<p>Hispanic male (parents immigrated from Colombia)
Public school in Oklahoma, ~ 45/960
SATI: Awaiting Nov. 4th scores. Expecting around 2200
ACT: 31 (Eng 34, Math 32, Sci 32, Reading 27 --OUCH.)
GPA: 3.47 unweighted, 4.6 weighted</p>
<p>One of the most rigorous courseloads my school offers, with 9 AP classes and the rest Adv/Pre-AP (my school's version of Honors)
AP US History - 4
AP Psychology - 4
AP Lang - 3
AP Chemistry - 3
AP Physics (senior year)
AP Computer Science (senior year)
AP Literature (senior year)
AP Calculus BC (senior year)
AP Music Theory (senior year)</p>
<p>ECs:
Ultimate Frisbee (9-12), captain junior and senior years
Jazz Band, Jazz Combo (10, 11)
Drug Free Youth (9-12)
National Honors Society (9-12)
Tri-M (12)
Environmental Club (12)
Mu-Alpha Theta (12)
Young Democrats (10-12) - Parliamentarian</p>
<p>Awards: National Hispanic Honorable Mention (3.47 GPA doesn't round to 3.5, i guess), AP Scholar</p>
<p>Recs: Will be glowing, from physics and english teachers
Essay: My english teacher believes I'm one of the best writers of the class.</p>
<p>what are my chances for Biomedical Engineering at </p>
<p>(Reaches)
WUSTL
Northwestern
Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>(Matches)
GA Tech
University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign</p>
<p>already accepted into safeties - University of Oklahoma/University of Tulsa</p>
<p>You have decent (in range for your reaches) ACT, but somewhat weak GPA and AP scores. If you have demonstrated enough interest you will probably get into WuSTL. Northwestern and JHU don't track interest (as much) and you have decent chances there as well. I would say you are alsmot guaranteed to get into at least one of your reaches.</p>
<p>When people ask about chances as URMs, more facts are needed. All URMs are not seen as the same. Things like income, type of school (poor urban or wealty surburn or private), first generation, etc. make all the difference.</p>
<p>Would colleges accept a private school, 2nd generation URM not needing financial aid over one from a public school, first generation, needing a bunch of money?</p>
<p>No way, the first generation, inner city, poor URM would get preference by far. URMs with advantages often get little help. The better the college, the more true it is. Legacies are the exception.</p>
<p>my parents immigrated from Colombia, and i was born here, so i suppose i'm a first generation hispanic. Father is an electrical engineer, so our income is upper middle class (~100,000/year). I go to a large, semi-competitive public school in the suburbs</p>
<p>my grades have had a grand upward turn during my junior year. prior to that, i really had no clue what major i'd like to pursue after high school, so i felt unmotivated, with several B's. Junior year i made nearly straight A's, and first semester of senior year (which counts..right?) will be straight A's.</p>
<p>also, one EC i forgot, i'm a member of the Physics Journal Club at Tulsa University. if that's worth a whole lot</p>
<p>i really hate to bump again and again, but i'm incredibly anxious about this stuff.</p>
<p>any more opinions? suggestions for more matches/slight reaches?</p>
<p>what SAT scores should i hope for in order to reasonably increase my chances at WashU/Northwestern/JHU? My Nov. 4th scores should be coming within the next few weeks.</p>
<p>If you get your ACT to 32 this makes a big difference. Just do well on your reading section and most of these schools let you combine your best individual scores from multiple sittings.</p>
<p>For admissions purposes, first generation refers to college, not immigration. Since your father is an engineer, I assume he has a degree, so you are not a first generation college student. </p>
<p>I think it's pretty hard to say how big your URM bump will be. Your SES won't help, but going into BME may as relatively few Hispanics go into engineering. JHU could be very difficult as it is one, if not the, highest rated BME schools in the nation and you have to be accepted specifically for that major. </p>
<p>GPA sucks, your ACT is PERFECTLY OK. trust me, one tenth higher GPA will help more than 5 more points on the ACT...I've seen an academic star--stereotypical Asian--get into Harvard with a 30 ACT...but his perfect-scoring friends were rejected by the boatload...raise that GPA as high as possible</p>
<p>I don't think b4's example is applicable to your situation as he is referring to someone that is an ORM. There are relatively few URMs with high stats and they are sought after as they don't impact ranking criteria such as mean SAT scores.</p>
<p>one last attempt for opinions. thanks to everyone who has replied (and those yet to come? :))</p>
<p>should i retake the ACT on standby? i really thought my score would be closer to a 33. i have no clue what happened on reading. but, would the December 9th be too late for admissions?</p>
<p>i plan on visiting WUSTL, NU, and UIUC over christmas (excuse me, winter) break to demonstrate interest and whatnot.</p>
<p>also, some stuff I forgot to mention in the original post (wish i could still edit...) I've been tutoring elementary/middle school kids in math/science for a couple years. also, worked at Barnes and Noble last summer</p>