I just need an outsiders opinion on my chances of getting into these schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I live in a small town in Georgia, and am an upcoming senior. I have made one B, being an 88 in honors geometry. I struggle with maths and math-based sciences more-so than English or Social Studies/history courses, but still perform moderately well, just not at the level I would like to. I plan on pursuing biomedical engineering, which is why I am taking an extra math next year in order to focus on my weaknesses and be academically competitive with the others applying to the same schools as me.

ACT:
Composite-29
(Math was a 26. I did not answer 15 questions I’m the math section, which definitely did not help. I am retaking the ACT in the Fall and am focusing on increasing my speed on the math section). I currently feel confident about my reading scores, and writing has not come back yet.

GPA:
Unweighted: 3.9
Weighted: 4.3

Class rank: 6

APs (unweighted):
AP World-92
AP US-96
AP Lang-98
AP Physics-92
AP Psychology-93

Next Year’s APs:
AP Calculus BC, AP Statistics, AP Lit, AP Macro, AP Computer Science

Extra Curriculars:
Marching band- Trombone Section leader(9/11) drum major (12)
Student Leadership- Assistant head(11), Head (12)
National English Honor Society- Secretary(10), VP (11), President(12)
Athens Youth Symphony- Principal Trombone (10/11, tentatively 12)
Salesperson at Waffle House, began working December 2015, 15-30 hours a week.

Achievements:
Georgia Certificate of Merit (Awarded to the top 5% of the Junior class)
School level winner for Georgia Young Authors (11)
Nominated for Governor’s Honors Program in Communicative Arts and Social Studies, pursued Communicative arts but didn’t make it past the first round.

Schools:
Reach-
Columbia
MIT
CalTech

Target-
Vanderbilt
Georgia Tech

Safety-
University of Georgia
Mercer University

2

Your reaches are reaches for everyone, They are close to out of reach. Vanderbilt is a reach. If your ACT composite and math scores do not significantly improve GA Tech is also a reach.

3

Vanderbilt and GA Tech are definitely reaches for u

4

Kennesaw State doesn’t offer Biomedical Engineering. Mercer, GA Tech, and UGA are the only good schools the offer it in state. I was thinking of Reach being “I probably won’t get in”, Target being “Its a stretch, but I think I can pull it off”, and safety being " I know I will get in, and I can afford to go."

5

I am eligible for Zell. I don’t want to go to UGA. If I did, my dad would make me live at home, and quite frankly I don’t want to. I also don’t want to go to UNG, because that is where everyone who can’t get accepted into UGA goes. UNG and UGA are basically the only schools that seem to be an option. I don’t want to go to either of those. I want to go to Tech because it offers everything I need, I have a solid chance of getting into their band, and I will be far enough away from home. My dad’s girlfriend and her four kids have taken over my house, and I need an excuse to get as far away as possible as quickly as possible. UNG and UGA would both end up with me being VERY close to home. (UGA is 20 miles away from me.)

6

Based on your stats you may not have a choice.

7

Then I guess I’m not going to college.

8

What about Georgia College for a safety? After UGA and Tech it has the highest Freshman stats for Public Schools in GA

9

Also I wanted to mention that Biomedical Engineering is very hard with little pay off. My D (a junior at GA tech) says many kids switch out of it.
Not trying to be a downer -just thought I would mention it

10

Go to college, but be realistic. I would revise down my list of reaches, targets, and safeties.Schools in small towns usually send no one to Ivies. You list grades in AP classes, but not AP exam scores. If you don’t have them, that shows something. Work on improving the ACT scores.

11

I don’t have exam scores because they haven’t come out yet. And I want to go to a larger school. I just spent the past week at Georgia College for Drum Major Camp and it did a very good job of convincing me not to go to Georgia College.

12

I agree with the others. Vanderbilt is a reach, especially since they place so much emphasis on standardized testing scores. Columbia, CalTech, and MIT are very high reaches because of your ACT, so it would be good if you could get it up.

13

if you are a URM and improve your ACT scores you may have better chances

14

I’m a Puerto Rican female, and I am retaking the ACT in fall. I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong. I have better stats than the majority of people at my school, and that was my first time taking the ACT. I can’t go to a crappy school or I will never hear the end of it. I don’t want to major in biomedical engineering, and I don’t want to go to college. I, however, and the only kind of decent person in my family, though, so I feel obligated. The fact that this is my reality is just really scary because I’ve been working all of these years for nothing at this point if I end up going to UGA or UNG with the rest of my piece of crap town.

15

You have some advantage as you count as an URM. See how you do on the AP exams and maybe SAT IIs. Your ACT scores are in line with your grades for a small town in GA. Try to improve your standardized test scores, and set realistic goals of colleges.You can still apply to reaches, but your reaches should not be MIT and Caltech.

16

As a biomedical engineering senior at Vanderbilt, I can tell you one thing; BME at Vandy is one of the most competitive programs at Vanderbilt. Middle 50% of ACT is 33-35.

When I was in high school, I talked to counselors and admissions officers about the process, and I believe I have some decent insight. When a top university like the ones you have listed looks at your stats, they’ll see your GPA, but it won’t mean anything to them. A 4.3 at one high school may be 4.7 at another, or a 3.8 at another. They look at how you performed relative to your peers, which in your case, you seem to have done very well.

However, the reason why standardized tests are also used is to determine whether your high school prepared you well enough to meet the basic requirements and rigor of the university. Universities are sympathetic to different circumstances and understand that not all high schools are the same, but the top universities also don’t want you to come and get overwhelmed by the rigor either. They use the ACT/SAT to roughly estimate how you compare to your nationwide peers.

In my opinion, your ACT is simply not enough to meet these requirements at many universities. Your GPA and performance to others at your school is excellent; if you could manage to bring your ACT up to even a 31 or 32, you might have a shot at Vandy and GA Tech. Perhaps you should consider taking the SAT instead (some students perform better on one test or the other).

And I don’t know where you stand on the politics of this (I don’t want to sound racist or support/hate affirmative action), but race does play quite a bit of a role in all of this. If you are from what they consider an “underrepresented minority in engineering,” (AKA, black, hispanic, or even female), your chances may or may not be better. I’m not saying that if you are a black female, your chances are now 99%. But this is obviously out of your control, so focus on that ACT/SAT!

17

Excellent post by @jose488 .

I also have to ask the OP: why did you choose the reach schools you did? Caltech and MIT, aside from being two of the most difficult schools in the nation (with GTech and Columbia not far behind), require significant amounts of math in their core curriculums. Right now your math scores indicate that you would have trouble meeting the basic math requirements at these schools; the Physics and Chemistry required in their core curriculums could also be difficult for you.

Consider: when you took the ACT, you scored a 26 in math, omitting 15 questions. Do you think you would be comfortable in a math class where 75% of the students scored a 35 or 36? (No hyperbole there–Caltech’s 25th/75th percentile ACT math was 35/36 in 2015, and 100% of the admitted students in the class of 2015 had ACT math scores over 30.)

By all means, if you can get your scores up and become more confident in your math abilities, Caltech/MIT and the like could be considerations. Right now, however, you need to consider that these schools are looking for kids they think will be able to succeed in their environments, and your numbers are a ways away from that benchmark.

18

I chose the schools I did basing them around the QuestBridge partner schools. In the very likely chance that I am not a finalist or a match for any of these schools, my plan is to go to UGA and then transfer into GA Tech. Additionally, I am extremely up to the challenge of taking on the extreme rigor of these courses. My school does not measure up to the schools that fellow applicants attend. We have had one person in the 9 years my school has been open accepted into an Ivy League. Our school does a relatively atrocious job of preparing us for college, and their goal seems to be to send everyone to public Georgia University and neglect considering anything else. I am retaking ACT in September, and I am also taking Biology E and Math II subject tests on October 1.

19

@sglavine

University of Illinois (assuming their main campus at Urbana-Champaign, would be probably be a reach for the OP, especially since he/she is applying to Engineering).

20

I think your chances are fine- your GPA is excellent and APs are fine…maybe you can report the scores? Also, just improve ACT to 32+ and you’re good

Chance back? It’s a long post but I’d appreciate if you read it through http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1904474-chance-me-for-the-following-rising-senior-with-huge-upward-trend.html#latest