Chance Me To Go To Brown and Stanford [CA resident, 3.85/1560] for Environmental Science & Microbiology

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics: Indian Male
Citizenship: US
State/Location of residency: California
Type of high school: Public High School (Top 1% of public schools)

Intended Major: Environmental Science & Microbiology

Unweighted HS GPA: 3.85
Weighted HS GPA: 4.2
Class Rank: We dont do class rank
ACT/SAT Scores: 1560

Coursework:
AP courses: Physics 1, Chemistry, Calc AB, Bio, Lang, Lit, Gov, Stats, Physics C, Environmental Science, AP French
Honors: Pre-Calc Honors, American Lit Honors

(Took most rigorous courses, but not 2 APs, AP CS A and AP US History. Some APs above I self studied for)

Awards:
Broadcom MASTERS Top 30 in the nation (second in technology category)
California Science and Engineering Fair, Honorable Mention
AAU Boys Volleyball Nationals All Tournament Team
ISEF Nomination
Stockholm Junior Water Prize National Winner
2 Research Publications

Extracurriculars
Play Club and Varsity Volleyball (Club for 6+ years and 4 year varsity player)
Independent Scientific Research for Science Fairs
Intern at a Sustainability Non-Profit
Lab Research at Stanford Lab
Lab Research at ASDRP (Another lab basically)
Intern at a startup founded by a stanford alum
Started my own non-profit aimed to make cost-effective water filration devices

Essays: 8.5/10 (the theme being using research to make a difference in our environment pretty much)
LOR: 9/10 (I think just a guess)

Brown is my dream school, Stanford is second. But I would be really happy with any school thats Ivy+ or Ivy level.

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If you had to guess, where would you be rank wise?

Self study for AP does not earn you a grade so not sure that’s helpful.

Most rigorous doesn’t mean all APs unless there are few - but likely not the case at the high school you described.

You’re certainly a capable applicant - but with Brown at 5% acceptance and Stanford less, your odds aren’t great. But that’s not because of you.

And that goes for any “top level” school.

So these are two different schools - what are you looking for in a school beyond a name? What are your cost constraints?

Environmental Science is a tough major, rather low paying as are many sciences, and the top US News schools aren’t necessarily the top schools in the major. Or the only schools?

What’s the end goal for after? Med School? Job? Grad school?

Congrats on what is a very fine record - you’ll find a great home, at one of these two or elsewhere.

Rochester, I believe, has an open curriculum, like Brown.

See if any of these majors resonate - it could be a good target.

Undergraduate Program : Earth & Environmental Sciences : University of Rochester

Thanks

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Any chance for athletic recruiting?

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For your best chance you should ED to Brown if you are able, then if you are denied or deferred you can apply to Stanford RD. Make sure you have plenty of match & safety schools as both Brown and Stanford have very slim odds, even for people with perfect stats

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But if money is a factor, at least according to Brown, ED is not necessarily a boost.

“Please do not assume that your admission chances are improved by applying under the Early Decision plan. The Board of Admission makes the same decisions under Early Decision that it would under the Regular Decision plan.”

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Which did you self study for?

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Some of these colleges may be of interest for your greater list:

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I suspect a lot has changed at some of these schools in the last 5 years (when this was written) at these schools. I know certainly they have at Brown post pandemic unless we are just trying to identify open curriculums.

If so I will throw in Vassar as a “crunchy”, politically active OC school to check out. Obviously very different campus setting.

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With respect to this, this source offers suggestions:

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Given how prolific you are in posting links I was wondering what you thought the “expiration” of relevance was? This particular one appears to be from August 2017.

Obviously admissions processes and criteria’s appear to be “evolving” year over year and seemingly most school atmospheres and student experiences were impacted by the pandemic, juxtaposed against never ending population movements and political trends.

With all of these moving parts I personally question the value of subjective lists in general and certainly think they age (and not like wine, more like fish) quickly over time. I question whether or not it is really useful to give strong consideration to a largely qualitative ranking compiled based on perceptions originally gathered and published for students who are now college graduates and a year or two into their careers.

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You appear to be well qualified to attend Brown or Stanford and do well. Unfortunately, the same thing could be said about perhaps 80% of applicants. Of course the acceptance rate is way lower at both of these schools.

This is the part of your question that concerns me. The highest ranked schools in the US are not all the same. You should be looking at the differences between them, and thinking about which of them are the best fit for you. Also, the top schools for any particular major are not necessarily the top ranked schools overall.

Also you need to pick out at least one and preferably two solid safeties.

Given that you apparently have some ability to speak French, and have great stats, one wild thought for a match (or maybe “near safety”) might be McGill (French is not needed to study there, but would make spending 4 years in Montreal more interesting). Admissions in Canada is very stats oriented, and your stats are strong. Also, McGill is quite strong for environmental sciences (which I think is also true of Toronto). Of course the winters would be quite different from what you are used to in California.

Given that you have been a varsity volleyball player for a full 4 years I do wonder whether you would be a recruitable athlete. That might improve your chances quite a bit.

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A Stanford level volleyball player would be a very high level player and probably already verbally committed or “committed to the admissions process”. Brown is much less competitive but still D1 and they’ve also been talking to recruits for a while and might have their roster set. High academic D3 schools might be an option.

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We need an approximate percentile rank in your class. 4.2 UW could be top 5% at some schools, top 25th% or even lower at others, since every school has different weighting systems. If your percentile rank is top 5th%, your GPA is high enough to meet the bar for anywhere, as is your SAT - then the question is whether or not the school wants you for other reasons. If it’s top 25%, then only if you’re a recruited athlete, in which case you’d pass the academic pre-read.

If there is ANY way that you can become a recruited athlete for volleyball at this late time, that is the way to go to get into a highly selective school. Otherwise, your record looks great, but there is nothing that sets you apart from all the other students with great records.

If you do not want to go the recruited athlete route, or if it’s too late, then sure, go ahead and pick out a few reaches, but you’re not likely to get into them (that’s why they’re reaches). You need to focus on safeties and matches at this point, since that’s where you’re probably going to go.

MONEY. Can your family afford >360K for your undergrad? Do they make enough that you wouldn’t qualify for fin aid? Do they make so little that you’d qualify for a ton of fin aid? Honestly, this is probably the first consideration by a mile. Time to have a very frank discussion with your parents about finances, what they can afford, what they WANT to afford. Lots of families who can afford full fare don’t want to pay full fare, and with your record and CA residency, you have lots of cheap in-state options, and would have lots of big merit money options, potentially.

But the answer to your question. Stanford and Brown are very remote reaches for you, as they are for most of the students who apply, even valedictorians with perfect SATs and impressive ECs. Your best bet at acceptance to a highly selective school is to use recruited athlete status as a hook, if it’s not too late to do so, and you need to consider the most important factor, which is whether a school is financially feasible for you and your family.

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Thank you, I think I’ll be in top 10% of my class. The APs that I self studied for was not counted to my GPA, I just put that there for context. The goal may be masters or medical school, but i dont really know, all I know is I really have an interest in environmental science. But who knows, it could change when I get to college. Thanks for your insight!

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Bio, Lang

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Have your parents given you a budget ? If it’s not $90k+ a year, will you qualify for aid ?

You’d get a lot of merit money at a lot of schools.

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These are amazing, thank you

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You should assume that the overwhelming majority of applicants to Brown and Stanford are in the top 10% of their class. “Top student in the high school” will not be all that unusual for applicants to Brown and Stanford (and some other top schools on the Harvard/MIT/… sort of level).

You do not need to attend a highly ranked university to have a good chance to get admitted to a very good graduate program or a very good medical school. Also, if you are going to be taking premed classes, these classes will be very academically demanding and full of very strong students at a wide range of universities and liberal arts colleges. A’s are not easy to get in premed classes, but quite a few A’s will be needed to keep open the opportunity to get accepted to medical school (a few B’s are okay also, but still will not be easy to get in some cases).

One daughter started off as an environmental science major at a university that is barely NOT ranked in the top 100 in the US. One good thing about starting as an environmental science major is that she got to take classes in multiple different sciences, which helped her pick one science that she then switched to. This at least from slightly afar looked to be quite a graceful and seamless transition. She also was completing the premed required classes at the same time, but with the intention of possibly being a veterinarian rather than a human doctor. The required pre-vet undergraduate classes are the same as the required premed undergraduate classes and her pre-vet classes were full of premed students (some electives such as “lameness in horses” were different). Her “medical experience” on the side was all veterinary experience. Graduating from a “not quite top 100” undergraduate university she did very well on DVM admissions and is now studying at a very good (and well ranked) DVM program and is doing well.

If medical school is a possibility at all, you should pay attention to budget and do your best to avoid debt for your bachelor’s. It would be even better to save some money in a college fund for medical school (or for a master’s). Medical school is likely to cost $100,000 per year (or more?) by the time that you get there. If your budget is anything less than full pay you should run the NPCs (you will need help from your parents to do this).

One thought: McGill is noted for grade deflation. If you are seriously interested in keeping open the option of medical school, I would be concerned about this so I might question or even take back my suggestion from above.

I think that it is worth applying to Brown and Stanford, assuming that the NPC results are okay. However, you also should be thinking carefully about affordable safeties to apply to, where you would be comfortable studying for 4 years.

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