help sort college list + ed or nope? (mit)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

repeat of a post i did earlier, although i have ap/sat ii scores now!! sorry if this is confusing xD

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School: small-med (a little over 1000 people) public school
Gender: F
Race/ethnicity: Filipino/Chinese
Intended major: Molecular biology OR Biochemical Engineering, minor in Communications/Journalism
State: CA + (county, if it helps - San Joaquin)

GPA: 4.00 UW, 4.31 W (school doesn’t let us take APs until soph. year)
Rank: 3/~370
ACT: N/A
SAT II: World History (800); Math II (780); Chemistry (770)
SAT I: (not superscored) 2360 - 800M, 800W, 760CR

AP scores: WHAP (5); Chemistry AP (4), AP Lang (5), APUSH (5)
Senior AP’s: Calc AB, English Lit, AP Gov, Spanish IV, Psychology

Extracurriculars:

  • Science Olympiad (11-12): placed in regionals
  • Performed (Ensemble) in school performance of Aladdin (10)
  • Performing in talent show (11-12(?)) + general music - Music Club member (10), write own songs + have active Soundcloud/Youtube channel, self-taught guitar, ukulele (9-12)
  • Cross Country/Track (9), continual recreational running, awards in local race (9-12)
  • Key Club - served as Secretary (12)/Treasurer (11) (10-12)
  • Help tutor students in HYPE (tutoring club at lunch) (10-12); served as freshman mentor (like a Link Crew leader) (11-12)
  • Commissioner in KHS Leadership, helped with rallies (esp backdrops, PLANNING), posters, and promotion for the school; designed senior shirt (11-12)

Summer activities:

  • 9/10, 10/11: volunteered extensively at a senior living facility: hours > 110 (includes hours from animal shelter volunteering, volunteering @ Relay for Life)
  • 11/12: internship 3 days/week, 10 to 5 at a local newspaper, published articles/wrote blurbs

Awards:

  • 1st place (x2) & 3rd place (x2) - submitted stories to our school’s Literary Journal Contests (10-11)
  • Academic Block K (10-11)
  • Community Service Block K (10)
  • Cross Country Block K, Best Freshman Girl (9)
  • 5th in Protein Modeling, 1st in Invasive Species - Science Olympiad Regionals (11)
  • NHS (11-12 (?))
  • Honor Guard (one time award for juniors with highest GPAs in school (I was one of 20 people), 11)
  • Leadership Block K (one time award, 11)
  • Commended Scholar (11 - probably not going any further; PSAT was 1420/1560 T_T)

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List (finalized):
Amherst
MIT
Stanford
Harvard
BU
Tufts
SJSU
Sac State
UCB
UCD
UCSD
USC
SCU
UCLA

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any schools that you recommend taking off? also, i’m wondering whether i should do mit ed. i wouldn’t get very much financial aid from any of the aforementioned schools, except probably harvard; my family makes far more than the threshold for financial aid.

also, which schools would you classify as matches and safeties? i’m certain that harvard, mit, & stanford are reaches (as they are for everyone), and the ucs are most likely reaches as well…

thank you so much for any help!!

2

MIT does not have ED, they only have (non-binding) early action. MIT’s admissions website states that there is no benefit in applying EA vs. RD. Because you don’t need to increase your GPA or test scores during the first semester of senior year, you could go ahead and apply EA if the other parts of your application will be ready by then (essays, recs, etc).

http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/cycles
http://mitadmissions.org/apply/freshman/dates

This is how I would classify your list, based on your stats and the competitiveness of the applicant pool for each school.

Reaches:
Amherst
MIT
Stanford
Harvard
Tufts
UCB
UCLA
USC

Matches: (I honestly think you could get into all of these, but their acceptance rates are too low to be classified as safeties)
BU
UCD
UCSD
SCU

Safeties:
SJSU
Sac State

As you can see, your list has a lot of reaches, so you might want to consider taking some off. Of course, you have the stats to get into any of these schools, so it will come down to the subjective parts of your application. It’s really up to you how much time and money you want to spend filling out this many applications.

You should really run the net-price calculators on each schools website to know for certain if you’ll get enough need-based aid from these schools.

A lot of your reaches do not give merit aid or the merit aid is very competitive. Look into each schools’ financial aid website and see if you may be eligible for any scholarships.

If your family does make too much money to qualify for enough need-based aid, but you still wouldn’t be able to pay for college, you may want to research schools that are known for offering substantial merit scholarships.