Chance Me: Swarthmore, Northwestern, Notre Dame, USC, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech, U Mich, ect

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi again, I’m redoing my chance me thread because my grades and courseload were updated.

INFO

  • Rising senior at a high ranked and highly competitive school
  • Hoping to major in Bio-Medical Engineering
  • Thinking about applying to:
    Swarthmore
    Northwestern
    Notre Dame
    USC
    UNC Chapel Hill
    Georgia Tech
    U Mich - Ann Arbor
    Wash U
    Emory
    Vanderbilt
    Johns Hopkins
    Carnegie Mellon
    Duke
    Williams College
    Princeton - I am definitely out of the playing field for this, but my parents still want me to apply
  • I think a lot of these schools are high reach for me, but I would love it if anybody could give me some suggestions on what I can improve
  • PSAT - 223
  • SAT I: 2130
  • SAT II: Bio (M) - 720 and US History - High 700s
  • Class Rank - My school doesn't rank
  • ACTs - I'm sure I got above at least a 32
  • GPA: 4.06 W and 3.7 UW - I did not do as well as I wanted to in my freshman and sophomore years, but I show an upward trend.
  • APs Taken: AP Psych - awaiting score, AP Calc AB - awaiting score, AP Stat - awaiting score, AP USH -awaiting score, AP Bio - 4
  • Senior Course-load: AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP Econ (Macro/Micro), AP Chem, AP Gov, English 4 (honors), and Latin IV (Honors)

Extracurricular stuff/Honors
National Merit - Semi-finalist - I will try for finalist, I’m actually not quite sure how this works lol
Quizbowl - Nationally Ranked, we go to national HS tournaments (HSNCT, PACE) and place fairly well.
National History Bowl - Nationally ranked, Co-Team captain
National History Bee - Nationals
Member of FRC Team (First robotics) - student council member and a student leader - I have skills in welding and heavy machinery. - Captain of Welding team - and attended FIRST National competition in St. Louis
I have 200 volunteer hours at a camp for blind/visually impaired children serving as a camp counselor
I also have some hours as a volunteer for First - I helped out at the National competition
Advocated for STEM/First programs to congress members at a national advocacy conference
World Quest - placed 5th and 3rd at State competitions
Guitar/Piano - I’ve been playing Piano Since 2nd grade and self-taught for Guitar - I volunteer at hospitals playing for patients with my friends.
I perform altar service duties for my Catholic church - I heard this may help for Notre Dame

Family Income: 100k+
Family of 5 - I have two other siblings
Asian - First generation
My teacher recommendations should be good, but primarily from humanities teachers (I have one math/science teacher)
Counselor recommendation - average

I am considering applying ED to Swarthmore, but I would love to see which of these schools are realistic for me to reach.

THANK YOU and I can chance back if you link me!!!

2

Home state? Any list that are matches? Safeties?

3

Bruh

4

For UMich CoE, your uwGPA is rather low. Your test score is below afmussion average too. It would be a reach from OOS.

5

Those are a lot of schools…I don’t know about them all specifically, but your SAT is low for Princeton, in range for other schools. Top of range for Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, USC. Check the University stat profiles so you can get a better idea of those fixed scores you should reach. Swarthmore’s 25th percentile SAT is 2040, but the 75th is 2300. Scores aren’t everything, but a low score will keep you out and lower your chances significantly. Your GPA is a little low, but upward trend is good. Can’t really comment on GPA or courseload; it is relative to school environment and offered classes.

I think what makes you stand out are your ECs; in my opinion, at least. As long as you show significant contribution to those nationally ranked competition teams, you have some high quality ECs there. All of your ECs are pretty much categorized as history and community service, showing a connection and a path.

The only thing that I would say would be that you should talk about engineering in your essays because I see a lot of history stuff, which is perfectly fine if you enjoy what you do, but you would need to explain to the adcoms why bio-med engineering is your passion. Also, your subject scores don’t reflect it that much either. 4 in Bio is fine, but I think top schools would want 5/high 700s in Bio, 5/high 700 in Physics or Math too…just so you emphasize the your major focus.

And those schools are very diverse…make sure you look into to all of them…some of the schools, such as Vanderbilt, Emory, and Williams, are not really engineering focused.

I would say Georgia Tech is a good choice that is a match, Carnegie Mellon is solid too. USC too, but I can’t comment on their engineering. Chapel Hill and JHU are a lower reach, but still a reach, and Princeton of course is a very high reach (not just for you). I can’t judge on fit, but don’t pick random schools for prestige or name…

Hope I somewhat helped?