Does my list look accurate?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

SAT I (breakdown): 2210 (690 R, 790 M, 790 W) (will not send)
SAT II: 790 Bio E, 800 Math II, 780 Chem
ACT: 35 - 35 English, 35 Math, 34 Reading, 35 Science, 10 Essay
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/527
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Calc AB (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP Stats (5), AP World History (5), AP Lang (4), APUSH (5), AP HUGS (4), AP Bio (4), AP Chem (4), AP Physics 1 (4) (not sending in scores)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: Multivariate Calculus, AP Physics C Mechanics, Chamber Orchestra, AP Goverment & Politics, AP Economics, AP Lit & Comp
Awards/Achievements: National AP Scholar, UUAW Recognition in Science, 1st in state for violin and quartet, National Merit Commended Scholar, Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Keys in Painting, KSEA NMSC awards, nothing really major though

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Local youth orchestra: 5-12 Asst. Principal 2nd (10), Principal 2nd (11), TBD (12)
Red Cross: 10-12 Secretary (11), Youth Council Member (12)
Key Club: 9-12 President (12)
HS Chamber Orchestra: Concertmaster (9-12)
Violin: All State Chamber Orchestras, All-Northwest Orchestras, finalist for some competitions
NHS: 10-12
Musical Pit Orchestra: 10-12 (I was also “fiddler” for Fiddler on the Roof, concertmaster)
District Honor Orchestra: 9-12 Asst. Concertmaster (9-10), Concertmaster (11, TBD 12)
Art: 9-11 Received some awards for it.

Job/Work Experience:
Research intern at a university (summer before 11)
Teaching assistant at local Korean school (9-10)

Volunteer/Community service:
Volunteered at a local hospital (10-12)
Miscellaneous things through NHS, Key Club and Red Cross
Coaching sectionals for youth orchestra / quartets
May start teaching violin for underprivileged kids this year

~400 hours total

Summer Activities:
10th: NSLC at Northwestern for Health (I just went to “live at Northwestern”)
11th: Unpaid research at a local university
12th: Boston University Tanglewood Institute (concertmaster & featured at Honors Concert), shadowed a neurologist

Prospective Major: undecided (on a pre-med track maybe?)
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Upper middle class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none :’(

I feel like I’m that “typical Asian girl that plays violin.” I mean, of course, I do it because I love it. I will most likely be submitting a portfolio for violin & art. I’m just worried that my ECs are way too focused on music and the arts when I’m most likely a bio major D:

Help me decide if my list looks okay:
Harvard (HHR, likely SCEA)
Yale (HR)
Cornell (HR)
Stanford (HR)
UPenn (HR)
Dartmouth ®
WashU ®
Vanderbilt ®
Johns Hopkins ®
Northwestern ®
Duke ®
Rice ®
University of WA (S)

Also, what would be a good “match” school? I’m having a really hard time finding one because right now, I’m rolling the dice for the ivies (as my tiger mom insists). Thank you in advance! :slight_smile:

2

That’s an awful lot of reaches that you’re applying to.
UCB, UCLA, (if you can afford them, 55k a year for OOS)
USC is also good too and you would get good money there.

You’re a very strong candidate, good stats, good EC’s, very strong in music, but there’s a good chance that you may get rejected at all your reaches as they are just so unpredictable and difficult to get into, plus you’ll have so many essays you have to write and perfect. I hope you know what you’re in for, 12 privates with all those supplementals, gosh I hope you make it out alive.

Are you fine with U Washington as your safety? That’s an awfully big gap between U Washington and Rice.

3

You do have many reach schools on the list but some are low reaches. You should be able to get into at least one of them. Where is your home state?

4

@billcsho Washington HAHA that’s why UW is my safety school. @rdeng2614 I will look into UCB. Would Swarthmore, Williams and Weslayan be a match?

5

Swarthmore would be a high reach and so would Williams. Wesleyan would be a reach. Your list is way too reach heavy in my opinion, and you are taking a huge gamble. I would cut a lot and add some real safeties, not just UW. Are you submitting a music supplement? That might help. If not, I don’t see you standing out in any particular way, and yeah just a very big gamble. You’ll likely get into one or two of them, but you are walking on thin ice in my opinion. Also, Washington in my opinion isn’t a safety school. But you’ll still likely get in.

6

@jarrett211 Thank you for the reply! Yes I’m submitting and art and music supplement. At our school, UW is considered a safety school because everyone gets in… it’s about 70% acceptance for in-state. What would you say is a match school then?

7

“Upper middle class”… You will probably be full pay at each of these schools. Can your parents afford to pay $65,000 per year? If yes, then I think you list is still too full of reaches. You may be rejected from ALL schools except for UW. I think you are qualified and I like your music commitment, but the odds are pretty tough.

Your current list is based on prestige; maybe your “matches” need to be based on your preferences, ie location, size, vibe, etc.

8

I would recommend adding some more of your favorite “Big Ten” universities to the list – right now you only have Northwestern. They all have excellent science programs and a lot of research opportunities, and you would be a good candidate for scholarships with your scores and stats. Here’s more information here:
http://collegeapps.about.com/od/choosingacollege/tp/big-ten.htm

All of the Big Ten universities except one are members of the American Association of Universities, an exclusive and prestigious group of research universities (Nebraska was a long-time member but isn’t anymore). The group of 62 universities includes the Ivies as well:
https://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5474

From the website: “The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an association of 62 leading public and private research universities in the United States and Canada. Membership in AAU is by invitation and is based on the high quality of programs of academic research and scholarship and undergraduate, graduate, and professional education in a number of fields, as well as general recognition that a university is outstanding by reason of the excellence of its research and education programs.”

9

Some schools on your list require all scores, you will have to send your SATs to them. I agree this is way too many reaches. How about Scripps, Haverford, Oberlin, Carleton as possible matches? Maybe Mount Holyoke and Dickinson as low matches?

10

Here’s an updated list:
R: Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Duke, Rice
M: Purdue(?), UCLA, USC, UCB, UMichigan, UIllinois-Urbana Champaign, Rutgers, Indiana
S: UW, Boston University (b/c I did Tanglewood), UOregon, UCI(?)

I took some reach colleges but I’m still left with 9 LOL. I may just end up having to apply to 20 schools although that scares the bajeezus out of me. I guess what I’m going for is something along the lines of “throwing a fish-line into the sea and hope that at least one of my reaches catch it.”

If my list looks somewhat inaccurate, please help me correct it. Thank you again :slight_smile:

11

UCLA and UCB are not matches. Both are reaches. Neither is BU even if you did Tanglewood. That belongs in the matches.

12

Add Carleton and Grinnell for matches, for instance, and st Olaf for a safety *if and only if * you demonstrate interest.

13

If you are applying to CoE, UMich is at the same caliber as UCB and would be a low reach, not a match. The admission rate for OOS is as low as some Ivies there. If you are applying to LSA, it would be a very high match. The OOS admission rate is at or below 20%.

14

“Here’s an updated list:
R: Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Duke, Rice
M: Purdue(?), UCLA, USC, UCB, UMichigan, UIllinois-Urbana Champaign, Rutgers, Indiana
S: UW, Boston University (b/c I did Tanglewood), UOregon, UCI(?)”

You need to figure out what you want in a school.
Would you really want to go to Purdue, UIUIC, Rutgers or Indiana? You are all over the place with your list.

All of your reaches are elite privates but you don’t have any private schools for your matches. Do you know what you are looking for in a school? You have excellent stats but if you don’t get accepted by one of your reaches, you will be very disappointed IMO with your current list.

Boston University is not a safety. UCB and UCLA are not matches.

What about Tulane, Case Western, Claremont Consortium, Boston College, etc. There are many fine schools.

15

Yes, UW is a great in-state safety that has a 66% acceptance rate for Washington residents and is affordable.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/uw-gains-record-freshman-class-exceeds-expectations/

Your academic and extracurricular records are outstanding. I think your list looks pretty accurate, but I would drop Purdue into the safety category.

Your perspective of the University of Washington may be skewed as a resident. In my experience, Washington residents are often pleasantly surprised to see how high it sits in the national and international rankings, particularly in the biosciences and medical areas (e.g., USNWR #1 primary care; #10 research in medical school rankings). For some perspective, here are the “top 50” national/research universities in the US by combined USNWR, THE, QS and ARWU ranking:

1 Harvard 2.25 avg. rank
2 MIT 4.25
2 Stanford 4.25
4 Princeton 5.75
5 Caltech 6.5
6 Yale 8.25
7 Chicago 8.75
8 Columbia 10
9 Penn 13.25
10 Johns Hopkins 14.5
11 Berkeley 14.75
12 Cornell 16.5
13 Duke 20.50
14 UCLA 21
15 Michigan 22.75
16 Northwestern 24
17 NYU 34.5
18 Wisconsin 35.25
19 UCSD 37.75
20 Washington 38.5
21 Illinois 40.5
22 North Carolina 43.5
23 Carnegie Mellon 44
24 Washington U 46.75
25 Brown 49
26 Texas 49.75
27 UCD 60.75
28 Boston U 62.25
28 UCSB 62.25
30 Minnesota 66.5
31 Georgia Tech 67
32 Penn State 69
33 USC 70.5
34 Ohio State 73.75
35 Rice 74.75
36 Purdue 81.5
37 Pitt 82.25
38 UCI 82.5
39 Vanderbilt 87
40 Maryland 89.75
41 Emory 98.87
42 Colorado 100.25
43 Rochester 102
44 Virginia 105.28
45 Florida 111
46 Tufts 113.63
47 Case Western Reserve 117.13
48 Texas A&M 117.5
49 Michigan State 121.88
50 Arizona 127

You should do well with the “top” private universities, but as others have noted, you never know. Other than UCB and UCLA (and perhaps UCSD), I don’t think it makes sense for you to apply to any OOS publics. For UW, you should consider the Honors Program, given the breadth of your interests and accomplishments:

http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/apply/freshman/faq/

Good luck!

16

I’d put Rutgers, Illinois and Indiana in the safety category, too.

17

@UWfromCA thank you so much for the reply! I probably won’t end up applying for OOS publics, maybe George Washington and UMich after more consideration, and I can’t forget about applying Honors to UW as well!

18

I think that BU would definitely be a good for for uou. My brother is currently attending it, and receivers half tuition merit scholarship if tuition would be an issue for you. They are very good with merit based scholarships. Furthermore, they offer many of the same resources that any Ivy would.

I think your updated list is alot better as well.

If you portray your skills as a musician the right way that could definitely be a good hook for you. That is obviously your passion, and those elite colleges like to see students with a passion.

I wish you the best of luck!

19

just an update - I was accepted to UW, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth and Princeton. I’ll most likely be attending Princeton this coming fall :slight_smile: Thank you to those who helped me sort out my list!

20

For match/ safer but still highly regarded schools for you to explore:
Mid size to large colleges: University of Rochester, Brandeis, U Michigan Ann Arbor, College of William and Mary, NYU
Small colleges: Reed, Whitman, Grinnell, Macalester, Hamilton, Colby, Bates, Colorado, Skidmore, Bard