Hey guys, I’m a junior (& so I know I might be asking this a bit soon) planning on majoring in physics and I’m wondering if I have a solid chance of getting accepted to at least one of the following universities: MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, Stanford, UChicago, UIUC, Princeton, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Yale
GPA: 4 UW, somewhere around 4.1 W
Class rank: 1/100ish
ACT/SAT: 35 ACT, haven't taken SAT yet
SAT II: 800 Chem and Math II
AP: 5 in Chem, taking Bio and Calc AB this year
ECs: band (marching & concert), math team, science team, quiz bowl, NHS
honors/awards: placed at the state level as an individual in both math & science team the past two years, hoping on some first place finishes this year ;)
I’m basically planning on applying to a handful of really selective universities in the hopes that at least one will accept me. If that doesn’t work out, I’m hoping UIUC will save the day. Don’t get me wrong, UIUC is brilliant, but I’d choose MIT over UIUC any day. Do I have a solid chance at not being rejected by every single one of these universities? If not, do you guys have any recommendations?
You have really great stats. But if you have been following the various decision threads of the elite schools this year, you know great stats are no guarantee of admission to the tippy top schools, even if you apply to a bunch of them. The ones you’ve named, except for UIUC are tippy tops. I hope you get into all the tippy tops to which you apply. But I also hope you consider adding some reaches and another safety or two to your list. Good luck!
Nothing safe here. I’d spend time looking for a few more match/safeties. Your stats are great, but so are almost everyone’s at several of the schools on your list.
Do you guys have any recommendations for match/safety schools? I’ve spent some time researching this and found a couple but can’t really decide (I don’t want to end up applying to 20 or so universities, I feel like 10-12 is already a lot).
Add another match or two. What you are lacking is international and national awards and honors. Picture your application being viewed next to someone who won an international science fair or science olympiad, e.g., or who published their research in a science journal already, or who has a patent. That’s your competition for slots in an elite university. While you are likely a shoo-in for UIUC, you just never know, so best to add a couple more safeties.
If you want to keep it to 10-12, make sure you have at least 2 safeties, 3-4 matches, and then go for 4-6 reaches - most of the schools you’ve listed aren’t matches for anyone as acceptance rates this year for a bunch of them were between 5-10%. For matches look at USNWR universities ranked in the 15ish-30 range, and safeties in the 30-40 range.
Sorry, I meant “matches” before, not “reaches.” You need more matches and safeties. Maybe try some state flagships (like Ohio State or Indiana University or Penn State) or some well respected STEM oriented schools (like Purdue or Georgia Tech). Look at the Common Data Sets, which you can Google, for those schools and consider their acceptance rates as well as whether or not your stats place you in the middle 50% or the top 25% of their first year students. The higher the acceptance rate, the more likely it’s a safety, especially if you fall in or close to top 25% in terms of stats. If you are in middle 50% and the school doesn’t have a crazy low acceptance rate (like less than 25% acceptance rate), then you are probably looking at a match.
You need a better understanding of what those schools (and others like them) look for, besides stats and a few activities. Otherwise, this could be a recipe for disaster. You’ve done well in your hs, per what your one hs offers and wants from you. But so will have thousands of other applicants. This will be about more than that: what the colleges want. Try to learn this, from their web info. Try to do this yourself, first. Get past assumptions.
You don’t need major awards. Any ECs outside the hs?
First of all, thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to respond.
I go to a very small high school that’s extremely focused on athletics (alas, I have a physical disability) and I’m the first in my family going to college in the United States, so there’s a lot to learn about the process on my own.
I’m still looking into finding a couple of matches (Michigan, maybe? Wisconsin?).
Serious question though: How much more competitive can my application be at this point? I know I’m basically a nobody compared to applicants with published research and a million ECs, but am I going to be held to those exact same standards?
Your app is competitive on the stats. (Assuming you have the rigor your school offers, as well.)
But all you have shown us in ECs is hs focused. Band and the academic competition teams are good. What else? Are you omitting some other things, outside school, thinking only hs clubs count? You need to learn what more these colleges want. Some of it is stretch, some is in vision, how you find opps and take on new experiences, responsibilities, etc. Comm Service can matter, going beyond your own interests and likes.
If you can try to see this from the colleges’ perspectives, you may get excited about how you match. But it’s more than stats. There is no expectation hs kids publish or solve world hunger. Please, look into what these colleges say they look for, take the time.
Michigan is nobody’s match. Do you know what specific area of Physics you are interested in? What is your financial situation? My opinion is that you should drop a few of your reaches and add matches/safeties. So you still don’t apply to 20 colleges.
“Are you omitting some other things, outside school, thinking only hs clubs count?”
No, sadly. It’s a very small community around here so there’s honestly not much other than club sports. I do volunteer often for NHS if that counts as community service, but that’s about it.
“My opinion is that you should drop a few of your reaches and add matches/safeties.”
How about:
Reaches - MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, UChicago, Princeton, Cornell
Matches - UIUC, Georgia Tech, Case Western
Safeties - Wisconsin, Colorado
Edit: I’ve been considering Astrophysics but I’m not sure. As for my financial situation, my parents have said not to worry about the money. Other than that, I’m not sure about that either.
And remember cost matters. Have you discussed this with your family? If you are out of state, you will pay the sticker price at any UC. Amount of aid varies across your list of privates.
Yes, I’ve discussed most of this with my parents, especially the cost aspect. All I know is that my father filled out a financial aid calculator for UChicago and was pleasantly surprised. Again, I don’t know any specifics about my family’s financial situation other than the fact that I’ve been told not to worry about the cost.
So UChicago is a school that meets need (their definition of it). But public universities often don’t, especially if you are from out of state. Every school
will be different, and your dad should run the net price calculator at all of them. What is your state of residence?
I never ran a calculator on U Chicago because there was no interest but to further hit what @intparent said, each school is different. HPY were good to go for us and D applied to Harvard and Princeton. Stanford, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, etc. were out of range because they aren’t has generous with aid so we skipped applications to avoid heartache and wasted time and money applying.
It’s your parents’ choice but we discussed the actual net amount we would pay as well as the fact that the amount was different for different schools (I’m willing to pay more for Harvard than I will for Tulane). UC’s OOS were off limits.
At least ask your dad to run the NPC at every school that is on your short list. It’s easy for UC anything. You are full pay.
Many kids applying from small hs in small communities will still have gone beyond in their ECs. That, in turn, adds to their experiences and growth in thinking.
OP, you need affordable safeties. You can dream about tippy tops in Sept. Right now, you have catch up to do. Figure out what you need to add to your activities, how to show vision, energy and follow though. And compassion. Now and though summer. Pump it up.
Your amended list looks good. Yes, unfortunately you could be rejected or WL at every Reach and match…and it would not be something you did wrong or inadequacy. It just is a huge onslaught of apps, so all you can do, the only thing you can do wrong or inadequately is planning your “list”! kudos for planning it early. If I would have any advice, it would be to add a safety that gives lots of merit money just in case your options at the end are not affordable after you see the FA offers!
Once the list is complete, sit down with mom and dad on each. Run the NPCs. You don’t want to be sitting with acceptances to 3 state schools and find the FA they actually give you is not enough!!
Look at the privates that give a decent number for half to full tuition scholarships: Tulane, Miami, SMU, USC. I’m sure there are more. USC is going to much more competitive than the others.