Chances of an international senior for chemistry major at *private* colleges

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Greetings,

In my previous post, I mentioned only public unis. Here’s another for private ones.

Demographics: Underrepresented south-asian country at these unis, male, only child of two surgeons

Doing my country’s national curriculum and CAIE A Levels together (Phys, Chem, Math and Further Math). Predicted straight A+'s in national curriculum board exam; AAA*B in A levels. Had 90% overall average in 10th grade public exam (95%+ in the relevant sciences and math). (just for quick info: A levels give me college credit, and are generally deemed more rigorous than their AP counterparts) (for straight A+'s in natcurriculum - around 45k kids out of 1.5M every year get A+'s in all SEVEN subjects. A+ is >80% marks)

Attending my country’s most prestigious high school; ranked 57th in class of 2095. Grades are kinda bad though (lots of grade deflation) (ex students at my highschool get into top unis in my country, and have gone to MIT, Stanford and other ivies).

SAT: expecting >1500 (december 2020), couldn’t reg for subject tests due to weird reasons

Several national awards in Olympiads, went to math Olympiad camp (similar to MOP after the USAMO in the US); did a research project in inorganic synthetic chem; almost made it to the Stockholm Junior water prize team; did an internship on analytical chem by a national institute

Volunteered once in my school science fair. Mentored juniors at school math club. Not much community service or NGO stuffs tbh

Current list:
Priority 1: Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Caltech, Stanford
Priority 2: Johns Hopkins (doing EDII here at Whiting), UPenn, UChic, Williams college
Priority 3: NYU (new york and abu dhabi), Davidson college

note: “Priority” list is just my own list; not about quality/prestige or anything

FINANCIAL AID INFO: I can afford around 65k annually; will require some aid to afford the 75k/80k price tag

My “safety” list contains all public colleges - in a previous post

I might sound stupid, but anyways, thanks in advance!

2

You have chosen a perfect word to categorize your levels.

Since you have indicated some interest in undergraduate-focused colleges, you may want to consider schools from an informal online site, “15 Best Value Small Colleges for a Chemistry Degree.” Caltech from your current list appears, but Swarthmore, Hamilton and Bowdoin would also match your academic interests and superb profile.

Regarding your chances with your current group, they simply could be called “good” overall. It’s really not a question of if you will get into any of these schools, but of how many you will get into.

Best of luck.

3

I’m already starting to love this forum. Thanks! :smiley:

Please, do check out my other post on PUBLIC ones: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22968993#Comment_22968993

4

What major are you looking at? If it is in engineering, I would drop Harvard, UPenn, and even Princeton, UPenn, and definitely UChicago.

All are reaches, of course, but I agree with @merc81, that you are likely to be accepted to at least one of the colleges on this list.

So, if you were to ask “what are my chances to be accepted at Harvard?” the answer would be “pretty low”. However, if the question is “what are my chances at being accepted to at least one of the colleges on this list?”, the answer would be “pretty solid”.

5

Thanks. I’m into chemistry for now, and might pursue a minor/2nd major in math. I’m not really into Harvard, tbh. Just that everyone around me is applying. My “dream” uni is Caltech, although I’m not expecting to get in :smile: ; and Berkeley among the publics. For the ED2 at Johns Hopkins, I chose Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Whiting school

Would you suggest some more STEM-ish unis? I want a research-heavy career, so I care mostly about education quality rather than brand value :neutral:

6

You might also look into Harvey Mudd, which offers a similar institutional focus to that of Caltech, and which, with respect to your interest in math, appears in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.” Rice could also suit you.

As a side note, you seem to have an interest in inorganic chemistry. This can be refreshing to see, since so many OP’s who express an interest in chemistry indicate an interest in studying CHNOPS.

7

I think that, for you, a large good public university may be the best choice. Looking at you choices of privates, I would drop UPenn and UChicag, and replace them with Northwestern and Cornell. You could also add Rice, and drop NYU.

Of Liberal Arts colleges, most which have strong STEM have good Chemistry programs. So you can expand beyond Williams to other ones. However, you would need to figure out what other things are important for you at a college. Liberal arts colleges are small, and if you do not really fit, it can be difficult, so fit is more important than at a large research university.

Liberal Arts Colleges have advantages and disadvantages regarding research. On one hand, their mission is undergraduate teaching and research is secondary. On the other hand, all of the good ones emphasize undergraduate research. That means that if you work on a research project with a professor, you will be engaged in actual research, not in helping a graduate student. Research universities have larger labs and often more advanced research, but undergraduates generally are shunted to lower-level work, and they need to share attention with graduate students.

Of course, there is a lot of great research at liberal arts colleges, and an undergraduate who takes initiative can often have their own research project in research university.

As an aside, if you are looking at doing a PhD, by and large, a higher percent of liberal college students end up doing a PhD than those from research universities. However, the college which has the highest percent of undergrads who go on to do a PhD is Caltech.

Good luck!

8

My teachers have said this too! I’m more into materials/polymers and cosmochemistry rather than org/biochem (I assume that’s what you mean by CHNOPS?)

9

I never thought about LACs until one day I was randomly browsing research groups and found a cosmochem group at Caltech. Only one guy in the group did his BS from UWMadison - all others from LACs! I’m okay with the highschool-ish feeling with these small colleges. But they seem as selective as the HYPMS :disappointed:

I do aspire a PhD :smile:

10

Yes, I referred to biochemistry / molecular biology by its foundational elements. Good job in understanding that.

Regarding LACs, I find they work best for students who express — or develop — a decisive preference for them. For these students, they can make great first-choice schools for, especially, characteristics such as their focus on undergraduates, research opportunities and intimate overall scale.

Note that LACs such as Harvey Mudd, Pomona, Haverford, Amherst, Hamilton, Williams, Bowdoin, Reed and Carleton appear in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors” (along with universities such as MIT, Caltech and Harvard).

Highly qualified international applicants would, in general, have an admissions advantage at LACs in comparison to academically comparable universities, in my opinion.

11

I should add that the University of Chicago from your list is included in the Princeton Review sampling mentioned in the above reply.