GENERAL STATS:
SAT: 1400/1600
UW GPA: 3.5
W GPA: 4.4/5
Rank: top 8%
White Female
Lower Class
Public High School
EC/HIGH LIGHTS:
*National Honor Society Sr. VP (120+ hours)
*So./Jr. Social Officer of Grand Champ. Drill Team
*Jr/Sr. President of Beyond the Cover
*Fr. President of HOSA
4yr. Member of Red Cross
Captain Organizer of Tuberous Sclerosis Walk
*Part time Cryotechnician (20+ hrs a week) @ CryoTexas (2017-2019)
*Tedx Youth Speaker over cancer biology
*Completed Summer@Brown Cancer Biology course
Health Science Pathway Courses (4yrs)
Health Science Immersion Course (travel to hospital during school 3x weekly)
*Performed at Super Bowl LIV Half Time Show
Performed at 3 Rockets Half Time Shows
Part time Sr. Portraits model
*Published Author in Energy Corridor Living Magazine
*Nominated for West Houston Leadership Conference with Senator
Maintained personal blog/writing portfolio (8+ essays)
Part time receptionist at a spa (2016)
AP COURSES: (3+ scores on all)
AP Human Georgraphy
AP World History
AP Biology
AP Language
AP BC Calculus
AP Macroeconomics
AP Government
AP U.S. History
AP Statistics
AP Psychology
AP Literature
MISC:
Harvard 2nd gen. legacy
what are my chances of getting into the following schools… Harvard, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, UC Berkley, Tulane, Boston U, USC, Boston College, Syracuse, Duke, UT Austin.
please be honest, I am nervous about upcoming applications and my chances appear slim to me, thus i feel like applying to many of these schools is a waste of time and energy.
Thanks!!
Harvard - High Reach
Yale - High Reach
Brown - High Reach
UC Berkeley - Reach
Tulane - Low Reach, only with great showing of interest
BU - High Match
USC - Low Reach
BC - Low Reach
Syracuse - Safety
Duke - Reach
UT Austin - Match
Good luck!
Not to be rude or anything but your UW GPA and SAT are pertty darn low for the ivies, berk, duke, USC, and georgetown. In my school, you need a solid 1550 SAT and over 3.9 UW for those schools as well as full IB or ton of AP’s (I’ve looked at the stats in Naviance). However, if you’re top 8% then that will definitely help.
Nonetheless, I would probably pick only one or two of those as your reach schools, because applying to that many is going to be taking up a lot of your time. You’re EC are really good so I’m sure those will help. Either way, I wish you best of luck.
I figured they were too low, but i went through some hospitalization for health issues my sophomore year that prevented me from gaining a better edge on my GPA, considering this, does that change anything?
Additionally I’ve heard that being a legacy could help admissions? Is this true or more of a stretch?
Thank you for your help!
Being legacy does help to some extent, but its pretty insignificant (my friend got rejected from Cornell despite his dad being a Grad and he had good stats). The hospitalization is a valid excuse and I’m sure colleges will take that into consideration as long as you mentioned it in your application. Your SAT score however, is far below the standards of elite colleges, unfortunately.
Are you a senior or a junior? I’m assuming junior since you stated that you are nervous about upcoming applications. If you are a junior, then definitely start/continue prepping for the SAT and take it in October after a full summer of prep. SAT prep courses are really expensive and if you can’t afford it then you should use Khan Academy. It’s free and has really accurate practice tests (helped me a ton). My friend grinded KA over the summer for 1-2 hours a day and raised his SAT score from 1320 to 1480. If you can motivate yourself to do that, then getting a high SAT would improve your chances drastically. Also, I’m not entirely sure if your weighted GPA is correct… It’s basically saying that every class you took in high school was AP.
One more important thing: make sure to take the subject SAT’s along with your SAT. Almost all elite schools require them. They say “recommended” or “strongly recommended” but that just means that if you don’t have them, you are automatically less competitive of an applicant than those that due. Furthermore, it’s a great way to show just how good you are at your areas of interest. Finally, select one of those reach schools that you feel you have slim chances for, but really want to get accepted and do an ED (increases chances by a bit). It is binding, and it may seem risky since you might not afford to go there, however, if you get in and you come to the conclusion that you can’t afford the school based on the aid they give you, then you can either appeal for a reassessment for financial aid, or you can decline, given that you provide evidence that paying for the school will be difficult.