Please Reach/Match/Safety Me! Feedback Appreciated!

College Search & Selection
1

Hey, I just want to see how balanced you guys think my list is given all the information. Feel free to add any feedback.

Bio:
-Dual Citizen: Romanian-American
-State of Residency: IL
-Class: Upper-Middle (Unlikely to need significant financial aid)
-Race: White (My grandfather is a gypsy, so I guess that makes me mixed, but I look white, so that’s what I’ve always put)
-Gender: Female

School:
-Type: Very large public (1000 per grade)
-Graduates: Send ~50 students to Ivy’s and Top 20 Schools
-AP’s Offered: Just about all of them, but only Juniors and Seniors can take them (General Max AP’s taken is 6)

Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 3.5-3.6 (poor freshman year & bad first semester junior year due to concussion: I have a medical note)
-Weighted GPA: 4.7-4.8
-AP’s: 7 AP’s, Scored only 4s and 5s so far
-ACT: 36
-SAT: 1540 (790 math, 750 english)
-Rank: Top 10% ( I don’t know exact percentile though)
***Took most rigorous course possible.

EC (In terms of importance/commitment):
-Team Captain of Volleyball team for 3 years (Am trying to be recruited for D3: Have already started talking to MIT and JH)
-Head of German Wheel Club (It’s a Circus Act–Would highly recommend googling)
-All Saints Choir
-Metropolitan Community Project (Service Club)
-Project Mexico (Service Program)

Other Notables:
-Published author on medium.com
-Took college courses on genetics online on Coursera
-Enrolled at Duke University sophomore summer for a genetics class
-Will be TAing Theatre next year at my school

Honors:
-Honor Roll
-AP Scholar with Distinction
-Something with the 36 ACT score

Work:
-Interning in a Lab at NW, currently doing cancer research (Unpaid)
-Assistant Coach for 12 year olds at volleyball in my senior year (Paid)

Schools I’m looking at:
-MIT
-Johns Hopkins
-Northwestern
-Duke
-Georgia Tech (OOS)
-UIUC (Instate)
-Carnegie Mellon
-Michigan Ann Arbor (OOS)
-UC Berkeley (OOS)
-UC San Diego (OOS)
***The list is more or less in order of preference, but I like all of these schools

Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering
Intended Minor: Computer Science

I’d love people to tell me if I’m in range for certain schools, and I’d also really appreciate any feedback for how I can improve my app.

Note: Regarding GPA. I had a bad freshman year, and a bad first semester junior year since I had a concussion and missed almost a month (about three weeks) of school. I ended my Junior year with straight A’s (counting a couple A-'s). The rest was a strong growth trend. I plan on going RA for everything, so I can get another solid semester in.

2

You have a generally strong profile and seem to be doing things “right” in the applications process, but you have to recognize that many of the schools on your list are almost automatically reaches simply by virtue of being super-selective schools - many of the schools on your list are matches for practically nobody because everyone who applies is so well-qualified (pretty much anywhere with an acceptance rate under about 17% is going to be super-competitive). That being said, I think you totally have a shot at these schools provided your GPA continues to show a positive trend and you write strong essays. Some other schools that I’d encourage you to look at based on your current interests are Rice University, Washington University in St. Louis, and for schools that might be more solid matches, maybe Emory and Brandeis. That being said, it really does come down more to “fit” when you have a profile that’s generally competitive like yours. You’ve got some unconventional extracurriculars, which is great - if possible, maybe see if you can expand on honors and awards to include some less common awards as well. Other than that, great profile and congratulations on all your achievements!

3

So “unlikely to need significant financial aid” translates into you can afford full price at the OOS schools?

You are definitely a competitive and qualified applicant but as stated above, just due to the selectivity of many of these universities, it is difficult to determine your chances. You will get into several but make sure costs are not an issue.

Run the Net price calculators on each school so determine your costs and you will not have any surprises come spring. I do not see a safety school on your list.

4

@Gumbymom
My College Counselor told me that since I am instate for UIUC, and that they have accepted every single student from my school with an ACT score of 36, it would be a safety for me. I’ve also been told that San diego is closer to a safety, and would be considered a high safety/low match. If neither of these are safety, what would you recommend as a safety? I’ve also considered Purdue as a potential safety…

@Srabookworm

Thank you for the feedback! I’ve taken a look at Rice, and it seems like university I would really enjoy attending. I’ll keep looking into it!

5

UCSD is not a safety for an OOS applicant. Since UC’s are mandated to accept a significant amount of in-state applicants, they have been given a limit on the # of OOS and International applicants they can accept. UCSD admits into the University itself and then into the major. Both your major and minor are capped majors, so I suggest you select an alternate major that is non-capped as a backup. It is very possible to get accepted into UCSD but end up in Undeclared. Trying to switch from an Undeclared/non-capped major to a capped major can many times be impossible. For CS/CSE, they instituted a lottery system for 2017-2018 for changing majors.

I am no expert on UIUC, but my understanding is Engineering can be extremely competitive.

You are a very qualified applicant and most likely you will get acceptances into these schools, but I would still not call these safeties.

Are you OK with the $60K/year price tag for the California UC’s? Getting accepted is only part of the application process, trying to pay for the college is usually the hard part.

6

@Gumbymom

To be honest, I don’t know how likely I am to end up at a UC school. If I do get into UIUC and San Diego, I think it’s very likely that I would just go to my state school to save the money. I do like San Diego since it is a great school, and I love the city, and that’s why I’m applying, but if I were accepted into UIUC and San Diego, I would for sure have a very frank discussion with my parents. They tell me that they will be able to pay…but I don’t know how straightforward they are with that.

I doubt that my final location will be a UC school. I think I’m mostly applying due to my college counselor insisting I have more colleges on my list. My Ideal school list would be:

-MIT
-Johns Hopkins
-Northwestern
-Georgia Tech (OOS)
-UIUC (Instate)

So basically a bunch of reaches and one safety. I’m pretty confident about UIUC (literally, they’ve taken every kid from my school with a 36…even those with a GPA a lot lower than mine), and worst come to worst; If I truly don’t get into anything (Which seems unlikely…) Then I can go to a Community college and transfer into UIUC from there. I doubt that I will end up at a community college though…

7

Best of luck and like I stated you have excellent credentials and will have some great choices come spring.

8

Just putting a cap on this, I got into Northwestern and will be attending in the fall! Thanks for all of your feedback!

9

@ConcernedRabbit , congratulations!!!