UW GPA: 3.72 (had a chronic illness, hurt my grades a lot, senior year gpa is 3.87)
W GPA: 4.34 (took 14 AP classes, and mostly all rest were pre-ap)
Rank: top 5%
SAT I: 1540
SAT II: Math 2: 780, Chemistry: 690
AP scores: Got one 5, and a bunch of 4’s and 3’s (also low, during ap exam season everyyear, i would study really hard, but i had to be hospitalized or sent to the emergency room multiple times for pushing myself too much)
Race: Asian
Gender: Male
State: California
Major: Chemical/biomolecular engineering, second choice is chemistry
Essays:
Common app: wrote about my illness and how it influenced me to pursue a medical career.
Rec letter: got one from principal, 2 other stem teacher, 1 from english teacher, 1 from my doctor ( who I also did an internship with)
Extra Curriculars:
Founder of a charity for a hospital (donate toys)
Internship at hospital, published research paper
Worked with mayor to do many projects, including a website to share healthy living ideas
Helped develop an app for ill patients
President of Science honor society (qualified for state once)
President of Math honor society (qualified for AIME 3 times)
Vice President of National Honor society
Captain of debate (qualified for state)
Eagle Scout
Colleges:
Rice (just got deferred)
Harvard
Duke
Vanderbilt
MIT
Emory
Georgia Tech
UCLA, UC Berkely
Brown
Cornell
UPenn
Please chance me at these schools, also any suggestions if I should add or remove anything from my app?
Still unsure why I got deferred from Rice or where my app was lacking, likely GPA or SAT II?
UCLA is a safety, also University of Texas, however I am really just focusing on the reach schools for now. i’ve already applied to and gotten accepted to some safeties.
I really don’t know, to be honest.
What I do think is that there are so many competitive applicants now, for so few spaces, that some adcoms really have their pick. That’s sad because there’s so many good students who have really worked hard to get into their schools.
Remember, this is the internet, so advice is worth what you paid for it. And all we know is one tiny little blurb you wrote. So if I’m off base with this, do not be hurt; do some self evaluation and if my advice doesn’t fit, ignore and move on.
I don’t think your stats are an issue. They aren’t perfect, but they don’t need to be to be for you to be accepted. All your grades and scores are high enough to be considered at those schools. So not being accepted could be as simple as they have too many of student type X with Y background that want to study Z - not personal and nothing you can control.
But… it also could be that there is a strong undertone of a student who is a nervous wreck and colleges may be afraid that if they admit you, you’ll become a basket case from stress or cause yourself a major illness episode. You mention your illness multiple times - heck, you even got a recommendation from the doc that treated you. You state that every time there was stressful testing, you pushed yourself so hard you had to be hospitalized. And your essay was about a subject that is one of the most common topics - you want to be a doctor because you were ill. An admissions officer might understandably be worried that you are not emotionally or physically ready to be in such a competitive environment.
You might want to consider focusing on how strong and healthy you are now and what changes have occurred to make you ready to handle stress and competition. And if there are other parts of your life other than your illness you can bring into the picture of who you are, that would be helpful as well.
Yes I put it in my app, however the illness is now completely gone and will not be an issue again, I can handle the stress now and I made it clear in my app. So with that in mind, how would you guys chance me for these schools?
@VANDEMORY1342 thanks for the list! is there any specific area where you think my application is lacking more than others?
For more insight, I wrote my commonapp essay on how I got the illness, the impact it had on me, how i made an impossible recovery, and how the illness fueled my passion to help other suffering people, and I have helped them through my charity, website, app, and support group.
Honestly, based on what you shared, you’d be wasting your time on these two schools (especially MIT). If I were you, I’d focus on more realistic options.