Stats:
GPA: 3.93 at a top east coast prep school (ivy feeder).
Rank: in the top 10 out of 250
SAT 1580
Math II 800 Chemistry 780 US History 790
Major ECs:
President of Econ club
Co-president of life sciences club
VP finance of community service club
Co-authored econ research paper. published in major high school research journal
Worked in a research lab at Columbia, contributed to published research (sophomore summer)
Worked at a life-sciences start up (junior summer)
Colleges (in order of preference):
Stanford (applied REA)
2-3. Harvard/Penn (prefer Penn but would find it hard to turn down Harvard if given the choice)
4.Columbia
5.Duke
6.Cornell
7.UChicago
Rice
9.Berkeley
Vandy
11.GTech
UCSD
Northeastern
Intended major: Bioengineering or something life-sciences related and economics/business.
You have very good chances but we are not admissions officers so just apply and good luck. Just to note, however, that your list is very, VERY top heavy. You have 2 safeties which are fine but only 1 real match and then 10 reaches. It may be wise to invest some time in finding more matches and cutting down on the reaches. Good luck
@TheGr8Gatsby Thanks for the feedback. My GC told me that Rice, Berkeley, Vandy would be matches and Gtech, UCSD and Northeastern would be safeties for me. I thought my reaches were the first 7 schools on my list.
Berkeley/UCSD not be a match for OOS. Remember that you will be paying close to 60,000 a year. What is your in-state safety?
Rice/Vandy would be low reaches, not matches for anybody, although I can see you being accepted possibly to both, since both schools place a high emphasis on test scores.
IMO the only reason why Rice, UCB, Vandy, GTech, UCSD, Northeastern wouldn’t admit you would be for yield protection reasons. it might be a bit of a stretch to call Rice or Vandy or UCB matches but for a kid with this kind of stats and ECs they are not really reaches either.
Feeder prep school, near top of class, 1580 SAT, good ECs etc. Unless you have a personal affinity to the other schools on your list, you’ll have no trouble at the elite tier.
Bioengineering is probably one of the most selective majors at UCB and UCSD, to the point of being reach for everyone at UCB, even though the overall school is not.
If UC weighted GPA >= 4.20, then:
UCB is probably reach for bioengineering, high match for L&S undeclared (for biology, economics, or business; the latter two need higher college GPA to declare later).
UCSD is probably low match, but bioengineering or biology would be more difficult to get the major.
@aoeuidhtns Ivies are a match for NO STUDENT no matter how qualified. I honestly can’t see how any school with an acceptance rate lower than 15% could be anything but a reach. Places like Rice and Vandy may have been a match school even 5 years ago but not anymore.
@Sportsman88@TheGr8Gatsby The matriculation data for elite prep schools might help illustrate why this profile is a match. These high schools act as a filter for colleges – it’s ultra competitive to get into one of those programs in the first place and elite colleges likewise know that. Pedigree of your high school is an important factor in the college application. These high schools all send a cohort of students to each of the ivies/stanford/mit etc. every single year.
Acceptance rate that you quoted is for the entire applicant population, not a specific subset. If you worked hard to get into one of the Ivy feeder schools, then you’re going to benefit from a much better acceptance rate than you would have going anywhere else.
For example, Exeter sent the following number of students to these schools between 2015-2017 (most of the elite prep schools have similar stats):
That’s 225 students out of 882 that graduated over those three years, or 25% of their senior class going to Ivy+Stanford+MIT.
Just in case anyone is curious, Exeter only sent 1 student to Rice and 4 students to Vanderbilt over those same 3 years. To be honest, OP is likely to be rejected from schools near the bottom of his list—he’s simply overqualified.
@TheGr8Gatsby The rules of the game are different for kids who manage to be amongst the top 10/15 students in a super elite, ivy feeder boarding or prep school (Exeter, Andover, Choate, Trinity, Horace Mann, Collegiate etc). These people have in general their pick of the litter when it comes to colleges. For them even non-HYPSM elites could be seen as low reaches. If OP goes to such a school then this is true for him.
Anyone familiar with these high schools knows how insanely competitive they are and how hard it is to be at the top of the class. My classmates at Penn from these schools used to tell me that they found Penn relaxed and mellow compared to their high school.
Yes I go to one of the schools mentioned above or one that is equivalent to those. Sorry but don’t want to give away which one specifically for privacy reasons.
As the guy with the banana noted, you are very likely to get into one (or more) of your Top 7 choices, assuming you don’t have any fatal flaws we’re not seeing, your GC likes you and you aren’t going for any particularly special programs. If you are applying/hoping for things like Penn M&T/Fisher it becomes extremely competitive/random even for top students.
As UCalum noted, Cal and UCSD are strange birds, esp. if you apply to the impacted/engineering majors from OOS, but my sense is neither of those 2 schools are particulary important to you, so don’t sweat it.
I will only caution that in a few years of watching top applicants from 3 top elite west coast “feeder” schools, there are always one or two kids each year who are left scrambling because, for whatever reason, the schools they “should” have gotten into, judging on history, stats, etc. all say “no” or “waitlist.” It can be a very uncomfortable spring for an applicant to be left hoping to nail straight 5s on the AP so they can do Cambridge after Stanford, Harvard, MiT and Cornell inexpicable waitlist or pass on a qualified applicant.
I think you have enough reality in Northeastern, and maybe GaTech (don’t know enough about how they do things.) UCSD could waitlist you to yield protect, or if you apply to engineering/impacted, you might just fall prey to numbers. If anything, I’d suggest, if Stanford does not work out for any reason (my guess is it does) that you are sure to be very genuine/passionate in your applications. Adcoms may be reluctant to be the bridesmaid if they think you have eyes for a rival.
I have to add, apropos of nothing, that it still makes me doubletake to see Northeastern on a list with those other schools. (I always read it as Northwestern first time through) Nothing at all against Northereastern, and I’m sure it’s 100% worthy of the rep it’s earned for itself, it’s just that I’m so old that when I went to school Northeastern was much more akin to say, Drexel - a really solid, commuter school where very pragmatic eastern Mass kids went to get a very solid, basically “vo-tech on steroids” education. It’s just fantastic how it has reinvineted itself. NYU (esp Poly/Tandon) has done a similar climb, but nowhere near as dramtic as Northeastern. Ok, end of rambling from cranky old guy on freeway exit pushing shopping cart, but props to Northeastern for ending up on a student like this list.
It seems like not heavy enough. I would apply to Yale and Princeton if you are interesting in going to those schools… UCSD and Northeastern are obviously fine as safes. Some limitations in evaluating not knowing the school and possible hooks.
From out west, Northeastern seems similar in concept to Drexel and Cincinnati, since these schools have co-op focused curricula. But it seems that Northeastern has much more mind share around here; the story of its push to climb the rankings has been mentioned on these forums occasionally.
Yeh, Northeastern is sort of Drexel whose ratings have gone up. Tbh, if you went to a top prep school, Northeastern and UCSD are probably not your style. You might be better off with LACs as safes, but I don’t think you will need safes. I would expect you will get into most of the schools mentioned.
