Marshall, Denison - still reaches and unlikely but less so. There’s many others and it still may be a cost issue although they meet need If you have it.
I have looked into costs for my safties, and I’m good to go.
I’m hoping to go into research/academia. Realistically, I’ll end up going to one of my target or safties so I can better pay for my graduate degree.
If SLU is affordable, presumably via need, then maybe a meets need school would work.
The trick is - would any accept you?. You might look at Connecticut, F&M, Holy Cross, Kenyon, Denison.
Run the NPCs to see the cost. You’d need to apply TO. But you have great in state schools of varying size - Mizzou, Missouri State, , S&T, Truman State,
Arkansas has a scholarship that might work for you too and Fayetteville is a great city.
Please let us know the results of the NPCs that you run…especially SLU, Williams, and Chicago.
Will you have/have you taken physics? 4 years of foreign language?
Your list is a bit all over the place. Since Williams is on the list, are you interested in liberal arts colleges?
UIUC, WIsconsin, OSU, Michigan won’t be affordable, as others have said. Why apply to schools you know that will be unaffordable? There is no victory in being admitted to a reach and not being able to attend because it’s unaffordable.
Completing strong applications for selective schools takes a great deal of time and effort, so focus those efforts on schools that you know would be affordable.
Lastly, make sure to apply EA to any school that offers that.
You would automatically get the Curators Scholars Award ($5K) from Mizzou, which puts you within budget. You have some other good in-state options as well.
I can’t see a compelling reason why you would choose an out-of-state large public over Mizzou for biology. Unless the cost ends up being cheaper somehow. And as mentioned above, you can opt for a different in-state school if you want something smaller.
If you go into biology research/academia, you won’t pay for your PhD. But it is still smart to minimize undergrad expenses – don’t go into debt.
Mizzou is a gem. It has an agricultural school, a med school, a vet school, straight up “biology”, and several other bio-related fields. You can study (and do research on!) just about any aspect of biology your heart desires.