What can I do to improve my chances at getting into the best universities my “dream list” includes WUSTL, Brown, Emroy and Rice.
Here are my stats as of junior year
African American female TX resident
4.0 uw gpa
5/492 rank
I’ve taken all AP/preAP classes
5 APHG exam, 4 APWH (I’m taking the AP bio and English Lang/comp exam this year)
1980 SAT (610 m, 640 cr, 730 wr) ***I know this is wayyy low for these reach schools and plan on bringing those scores up
186 PSAT (I know this isn’t much, but last year a girl at my school with a similar score got the outstanding African American participtant award… so hoping for that)
Bronze and Honerable mention on National Spanish Exams
Volunteering: past 3 summers at Special needs children summer camp (LOVED it)
got a job working there this past year
Various other volunteer projects for NHS
-Recently got word that I’ll have a research internship at UTSW
-Co-Captain of color guard/winterguard
-historian of NHS, organized SAT/ACT/PSAT prep nights for students
-volunteer lead @ summer camps
-member of HOSA, NHS, Spanish Honor Society, colorguard, P.A.L.S(peer mentoring program)
You definitely need to bring those scores up. Even as a URM, you need to bring that SAT score up if you want to get into those schools.
Great GPA. Keep that up.
Those schools don’t all seem to be similar. Brown is VERY different and will have a VERY different feel from Rice. I think you should really research these schools and others to really determine what schools belong on your dream list. Rice is the one that sticks out as different from the others. If you like Brown, I suggest you take a look at Vassar also
Try the ACT- a lot of strong students who don’t do as well on the SAT as might be expected find the ACT more to their tastes. My D2 didn’t do particularly well on the PSAT, tried the ACT (practiced some from a book, and got the very good advice that if you know how to read a graph, read the questions on graph questions before reading the explanation paragraph, as you can often answer the questions w/out it & it saves a bunch of time…) and nailed it on the first go.
Agree with Stepay about re-thinking your list: Emory & WUSTL are pretty similar in student population, and more like Rice in structure, while Brown is a real outlier. It’s hard to see the same person being equally comfortable in all of them.
Your SAT score is not at the level for these schools yet. However, your class rank would get you auto admission at UT Austin which would be much better than any other schools that you may have a chance right now. Also, make good use of the summer research program at UTSW. I have seen quite a few very talented high school students in that program. You can also go back for the SURF program when you are in college.