Hi everyone. I am a rising senior hoping to apply to several of the Ivies, Stanford, Duke and other similar schools. My fallbacks are UMich, U of MN, and UI Urbana Champaign. I was hoping for some feedback on my chances. Please not that I am from a small, relatively low-income public school district so my EC resources have been severely limited.
Intended Major: Chemistry w/ Pre-Med
Coursework: 15 IB Classes (Diploma Candidate with additional Independent Study)
GPA: 4.0 UW/ 4.18 W
Rank: 1/200
ACT: 36 (36 E, 36 M, 34R, 36 S) on second attempt w/ 35 in 9th grade
SAT Subjects: 800 Math 2, 800 Chemistry, 770 Physics
PSAT: 1500 (likely Finalist Standing)
EC:
2 sport varsity athlete (swimming, tennis) w/ conference and state level recognition
High School (9-12) math team high scorer since 8th grade (also top 10 in region)
President of Volunteer organization w/ several hundred volunteer hours
MN All-State Math team (100 in entire state) and selection for ARML national competition (top 60/100)- did not place individually
Summer 2018:
Worked 25 hours/ week at a restaurant to pay for college
Trained with a swim club
Summer 2019:
Full time (40 hours/ week) STEM internship at MN Dept. Of Transportation (data collection in field work which was processed in CAD software)
Part time lifeguarding (additional 15 hours/week)
Performed independent chemical research on chemical recycling of plastic
Money went towards college
Family Info:
Middle Income (~$85,000)
Both parents have Bachelor’s degrees from U of MN
One parent has cancer but continues to work full-time. Other has severe COPD and works part-time.
State of Residence: Minnesota (Metro)
Ethnicity: Caucasian w/ European ancestry
Full list of colleges: Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, MIT, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UMich, University of MN, UI Urbana-Champaign
I realize I have not distinguished myself to the full extent possible, but I would truly appreciate what you think about my potential chances of acceptance.
You are a strong candidate so you have a chance in any of these schools but nobody can tell you your exact chances. If you are recruitable for a sport this will help a lot. Also UMich is not a fallback, it’s very competitive for OOS students.
The acceptance rate for OOS students at UMich is 19% for the Class of 2022. Your stats are great, although you don’t mention your HS course rigor, which is uber important to your UMich application.
There were many students in the last few admission cycles with similar high stats and outstanding course rigor that were deferred in EA and later rejected. Of course, there were acceptances too. Point is, as yucca10 mentions, UMich is not a “fallback.”
Obtain great LOR’s, demonstrate interest in UMich (considered), write great essays and hope for the best.
You do realize as an OOS applicant that UCLA/UCB will be close to full pay at $65K/year to attend. You are a very competitive applicant but the majority the UC’s FA is need-based for in-state applicants. USC is definitely worth an application. Run the NPC’s to get target costs.
I have looked into net cost at the UCs and I don’t plan on submitting an application unless I have extra time. The price wouldn’t make it worth it for me to go.
Thank you for the help. Would a full IB course load be considered rigorous? It’s by far the hardest schedule available at my HS but I get if that isn’t specific enough.
Your safety should be the university of Minnesota, forget about all the OOS public’s, while your a likely admit to all of them the amount of FA they will give you is next to nothing and scholarships for OOS are EXTREMELY competitive. Focus on one top school and apply ED if they offer it. At $85k a lot of the top schools would be totally covered by them. I would add Brown and there PMLE program although it is also an extremely competitive program.
A “likely admit” to UCLA, Cal, UMich? Sorry, no. They’re a reach. All less than 20% acceptance rates. Please review the Class of 2023 threads for OOS students. Many high stat students posting here were rejected. I have a few PM’s from UMich alums with kids (legacies) with high stats that were deferred EA and rejected RD at UMich.
You might want to add Rice University to your list.
You need to check on the automatic scholarships available for National Merit Finalists (see the sub-topic in the Financial Aid forum). There are a number of schools where you can get a full ride without having to submit any financial aid forms. It would be an excellent safety net to know early in the application season that you have been accepted to a school that is willing to provide a full ride.
Not sure what all you plan to discuss in your personal statements, but it seems to me you have probably experienced a lot of challenges at home that most young people your age have not. From that, you have probably learned a lot about the parent/child relationship, probably thought about the future a lot, and have probably taken on lots of care taker roles at home you never thought you would need to take. I think there could be a really compelling story there. How have those challenges changed your perspective on life and your future? Have they changed your professional goals?
With your scores, I’d expect you’d get accepted to USC. I don’t know how much financial aid you’d get. I’ll guess you’d have a decent shot at a Presidential Scholarship, which is a half-scholarship.
What’s your gender, if you’re willing to share, not sure I saw that. It is important for STEM majors at the colleges you’re interested in. If female, your chances are better, maybe significantly better at places like Hopkins, MIT, Cal Tech, esp if you apply early as well.
“A “likely admit” to UCLA, Cal, UMich? Sorry, no. They’re a reach. All less than 20% acceptance rates.”
They’re not a reach for this applicant, unless you have data over anecdotes regarding those universities. The HS Naviance (if they have it) is probably the best and my guess is that a 36/4.0 is going to have more accepts than rejects.
The data is contained in the UMich Deferred EA thread for the Class of 2023. I’ve got the info loaded into a spreadsheet. For an OOS student, even perfect stat students were rejected. UMich has been accused of yield protection.
Certainly, calling admission to these schools, “likely,” even with perfect stats, is incorrect IMO.
I’ll call it a reach. Of course, you’re more than welcome to disagree with me, but I watched the UC and UMich forums here very closely. As the mods say, I made my point, I defended it and I’m moving on.
I don’t want to call anyone out, but I believe a poster on this thread has a kid who went through the last admissions cycle (Class of 2023). Said student was deferred, waitlisted and then rejected by UMich with a 4.0 uwGPA/1,600 SAT score. Of course, his/her “fallback” is CalTech.
USC had an acceptance rate of 11% last year, so please do not make such claims. Although the OP’s chance are likely higher than that, more kids with the OP’s stats and accomplishments are rejected from USC than are accepted.
The holistic view. Your ECs boil down to sports, math, and math, with a hs service club thrown in. (What’s it really do? Clubs are often more random “service,” an hour or two here and there. Your own committed efforts can go further.)
The internship is good. But “independent” research is tough to assess. You seem rather unilateral, while these tippy tops look for depth and breadth.
And what activities relate to the premed interest? The data collection for the DOT isn’t really healthcare related.
That’s the holistic view. You have 5 months to the RD deadline and can fine tune. But you need a better idea of what each of those tippy tops values and looks for.
I’m hoping you have something more you omitted here.
Bottom line is that you will be a competitive applicant at all your schools. Write great essays, and gather your best LORs. Your stats probably give you a better shot than many. Will it be enough? Who knows, but you should feel confident that you are a legit candidate.