Serious help needed please!!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I am a junior in high school and I literally lose sleep every night researching all of these wonderful universities and majors I can possibly partake in and not knowing what to do with most of the info because my parents are immigrants and haven’t gone through this process. I really want some help from people who have been through this. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Here are my stats. If anything important info is missing just let me know. List of colleges are on the bottom. (Also some words of wisdom about being a premed student in college would make your reply that much better).

ACT- predicted score 33
GPA- 3.7 unweighted, 4.3 weighted
Class rank- N/A
Current Curriculum- AP English Language and Composition, AP Calculus BC, Wind Ensemble (Best band offered in school), AP Physics C, P.E (unfortunately Illinois requires all students K-12 to participate in a year of P.E.), Economics, AP Government,and Spanish 4
Senior Curriculum- AP English Literature and Composition, AP Statistics, Wind Ensemble, AP Biology, AP Psychology, P.E, and AP Spanish
AP Courses- 4 in U.S. History
Major Awards- Congressional Award
Dream major- Cellular Molecular Biology

ECs:
-Cross Country
-Track and Field
-Speech
-Student Council
-Math Club
-Founder of a club for African American students to discuss various ideas
-Co-founder of city-wide math club at local library

  • Math tutor at my old middle school

Summer Activities:
-Work as a lifeguard
-Planning on getting an internship at Fermilab (globally renowned research/physics laboratory)
-Cross Country summer training
-Volunteer at local food bank
-Volunteer at hospital

Teacher recs- Getting one written from a nationally recognized AP Physics teacher (Golden Apple award from Clinton) and my English teacher who was a lawyer and is known to write the best letters of rec.

Hooks- Low income and an urm but I’m one of the most talented in my class academically and I’m going to be a first generation student
State- IL
Ethnicity- black
Gender- male

Any comments on the aforementioned stats and advice for the rest of junior year and all of next year as well as the application process would be wonderful. If possible, any info on the general vibe of the college would be much appreciated, along with cost of living.

Here’s a list of colleges I’d like to attend in order (if there are colleges that you think I would like please comment the name):
Princeton
Stanford
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
UChicago
Yale
Northwestern
UIUC

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shout out to TedB03 for the format of this post

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How do you feel about Rice? I think that all of these are usually reaches, but you have some really good hooks and a Fermilab internship would be stellar despite not relating to your intended major.

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As a low income African American male with competitive stats, you have a better than average chance at most of those colleges. I would suggest taking the ACT again or the SAT if you have the time.

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awesomepolygot I’ve never heard of the school so I’ll have to look into it but I’ll come back to you but yeah I agree these are all reach schools for sure

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Anxiousenior1 thanks for the input I certainly have the time but how many tries are too many? Also my friends at school day I can get into any university I want including the ones listed before, how true is that on a scale from 1-10? Thanks

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I’d say your chances are very good if you can get strong test scores and good grades this year.

What is the congressional award?

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IF you get the predicted ACT score and the predicted Fermilab internship, you have a shot at several of these schools. You may want to add another match or two just in case.

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I would say no more than 2-4 times for retaking the ACT. The chance of increasing your score after 4 times is pretty small; you’re more likely to just get the same score or lower. However, a 33 is very respectable; but retaking to get a 35 or 36 could really boost your profile since you have time.

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Jennings99 its a noncompetitive award for us citizens 13-24 of something. You have to demonstrate your efforts in 4 categories, volunteer work, physical activity, personal development, and exploration look it up it’s really helpful

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Intparent yeah I’m really hoping on getting that internship and as for the ACT I’ve taken a bunch of practice ones and I got an average 35 but the actual test is harder (so I’ve heard) so that’s where the score came from but thanks for the feedback!

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Anxiousenior1 yeah I’ve heard the same thing thanks, BTW what are you so anxious about? You seem like you got it all figured out

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@screenamee I’m applying to Duke ED; standardized scores are not as good as I had hoped unfortunately. It’s too late for me haha. Make sure you keep up the good work!

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@anxiousenior1 ohh, well I wish you the best of luck and thanks again

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@Jennings99 and @intparent and @awesomepolyglot and @TedB03 sorry for not tagging the first time I’m new to this site lol

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Hey, what’s your family’s income? Mine is 50k, and I was wondering if that would count as a hook since I saw you add low income as a part of your hook.

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@ayyyyyyy 50k is not low income; that is the national median household income.

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Sit down with your parents and run the net price calculators for your target colleges to see what you are likely to pay. Also be attentive to the breakdown of loans/grants. Princeton, for example, promised to meet need in the form of grants.

Your list seems largely prestige-driven, which is fine. But have you given thought to preference with respect to region of the country, urban/suburban, size of university, diversity? Are there extracurriculars that you would like to continue when you matriculate at university? Are you interested in a sport scene or Greek life? Is a discrete campus important to you or do you care if it blends with the surrounding community?

While these are secondary concerns compared to academics, they are still worth contemplating.

You might want to add Washington University at St. Louis to your list - very good for pre-med and they offer some (extremely competitive!) scholarships for underrepresented groups. WUSTL is not need blind, nor does it promise to meet full need, but it still might be worth investigating.

Congratulations on your record of achievement so far and keep up the good work!

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@ayyyyyyy i would take @anxiousenior1 's word I have no idea how any of this works I just know my counselor said it will probably help more than hurt when I asked about it

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@mamaedefamilia I know this sounds very much like a typical teenage comment but I just want to get out and explore the world. I’m always home so I want to meet people of my caliber and have a massive 4 year trade of ideas and freedom. I completely forgot to include WashU in stl to my list, that is one of my favorite colleges and I have some friends who are freshmen that love the school, my English teacher who was a lawyer went to WashU for undergrad. But I’m not going to lie, prestige is definetly something I’d enjoy only because its what my community and parents expect from me. I’m drawn to Princeton because according to the net calculators my parents aren’t expected to pay anything and they don’t give out loans to students which is a plus in the big picture.