My Chances at these Universities

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello!
I am a junior in high school and I want to know what my chances are at these colleges:
University of Pennsylvania*
Columbia University
University of Chicago
Brown University
University of Notre Dame
Rice University*
UC Berkeley*
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor*
Washington University in St. Louis*
*definitely applying to, the others I'm not sure about yet</p>

<p>Test Scores
SAT
CR: 670
Math: 770
Writing: 780
ACT:
haven't taken yet, but from the PLAN my predicted score is 31-35 composite
PSAT (even though they don't really matter for college apps, but just as an FYI)
CR: 62
Math: 76
Writing: 78
I'm re-taking the SAT in June, and I've been studying to improve my CR score.
I will also be taking Math 2, Physics, and US History SAT II's.</p>

<p>Grade Avg. 100-pt scale
96.7 UW
102.893 W
Rank: 2/108</p>

<p>AP Classes
World History-3 (not something I'm proud of, haha)
Taking this year-Physics, Chemistry (hoping for 4-5 on each)
Next Year-Calc, Stats, Economics, Psychology</p>

<p>ECs
-Leaders Organization at my school
-Art contests
-UIL Academics-
Writing-State Qualifier sophomore year
Math-Regional Qualifier sophomore year
Science-this is my first year for science
-I'm doing several essay contests this Spring/Summer, so hopefully I'll win something
-I also hope to have some type of internship/Summer research program, but I don't know if my parents will let me because they make me go on a lot of 'family bonding' vacations in the Summertime, lol
-Educational Summer trip to England, Ireland, and Wales in 2012</p>

<p>That's all I can think of for now. I know I don't have the best EC's (okay, I'll admit, they're terrible!), but I know I can write great essays an get great recommendations. Even then, I know these are the types of colleges that you can never just 'expect' to be accepted into, and I'm not ignorant enough to believe I'm one of the smartest college applicants in the world, so I have my back-ups (UT Austin and UCSD). But, hope for the best, expect the worst, right?</p>

<p>Anyway, please give any helpful feedback/criticism, and tell me if you or anyone you know have had similar stats and been accepted/rejected from the above colleges. Thanks so much!</p>

2

<p>You seem like a pretty strong applicant for many of these universities (if you improve your SAT’s), and your EC’s aren’t extremely strong but if you convey a passion in writing and art (or whatever you want to do) you will have a pretty good chance at these universities. I would say most of them are matches / low reaches with the exception of the Ivy’s and Chicago which are reaches.</p>

3

<p>ivys are reach for everyone.</p>

4

<p>your GPA and class rank are good but your EC’s are pretty terrible (no offense, just trying to be honest). Your SAT score isn’t high enough to make up for that. Honestly I think University of Chicago, Columbia, UPenn and Brown aren’t happening. If you get a really good SAT score (like 2350+) and you do something worthwhile over the summer then maybe, but as of now it’s going to be really tough. I can realistically see you get into Berkeley, WashU and the rest though. Good luck!</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1611803-chance-for-caltech-mit-princeton-berkeley.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1611803-chance-for-caltech-mit-princeton-berkeley.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>@kei04086 -I know that I have really bad EC’s. I look at your post that you linked, and it seems that you must go to a school with great opportunities for students, academic-wise. My school, however, is much different; the whole high school has under 500 students, and all that anyone focuses on is sports. I’m involved in practically all of the non-athletic organizations at my school, and that is what you see above. The town I live in also only has a population of about 2,500, so there aren’t a lot of volunteer/internship opportunities that you seem to have. You should understand that we don’t all have the same options when it comes to extracurriculars.
I appreciate your feedback, though, and I hope you don’t think I was trying to be rude! It just bothers me when people assume we all have had equal opportunities for extracurriculars when that simply isn’t the case. And trust me, I would consider myself lucky even to be accepted to Berkeley and WashU, as they are both fantastic schools with high standards. Also, I hope you are accepted to the schools you mentioned in the linked post, you seem like a great student!</p>

6

<p>I think your SAT score is good enough for any of those universities, work on improving your ECs</p>

7

<p>@thegreatasian Thanks!</p>

8

<p>Also, I forgot to mention:
National Honor Society
STEM Club (both of which I plan to run for office in next year)
~50 community service hours at church every year</p>

9

<p>We have very similar objective stats, and I like to think mine are good enough to give me a fighting chance at Stanford and Duke! Keep at it for the rest of high school. Step out of your comfort zone your senior year. Do something that surprises people!</p>

10

<p>@immasenior Thank you! I will really try to step out of my comfort zone, something that is hard for a really quiet/shy person like myself, but I know it will all be worth it. Good luck with Duke and Stanford!</p>

11

<p>@Dagiehead Actually, I want to go into biophysics or biomedical engineering, not writing or art, those are just hobbies. And thanks for the response!</p>

12

<p>bump…</p>

13

<p>I think the ivyes are reaches, rice and rice high match and the others Uni of Michigan and Washington low match! The SAT score sounds pretty good to me, but some of your AP grades are just not that good and your ECs are not outstanding </p>

14

<p>@LenyDia Well, I’ve only actually taken one AP test, and I got a 3 on it. 5 is the highest score you can get (different from IB, which is 7 It think), and I think I can probably get a 5 on Chemistry and a 4 or 5 on Physics, so I’m not very concerned about that.</p>

15

<p>You’re a strong applicant for each and every one of the universities you listed, I have no doubt you’ll make it into Berkeley.</p>

16

<p>As long as you get your CR score up, you look good. High match for ND, Rice, Berkeley, UM, and WUSTL. Low reach/middle reach for the rest. Good luck! Chance me back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1620320-regular-decision-chances.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1620320-regular-decision-chances.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

17

<p>Thanks for the chance! Not very familiar with your grading scale, but it seems good based on class rank.</p>

<p>University of Pennsylvania<em>: reach
Columbia University: reach
University of Chicago: low reach
Brown University: low reach
University of Notre Dame: match
Rice University</em>: match
UC Berkeley<em>: match (maybe high match based on your major, didn’t see if engineering or not in your major. Also depends on OOS or IS)
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</em>: match / high match
Washington University in St. Louis*: match</p>

18

<p>@2018calisenior Thanks! My grading scale is based on the percent averages of all my English, history, maths, sciences, and foreign languages classes. They give 4-pt scale GPA too, but only unweighted (mine is 3.87), and they calculate it differently from most schools. That’s why I decided to put the 100-pt scale grades since for that scale my school provides both weighted and unweighted. Plus, I think a percent average out of 100 is a little easier to comprehend than small-point scales that can vary between schools. Right now, I’m thinking of biophysics, biomedical engineering, or cancer biology (though I’ve only seen Chicago w/ that major), but I’m not quite sure yet.</p>

19

<p>@CJGuerrero21 Thank you! Berkeley is probably one of my top 3 choices, so I’m glad you said that!</p>

20

<p>Any other tips/comments anyone?</p>