<p>Just finished junior year, any input would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>Stats:
PSAT- 222
SAT-800/700/800 (2300 CR/M/W, probs will retake to raise math)
SAT Subjects- 800 US 790 Bio 750 Math 2
GPA- 3.98/4.00 UW, 4.27/4.5 W, roughly top 4% out of 500 students
AP's- Expecting 5's in Bio and USH, taking 5 more AP's next year</p>
<p>Course load: Most rigorous with a few exceptions, mostly due to scheduling conflicts. 2 AP's but virtually all honors courses alongside them. Also, took a class from NYU and local college.</p>
<p>Awards: National Spanish Honor Society
MUN Best first year delegate
Numerous Band Awards
National Merit (likely)</p>
<p>EC's: NHS, 1 month internship in a major university hospital, 300+ hours of EMT volunteering, sound crew (1 year), ultimate frisbee team (3 seasons), Model UN (1 year, leadership position for next year), student government leadership positions freshman and sophomore years, TONS of band stuff across multiple ensembles and leadership positions (I won't even bother listing, definitely the bulk of my EC's)</p>
<p>Intended major in biology, probably neuro or biochem. Suggestions and recommendations for schools are welcome, as are chances (obviously). </p>
<p>Duke (ED?)
Rice (ED?)
Penn
Emory
NYU
Georgetown
Tufts</p>
<p>Strengths
Your academic record and testing are very strong, and assuming you receive all 5’s on your AP’s i would put you in the top 10% of academics for Ivy League applicants. This, while it does not make you stand out, puts you in the running and your achievements in this field can only help you.
You have some awards, which cant be said for every applicant.</p>
<p>Weaknesses
There is no defined passion or stand-out accomplishment in your ECs. Your student government is not consistent, neither is your Model UN (while you may have a leadership position, lack of consistent participation is a negative). You didn’t give many details about the prestige of your band awards, so i’m assuming they are more local and school awards than statewide or national awards. These are nice, but they don’t substitute for a well-defined EC with startling success (which are usually the types of ECs that impress schools).</p>
<p>Overview
You are a strong applicant with a great academic record and above average ECs, but if you want to impress these top-caliber schools, you are really going to have to sell yourself. I would advise that you really hone your band skills and focus your application around that, maybe write your essay on it and get a recommendation from you band teacher. In short, your goal is to make the admission officer remember you as that impressive ________ kid, in your case, that space should be “band”. Also, as you will see below, i believe many of these schools to be matches to reaches for you, so you should get some safeties.</p>
<p>Chances
Duke-ED: Normal ED acceptance rate is 30%, I would give you a 40% acceptance chance, and maybe a 70% of being accepted or deferred to RD round.
Rice: Normal RD acceptance rate is 19%, I would give you a 25-30% acceptance chance
Penn: Normal RD acceptance rate is 12%, I would give you a 15-20% acceptance chance
Emory: Normal RD acceptance rate is 26%, I would give you a 35% acceptance chance
NYU: Normal RD acceptance rate is 30%, but NYU loves their art kids, so if you sufficiently sell yourself as an accomplished band student, I would give you a 50% acceptance chance
Georgetown: Normal RD acceptance rate is 18%, I would give you a 25% acceptance chance
Tufts: Normal RD acceptance rate is 21%, I would give you a 30% chance of admission</p>
<p>Impressive stuff with all those details, thanks for all of that. I guess I should elaborate. My EC’s for band include marching band, jazz band, jazz combo, pit orchestra, symphony orchestra, concert band, wind ensemble, some solo-y stuff with the school choir. I am first chair in all of these, and out of a few leadership roles over the years, the biggest is band president (for all of the bands). The other side of my EC’s is the medical side, where I have shadowed doctors, earned an EMT license (took 250 class hours to get +300 and counting hours of riding on an ambulance), and as mentioned before, interned at a hospital. And I didn’t really think it would be worth posting the safeties; that’s why they’re called safeties.</p>