Chances at some tough BME schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi. I'm a senior in high school and am new to these forums. Can anyone give me an idea of what my chances are at the following schools: Cornell, Duke, USC, Northwestern, NYU, WUSTL, JHU, UMaryland College Park, UMich?</p>

<p>My intended major is Biomedical Engineering, Biology, or maybe some other field of engineering and have hopes for medical school.</p>

<p>I go to a highly competitive school with at least 20 people getting accepted into top colleges such as HYPSM, Cornell, etc</p>

<p>Freshman year: All G/T classes w/ exception of few that weren't offered
Sophomore year: Same as freshman + 2 APs (Government + Calc AB)
Junior year: All G/T + 4 APs (Calc BC, English, World History, Physics)
Senior year: Differential Equations G/T and 4 APs (Environmental Science, Psychology, English, Chemistry)</p>

<p>AP Scores: Government-3, Calc-AB-4, Calc-BC-5, English-3, World History-3, Physics-5</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Korean
GPA: 3.73/4.00 Unweighted Class Rank top 20%
4.43/5.00 Weighted Class Rank top 10%
SAT: Math: 790
Critical Reading: 640
Writing: 700
I plan on retaking these in November and am pretty sure, from the practice tests I've been taking, that I can pull off a 700+ critical reading score.
SAT2: Math2c: 750 freshmen year
Math2c: 800 junior year
Physics: 800 junior year</p>

<p>Extracurriculurs:
Varsity Track for 1 year
NHS Executive officer
FBLA Advisory Board
Math Team
Several FBLA competitions (won 2nd at state conference and competed at national conference)
Won a couple regional math competitions freshmen/sophomore year (nothing too prestigious)
Secretary for my church youth group's student council</p>

<p>My extracurriculurs are not stellar as you can see.</p>

<p>My teacher recommendations will be very good (one is from my math teacher who went to MIT when he was 15, worked for the CIA, was a biomedical engineer, and is now teaching). He told me I'm one of his best students of all time. Other is from physics teacher.</p>

<p>My essays: I have yet to write the essays but I assume they will be good if not great.</p>

<p>Work Experience:
Internship at an informations department for a hospital for all of senior year (10hrs/week). This is required for some magnet program I'm in.</p>

<p>Volunteer Experience:
Here and there: NHS requires me to do 40 hours of community service a year.
Tutoring program</p>

<p>I would like to go into medicine and since I have a talent/passion for math I figured biomedical engineering would be the best option for a major. However, I heard that both JHU and Duke are the elite BME schools, and I was wondering if I had a shot at both of these schools either with a BME major or with a Biology major.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>Bump Bump Bump</p>

3

<p>Your state of residence makes a difference at UMD and UMich. Since you say the top 20 get into top schools, are you one of the top 20 or not? Your profile has some weaknesses, such as selection of many of the "easier" APs with uneven scores.</p>

4

<p>Based on your current stats:</p>

<p>Cornell - Slight Reach
Duke - Reach
USC - Match
Northwestern - Slight Reach
NYU - Low Match/Safety
WUSTL - Reach
JHU - Slight Reach
UMaryland College Park - Match
UMich - Slight Reach (Out of State)</p>

<p>Push your SAT CR to above 700 and your total SAT above 2200 and you'll give yourself a boost at all the schools above except Duke, which will probably remain a reach.</p>

5

<p>cornell and northwestern are both going to be more selective for BME than WUSTL, contrary to what the poster above is saying</p>

<p>BME is through the engineering school, which is not nearly as competitive at WUSTL as at cornell and northwestern</p>

6

<p>Why did you take 2 similar calc classes? It seems odd that you can get a 5 on BC but only a 4 on AB...</p>

<p>I'm almost certain JHU puts heavy consideration into Extra-curriculars...don't know about anywhere else though.</p>

<p>Where are you applying early?</p>

7

<p>xplizitdan - </p>

<p>elsijfdl is correct. Cornell and Northwestern are more selective than WUSTL for BME. Overall, though, WUSTL is more selective. If you want Bio, WUSTL would be more difficult to get into. </p>

<p>Sorry about that.</p>

8

<p>Thank you for all the helpful replies. </p>

<p>greennblue- the variation in my AP scores are because I didn't study for any of the AP tests and therefore just relied on the classes to be my preparation. Physics and Math I still got 5's b/c I'm good at it.</p>

<p>jovenes132- I'm not sure how I got the 4 in CalcAB but yeah I was a little shaky in some of the concepts. I was able to learn those concepts the next year in
BC, and also, the BC test is much easier to get a 5 in. I'm not applying early anywhere. I thought about applying early to Cornell but after some consideration I realized that I want to have a breadth of options. Why do you assume that I am applying somewhere early? (just wondering)</p>

<p>So can I get some advice as to what I should major in at these specific colleges? I want to get into at least one of the 4 Cornell, Duke, JHU, Northwestern. Will applying to the engineering school jeopardize my chances at getting into at least one of these? I'm aware that people still get into reach schools, but does anyone know why? Should I apply to biology to all schools, biomed engineering to all schools, or should i apply to different major to select colleges (i.e. Biology for the big reach elite engineering schools and biomedical engineering at the lower tier schools). Thanks again for all the help</p>

9

<p>I just automatically assumed you were applying early somewhere because asians with your grades/sats usually do :)</p>

<p>Early Decision applicants get more review time on their application, and may have a greater chance of acceptance at certain schools. I have heard Cornell applies a lot in early decision, so you might have an advantage. </p>

<p>BTW, engineering is difficult for medical school because of low gpa, but I doubt that will stop you from majoring in something you like.</p>

10

<p>Haha, yes. I have faith in myself that I will be able to pull through engineering maintaining amazing grades despite my low gpa in high school. My work ethics get better every year and since I have my eyes set upon a goal, I'm sure I will be able to convince myself to do work, something I didn't do much of in high school.</p>

<p>I was going to apply to Cornell ED just for that reason jovenes, but I realized I was making a stupid decision to be applying there b/c of the advantage of ED on acceptance. I hope I get into one of those 4 schools I mentioned, and I will choose the best college value (financial aid will help me decide which school to go to)</p>

11

<p>I forgot to thank you, amptron2x. Those results surprised me a lot. I didn't expect to have such optimistic predictions. For example, I didn't expect USC to be a match and I expected Cornell to be a big reach. Thanks for boosting my confidence <3</p>

12

<p>So can I get some advice as to what I should major in at these specific colleges? I want to get into at least one of the 4 Cornell, Duke, JHU, Northwestern. Will applying to the engineering school jeopardize my chances at getting into at least one of these? I'm aware that people still get into reach schools, but does anyone know why? Should I apply to biology to all schools, biomed engineering to all schools, or should i apply to different major to select colleges (i.e. Biology for the big reach elite engineering schools and biomedical engineering at the lower tier schools).</p>