Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

I’m applying to WashU regular decision.

Ethnicity: Biracial (Taiwanese and Caucasian)
Gender: Female
Potential Major: Architecture

UW gpa- 3.75 (upward trend, 3.9 junior year; extremely rigorous private school)
ACT- 31, 32 superscored (35E, 29M, 34R, 31S)

Course load (my school offers very few AP’s; 7/12 of these classes were highest level courses (indicated by “s”))

Junior- Precalculus, AP Environmental Science (s), US Government & Politics (s), Advanced Spanish Expressions (s), American Literature, Photography 2

Senior- AP Statistics (s), Biology 2 Honors, AP Macroeconomics (s), Advanced Spanish Literature & Film (s), American Literature, Internship w/ Sustainability Coordinator at my school

Extracurriculars/Activities:

  • Piano- weekly lessons for 12 years; participated in statewide competitions and won many awards; played in school musical and in nursing homes.
  • Internship- I’m an intern with the sustainability coordinator at my school; I help to increase school-wide awareness of the environment by recycling, testing water quality, teaching lower grades environmental lessons, and more.
  • Senior Planning Group- I applied for and received a spot in the group where I help to plan & organize events for the school and raise money & support for the senior class gift.
  • Spread Science Club- I teach kindergarten and elementary students from less fortunate neighborhoods basic science lessons once a week after school.
  • Basketball- I’ve played since 7th grade; I was JV captain and won coaches award in 9th and 10th grade; on Varsity 10th-12th grade.
  • Peer Tutor- I’m a peer tutor at school where I’m available to tutor students in any grade in multiple subjects.
  • Model United Nations Club- I participate in multiple Model United Nations conferences each year where I work with other students to come up with resolutions to world issues.
  • Volunteering- over 200 hours by the time I graduate; volunteered in many different places including refugee centers, elementary schools, and at school.
  • Babysitting- I’ve been babysitting very frequently since I was 12.
  • Attended a summer pre-college program at Brown University the summer before senior year.
  • Interned at an architecture firm in Boston for two weeks summer before senior year.

Recommendations: two from teachers and one from counselor; expect all will be very good.

What are my chances of getting in, and what are my chances of getting merit scholarship money?

2

It’s going to be a reach because of test scores. I would advise 1 more ACT to get the composite closer to 34. As far as I know, the lowest ACT scores I saw for the class of 2021 (son’s class) were 29 and 30, but those students were URM. The kids who got in with 31-32 were legacy.

The academic merit scholarships might be hard because of the GPA/test scores. Chances might be better for the ones that emphasize community service (Ervin, Rodriguez), but those are very competitive as well.

Try to emphasize the holistic aspects of your resume, espically the community service. WashU likes their students to be active in the community.

3

This is almost 6 months after this post, but turns out I got in!!! So happy!!! Shows that WashU truly does holistic review, so even if you have lower grades/test scores, there’s still a chance. Yay!!

4

Congrats! Is WashU your final choice?

5

WashU is by far my top choice, and I would really l love to go, but there’s still another school in the picture- Georgia Tech. It’s hard to pass up GT bc it’s my state school, and I qualify for a GA scholarship, so GT is almost free for me vs full tuition at WashU. I really hope I end up going to WashU though!! @Hamurtle