Rising Senior looking for chances (call me maybe?)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Alright, chance me for these:
UChicago, URochester, Northwestern, UIUC, WashU, Brown, Cornell, Columbia
Interested Majors: Econ, Finance, Civil Engi, Bio Engi (Pre-Med Track for all)
State: Illinois
Gender: Male
Race: Asian
Languages: English, Mandarin, Cantonese</p>

<p>Standardized Tests
ACT (w/ writing): 34 (11)
ACT (w/o writing): 35
SAT 2: 800 (Math 2), 740 (Chem)
PSAT: 203</p>

<p>Courseload + Grades (Sem 1/2)
Freshman Year:
Honors Algebra 2/Trig: B/A
Honors Bio: B/B
Honors World History: B+/B+
Honors English I: A-/B
Gym: A/A
Orchestra: A-/A
Spanish 2: B-/B</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Honors English II: B/B
Honors Chemistry: B+/B
Honors Pre-Calculus (Math Analysis): A-/A
Gym: A/A
Spanish 3: B+/B+
AP Euro: A+/A (5 on AP Test)
Honors Physics: A/A</p>

<p>Junior Year: (waiting for AP scores, didn't come today)
AP Stats: B/B
AP English (Lang & Comp): A/A
AP Calc BC: A/A
AP Physics C: B/B-
Gym/Health: A/A
AP Chem: A-/A-
AP US History: A/A</p>

<p>Intended Courseload for Senior Year:
Calc 3 (Multivariable Calculus through UIUC)
AP English (Lit & Comp)
AP Macro/Micro
AP Bio
AP Gov/Po
Gym
AP Enviro or Anatomy/Physiology</p>

<p>GPA (so far):
4.283 (w) 3.566 (uw)</p>

<p>Class Rank: Not reported in our district (EDIT: Reported Percentiles top 10%)</p>

<p>ECs:</p>

<p>Volunteering: Volunteered as a teacher assistant at my Chinese school around 70+ hours and volunteered with a museum and got around 60+ hours also did some bits of volunteering with the Asian community center at times and got around 10 hours</p>

<p>Research: Researching at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine right now.
Assisting the professor in research with preventing organ transplant rejection without compromising the immune system</p>

<p>Scholastic Bowl/Knowledge Masters/QuizBowl (whatever you call it)
Varsity team for 4 years, helped our team to being varsity conference champs for 2 years (YEAH BABY) and several other top 4 finishes at tournaments</p>

<p>Math Team
3 Years, 2nd year as Junior Representative, 3rd year as Team Captain
2 Individual awards in Geometry and Algebra 2
Statebound first 2 years (hopefully going again 3rd year!)
Several varsity team events awards and overall team awards</p>

<p>Business Professionals of America
2 Years
Came in 2nd at Regionals and State for PC Servicing & Troubleshooting
10th at Nationals for PC Servicing & Troubleshooting (idk why I didn't stage, advisor showed us the Post-NLC results and I came up as 10th)</p>

<p>Tennis:
Not so serious about it, I played one year on the JV1 team, then I just continued at several athletic centers, and played some tournaments, but it remains my favorite sport of all time.</p>

<p>Other stuff: Love ultimate frisbee and soccer (probably 2nd and 3rd favorite sports), try to focus on one activity at a time (don't want to get overwhelmed), silk boxers, seafood, romance novels, being outside</p>

<p>BE HONEST PEOPLE, I would love some insightful feedback. </p>

<p>(I can post awards if you guys want)</p>

2

<p>Match for UIUC and URochester. Reach for all your other schools. </p>

<p>Nice ACT score but your GPA/EC dont necessarily go beyond that of which the typical applicants of those reach schools have. Although, write some good essays and I wouldn’t say acceptance into any of those schools is impossible so dont give up hope. </p>

<p>Is your school’s grades inflated? if so, then your gpa could be a bigger problem for you</p>

3

<p>How are you taking Calculus 3 through the U of I? Do you go to Uni High in Urbana?</p>

4

<p>@Bill73
It’s an online course that UIUC does through NetMath.</p>

5

<p>On essays, I know UChicago places high value on their essays, but what about the other schools on my list? I visited those schools not too long ago and it seemed like that they were still stuck in the GPA/Standardized Test Scores mindset no matter how many times they kept on saying “holistic interpretation of your application”.</p>

6

<p>Well I cant deny that GPA/Scores are likely to be top factor in college admission in those schools, good essays certainly can take a solid application right into the acceptance group.</p>

<p>You have to realize that when you apply to a school, they literally have multiple people look over your entire app and discuss together whether or not you are a good fit. They spend plenty of time per applicant in a process far more complicated than just filtering GPA and skimming essays.</p>

7

<p>Match @ UIUC and Rochester, I’d guess a mid to low reach at the others save Columbia which is a high reach for obvious reasons. See if you can get your supervisor @ Pritzker to write you a rec or at least a note for your app, I think that could boost your chances. Other than that, buckle down and start writing your essays (pull out ALL the stops for Chicago), good luck!</p>

8

<p>Weak gpa is all that’s wrong here.</p>

9

<p>Bump!!!</p>

10

<p>It’s all good except for the GPA. With a GPA like that, you’re chances at acceptance at those schools are only okayish. You would have to have some great ECs, awards, or essays to make up for it if you want a good chance. Stellar if you want Columbia. Hopefully you’ll find opportunities to do that. (Not that your ECs are bad; they’re pretty good!) Without those, I can see you getting into UIUC and Rocester, maybe even Northwestern (?).</p>

11

<p>Great resume. I agree with kiddo64. The only aspect that undermines your chances of getting into your reach schools is your subpar GPA. Don’t worry though! Your ECs are wonderful.</p>

<p>Chance me?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1364128-chance-asian-sigh-female.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1364128-chance-asian-sigh-female.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>Some minor things to begin with.
First of all, buddy, knowing you who are:
Quizbowl: “Varsity team for 4 years”

  1. Let’s not stretch the truth here…
  2. Knowledge Masters is a totally separate thing, so don’t mix it in with the other two, which are more or less interchangeable. </p>

<p>“3 Years, 2nd year as Junior Representative, 3rd year as Team Captain”
to be nitpicky, which is probably warranted because you want your resume to be as transparent and honest as possible to colleges, the wording here might confuse people. The easiest way to say it is 1 year as Junior Rep., 1 Year as Team Captain (Senior Year), or something like that. That way, people don’t mistake it as “What…he’s been captain for 3 years…and Junior Rep for 2 years…”</p>

<p>Now onto the actual chancing.</p>

<p>Your resume is good. I cannot deny this. Your extracurriculars are very good, and pretty focused on things you like. It’s not like you’re picking up every activity you can for the sake of college admissions, but it looks like you’re doing things you actually enjoy - which is good. Make sure this angle comes off when you’re filling out your applications and your ECs are in the same league as any other top applicant. </p>

<p>I agree with a suggestion made upthread - if you could get a note, or even an additional recommendation, from your research adviser at UChicago, I think that would be extremely beneficial to an application that has a pre-med track written on it.</p>

<p>Onto GPA. It’s not TERRIBLE. It’s not even BAD. But it’s certainly not amazing, which will hurt your chances. One thing that’s important to note, though, is that the colleges you’re applying to will most definitely comb through your transcript with a fine-toothed comb, and find that the classes that you’re getting Bs in are actually difficult classes.
This is okay.
But you have to remember that they do leave a blemish on your application, and they do add up. So your GPA will hurt you. </p>

<p>Your ACT and SAT IIs are fine. Unfortunately, they’re also fine with 75% of the applicants to, say, Columbia. However, that does get you past that first cut. </p>

<p>And finally, after considering all of the variables, these are my chances for you:</p>

<p>UIUC: don’t worry about it, I think this would be your safety.
URochester: High safety or low match.
UChicago: High Match/Low Reach. Just because a connection with them could seriously increase your chances and how well they think you would “fit”. Also knowing you and your abilities to write essays, you’d better knock those out of the park
Northwestern: Low to mid reach.
WashU: Mid to High reach
Brown, Cornell, Columbia: Reach.</p>

13

<p>UIUC: In
U Rochester: In</p>

<p>Cornell, NW: Reach (Your transcript!)
Brown, Columbia: High Reach (Your transcript!)</p>

<p>I don’t think you are attending a feeder HS to Uchicago. So, Chicago is a high reach. (Your transcript!)</p>