Chance Me!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I’m a student at the High School of American Studies at Lehman College. It is a specialized high school, number one in New York State, and had been consistently ranked as very challenging. Furthermore, I have been attending numerous college classes at the school starting from my Junior year. I have taken a litany of AP courses, but my grades are an issue.

Freshman: 87 UW
Sophmore: 90.1 UW/ 93 W
Junior: 97 UW/ 101 W

I got a 1520 SAT score, and have written what my Junior English teacher called a “flawless” essay (though I vehemently disagree). I have listed reasons for my poor grades in the beginning, including transitioning to a new country (and new city!) and battling prescription drug dependence which led to a dark episode of depression. I have listed these and a smorgasbord of reasons for the situation I have faced GPA wise.

EC’s: Debate Team, Fundraising for the Women’s Empowerment Club, Robotics Club, Harlem Youth Court, off-school news website (which I cofounded)

Now, I plan on applying to the following schools:
Priority/ Reach: UC Berkeley and LA, Tufts, Carnegie Mellon, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Wake Forest, McGill, Johns Hopkins Emory, University of Rochester
Safety: Tulane, NYU, Boston University, Northeastern University

Of course, I cannot receive an admissions fee-waiver for all these colleges. So, I need to break down the list. Which colleges do I have a chance at? Please, be brutally honest.

2

Freshman: 87 UW
Sophmore: 90.1 UW/ 93 W
Junior: 97 UW/ 101 W

How are these bad grades? lol

3

Ahem, Freshman year?

4

Why did you get an 87? why are you so obsessed with your grades?

5

I may seem obsessive, but that is primarily due to paranoia. Speaking of my 87: I had been adjusting to a new country, and pretty much never lived in NYC or any big city for that matter. I had also seen a rocky divorce, a severe bout of depression, and a mother who was basically unemployed.

6

If you talking about fee-waivers, does that mean you are in need of a substantial amount of financial aid to attend these colleges?

7

whats your UC GPA? UW and fully weighted?

8

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Since you are OOS, only AP/IB or DE courses count for the extra honors points in the calculation.

9

McGill and I’m pretty sure UC Berkeley and UCLA won’t care about your grade 9 grades. In your case this will help significantly. I think that your chances at McGill are very good. These three are all excellent schools. They will be challenging but I get the impression that you are okay with that.

10

I knew that! Already calculated in the post.

11

Unweighted GPA: 3.71
Weighted GPA: 3.96
Weighted and Capped GPA: 3.96

12

I’m just a stingy jerk. Actual college tuition is no issue.

13

UCLA/UCB will be expensive at $60K/year without any financial aid for OOS students. UC’s although holistic to some extent in their application review, above all like high GPA’s.

Based on 2016 data:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 14%
UCLA: 14%

If affordability/finances are an issue, not worth applying to UCB/UCLA.

14

Not an issue if actually getting accepted at UCLA. Are those admit rates W or UW?

15

Also, any word on, say, non-UC schools?

16

An 87 is a B+, not a disaster.

Regarding your list, if you need financial aid the California publics won’t give you enough. Out of state students are a cash cow for them.

Your safeties aren’t safeties.

17

What would be a good safety? UT Austin?

18

You need more safety schools, the schools you are applying to all seem like match/low reach schools to me.

19

Agree with those who say your safeties aren’t really safeties. Tulane let in 7% of RD applicants this year and only 21% of all applicants. NYUs numbers are similarly tough, and BUs almiost are. Northeastern is even getting harder and harder to get into. Yes, you would be in the top 25% of test takers in their applicant pools of your “safeties”, but your GPA does not stand out. Now, this is not to be discouraging, but is to prompt you to narrow your list to places where you’ll be happy and where you can convincingly show interest. Best of luck to you!

20

UT Austin is no safety for anyone, especially OOS applicants. You need a sure bet safety like one of the SUNY schools, just in case everything else falls through. Your list is pretty much all reaches or matches. I don’t see a safety on there.