Chance Me... UMich, USC, WashU, Duke, BU, Northeastern, Cornell, UND, UVA, Vandy & More

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone,

I would really appreciate the help if you could realistically tell me my chances of admission at each of the following schools (predicted below is my best guess of my status at each school):

SAFETY: Ohio State, U-Wisconsin Madison, Fordham, GWU
TARGET/MATCH: UMich, UVA, Northeastern, BU
REACH (yikes lol): NYU, Cornell, USC, WashU, Duke, Vandy, UND, UNC Chapel Hill

Major/College: Arts & Sciences. Focus is primarily on the Biological Sciences, w/ emphasis on evolutionary biology, computational science and genomics. Plan to go the pre-med route. Second choices are Economics and Spanish.

Background: White male from a growing, suburban area in southeast Michigan. Born and raised here, and both of my parents went to college. Attend a competitive, HUGE school that combines 3 schools together to create a college campus w/ over 6000 students.

Income: ~$180,000

Unweighted GPA: 4.0/4.0

Weighted GPA: 4.167 (predicting a 4.25 at the end of my senior year. Honors courses not weighted at my school).

AP/Honors Courses: AP Bio (self studied) - 4; AP Micro - 5; AP Macro - 5; AP Spanish - 4; AP Lang - 4. Currently enrolled in APES, AP Stats, & AP Calc BC. Excelled in: Honors Geometry, Honors Alg. 2 w/ Trig, Honors Precalc w/ Trig, Honors Bio, Honors Zoology, Chemistry (college prep, so honors).

Senior Classes (aside from what’s stated above): Honors Mod. Literature & the Arts; Spanish Independent Study, and some other core classes.

Class Rank: 1/512 (weighted, all students w/ a 4.0 UW get this). I found a way to find the unweighted class rank, and according to our system it says I’m at around 40/1500 (top 3%)

SAT Score: 1480 (770 Math, 710 Reading, 22/24 on Essay), took me 3 tries

ACT Score: N/A

SAT II Scores: N/A

Extracurriculars:

Key Club - Division 11 Lieutenant Governor (MI) (10/11) - My most meaningful extracurricular. This represents being part of the District (state) board for Key Club. (+100 hours service)
Key Club - District Secretary (MI) (11/12) - Executive Board of the Michigan District (+100 hours service)
Summer Internship, LSA Dept of Chemistry UM Center for RNA Biomedicine (12) - An experience that I think solidified my interest in Michigan. It also really intensified my interest in the life sciences and was the key to writing the majority of my academic essays.
Student Council Member (Class of 2020) (10, 12) - Although I didn’t have a leadership role in student council it still played a great role in my development.
Interact Club & RYLA District 6400 Associate Staff Member (leadership conference) (10-12)
DREAM Youth Conservation Project Participant (11) - Two weeks spent abroad in the Dominican Republic educating at-risk youth in Spanish about climate change
Basketball - Center (9)
GIDAS Club Member (Genes in Diseases And Symptoms)

Work Experience:

Host at IHOP for around 6 weeks. Duties: clear and wipe tables; wash dishes; greet customers, seat appropriately by section; take carry out orders; assist servers with duties.

Server at a burger joint for 3 months. Duties: Take customers’ orders/put in system; assist customers; clean my tables & section; provide/file checks; take to-go orders; deliver food to tables.

Honors/Awards (lol not many tbh)

AP Scholar w/ Distinction (11)
National Honors Society Member (11-12)
RYLA Staff (stated above)
Selected Representative; May 2018 MyLead (at MSU) Participant (10) (leadership conference)
Student of the Month (Spanish Independent Study) (12)
Robert F. Lucas Outstanding Lieutenant Governor Award (11) (MOST MEANINGFUL AWARD to me, I spent so much time as LTG and I earned it)
Distinguished Secretary’s Award Applicant
Key Club E-Board Member of the Quarter Award (12)
Honor Roll (9-12)

Rec Letters: Very solid. One from an English teacher who I had for two years and loved to pieces. Another from my Chemistry teacher who really saw my abilities shine through in Qual Lab. And another from my AP Econ teacher, who is now the assistant principal. Others include: Key Club DA (good), Center Coordinator from my UM Internship (FANTASTIC), Burger place manager (pretty good)

Interviews: WashU: 9.5/10. I loved her so much, it was so informal and was easy to converse with. Cornell interview is this Sunday. I am expecting to interview for Duke and Vanderbilt as well. I have no problem when talking to people.

Common App Essay: 8/10. I described how I was really scared to be a part of clubs in school because of my social anxiety problems, and discussed my fascination with Key Club. This essay really shows the transition from my past life to who I really am today, and goes through all of the moments and experiences that have shaped my values.

Why this College Essay: Also 8/10. It generally varied from school to school, but I primarily discussed how connecting with those who’ve been critically impacted by genetics-related diseases has inspired me to intern with UM, and more importantly, expand upon my interest in each specific college through research and labs.

Misc. Essays: Community = 9/10 (talked about basketball and becoming a leader); Coming Out as Gay = 8.5/10 (although I poured my heart out into this, it was very hard to perfect); Meaningful Activity = 7/10 (I said basketball, although Key Club was clearly more meaningful but I had already used in for the Common App essay); Fictional Character Essay (Honors) = 7/10 (I said Charlie Brown LOL); Peer who’s had an Influence = 9/10 (talked about Key Club friend and her impact on my willingness to try new things); Required Book in Schools = 7/10 (talked about an autobiography of a neurosurgeon who had lung cancer as he was writing and then died).

Additional Information: As you just read, I am (newly) openly gay. Completed online course: eDX Course: Educación sobre el Cambio Climático (12). Proficient in Adobe Photoshop CS6 & Sony Vegas Pro 11. Two YouTube channels & Badlion Server (Minecraft) Moderator (2014-2016). Both channels combined: 360 total subscribers; 23,788 total views; 172 public videos.

Thanks so much! Please let me know your honest opinions!

2

I also forgot to state that I am Catholic applying to 2 Catholic schools, being Duke and UND. I doubt this would make a difference though…

3

Since when is Duke Catholic??

4

You have no safety schools on your list. Your safeties are matches, especially for the OOS flagships you listed. And your targets are at least low reaches.You need to look at acceptance rates, not just where your stats fall.

5

Oops… all of my life, I had always thought Duke was religiously affiliated. Never mind!

6

Thanks for your input. Whenever I look at safety/target schools and acceptance rates, for some reason I always tend to think of a classroom. For example, a 20% acceptance rate leads to 6 out of 30 students applying to be accepted. Almost half (generally) are academically qualified. Through the aspects of my application, I thought I would be one of the 6 picked. However, I see where you’re coming from.

7

@prestonparana

I think a lot of student (and parents) think this. But for the reachy schools, like Duke, Cornell etc., you need to keep in mind that the acceptance rates are somewhat meaningless, after you account for ED, athletic recruits, URM, influential legacy, AND the fact that many (most?) applicants are VERY well qualified.

As others have already suggested, you need to add more matches/safeties. I am wondering if you would be interested in Saint Louis University, also a Jesuit school. Is “UND” on your list Notre Dame? you may find that to be somewhat more conservative than Fordham .

I am assuming you are applying RD to all these listed? Again, you may be misinterpreting statistics in thinking the more reach schools you apply, the greater your chances. Not so - these are not independent events.

8

@momprof9904 I didn’t mention in the thread some of the safety schools to which I’ve been accepted: Michigan State and Alabama, two more safety schools on my list.

Although UND is portrayed to be rather conservative (Notre Dame), when I visited I absolutely loved the people, the atmosphere, and the campus. I have no problem applying there despite being part of the LGBTQIA+ community.

I understand that some of my reaches may be a long shot given some of the factors you mentioned, but I truly envision myself at some of these schools and can see myself challenged and growing not only as a student but also as a leader and person. I think it’s never fair to say that it’s impossible to get in, as I spent so much time on my application and have shown some demonstrated interest.

9

Duke University was at one time Trinity College and it did have a religious affiliation back then…but it was Protestant, not Catholic. Today Duke is secular.

10

I’ll disagree slightly - OSU and Fordham may be safeties, considering that they have about a 50% acceptance rate, and the OP is in their top 25%. I agree with you on everything else.

@prestonparana I would check your high school’s Naviance scattergrams, and see how many applicants from your high school with your stats were rejected from OSU and Fordham. If almost all, or all, were accepted, you can keep them in your “safety” column. If 1/4 or more were rejected, I would move them to the “low match” or “match” columns, as @momofboiler1 wrote.

11

@prestonparana Great that you have some good safety admissions already! Best of luck with the rest of your applications! It looks like you are researching them carefully.

12

UPDATE: Just got accepted into Ohio State :slight_smile:

13

Your list is reachy as you know. But my concern is how much will your parents pay. Your family’s income might make most of these schools extremely expensive. Make sure you understand your finances. Congratulations on your acceptances this far!

14

^ “AND the fact that many (most?) applicants are VERY well qualified.”

Stanford admissions once said that 80% is applicants are qualified and could succeed if admitted. Stanford receives 50k applications.

15

As far as I know, my school system does not use Naviance, so I have no way of knowing :frowning:

16

ANOTHER Update (not as important lol): Had my Cornell interview today and I was NOT expecting it to be that good. Solid 9.5/10. I literally LOVED my interviewer; he was a biostatistics major, and we talked about wine tasting and sailing at Cornell for 2 hours. Wow, if only he and I could be friends…

17

Well, I guess that it doesn’t matter whether it’s a safety! ?

Congrats!

18

It’s been a while… here are a few updates to bump this thread :slight_smile:

ACCEPTED: UMich EA (estatic <3), Fordham EA
REJECTED: Notre Dame REA (but if they did, I guess it’s not the right school for me!)

Waiting to hear back from Wisconsin tonight :slight_smile: