He could get good merit at the U of South Carolina Honors College (about 500 Honors students per class year). In addition, they have a specific fund offering additional scholarship money to upperclassmen studying both Russian and STEM. Russian - Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures | University of South Carolina This page about the Honors College talks specifically about the honors chem classes About the Honors College - South Carolina Honors College | University of South Carolina (Thereâs also a 7-year med program within the honors college, but I donât know whether that would be compatible with a double major.)
UVA is a target for OP as are all the other in state schools. It would be excellent for OPâs interests
Sorry, what does OP stand for?
In this case, you, the Original Poster.
1 Like
What schools here do you consider targets besides the in-states?
Thanks!
1 Like
None of the private schools you listed are targets for you. Why?
5% Brown
8% Williams
25% Wake Forest
17% BC
7% Northeastern
15% Middlebury
12% Amherst College
12% Colgate
14% BU
Those are the admit rates for each of the private schools on your list. Be aware that of those percentage are included SlamDunkAcademicAllStars/EarlyDecisionAcceptances/Legacy/Athletes. The true admit percentages for average excellent students for you is up to half the listed number.
Every year, all those schools tell thousands of students with your stats âsorry, but noâ. But, they do fill half their incoming classes with students like you. So be realistic about understanding what those admit %s really mean. It means that no Highly Rejective university is a match for almost any student.
Apply and shoot your shot, but do so with a very mature understanding of the process. Each of those schools could fill their entire freshman class with students with stats like yours 50 times over. Some very qualified students must be refused admission, just because of the sheer volume of very qualified applicants.
Of the privates on your list, WFU is probably the most likely to admit you. If youâre a full-pay family, make sure you apply early - I think they start accepting applications in the summer. Show a lot of demonstrated interest, and schedule an official tour if possible. If youâre not a full-pay family, take a few points off that admit percentage, because WFU is need aware.
The others? Apply and good luck. 5% at Brown probably means more like 2.5% realistically. Some students with your stats will be offered admission - There is a 2.5% chance it will be you.
6 Likes
Thanks!! Yeah, I visited Wake over Spring Break and was a big fan. What Iâve been doing for my list is checking a database of peopleâs stats from my schools that have been accepted or rejected or waitlisted from these schools. Iâve kind of been trying to determine if itâs a reach or target based on where I fall. For BC, Northeastern, and Colgate Iâm with a lot of acceptances with a couple of rejections so I assumed this would be a target. Is this a good way of determining what school falls in what category? If not, what alternative do you recommend?
Would you be happy at Virginia Tech or Pitt? If so, and if theyâre affordable for your family, I suspect youâd get admissions to those as a Russian major.
Some schools that you may want to consider where you might get merit aid are: Bucknell, Dickinson, Macalester, St. Olaf. Since Virginia has such amazing publics, I wonât mention too many other out-of-state publics, but Indiana U. And U. of Wisconsin-Madison would both be well worth your consideration.
3 Likes
Based on a statistical model, which I wonât describe here, your chances of acceptance at, say, Colgate, fall within a range of 30% to 33%. I might say your chances are higher than this based on the information you included regarding applicants from your high school. However, the 30â33% range is what the model generally predicts.
1 Like
Several state flagships have strong Slavic departments with graduate programs (in addition to those already mentioned, itâs Michigan, UIUC, UC-Berkeley, for example). But, as people have already stated here, out-of-state tuition makes them less attractive options than UVA and William and Mary (both have excellent Russian programs).
As for LACs, I agree that for your targets you should look at those that give merit aid and are a little easier to get in than the top LACs youâve listed. Indeed, Macalester, St. Olaf, and other schools that AustenNut listed plus Kenyon, Oberlin, and Grinnell (which is another reach but worth trying) are great schools with strong Russian programs. Again, as was mentioned before, you might run out of advanced language courses at a LAC, but they might come up with other options for you, such as independent study or you can do an intensive summer program off campus (study abroad in Russia isnât an option now, but there are programs in some former Soviet republics, such as Latvia, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan+summer schools in the US, such as Middlebury and Indiana).
2 Likes
I personally think it would be helpful to state the source of this model, and what it is. Predictions of chances of acceptance are wildly crazyâŠbecause actually, the only real way to know if you are going to get accepted is to apply and the adcoms will decide. Admissions to some of these competitive schools is getting very UNpredictiable. And when a student gets rejectedâŠor acceptedâŠthey will never know why.
That being saidâŠ.I think this poster has an interesting admissions profile.
2 Likes
Correct me if I was wrong. With his stats, he would get into multiple of his choices even if he goes for RD in all.
1 Like
Consider yourself corrected. 
4 Likes
Consider flagship state Uâs with strong Russian graduate programs (anywhere you go will have premeds). Indiana. Ohio State. Wisconsin. U Washington. U Va. UT Austin. Pitt. U Oregon. UNC. U Missouri. U Mich. U Kansas. UIUC (Illinois). UC Boulder. U Az (major merit money for you possibly). ASU doesnât have a graduate program in Russian, but they do have the Melikian Institute, with very strong Slavic language instruction, and theyâll probably give you a lot of money. And consider McGill and U Toronto.
If moneyâs no object, or if you would qualify for fin aid, then yes to all those expensive reaches that have graduate programs, but theyâre all massive reaches.
Unless you see yourself as a star science researcher, you can probably set yourself apart from the other premed applicants as a star Russian and Slavic languages student. Also, Russian linguists are in tremendous demand now, can start well above 100K/yr right out of college. There are summer internships for this, too. So Iâd say go where thereâs a fantastic Russian department, and you can get big merit money (preserve resources for med school). Thatâs probably going to be an auto merit money flagship state U.
1 Like
And
If this latter comment represents your belief, I donât see how a description of statistical modeling would be helpful to you.
1 Like
I will bite and say I do think a thorough statistical analysis could provide a reliable predictive model.
Can you please share your model in terms of variables, data sources and back testing? Is it proprietary or public?
Thanks.
2 Likes
Back to this student. I think they have a good chance of acceptanceâŠbecause their story is an interesting and different oneâŠand the interest in Russian is not all that common.
The thing with chances isâŠthere is no way to easily predict why colleges accept on seemingly equally qualified student over another.
But you canât get accepted if you donât apply.
1 Like
All others are reaches.
Add Dickinson, American University (targets/low match, possible merit); Georgetown (reach);
Look into the other Critical language programs for Russian but itâll be tough to beat VTech in terms of value for you:
https://www.thelanguageflagship.org/russian
2 Likes
It seems that the student is of Russian descent. If the mother tongue is Russian, then the interest in Russian is not so unusual, and the accomplishments are not so unusual either. I donât know how this can influence the AO. If filling the Russian classes up is an institutional priority, it would not matter.
OP, back in the day when my D18 was applying, we attended a presentation of Tuft U and they said they were looking for candidates interested in Russian. I donât know if this is still the case