Please chance and calm my nerves

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I have already posted this once, but it is updated:</p>

<p>So I'm going to be a senior next year and need to prepare my applications this summer; however, I do not want false hope at some of these colleges. Some of the colleges I'm looking at are:
-Northwestern (possibly ED) visited, cousin in Kellogg, if that matters
-UVA
-University of Texas
-Boston University
-Rice University
-Emory
-University of Chicago (probably ruling out) visited
-Stanford
-Case Western (probably ruling out)
-Baylor
I'm afraid I have too many reaches, and not enough matches/safeties, so more suggestions would be appreciated. </p>

<p>State: TX
Gender/Race: Female/Asian
Major: Biology, Physics, or Biochemistry
GPA: 4.39/ 3.8ish
SAT: W-730, CR-650, M-660 (retaking, expecting low to mid 700s)
SAT II: recently took Bio, Math II, and US History
Class rank: 45/610 ~ top 8%
APs taken: Computer Science, APUSH, APLang, Biology
Senior Schedule: AP stats, AP physics b, AP calc AB, AP Lit, AP Latin, AP Gov't, AP Econ, co-op internship program
Courseload most rigorous, all the other classes Honors</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-Orchestra (Philharmonic, Concert, and Symphony): 3 yrs (QUESTION: my senior schedule unfortunately cannot fit Orchestra due to the internship, will that affect my admission chances?)
-International Society: member 3 yrs
-Internship: selective program for high school seniors that includes internship (surgeon in my case) and end of year research with mentor (QUESTION: is it bad that the research is at the end of the year so colleges will not see it?)
-Latin Club: 4 yrs, president next year
-NHS: 2 yrs, volunteering hrs come from this - includes freshmen camp, fundraiser carnivals, textbook work, fun runs, recycling programs...
-SVP: school volunteering program for seniors requiring journaling and 60 hrs of work
-Clinic: help with back to school immunizations
-Blood drive: organize and promote drives in region</p>

<p>Awards:
-Orchestra: state-qualified superior ensemble 2 yrs, superior ensemble 1 yr, principle violinist
-Latin: Summa Cum Laude (gold) on National Latin Exam 2 yrs, Magna Cum Laude (silver) 1 yr
-Student of the week: actually pretty prestigious since all of your teachers have to agree and you have to be nominated
I seriously have no major/impressive awards. </p>

<p>I expect recommendations to be pretty good and I have pretty good essay ideas.</p>

2

<p>Anyone? I never get very many feedback. :(</p>

3

<p>You haven’t said what state you’re from; your chances of admission at UVA and UT depend on that.
Your SAT scores are marginal for top schools like Stanford and UChi. Even if your scores improve, your chances at Stanford are poor because of vanilla ECs.
I’d expect you to get admitted to BU, Case Western, and Baylor.
The rest are tossups.</p>

4

<p>@greennblue: I already stated that I was from TX. And what do you mean my tossups?</p>

<p>@HoldTheMayo: uhhh thanks for the rude criticism. mind being at least more constructive?</p>

5

<p>You only need one safety. If you like and can afford UT, then all the rest can be reaches.</p>

6

<p>Northwestern a low chance.
UVA a very low - low chance, especially since you are out of state.
University of Texas a very high chance.
Boston University a high chance.
Rice University a low chance.
Emory a low chance.
University of Chicago a very low chance.
Stanford a very low chance, but that’s how it is with all top tier schools.
Case Western a high chance.
Baylor - I don’t know that much about.</p>

7

<p>thanks for the feedback AoDay. I really appreciate it. Do you think I still have time to improve…besides the SAT scores since I already know I improved on that? If I start a community service project now, will it look weird? I mean, I have always wanted to start it, but my annoying school doesn’t advocate/allow anything until senior year (such as an officer position in Latin club).</p>

8

<p>HoldTheMayo, seriously, stop ■■■■■■■■. Can you please offer me useful advice instead?</p>

9

<p>^If you don’t like the ■■■■■, don’t feed it.</p>

<p>You’re pretty safe for most of the state schools, with Rice being a reach.</p>

10

<p>Most college apps including the CommonApp only give you so much space for ECs. If you have more blank fields then why not start up a community service project. It doesn’t necessarily have to be for the school either, you can get a group of friends or go solo and help out at the Boys & Girls Club of America or Red Cross for example.</p>

<p>There are only 2 state schools in that list, UVA and UT. Being a state school doesn’t reduce the difficulty of admissions especially when you are talking about some of the top state schools that consistently rank among the top 20 overall universities. It also makes applying to UVA harder.</p>

<p>If you get your SAT up about 100 points I think the list could go. At 2200+, with that GPA and those ECs you can pretty much have a good shot at getting into all schools except Ivies and similar tier schools which are crapshoots.
Northwestern a mid chance.
UVA a low-mid chance.
University of Texas a very high chance.
Boston University a very high chance.
Rice University a mid chance.
Emory a mid-high chance.
University of Chicago a mid chance.
Stanford a very low chance, but that’s how it is with all top tier schools.
Case Western a high chance.</p>

11

<p>@magnesium, I’m really in a very similar position. I have hardly any awards/decent EC’s GPA 3.7ish/4.3W. I’m going to try to go ED at Johns Hopkins.</p>

12

<p>@AoDay, thank you so much for the info!!</p>

<p>What I didn’t note was that I do a lot of private tutoring (pain and non-paid) and help design business proposals for small businesses (like my uncle’s). Should I list those and would they be considered work experience?</p>

13

<p>You “help design business proposals”? What does that imply? If you are a critical component in the proposal-forming process, I say go for it. As for the tutoring, I don’t hear of many students, at least in my school, who tutor, so that may help you stand out, which, annoyingly enough, is what this whole process is all about.</p>

14

<p>Hey! :slight_smile: Don’t know much about Case Western or U of Chicago stats wise and how many people get in so I’m going to skip those, mkay? :wink: </p>

<p>Baylor and Emory are schools you have a high chance of getting into. As for UT…I think so but I’m not sure what the new rule is…top 7.5% or something instead of top 10%? I’m not sure, but top 8%…you still have a good chance. </p>

<p>As for the others…first I want to say that people in general don’t understand just how hard it is to get into Ivies or tough schools like Ivies. I graduated in the top 5% of an EXTREMELY competitive school in Texas, class size of about 750 ish. Our valedictorian didn’t get into Stanford - 2380 or something ridiculous on SAT, lots of ECs, and he graduated at the age of 16 (yuh). Everything about him screamed “Responsible genius” but Stanford said no. He’s going to Rice on a half scholarship. Yet, Stanford took our #3 and #5. Our #3 is going to Yale. Someone with a rank in the teens is going to Duke on a full ride. But someone else in the rank of the twenties - National Merit Scholar, lots of ECs, etc DID NOT get into Rice. A friend of mine also in the top 5% didn’t get into Georgetown - she’s going to UT on Plan II, McComb’s and all that jazz.</p>

<p>o.O</p>

<p>You see what I’m talking about? Crazy. And extremely unpredictable. I personally would like to see just how the admissions people pick and choose the applicants but they probably won’t tell me. Ivies are crazy and even if you’re like our genius 16 year old valedictorian with almost a perfect score on his SAT, Ivies are still reach schools. </p>

<p>That said…good luck!!! :slight_smile: Find some safety schools or ones you know for certain you’ll get into and don’t take it too hard if you don’t get into one of those top schools. Lots of kids don’t.</p>

15

<p>Yeah, I go to an extremely competitive school, too - most difficult classes and teachers in the district by a longshot. I heard a kid like that who got rejected from Stanford that went to Memorial, if you know where that is. I am extremely scared bc I have no idea what these admission people even look for.</p>

16

<p>Mg, you’d be giving your SAT in Oct I guess, and you have a lot of time to prepare for it! </p>

<p>I would suggest that you up your SAT and start and find a quirky EC!</p>

<p>If your SAT improve then you’d be good for most of the colleges in your list excluding Stanford and UChicago (Both of the are way too ambiguous when it comes to admission!)</p>

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<p>writing monkey if your val didnt get into stanford then your school most likely isnt all that competitive. a competitive school is a magnet or private that sends around 30% to ivies and even more to top non-ivy schools (stanford, mit, caltech etc.)</p>