US Citizen
Public High School
Indian Male
Intended Major: Philosophy under Premed track
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
- Unweighted HS GPA: N/A
- Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.73 W out of 5
- Class Rank: N/A
- ACT/SAT Scores: 1500 (770 R&W, 730 M)
Coursework
All honors throughout high school. AP Lang, Bio, and APush junior year, taking AP Stats, Psych, Physics 1, AB, and Lit senior year.
Extracurriculars
Chair of committee of a University’s Philosophy Club
- This may come off as strange but I was chosen to be the chair of a committee on a university club. We are organizing a national level Philosophy Conference with professors speaking and panels and what not (this is happening very soon and it’s pretty legit). By far my most impressive extracurricular
Founder (yeah ik it’s so common) of a student-run philosophy organization
- Yeah, lots of student-run stuff I get it. But we are collaborating with philosophy programs at NYU and Columbia in order to establish philosophy clubs in low-income communities and underdeveloped high schools across the NYC area and further out. It will def have an impact and a collaboration with students from universities is helpful. There are also no philosophy organizations run by students (we’re the first!) so it is pretty niche.
President of Political Action Group
- Facilitated weekly meetings on political philosophy. Organized debates amongst members, delegates responsibilities to officers, spread political information to the community. We will also be having a state-wide (or district wide) political activism panel led by professors.
Youth EcoDefender and Lead Speaker of local Climate Emergency Organization
- Organized rallies and petitions to declare climate emergency in town. Spoke with selectmen and boards of finance and health. Spoke at town hall meeting in front of 200+ town hall members and declared climate emergency in town!!
Research Assistant at local university’s lab
- Interpreted data sets and existing research in order to understand correlations between telomere length and post partum depression in Latina mothers, and its relation with cultural and social stress. Helping out with recruitment for the study. Aiding Professor with finding existing literature and citing source. Aiding them with their paper.
Student Observer at local health clinic
- Interacted with patients and spoke with them to subside their anxiety while they were being treated. Took patients’ blood pressure, and learned a lot of medical terminology and practices (how to read TB, etc…)
Research Student, then Mentor, at Research Program
- Did research on immunoglobulin therapy and was first author on the published paper in the Inmunome Journal (low IF journal but whatever). The next year, I became a mentor and was in charge of 11 research projects.
Lead Pianist for local nursing home
- Played piano and organized a music program for children to sing to seniors who summer from some mental ailments.
Member of Speech and debate team
- Aided in coaching novice members and attended state and national tournaments (won state champion twice, top 10 in my category this year— this will most likely take up my awards section)
Varsity Swim Team Member
- Competed in 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay. Awarded varsity letter. Quite after freshman year because of health concerns and COVID haha.
Schools
Williams ED1 (Reach)
Middlebury ED2 (Reach)
Swarthmore (Reach)
Carleton (Reach)
Haverford (Reach)
Pomona (Reach)
Amherst (Reach)
Brown PLME (Reach)
Boston College (Target)
UConn (Safety)
UVM (Safety)
UMiami (Target)
URochester (Target…?)
Pitt (Safety)
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The first thing that comes to mind is to wonder what your budget is. Can you afford to attend any one of these schools without taking on any debt at all for your bachelor’s degree? If you are serious about premed, then you need to budget for a full eight years. Your in-state public university with no debt is probably a better choice than an expensive LAC with debt if you are premed.
I have no idea how UVM is for philosophy. However, it is quite good for premed and I think that it is probably a safety. Your chances of a presidential merit scholarship seem good, although it is hard to be sure since weighted GPA is computed so differently at different high schools that it is not possible to know what your grades are without having an unweighted GPA.
If you only had A’s throughout high school, then it should be relatively easy to compute your unweighted GPA yourself. Even if you have some B’s it still should be something you can compute yourself.
The second thing that I wonder about is what is your “plan B” if you do not get into medical school. The majority of students who arrive at university thinking that they are premed end up never applying to any medical school. The majority of students who do apply to medical school do not get accepted anywhere. Your premed classes are going to be tough, probably tougher than anything that you have ever seen.
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What do colleges look at: unweighted or weighted? If my school does not calculate unweighted, then wouldn’t colleges just look at the weighted GPA?
Schools will look at individual class grades and rigor, some recalculate GPA according to their proprietary methodology, but often it’s unweighted. You have to calculate your uwGPA yourself, core courses only (E, Sci, SS, FL, Math), on a 4 point scale where any A=4, any B=3 and so on. Let us know what that is. If your uwGPA is 3.8+ your list is probably categorized accurately.
Are all of these schools affordable per their net price calculators?
Edited to add: Through what year of Foreign Language have you taken?
Depends on the school. U of Az, for example, looks at UW as does Bama.
@DadTwoGirls is correct. Most these schools don’t give merit. The ‘lesser’ ones do.
Others meet need. So your list probably works but what if you could go to Arizona, Alabama, or South Carolina and their Honors programs for less?
I can’t see how you wouldn’t have a UW GPA. Assume 4 for an A. 3 for a B.
How did you calc your weighted. Was it an extra .5 for Honors and 1 for AP
if so, your list is fine. However, you need to talk $ with the family.
Step 1 go to Williams and run the NPC. if it says you are full pay, are your parents willing ? Do they want to knowing you may have 8 years. You don’t apply ED unless they are willing to spend $320k over 4 years…or the NPC shows you’ll pay less.
If you are full pay and your family is only willing to pay $40k for example you’d need to change your entire list.
So have them run the net price calc, have that money discussion as to their self imposed limits if any, and come back. Also explain your GPA calc. Thx
A college may do one or more of the of the following:
- Recalculate your GPA unweighted and/or with the college’s own weighting system.
- Look at your high school record (courses and grades) subjectively.
- Use the GPA provided by your high school at face value.
If a college does 3, you should hope that you are not competing against lots of applicants from South Carolina, where the state-standardized weighted GPA calculation produces very high weighted GPAs.
Schools only will look at your UW GPA. Different schools have their own way of weighting so that is meaningless.
There are high schools where a 97 counts as an A+, but is only a 3.7 on the GPA scale. There are high schools where a 90 counts at an A, and counts as 4.0 on the GPA scale. Schools also vary considerably in terms of how many extra points are included for honors, AP, and DE classes. Because of this, weighted GPA is essentially impossible to compare between high schools.
It might seem to the casual observer that it would not be all that hard to come up with a national standard for how to compute weighted GPA. However, this does not exist.
Universities will look at your actual grades. They will also consider your course rigor. There is some variations in terms of what different universities look at. For example, most consider grade 9 to be less important. A few will not consider grade 9 at all.
What is your home state?
Have you looked at the Common Data Sets for the schools that you have identified above? (Specifically the information in Sections C7 and C9-11.) Those data may give you some insights into your chances compared with recently matriculated students.
Yeah idk our school just doesn’t give us an unweighted GPA and I’ve calculated mine and it gave me a 3.8+ or something like that. We only have weighted it’s just how it is. I don’t know how my weighted is calculated. For an AP, an A plus is a 5.7, an A is a 5.2, and an A minus is a 4.78 I think. For an hours A plus is a 5.2 and an A is a 4.8.
see thing is I don’t have one so they could just recalculate it on their own and look at course rigor.
i would have taken all 4 years of foreign language when i apply
NPC shows we will pay less. I only have one working parent and we’re middle class but we may get some aid.
May dies not mean will. Let your parent fill it out. Different schools require different things. If your mom can’t afford $80k a year and you are not 100% filling out the NPC correctly do not apply ED. And again, how much are they ‘willing’ to pay ?
So tell us your grades. All As or how many Bs?
How many APs have you taken and will you take. Same with Dual enrollment ? What math will you get up to ?? Trying to understand your grades and rigor. Your system you laid out isn’t helping me.
Thx
Yes my parents filled it out and it gave us an estimate of around 35-40k which they are willing to pay. My grades are mostly all A’s. Freshman and Sophomore year I’ve only had a B plus in French. This year I had all A+’s and A’s in my AP’s with a B and B minus in French for the first and second semester respectively. I got a B plus in precalc first semester then an A second so I improved. I would have taken 7 AP’s as we aren’t allowed to take AP’s freshman and sophomore year. The highest math I am taking is AB next year.
So 7 total ? I would say you will spend a ton of time on your reaches which is ok. But you might tire. They are, as you say reaches so cut some.
I would not apply ED. If you do triple check the #s. You mentioned you have one parent but both will likely have to contribute. It’s binding although not legally. I’d not go there personally. Just in case yiur #s are wrong. These schools will dig into every aspect of your financial life through the css.
My guess is BC and Rochester are reaches albeit lower than the rest.
The fact that you have u Miami, UCONN, UVM, and Pitt is what makes your list fine.
If you need cheaper you may add South Carolina, College of Charleston, Alabama, MS State, and Arizona State. You’ll find wonderful Honors Colleges.
Good luck.
Ps I don’t see that you answered your home state. I assume CT or Vt?
What makes you say BC and Rochester are reaches? And wdym spend a ton of time on reaches. Also if you can’t afford an ED it’s completely possible to drop out according to some of these colleges. After all, if you get in ED they want you at the college, so you can negotiate the price.
That is just not true. If your working parent loses their job after you apply, you can file an appeal. You can not go to the school and tell them you only want to pay X and have them say OK. That may work if you have an offer from another school that is considered a peer institution but that isn’t even possible in ED.
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Really? I’ve heard lots of people say otherwise. I have one working parent and we calculated our estimated contribution and it was about 20k lower than the tuition of some of the LACs. I also know they meet 100% of demonstrated need.
If you have a 3.8 undergrad, 7 APs and a very good SAT my guess is they are low reaches meaning above target. Miami, which you have, is a match. BC and Rochester are both exceptional. I’m not saying you won’t get into any school on your list but to me those are not targets. It’s more likely you don’t get in if I’m calculating your record properly which I am not certain doing.
Not sure what you are saying on reaches ? I’m saying they will take you a long time and a lot of effort on essays. As you have three safeties you can do them but you might burn out ?
Where did you get the idea a college will negotiate with you on price ? These are elite schools. You are sorely mistaken my friend. You should go nowhere near ED. If you screw them on ED it will not be something you’ll want to deal with. Stick to non binding EA and RD.
You are clearly misreading info or receiving incorrect info.
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