I am a rising senior from New York (caucasian). My two top interests are biomedical engineering and political science/international relations. I know those are two very distinct majors, but I plan on pursuing a major/minor or double major in both areas perhaps with a foreign language (Spanish) mixed in.
Academics:
GPA: Probably around 4.0 UW (my school does not give GPAs out of 4, so I don’t know it exactly). For reference, I have gotten all A+s with 2 As in all honors/APs.
ACT: 35 (M: 36 S: 36 R: 36 E: 33 W: 12)
SAT: 1550 (M: 800 r/W:750 E: 8/7/6)
SAT 2: 800 (Chem, Bio E and World History). Waiting on 3 more scores for this year (Math II, Math I and US)
APs: 5 (Psychology, World History, Computer Science A, Physics 1, APUSH, Micro and Lang)
**Will be taking Bio, Lit, Macro, US Gov, BC, Physics C and Spanish Lang during Senior year.
Will be taking an independent study in AI during Senior Year.
Class Rank: Definitely top 5%, but my school does not rank. (very competitive public school)
Extracurriculars:
(In-School)
Forensics Debate: National Finalist at NCFL (17th in nation in my event), National Semifinalist as NFL/NSDA tournament, more awards at smaller invitations (semifinalist Princeton invitational, 4th UPenn Liberty Bell Classic, Finalist at State tournament (9th), etc.)
Model UN: 1st at a Local conference, Outstanding delegate at JHUMUNC (Officer)
Mock Trial: Our team went to County finals
Ethics Bowl: Semifinalist (3rd) at our national qualifier
Student Government: Senate Secretary (officer of whole student body)
**Working on a school initiative to help introduce political opportunities like internships to the student body
DECA: Top 10 in state (wasn’t really invested)
Siemens: Worked with two fellow students, and we sent in our Sophomore research project
Regeneron/ISEF: Will compete next year
Local Competitions: A bunch of awards from local research fairs
National Honor Society/Spanish Honor Society: Waiting to hear back about officer positions
Varsity Baseball
(Out-of-School)
Interned for a local political candidate who unexpectedly won his district against partisan odds
Part of an internship that helps teach Hispanic immigrants English for free
Senior Member of a recently founded political organization that helps connect students with internships and helps campaigns create internship programs
Interning at Brookhaven labs and conducting research under a mentor
Schools:
My dream schools are Stanford and Harvard, but I'm thinking about applying early to MIT/UChicago/CalTech because they aren't restrictive/single-choice.
Questions:
Is there anything I can do (from now until this fall) to improve my application for Harvard or Stanford?
What chance do I have to get into these schools?
Is my early application strategy worth it?
Are there any other schools that match me better?
A really big thank you for reading this and helping me out. Any advice is greatly appreciated.