Final chances?

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

<p>Goes to a public school (812 API) in California
Gender and Ethnicity: Male, Indian
4.00 GPA (unweighted) (10-12)
4.83 GPA (weighted) (10-12)
UC GPA: 4.33
Class rank: 1/269</p>

<p>Test Scores:
SAT: 2210 - 680 CR, 750 M, 780 W, Essay:11/12
ACT: 31 composite (35 M, 31 E, 26 R, 32 S, 9 essay)
SAT II Biology M: 790
SAT II Math L2: 760
SAT II U.S. History: 710</p>

<p>Course Rigor:
Took 4 Honors in freshman year, got all A's (7 total).
Took 1 AP class (AP Biology) in sophomore year and 4 Honors courses (7 total).
Took 4 AP classes and 1 Honor's course in junior year (6 total).</p>

<p>Senior year schedule:
1. AP Physics C
2. AP French Language
3. AP English Lit.
4. AP Statistics
5. AP Environmental Science
6. Econ/Govt.</p>

<p>All A's throughout high school (man, that sounds pretentious =p)</p>

<p>AP Scores:
AP Biology (sophomore): 5
APUSH (junior): 4
AP English Lang. (junior): 5
AP Calculus AB subscore (junior): 5
AP Calculus BC (junior; not offered, so self-studied): 5
AP Chemistry (junior): 5</p>

<p>EC's/Volunteer work:
-Volunteered at Canal Alliance for 2 years; (helping lower-class kids in education).
-Member of Youth Leadership Institute:
-Member of its Marin County Youth Commission and President of its Health Committee (3 years)
-Member of its Healthy Empowered Youth Program. (for 3 years)
-Enrolled in summer classes from UC Berkeley in a program called Academic Talent Development Program (ATDP) for in summer of 2009.
-Selected by UC ELP (Eligibility Local Context) program.
-Member of Link Crew for 2 years (max); (helps high school freshmen to transition into high school life).
-Member of Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra for 3 years.
-Founder of Tennis Club and Cultural Diversity Club.
-Member of Varsity Tennis team (Co-captain).
-Member of California Scholarship Foundation (3 years)
-Peer Tutored kids after school in my high school
-Member of the Big Brother Big Sisters program (2 years)
-Member of Marin Indian American Association: Member in cultural events and youth education programs. Raised Haiti earthquake relief funds. Taught Indian heritage to young children. (2 years)
-Worked as a paid intern at a Kaiser Perm. Hospital Intern for its 2010 Summer Youth Employment Program- lots of medical experience.
-Went to UC Davis COSMOS program for math and science in summer of 2011 for -Biochemistry (200/800 applications get chosen)
-21 Community College Credits</p>

<p>Awards and Honors:
-AP Scholar w/ Distinction
-President of French Honors Society
-MVP of Varsity Tennis team
-California Legislature Assembly Leadership Award-for making change in health-related issues in my community
-Successfully completed and honored in Toastmaster's International Youth Leadership program. (2010 summer)</p>

<p>Essays:
Have a reliable essay tutor and have pretty good essays, in my opinion.</p>

<p>Letters of Rec:
1 Science, 1 US History, and 1 Math, and they all know me well.</p>

<p>Hooks (barely have any, I don't think these count anyways):
-Indian ethnicity, but AA screws me haha.
-Parents studied in India, first gen. in family to study in the USA</p>

<p>Interests:
I'm thinking of doing a Neurobiology/Cell Biology/Molecular Biology major with a pre-medicine discipline.</p>

2

<p>bump10char</p>

3

<p>Come on man, you already know you’re a great candidate, do you just want to hear a bunch of people to tell you how great you are or something?</p>

4

<p>No, I changed a new award I got, and wanted to see my chances on that, since it’s my first direct-from-govt award. Sorry, but it’s my last chance thread…I’ll NEVER do it again.</p>

5

<p>Going to second what samchey is. People that post with stats like these are done to show off. Is there a chance you’ll get rejected? Of course. But that’s a coinflip none of us know.</p>

6

<p>Washington University is never a sure thing. They rejected last year’s valedictorian, 2400 SAT, tons of AP from our local high school. Good Luck!!</p>

7

<p>you’ll get rejected.</p>

<p>there, i said it. washu rejects the overly qualified candidates because of something called “yield protect”. unless you apply ed or show tons of interest (as in do everything you can possibly do to show interest) then you’d be better not wasting the 90 dollars it takes to apply. but it’s just a matter of fact and you can’t blame washu for wanting to reject the students they know probably won’t matriculate. thus increasing their “yield”.</p>

8

<p>Umm I don’t think I’m overly qualified at all. I have a 2210 SAT, which is like the 50th-75th percentile score…I think the overqualified are 2300+'s with everything I have plus more.</p>

9

<p>@prisoner67</p>

<p>Could you please provide your evidence that WUSTL is engaging in some sort of university-wide conspiracy to increase their yield at an extent greater than that of comparable schools? I’m interested to see how you can be so certain that this applicant won’t be accepted to WUSTL because they are “overqualified.”</p>

<p>OP: Your application looks top-tier. You have as good a chance as anyone at acceptance.</p>

10

<p>Thanks RyanMK. Feeling slightly more confident, but I cross my fingers.
@prisoner67, I want to know the source of your claim.</p>

11

<p>Definitely not a reject, no stellar test scores. In fact test scores below Wash U average. Regardless of that you are obviously a very strong candidate.</p>

12

<p>alright, it can’t hurt to apply
but for proof, check out past years’ results threads. a lot of students who seemed like they would rather attend “ivy leagues” were put on the wait list or rejected. the last valedictorian at my school was rejected at washu but accepted at harvard and yale.
hey, i’m not saying this is bad thing. in fact, washu is my top choice school, and this is just how i see things. on cc, you should always take things with a grain of salt.</p>

13

<p>yeah, it’s not proof yet…just some evidence i guess. I’m still not convinced, but I respect your opinion.</p>

14

<p>While prisoner is right (it’s called the Tufts effect-- look it up) that doesn’t mean an automatic rejection. The fact that he applied ED (if he did) should help-- a lot. That being said, WashU is unpredictable, the valedictorian was rejected in 2010. Either way, this school is the epitome of a crapshoot, so good luck everyone!</p>

15

<p>@rackem45</p>

<p>Of course everyone’s heard of Tuft’s syndrome. While the argument makes sense in theory, I have yet to see any proof for this idea that is not anecdotal. Could it be possible that a school may reject a so-called over-qualified student not to protect yield, but rather because the admissions officers didn’t think him/her to be a good fit at the school? And if it does exist, why should I believe certain schools (like WUSTL and Tufts) practice it to an extent significantly greater than other, non-HYPS schools?</p>

16

<p>I’m 99.9% sure Wash U has and will deny over qualified applicants. This was more of an issue in the early 2000s, and less so these days when it’s become a clear top-tier institution. But saying it doesn’t is purely incorrect.</p>

17

<p>On what basis are we deciding that WashU rejects overqualified kids, and not kids that either show little-to-no interest in the school (as happened to two of my friends, now at Cornell and Vanderbilt) or kids they simply don’t see as a good fit?</p>

<p>Puh-lease. If you seriously think WashU rejects applicants that it otherwise finds extremely attractive because it’s afraid they won’t attend, take a look at SAT and ACT stats. Compare it to HPYS. You know, the schools that NEVER get accused of rejecting seemingly overqualified applicants to protect yield, simply because they’re the unquestionable HPYS.</p>

<p>A hypothetical valedictorian is accepted at Harvard, rejected at Yale, accepted at Penn, rejected at WashU. WashU must have rejected them because they were overqualified, but Yale was completely justified in rejecting the applicant because it’s Yale and they just simply decided the fit wasn’t right. That’s how it goes on this forum, right?</p>

<p>You get in to WashU (by and large) by being very qualified and showing interest in going. If you’re accepted, congratulations. If you’re rejected, I’m sorry. But if you’re going to use the rejection to somehow show that you were too good for WashU’s admissions, pull up your big boy pants and move on. The reality is that, like nearly all applicants applying to top 20 schools, WashU won’t be the only prestigious school that rejects you.</p>

18

<p>Sorry, didn’t mean to add wood to the fire. The evidence IS all anecdotal, however, there is a LOT of it. And when valedictorians and top 3%-ers are frequently denied only to have lower candidates be accepted, one realizes that the argument holds some water.</p>

19

<p>^ wood to the fire? anyway it is ambiguous as the wood may be damp and the fire may get put off eventually. a better phrase would be to add kerosene to the fire. then you are guaranteed to get results:D</p>

20

<p>Let me get this straight. You’re using the fact that valedictorians and top-3%-ers are frequently denied as evidence of rejection of overqualified applicants?</p>

<p>By that standard, every single school in the top 15 rankings has Tuft’s Syndrome.</p>

<p>The sense of acceptance entitlement is appalling.</p>

<p>I was a “top 3%-er” (top 1% as a matter of fact) that showed a lot of interest and got accepted. I count my lucky stars in heaven that I made the cut, because I appreciate the fact that I applied to a school that is privileged to have thousands of other applicants just like me.</p>