Help me find the best fit? Please!

Hey! First off, thank you so much that you are willing to help me. I really appreciate it.

Some basic things about me:

  • 17 Years Old
  • Rising Senior
  • Live in Michigan and have sibling legacy at University of Michigan- Ann Arbor
  • Love Biology (the physician side of things)
  • Indian American (Born in India type)
  • I am in STEM Biomedical (a part of PLTW that helps teach students hands-on skills in the field of science and the wonders of the human body)
  • Family income is around $75,000 (to help give an estimate of what my parents could pay)

My Scores:

  • 31 ACT (31 E, 33 M, 27 R, 31 S)
  • Have done the SAT but will not report it unless I do better in October. I got 1300 out of 1600.
  • UW GPA is a 3.61 and W GPA is a 3.71
  • AP Biology (4) and AP Chem (3)

I have lots of other honors classes and meet basically all high school class selection requirements but that will not make a huge difference.

Senior Year Courseload:

  • AP Psych
  • AP Physics
  • AP Calc AB
  • Biomedical Innovations (STEM class)
  • Multicultural Literature and Public Speaking
  • Honors Zoology

Extracurriculars:

  • An intern for a Candidate running for US Congress
  • NHS Member
  • Almost 430 hours of volunteering from places ranging from a local hospital (220ish), through NHS (30ish), my internship (100ish), and my temple (80ish).

Hooks:

  • URM
  • STEM Academy
  • Legacy at UofM- Ann Arbor
  • A very unique high school
  • Immigrant (technically)

Awards:

  • NHS gave me a Top Honors Award for “exceptional volunteering”
  • That hospital gave me some cool awards for volunteering so much

My current college list is the following:

  • Reaches (might not even apply):
    UChicago, Northwestern, UCLA
  • Matches (Again, not sure which I will apply too)
    University of Michigan- Ann Arbor, USC, UCSD
  • Safties (will apply to these two)
    Michigan State University and Wayne State University

Bonus points to whoever can add colleges to my list
Things I am looking for in college:

  • Great biology and medicine program (pre-med would be cool but not required)
  • Large school (10000+ people)
  • My parents would need to take a loan and there would have to be financial aid to help pay for the college
  • No religious preference to the college
  • An urban feel for the college would be incredible but not required
  • The college can be anywhere in the US, but it should be reasonably affordable
  • Professionally oriented clubs would be awesome

How accurate am I in the list of reaches, matches, and safeties? Please be brutally honest. If you want me to chance back, chance me and mention you want one back or PM me about it.
Note, I know my GPA is bad and it will hurt chances, realize that my essays are going to make up for it. I’m confident that they will (from the number of people looking them over and how much time I spend with them improving them). Plus my letter of recommendations are going to be top notch (I read one and it looks really good).

I don’t think any of your matches can be considered matches. I don’t know that great recs/essays will make up for a low GPA. Umich and USC have acceptance rates under 30% and UCSD’s acceptance rate is 33%, with biology being one of the most competitive.

Don’t get me wrong, I think you definitely have a good chance at these schools, but I just want to make sure that you are truly okay with ending up at one of your safety schools if you happen to be rejected from all your reaches/matches.

As for finding more schools, the supermatch function is useful for that: http://collegeconfidential.com/college_search

@sophie9999, would it then help me to not apply early action? If I did well (All As) first semester Senior year, my GPA would jump to around a 3.7 probably. Also, what should I try to improve my SAT score to? Raising my score could be an attempt to help cover my low GPA.

Hooks are not things that you invent and apply to yourself.

They are a finite and specific list of needs that the universities seek (and may link with federal needs) which include:

URM are specific to: African-American, Mexican/Hispanic, Native American (tribal affiliation) and Pacific Islander (Samoan, fijian, etc.)

Indian from India is an ORM (over-represented minority)
legacy descendant of a graduate of that university
Athletic Recruits
First generation-neither parent has ever attended any educational institution beyond grammar/high schools anywhere.
celebrity or donor Child of a celebrity or donor who will bring good attention to the university.

That’s about it.

Your best bet appears to be your instate options in Michigan. You have really good choices for them.

As for the UCs, your present stats won’t get you in. As an OOS your stats have to be above the instate students and you need to be aware that they do not give ANY aid to OOS students. That’s $55K per year for those schools. Also those schools should never be considered as matches/ safeties.

USC is very expensive and they tend to target the above listed hooks but do tend to front load their aid with lots of loans. ($72k per year is hardly a drop in the bucket to pay).

Thanks for clarifying @“aunt bea” on hooks. I just assumed that my ethnicity could add the overall diversity so they might like me slightly more. And that info about UCs and USC not giving financial aid is new to me. Anything over $40K would make parents hesitate tremendously. Again, thanks for the input. I really appreciate it.

No worries! Good luck!

@UofMichigan1999 If you apply early action, colleges won’t get a chance to see your first semester senior year grades before decisions are made or before decisions come out.

If you’ve only taken the ACT once it couldn’t hurt to try again. You still have a few test date options before apps are due. I don’t know the ACT scores for all these schools off the top of my head, but you can look up the middle 50% of scores for these schools and try to be in or preferably above those ranges to give yourself the best chance.

@sophie9999 That 31 was my best score (including all the subcategories) of three ACTs.
I am actually focusing on the SAT to try to get that over a 1450ish. That is average for the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor (1460) at least.
Also, my first semester doesn’t actually end until mid-January so I will not be able to even send those grades. They would have to come back and check them when I would update them about it.

Forget the UC’s since they wouldn’t be affordable.
umich + your current safeties are good. Albion is a safety with good biology, as are Luther or Lake Forest, but run the NPC since they don’t meet need. Beloit, Gustavus Adolphus, and Lawrence would all be low matches and they’re pretty good with financial aid.
Excellent colleges for biology that’d be matches AND where you’d be considered URM are St Olaf and Rhodes. They basically meet full need so run the NPC as the formula may not favor your family… but they should be competitive financially.

Did you visit UMich or any of your safeties? There’s more to schools than their rankings. Look into some of them, you might fall in love.

Wow thanks guys! You truly don’t understand how much gratitude I have for helping me!

@MYOS1634 I figured that UCs would be nearly impossible to attend even if I was miraculously accepted. I’m a fool for dreaming. Also, I did some research of those colleges and I am intrigued by them. Some I feel like I would not fit comfortably so I won’t run the NPC on them. I am starting to run the NPC on the others though.

@coterie I haven’t had a visit anywhere else but the University of Michigan. I wanted to take one to Michigan State University but my time is coming short since I already have a lot going on (Studying for SAT, Internship, and Summer homework).