Junior Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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For Cornell, Brown, Northwestern, UChicago, UMichigan, Northeastern, Vassar, Swarthmore, Reed, Penn

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2180 (760 CR, 710 W, 710M).
ACT (breakdown): 34 (36E 34R 34S 30M)

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): School doesn’t give that, I have a 94.88. Weighted is 98.32

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Second cohort group (for 97-100 average, 100+ is top). That puts me around top 20%, probably close to top 15%

IB (place score in parenthesis): I am taking a full IB diploma course load Junior Year Course Load: Regents Physics, IB Mathematics SL, IB HOTA HL, IB Theory of Knowledge, Science Research, IB Spanish HL, IB Chemistry HL, IB English HL

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing major as of now, a bunch of Model UN delegate awards though. Also selected to present science research at an ISEF affiliated fair (competitive to get into through my school) and had another project accepted by a local, competitive psychology fair. I might try to publish that on a student psychology website (BrainStamp.Org)

Subjective: Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Model UN (Director-General), Debate Team (club no longer exists, but I was a member 9th and 10th), Political Activism Club (Treasurer), Science Olympiad, Independent Model UN Team (Co-head delegate, I created this with my friends because our school doesn’t let us attend many conferences and makes us jump through a lot of hoops to do anything. We’ve been very successful).

Job/Work Experience: NA

Volunteer/Community service: Mentor in a social skills group for kids with autism spectrum disorders, I’ve been doing this for years.

Summer Activities: 2015 Hofstra University Summer Science Research Program (pretty selective, I got to work with a professor in their Psych department) and a summer internship this past summer in an oncology/hematology lab at Weill Cornell Medical College where I conducted a research project. I will be going back next summer. I did psychology research with an NYU professor, concerning facial emotion recognition.

Intended Major: Biological Sciences or Chemistry

State (if domestic applicant): NY

Country (if international applicant): US

School Type: Large public Ethnicity: White

Gender: M

Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I wish
Thank you!

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Cornell, Brown, and Penn: High reach- try to bring your rank up a little more. Is top 10-5% doable?
Northeastern: More of a match- I think they’ll appreciate the science and psych work.
UM and UC: High match- bring up GPA and you’ll be much better off.
Not sure about others.
General impression: Good grades and IB Diploma looks good but try to bring it up a little. Same for SAT but ACT is really good. Pretty focused ECs but to me they seem more psych and politically based? Although the research thing is pretty cool.

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Thanks for the response. What makes you consider UC a match for me if a place like Cornell is a reach? Just curious. I’ll be retaking the ACT to try and get a 35 and make my math score a bit better. Rank into the top 10% should be doable, if my grades hold up this year my weighted average will be >100. In regards to ECs, yeah I see what you mean, but doesn’t the research help balance that? The psych basis is somewhat intentional, I want to go into neuroscience. The top cohort is about 40-50 kids and it makes up the top decile, school doesn’t rank beyond cohort groups, so I’d be much better off if I got into this group?

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No need to work on test scores as there isn’t a real difference past 34 unless you just want to get your math up a bit. Almost all the schools you listed would technically be a reach for everyone since the admittance rates are so low. You need to find a good group of match schools like Northeastern and a few academic and financial safeties.