Please Chance me for Ivies, Caltech, Duke, Chicago, John Hopkins

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everybody! I’m a high school senior from Saskatchewan, Canada. I got a list of schools I will be applying to; the ones above are ones I feel like are a reach for me (I feel like I have a very good chance at my safeties). It’d be great to get some help from this community. I’m applying reg. decision to these schools.

Planned Major:
Biomedical Engineering
Backup plan:
Biology

Stats:
1500 SAT (single sitting, will be retaking this week)
Subject Tests: 780 Math1/Math2
Unweighted GPA: 4.00
Weighted GPA: N/A, my school doesn’t have AP, IB or Honors
Percentile: Top 10%
Two university courses (CMPT140 and MATH110.3, 90%+ in both courses)

EC:
Swam competitively for 11 years (probably putting in 20 hours a week into this currently, huge time sink)
3 time provincial relay team member
3 time Manitoba Saskatchewan championships medallist
Provincial champion
Western Canadian Championships Qualifier
Mel Zajac Jr. International Qualifier

Cross Country:
Made varsity team in grade 9
3 time city championships finalist
3 time provincial championships qualifier
Co-captain (Gr. 12)
Our varsity team is probably the best in the city. We have won cities 11 times in the past 12 years and we won silver at provincial championships

School Band:
1st Tenor Saxophone
2nd place at city wide music festival (2016)

Academic Awards:
AMC 12 top 5%
AIME Qualifier
CEMC Cayley contest 8th place in all of Canada
9 CEMC certificates of distinction
COMC Provincial medallist
Sanofi BioGENEius provincial literature review winner
School High Honor Roll (2015,2016,2017)

Other:
Volunteered at the PAAL camp, a summer camp for disabled children promoting physical activity (2016,2017)
Volunteered for the Canadian Cancer Society
Volunteered with the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club
Vice President of the Youth Action Club (student led organization that promotes and organizes volunteer opportunities for high school students) (2017)
Parents both have severe disabilities, most housework is done by me
Income: about 50k USD per year
Ethnicity: Chinese

Writing:
Essays: likely very good, spent a lot of time and put a lot of thought on these.
Teacher Rec #1: Very good
Teacher Rec #2: Very good
Counselor Rec: idk yet, haven’t known her for too long

Weaknesses: Not many outstanding EC outside of athletics, no AP/IB/Honors (I wish school offered them)

Any suggestions to other universities that I could research into and see if they’re a good fit would be appreciated…

2

Are you recruitable for swimming at any of the Ivies? If so then low reaches since you have the grades/standardized test scores.

I would also recommend a different SAT subject test. Most schools at the level you are interested in won’t consider Math 1. Perhaps take either Biology or Chemistry since you are interested in BME, although I don’t see any biology related ECs.

You might also consider Case Western, Emory, and WashU to your list. Emory is strong at Biological Sciences and they are a major power in NCAA Division 3 swimming if you wish to continue in that path.

3

I am planning on going in as a walk on to whichever school I am admitted too. Thank you for th suggestions as well! I forgot that I took chem and got 770.

4

You also have the test scores for Vanderbilt and Rice. Both schools are strong in BME as well. I might consider applying to Vanderbilt as they don’t get as much interest from Asian applicants compared to the schools on your list.

5

Bump

6

If you intend to walk on, you may want to reach out to coaches and send them your times. They may be interested in you.

7

I agree with turnandrake’s advice. If you do not reach out to the coaches then they will not believe you are interested in swimming in college.

8

@stemmmm @turnandrake thanks for the tips! Ive alrdy reached out to coaches in august, most of them have offered me a walk on opportunity; a few have refused due to rosters being full (those schools i checked off my list).