Chances At Selective Schools (CMU, Georgetown, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I am a current senior and have really been stressed about the app process. It would be SOOOO appreciated if you can realistically chance me at these schools.

GPA: 4.0 (unweighted), 4.75 (weighted)

SAT: 1490 (one sitting), 1500 (super score) 20/24 essay and planning to take subject tests

Class Rank: 1/397 (unweighted), 16/397 (weighted)

AP’s: Calc AB (5), Psychology (5), Env. Sci. (4), World History (4), AP Lang (4), AP Bio (3), AP Physics 1 (didn’t take)

Senior Year: AP Macro, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC, Chem 101 (at local community college), Internship

Major EC’s:
Research over the summer at the National Cancer Institute, continuing during the school year
Volunteer at the hospital- 150 hours
President of FBLA club- won first place in the state of MD, advanced to nationals
Varsity basketball player
President of Doctor Club, and vice president of Science Honor Society
Tutored middle school students at local middle school for a whole year, prepared them for accelerated math courses

Ethnicity: Indian male

School: Large, public in Maryland

Intended Major: Not completely sure, biology or psychology or something related

Income Bracket: Around 100K (single parent)

Schools:
Carnegie Mellon
Georgetown
Berkeley
Maryland- College Park
Wake Forest
Notre Dame
Emory/ Oxford
Case Western
U of Cincinnati
U of Toledo

Thanks again!

2

Depending on which CMU and Georgetown schools we’re talking about, they can be reaches for virtually all applicants. You already know that, right? Your qualifications are strong, so if you apply to those 10 (which appear to comprise a balanced reach-match-safety list) you can expect to wind up with good choices … as long as you can cover the Expected Family Contribution. Have you run the online net price calculators on these schools and discussed a budget with your parent? A non-custodial parent’s income and assets may be considered in assessing eligibility for need-based aid. Regardless, you may not get much FA from Berkeley or some other OOS public schools.

3

You should be good for Cincinnati and Toledo, and UMCP as an in-state option; you should be competitive for CWRU, Wake Forest, and Emory as well. CMU and Georgetown will probably be reaches for you.

You might look at the Common Data Set for each school, specifically at Sections C7 and C9-C12, for statistical information about recently enrolled students; that might help give you an idea how you compare.

4

Thanks for the help everybody, btw!

5

As an OOS applicant, UC Berkeley will be around $65K/year with little to no financial aid so if FA and affordability is a requirement, I would remove UCB from the list.

6

@tk21769 I am probably applying to CMU school of humanities as a psych major and global health major at GU. As for financial aid, it looks to be in my favor, however, you never really know until you get that FA package.

7

@Gumbymom I am mainly applying to Berkeley to see if I can get in for a prestige factor, and many of my relatives are pressuring me to apply also.