First and only chances thread

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I've roamed around these boards for a while now, but now I feel its necessary for me to participate in it. Here are my stats:</p>

<p>School: Public
Ethnicity: Asian male (this won't help)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.9ish unweighted, 4.2 weighted
Rank: 7/120</p>

<p>SAT I: 2270 - 720 CR, 800 M, 750 W
SAT IIs: Math II 800, Chinese 800, Chem 780, US his 750, Bio E 700 (retake?)
APs: Calc AB 5, Physics B 5, U.S. history 4</p>

<p>Awards + Honors:
-Individual Plaque in physics for NJ Science League (top 10%), and 7th place Bio team
-2-time AIME qualifier
-National Merit Semifinalist
-High Honor Roll every year in HS
-Some random science and math awards</p>

<p>E.C.s:
NHS
VP Go and Chess Club
Science Bowl and Science League
Mathletes
Co-founder J.S.A
Spanish Club
Tennis (J.V. - 9th, Varisity 10th, 11th)
Varsity Wrestling (Only participated in 9th grade)
150 hours of volunteer work at local hospital
NJIT Science and Tech. Enrichment Program
This Rutgers internship with a professor my dad knows</p>

<p>Got a "B" in a comp. science course at the local community college, but I don't think I'll mention it in apps...</p>

<p>Senior year AP classes:
AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Lit. & Comp., AP Spanish</p>

<p>I'm leaning towards a major in medicine (should I retake bio sat II?) or engineering. I'm planning to do SCEA to stanford, but I know the chances are slim. I'm going to RD to most of the ivies, caltech, mit, and rutgers (legacy). My problem is that I have many high reaches, and only one safety. Does anyone have and suggestions of matches or safeties in the Northeast?</p>

<p>Any input is appreciated.</p>

2

<p>Your AI is 221 out of a 240 possible. Your test scores are obviously excellent, but despite your 3.9ish GPA, you are not in the top 5% in your school class. I presume this is because you are going to one of the most competitive schools possible as demonstrated by the AP scores.
Accordingly, the Ivies will take this into account, but you likely will not get into some of the schools your 4.0 classmates apply to. So if I were you I'd find out where they are applying and apply to the other ones.</p>

<p>Personally I think you can get into Penn, Cornell, and Brown, but not Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, or Stanford SCEA. You're about 50-50 at Dartmouth and Columbia. Caltech is a slight reach also--but I'd apply there if I were you. You're in at Berkeley if you apply there.</p>

<p>Rutgers is a safety. You should be offered admission to their honors program and a likely scholarship there.</p>

<p>Other matches and reaches for you in the Northeast with good biomedical programs would be Rensselaer Polytechnic (match), John Hopkins (it's in Baltimore, but that's kind of the NE--reach), Carnegie-Mellon (match), Lafayette (match), and even Swarthmore (match to slight reach).</p>

<p>Safeties might be Boston University and Penn State--Boston University in particular has a fabulous biomedical program.</p>

<p>And personally, I probably wouldn't retake the Biology SAT II--but you seem to really excel at these kinds of tests--and if that's to be your major, then, yes, for you this might make sense. (I actually retook a 790 SAT II Math test to get an 800--but that was a long time ago--and looking back, I think it was just vanity and frustration at missing a question I knew how to do that made me do the retake.)</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>I would agree with the above message, and throw Duke into the mix. It has a great pre-med program, and I would think that you would have a pretty good shot at getting in. (My SAT was a 2210, SAT IIs about the same, rank 8/274) and I got into Duke...if that helps at all. Yea and don't take the Bio one. It is just a waste of time and energy, you already have perfectly good SAT IIs so I wouldnt.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the replies. I was also considering doing ED to Columbia SEAS or Columbia College. I'm not sure if this will help, but my sister graduated from Columbia SEAS. </p>

<p>I was hoping to get lucky in early admissions, so is it better to do EA to Caltech if my admissions chances there are slightly better there than Stanford's? I know the two schools are very difficult to get into, but I'm willing to apply early to either one of them that I have a better chance at getting into.</p>

5

<p>Sorry this isn't helpful, but if you're a fan of the Finnish band by the same name, then you rock!</p>

6

<p>lol yeah, I'm a fan of the band. I always thought they were swedish for some reason...</p>

7

<p>I would apply at top LACs in areas of the Country that don't get many Asian applicants.</p>