Please chance me for business/economics at Rice, UPenn, and Duke!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi!
I’ve recently been rejected from UChicago in their EDII round, as well as Wellesley early evaluation. My only acceptance so far has been to Business Honors at UT Austin. I have to admit, UT isn’t exactly my top choice, mainly because I’m intimidated by the large campus size and student body? Can you tell me if I have a good chance at getting into Rice Economics, Wharton at UPenn, or Duke based on my stats below? Thanks for your time!

Bio:
-Citizenship: USA
-State of residence: TX
-Race: South Asian
-Gender: F
-Languages spoken: English, Hindi
-Financial situation: 200k bracket

School:
-Type (Public/private & size): Public, 700+ students per grade, 3000 in entire school

Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 3.96
-Weighted GPA: 4.71
-AP’s: I’ve taken 18 so I don’t want to list them all haha
-AP test scores: APCS(5), WHAP(5), Lang(5), Calc BC(5 - junior yr), Chem(4), Phys1(4)
-ACT: n/a
-SAT: 1590 (790 R, 800 M) and 8/8/8 (24/24) on SAT essay
-SAT II: 800 on Math II, 800 on World History, 780 on Math I
-Rank: 11/ 704 [top 1.56%]
-Course Rigor: i try to take APs whenever possible, i’ve taken pretty much all that were available at my school

EC:

  • President of Interact Club (2 years) [community service club]
  • Secretary of MUN (1 year)
  • LiNK VP (2 years)
  • Black belt in martial arts and leadership team (7 years)
  • Clarinet player (couple of awards, marching and concert band) [8 years]
  • Teacher at Hindu Temple (2 years)
  • FBLA member (made it up to nationals) [3 years]
  • Speech and Debate (all varsity congressional debate, public forum debate, extemporaneous speaking)
  • RootPolicy Organization (writer, online news brief w/ 1000+ readers) [1 year]
  • Member of a bunch of clubs: Mu Alpha Theta, Computer Science Club, Key Club, International Culture Society, Habitat for Humanity, Spanish Honor Society, Science Club (Competition’s Chair as of 11th-12th grade)

Other Notables (College courses you’ve taken, papers published, created own website, TAing a class, ect):

  • I took a non-credit course at Brown University over the summer
    -Volunteer regularly at senior center, library, and animal shelter
  • did data entry for beto o’rourke’s senate campaign
  • created a website w/ job advice for FBLA competition

Honors:

  • Ranked 2 w/ clarinet solo at TSSEC (TX state), ranked 1 in district
  • 3rd place in area and state FBLA for website design
  • AP Scholar w distinction
  • National Merit Finalist
  • Nominee for Presidential Scholarship
  • Bronze, National Non-Native Spanish Speakers Competition
  • a few more small essay/painting scholarship competition things

Work:

  • private tutor for 3 clients, regularly over the year
  • grader at Kumon for a lil bit

Recs:,

  • since my school’s so big, counselors make a lot of mistakes w/ rec letters, so a few of my weaker rec letters were accidentally sent to colleges instead of stronger ones. I’ve emailed the better ones to my regional admissions counselors, but b/c of the mishaps I’d say my rec situation is maybe a 6/10

Essays:

  • i spent two months+ on all of my essays and def think they turned out well for it, sept and oct were full of a lot of late nights haha, 10/10 or maybe 9.5/10, i tried to be myself and show why i fit at each college

Intended Major: business/economics

2

You have strong credentials but as you know these schools must be considered reaches for any unhooked applicant.

And congratulations on UTAustin.

3

@happy1 Thank you! I’m sorry, but what exactly does unhooked mean?

4

A hook is a reason a college would accept one candidate over other similarly qualified candidates…ex. if an applicant is the child of a big donor to the school, a recruited athlete, someone whose fame could bring positive press to the school etc. Very few people have hooks so you are not alone.

5

And what’s wrong with McCombs if you got in? Top-25 business school…

6

@happy1 oh ok! that makes sense, i’ve been hearing ‘hooked’ and ‘unhooked’ a lot lately but not knowing what that meant

7

@Hamurtle
There’s nothing wrong with McCombs! I’m really happy to be accepted to Business Honors at UT, but since UT is such a large school, I personally wouldn’t mind being able to consider Rice or Duke or UPenn when ultimately choosing which college to go to

8

You are competitive for all schools including Ivies, being accepted is about your luck. You have few things going against you.

Your are Asian, from Texas, from a big competitive suburban school, upper middle class,no sob story, generic counsellor recommendations, ECs are solid but rather typical Asian. I think your strong resume can get you in Rice and Duke, may be Wharton but for Asians without some big hook its very tough, no matter how good they are.

If you are lucky, you may get some merit money/need aid from Rice or Duke to make college easily affordable.

9

You have a fantastic academic record, and I am very surprised that you were not accepted at Wellesley.

I agree with the above poster that you have solid chances at Rice and Duke, both of which are less ED-focused than are schools like UChicago and Penn.

Finally, being able to rely on BHP at UT as your SAFETY is a luxury indeed! That is an elite program (more so than non-honors McCombs), and it will offer you good recruiting opportunities for banking in NYC, energy banking in Houston, and management consulting. Moreover, the smaller size of the program might help to address some of your concerns about attending a university with a very large student body.

Good luck!

10

@Riversider I didn’t really realize that I would be disadvantaged by the fact that I’m asian or from texas :frowning: I guess it makes sense since there are so many others who’ll have similar resumes
Thank you for your response!

11

@MrSamford2014 Thank you! I was pretty disheartened by the fact that I didn’t get into Wellesley
I don’t mean to sound entitled or arrogant, but i thought that since my stats were above average for SAT and GPA and I put effort into my essays as well, I was considering Wellesley to be a for sure safety, but I guess that’s a lesson about being overconfident
Thank you! I hope that I make either rice or duke then?
Thank you so much! I’m very excited that I got accepted there and super interested in attending

12

I hope I’m wrong and you get in everywhere. Stay positive, your safety option is a dream for most so you have no reason to worry.