Chance/reverse chance: rising senior w/ decent grades but pretty bad ECs

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic: US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: TX
  • Type of high school: Competitive, mid sized public school in the suburbs
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: East Asian (Chinese) Female
  • Income: ~150-200k
  • Other special factors: Does being LGBTQ+ count?? Also, I know some colleges have different definitions of first-gen, so I would fall under that category if it means parents that haven’t graduated college in the US (dad got bachelor’s in China, mom didn’t graduate)

Intended Major(s): Public Health / Biomedical science on a Pre-Med track

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 5.370/6.0
  • Class Rank: 47/545
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1560 (780 on both sections)

Coursework

  • 9th: AP Human Geography (4)
  • 10th: AP World History (3), AP Psychology (5), AP Environmental Science (5)
  • 11th: AP Chemistry, AP US History, AP Lang, AP Calculus AB, AP Seminar (awaiting test scores); also took a Health Science Clinicals dual credit course (received Nursing Aide certification)
  • 12th: AP Research, AP Physics 1, AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Macro/Microeconomics, AP Literature (taking these next year)

Awards: Pretty much nothing

  • Projected NMSF (1510 PSAT)
  • AP Scholar with Honor

Extracurriculars Also pretty much nothing

  • Leadership: Public Relations Officer for the Red Cross chapter at my school (10th grade)
  • Summer Activities: Did some online courses over criminal psychology and child care laws, currently applying for a summer job
  • Competitions: Competed in HOSA at the Area level (didn’t advance to state)
  • Volunteering: Over 150 hours for an organization making virtual cards for kids with disabilities, volunteered at local hospitals and a nursing home through class, helped out at monthly child care program at ISD’s pre-K school (9-10, ~25 hours, ended due to COVID), other typical things (member of Key Club, UNICEF, NHS)
  • Sports: Played club volleyball 9-10th grade

Essays/LORs/Other

Essays: I’m a pretty strong writer, but I have no clue what I want to write about… maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10? I’m currently brainstorming ideas, and some of them seem like they could be good, so hopefully that number can be bumped up by the end of the summer.

LORs:

  • AP Chem teacher: has had me for two years, she definitely likes me (I was one of the good, quiet students that never gave her any trouble), but I am quiet so I haven’t talked with her as much… I’d say maybe a 7 or 8 out of 10.

  • AP Seminar teacher: I’m the most outgoing in this class, definitely have demonstrated leadership with the group research projects we’ve had, not a lot of direct communication with the teacher himself but my personality shines through the most in this class… probably a 8 or 9 out of 10. He is an English teacher though (good at writing), so I’ll bump that up to a 9.5.

Cost Constraints / Budget

I am going pre-med, so the goal is to spend as little as possible on undergrad in order to avoid crippling debt!!

Schools

  • Safety: UT Dallas (has a guaranteed, near full ride scholarship for NMF which I’m shooting for), Texas A&M

  • Match: UT (not top 6% though so I’m not sure if this should go into match or reach), Baylor (has some decent scholarships)

  • Reach: Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, the typical Ivy league suspects, NYU??

My big thing right now is just compiling a college list, and I need a whole bunch more safety and match schools… so if y’all’ve got any ideas, I’d love to hear them! (yes I did just use y’all’ve in a sentence because I’ve never done it before and really wanted to try it out)

My parents want me to shoot for some more reach schools (UCLA, UCB, etc), but my only goal is to just get out of college apps relatively unscathed, and I don’t know if I could handle getting rejection after rejection from those top schools…

Preference-wise, I’d like to state in Texas (because in-state tuition is just so much cheaper), but if I do go out of state, I’d like to either go to Cali, somewhere on the East Coast, or possibly Illinois or Florida? So if y’all can think of any match schools with merit scholarship possibilities, I’d love to hear about it! Thank you!

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If you are looking to save money, are the reach schools affordable? They don’t offer merit $. Run the NPC to be sure they are in your budget.

What budget are you trying to stay under? That will help people give you more match schools to add to your list to explore.

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Why would your parents want you to pay a whole bunch of money for CA state schools, with giant lectures and reliance on TAs for labs and discussions when you have a very good one right at home?

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Given your stats, if you really want to attend college in CA, I’d look at privates like LMU, USD, Chapman and perhaps Santa Clara. They are all really likely to offer merit aid that will make them muck more compelling that their standard rates. You get a private school experience for a public school price.

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Agree with @eyemgh.
The California public schools are full fees to nonresident students. That means that your parents would have to pay $65k per year. Scholarships are competitive and are minimal (~$2k-$5k per year). Remember that these are public colleges, relying on state taxpayers’ dollars to fund their large universities.

Being LGBTQ is not a hook. A hook is something the universities look for and need; something the university wants and you have no control over=URM, legacy, celebrity status (Bill Gates kids, Malala, Greta, etc), recruited athletes, children of billionaires who can donate $20 million dollar wings.

Generally, “first gen” goes hand-in-hand with “low income”. The universities recognize that a number of students have a disadvantage in that their parents never went to college anywhere. These students are ones where they’ve had to have help, from their high school staffs, in navigating forms and what classes to take in high school to go to any college.

Nonresidents often try to get into the Texas public universities because these schools are strong, recognized and exceptional. Texas makes sure they take care of their own first, and they limit non-resident admissions, so you are at a big advantage- doing really well- to get admission chances at a Texan school. Good Luck!

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These are exactly the types of scenarios we looked for when our son was on the hunt. There are a few unique publics that might fall into that category too, but certainly not any large research based institutions.

Remember too that medical schools could care less about undergraduate “prestige.” they care about your grades, MCAT scores, volunteer experience, and letters. Medical school is EXPENSIVE and professional schools do not give need based aid or merit aid. It’s all on you and your parents. Spending money on an OOS large public really makes no sense if medical school is the ultimate goal.

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You also have excellent universities in Texas, both public and, well, Rice. I assume there are other great private schools there as well but living in a far away corner of the US “public and Rice” is what I know of (perhaps Baylor also). You also have some great medical schools in Texas.

I agree with other comments that UCLA and UC Berkeley do not seem like good choices if you want to keep open the option of medical school. On the one hand they would be very expensive. They are also large universities and you will start with large classes, which does not help you get to know your professors and get medical volunteer opportunities. Also, I thought that they were known for at least a little bit of grade deflation. I would leave both off the list.

I am not a fan of reach schools if you are premed. I understand that Harvard gets a higher percentage of its students into medical school that UT Dallas does (or at least I expect that it does), however most of this is because of the sort of student who comes out of high school and starts at Harvard. For any one strong student, it is probably at least as good a strategy to arrive near the top of the incoming freshman class at UT Dallas or Austin rather than come in near the middle or bottom of the incoming freshman class at a famous top ranked university. Expect premed classes to be very tough at any good university (including any “top 200” university in the US). Both daughters had majors that overlap with premed and I have heard plenty of stories of exams with class averages in the mid 40’s (both daughters did beat the class averages in these cases, but a lot of very strong students did not). One daughter went to a university that was not a reach, excelled, got great volunteer opportunities, and had great results with DVM admissions and will start a DVM program in September. She had to work very hard however.

A wild idea on the east coast is UVM (University of Vermont). Your GPA would probably get you a merit scholarship and is has a good premed program plus a hospital on campus. However, I do not see any reason to prefer it to the excellent universities in Texas.

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And it’s in a great city! Love Burlington!!!

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If you gain admission to Rice, tuition would automatically be reduced by 50%, making it comparable or lower than out of state elsewhere. If you’ve overestimated tour family income and it’s under $130,000, Rice is tuition free.

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If you like UT Dallas, then having automatic admission and almost-full-ride NMF scholarship may mean that you need not add any colleges you like less than UT Dallas to your application list, whether they are safety, likely, match, or reach.

UT Austin should be considered a reach if you are not automatic admission there.

Most out of state public universities will be significantly more expensive, which is not what you are looking for as a pre-med. In addition, being in Texas makes getting to Texas medical school interviews easier (Texas medical schools are relatively lower cost for Texas residents).

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If cost is a concern - and you rightfully pointed out that it should be, and yo udon’t want to be in TX, look to schools that will heavily reward you such as Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, South Carolina, Miami of Ohio, Arkansas, and more. I know someone mentioned UVM. Find the schools that give good merit. If it were private, like a Bradley or Hofstra.

Honestly, your overall is very good - but as others said, when you apply to top schools, you don’t get aid.

You mention your ECs need work. My daughter’s valedictorian applied to 18 schools - 16 of the US News Top 20, NYU and UT Knoxville. She’s going to UTK. She got into zero of the top 20. NYU - which does not give merit aid (or very little…they’re open about this) and then UTK.

She was a 4.0 UW, 11 APs, a 36 ACT, and zero EC (you have more than zero).

So word for the wise - if a private is in your future, hit the Rochester, Case Western, Brandeis type. Or a Bradley, Hofstra, or Denver or even others that pay heavily (a Hendrix if you want small). But the second tier which doesn’t make them not good…they’re very good.

You mention the IVYs - but unless your parents have no assets, you’re not going to get money. You need to apply to schools that offer merit, not need based aid. Most of the top schools today are moving toward need based only.

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Hey @mentallyunprepared I’d say you are more qualified than you might thing. 150 volunteer hours, and work for the red cross, as well as the standard societies and summer courses are helpful. But you will need more recent extracurricular activities to show, basically, that the pandemic didn’t stop you. There would be exceptions for people who are underprivileged but not otherwise. But work for NHS or other societies in social service or event organizing or assisting fellow students would count as recent extracurriculars if you have done so recently. You’d want to talk about that in your essays. Of course, ECs more directly related to your intended field of study would be more helpful.

As for scholarship, it’s completely wrong that you would get no need based aid unless you have no assets. If your family has standard assets, and your household income does not exceed 125k annually, you would qualify for full tuition scholarship without loans at my school. Dartmouth, for example. Other top schools won’t be very different.

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You are more competitive than you’re giving yourself credit for. You seem very sensible and you have obviously worked very hard - your academic record is very strong. My D21 has similar objectives as you (possibly med school), and targeted privates that have a track record of being generous with merit aid. The schools that awarded her merit were (in order of highest merit aid to lowest): Tulane, Case Western, UVM, Davidson, Brandeis and Lafayette. Take a look at Univ of Richmond also. My D21 chose Tulane because she liked the environment the best and they offered her the most merit aid (full tuition). Good luck!

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Please don’t sell yourself short. You’ve got an excellent academic record and stellar SAT, also National Merit. You should be proud of yourself.

You are not first gen to college, since your father has a BA and your mother attended college.

You’ve got excellent choices in the U Texas system, plus it’s cheap for you. And when it’s time for med school applications, TX has many, and they’re cheap, too. There’s really no reason for you to go out of state. I do think that your lack of impressive extracurriculars is going to keep you out of an Ivy or its equivalent.

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