Chance Me: STEM guy with good grades and decent EC's, but lower test scores

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
US Resident

Type of high school: Private, Catholic (Jesuit), all boy
Male, Indian, middle -upper class
First to go to a US college but my parents have graduate degress from other countries

Intended Major(s): Chemistry, Neurology, Biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.34
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1470 (800M + 670R) Superscore, might take it a third time

Coursework

  • Honors for any classes that aren’t AP
  • Taken all APs available at my school: (Soph) APUSH; (Junior) AP Gov, AP Calc AB, AP Stat, AP Physics 1; (Next year as a Senior) AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Spanish Lang, AP Composition

Awards

  • Academic All American for Speech and Debate (2% of active members in Speech and debate get this)
  • Superior Distinction Degree, Special Distinction Degree, and Distinction degree
  • Third Degree Black Belt
  • Commended Scholar (211 Index so probably)
  • Fr. gavin SJ Award on my forensics team for coaching novices and showing love for the club.

Extracurriculars some of these might be in awards but idk

  • Sacristan at my church for 4 masses a month/ 2 masses every two weeks
  • I do taekwondo
  • I am Youth Chair at a nonprofit: I raised $700 in canned good for poor and vulnerable in Essex; raised $900 in t-shirts to raise awareness for poaching in India
  • Confirmation Peer Minister at my church for every summer since freshman year
  • Patient Transporter at a hospital (4 hours a week)
  • Co-founder and Co-President of a tutoring “club” at my school( amassed 15 tutors to assist a total of 120 middle school and upper school students throughout the entirety of the COVID year. Leading the summer initiative to tutor students in Van Brooks School , a local year-round Jesuit school)
  • Speech Captain of my Speech and Debate Team: I qualified in Original Oratory and Duo interpretation for the National Championships in 2021. I am an Octo-finalist (“breaker”) in Duo Interpretation for the National Championships in 2021. Qualified for State Championships in 2019, 2020, and 2021 in three events. I am currently ranked top 1 in Declamation and top 3 in Original Oratory in my state.
  • Summer Intership with UMB working on anatomy and phisology
  • Did two shows in theatre but i stepped back and was part of the soundcrew/soundduo (only me and another guy)
  • Member of service and justice committee and was the secretary my sophomore year
  • Ignite Freshman Retreat Leader
  • Student Ambassador
  • NHS

Essays/LORs/Other
Ik for one of them it will be at least a 9/10: I have had her for 3 years and she taught me my geomety, precalc, calc and stat courses. I talk to her in my free periods and get extra help (no one else really does this), talk to her about stuff outside of school for at least 30-60 min occaisonaly, and she told me she wrote a glowing reccomendation for me (but i’d assume they all say they do)
Other one probably will be mid tier but she likes me and im a good student 7/10

Schools
idk which is target, or safety, or reach or not, you can decide for me :). I might not apply to UC’s or NYU but if I did I would/ have to RD

Johns Hopkins (ED), College Park (EA), Case Western Reserve (EA), Geeorgetown (EA), BU (EA), BC (EA), UPenn (EA) , George Washington (RD), Fordham (RD), UMBC (RD), UC Berkeley (RD), UCLA (RD), NYU (RD)

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The test scores are lower for the colelges I want to go to, but i understand there are people who are happy with these scores. Im trying to not sound condescending.

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UC’s are test blind through the 2025 admission cycle. Being OOS and Full pay at $65K/year can help your chances at the UC’s but UCB/ UCLA are Reach schools and $260K is expensive for an Undergrad degree.

You are a competitive applicant so best of luck.

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Thanks I appreciate this input. I only put the UC’s for that very reason that they are test blind, but there is a slight chance I would apply there in the first place

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Penn doesn’t have EA, only ED. You can’t apply to Georgetown EA if you are applying ED somewhere. Those are the two early admission programs that I checked. You’ll have to go through each of the early admission programs at the schools on your list to make sure you are allowed to pursue that option.

All of the schools on your list are reaches, except for UMBC. College Park talks about “holistic review” and “building a class” on their admissions page. This indicates that you could have a 4.0/1600 and still not get in. College Park admissions criteria

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OP, this is a good list. You should end up with some good options if you don’t get into JHU ED. Remember to show interest at CWRU.

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You are not first gen to college at all, so definitely do not mention that in any essays, supplemental or otherwise. Overall, I think your list seems very reasonable. Good luck.

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From your intended major, your HS EC as a patient transporter, and interest in JHU,I’m wondering whether are you are interested in becoming a doctor.

If so, medical schools care more about your college GPA than they do about what college you go to. Personally, I am not a fan of JHU for premeds, because they have grade deflation and the atmosphere is incredibly stressful and competitive. If you are thinking about going to medical school, I urge you to think about the total cost of your education. It is unusual to pay anything but full freight for med school, so you have to focus cost savings at the college level.

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On the other hand, if you just like sciences and aren’t sure what you want to do with it, and money is not a huge issue, it’s terrific to go to a college that has lots of scientific and research and internship opportunities both during the school year and the summers. For that reason, I wouldn’t take UC Berkeley off your list and once you’ve applied to 1 UC it’s easy to apply to more since it’s only 1 app, so look at what each one offers. My kid had been interested in CS at the time, and UCSD kids had amazing opportunities. BTW, my kid switched to preMed in college, and she’s the poster child for why it’s important not to bullet hole yourself before you even get to college; you want to be open to change based on your experiences.

You had also mentioned possibly taking NYU off your list, but if money isn’t an issue (they are notoriously stingy), NYU also has fabulous research/internship opportunities.

I’m curious why Fordham is on your list. What about it is appealing to you?

If you’re interested in a Jesuit college, how about Creighton? It has a med school and dental school and I believe they give admission preferences to their graduates, and one would assume there would be some internship/research opportunities for their undergrads. It’s worth looking into.

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I’d apply EA to Fordham. It is always good to have an EA acceptance (even from a safety) in hand early in the process.

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