<p>I am about to enter my senior year in high school (NY resident) and intent on getting into the University of Pittsburgh to major in Biology:</p>
<p>GPA- Roughly 97 cumulative</p>
<p>Class Rank- About 20th of 160</p>
<p>SAT- 1210 (610 Critical Reading, 600 Math)
-Will be taking it again in October</p>
<p>APs Taken- 2 Junior Year, 4 Senior Year
SAT IIs- 680 on Biology
- 700 on US History</p>
<p>National Honor Society Member</p>
<p>Member of 2 Varsity Sports</p>
<p>Have Community Service (Roughly 100 hours over the years)</p>
<p>Plan to write optional essay and apply after receiving my scores from SAT in October</p>
<p>From my estimation, you should be okay for acceptance, but I wouldn’t plan on expecting a whopping scholarship. If you want to improve on anything, I would retake the SAT and maybe take the ACT (I personally like the ACT better), and bump up that class ranking (shoot for 16 or better, but if your school is particularly “competitive”, where you are at will be fine). What is your GPA on a 4.0 scale? (unweighted, that is)</p>
<p>Take all that into account, and keep it up! There is one last important thing you need: LEADERSHIP. Pitt (and many other places) love it! Maybe go for a team captain position, or an NHS officer? A position within a community service organization? Are you into scouting? (can’t tell gender, but one of the best ec’s and leadership activities is Eagle Scout). Don’t overload on the ec’s, colleges can tell when you are padding your resume, and where you are at right now is very good. </p>
<p>I think you are in a good place to get in right now, can I ask if you are planning to go premed with biology? I only ask because I think your chances might be better if you did neuroscience or (the best option) bioengineering. Keep up the hard work, and DO NOT stress about it! I have a good feeling it’ll all work out, and you need to enjoy your senior year!</p>
<p>One last thing: APPLY EARLY.</p>
<p>Pitt is rolling admission, so you are more likely to get in if you apply when there are lots of spots than when there are fewer spots, and in my experience you have a better shot at getting money too</p>
<p>I disagree with EngrStud about changing your intended major for better chances. What you list as your major on your app likely has little effect on admission, especially since bio and neuroscience have a lot of overlap. Applying for Bioengineering would mean you wouldn’t be applying to the College of Arts and Sciences but the engineering school, which is probably harder to get in than A&S in general.</p>
<p>@Schrizto
Sorry if I was unclear, I meant to say that if eharr was looking for med school in the future (as are many biology majors I have met), then perhaps bioeng or neurosci would be a better option in the long run (I explored med school as a possibility, and bioeng as a field has one of the best acceptance rates to med school). I have no information on how your intended major affects your application as a whole, but you are correct: the engineering school is likely more competitive that A&S. But I digress from the topic of undergrad admission…</p>
<p>I’ve always thought bioengineering was more difficult for premed because engineering classes are known to have lots of grade deflation and involve harder material than regular bio major classes. Acceptance rates to medical school for certain majors aren’t a good way to decide what to major in anyway.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for the advice and weighing in on my status. I plan to take the SAT again and then applying right after I receive my score at the end of October. I hope that is early enough to gain an edge but I think I need to raise my SAT scores to feel better about my chances. And regarding the Premed, I am hoping to go to Med School but I don’t want to go into Bioengineering because I am not very good mathematically and regarding neuro, I have an interest in it but I would need to take a class or two of neuro before making it my major.</p>