Current Junior in Maryland- Intended major: Biomed. Engineering, Bio, or Pre-med
SAT: 2230 (CR 730 Math 750 W 750)
SAT II: Math II 710 US History 670
GPA: 3.92 and 4.65
Senior Year Schedule: AP Lit, AP Chem, AP Physics, Engineering Design, Yearbook, Art,
Total of 9 APs: (NSL (3), US History (5), World History, Bio, Lang, BC Calc)
National Societies (math, science, spanish, tech), 200+ community hours (hospital volunteer, others)
6th place in national chemistry competition
President/VP and other leadership positions in a few clubs
Captain of Varsity Vball team, 3 years of varsity track
Two internships: One studying/analyzing DNA of an organism (published in the NCBI genebank), another researching cholestrol
Will have excellent recs from my teachers and counselor
UMD, UVA, Duke, UNC, UPenn, Northwestern, UT Austin, Princeton, Rutgers <----
Do I need to retake my SAT II’s? Should I try to take the ACT again in June as well or should I not bother?
If these are reaches, are there any other schools you’d recommend to me? Any other suggestions to make my application more “personal”?
Thanks
You will get into Rutgers and UMD, have a good shot at UT Austin but their engineering admissions are very unpredictable and competitive, UNC and UMD you have a pretty good shot, and the rest I would say are about 50-50. I don’t think you need to take the ACT/SAT again. I am also a junior and I took it in October, got a 31, December I got a 33, and decided that I was done, it’s not really worth it to put all that effort in just to raise it by a little bit, especially when there are low margins for error and in terms of getting accepted/denied, a point on the ACT or a few on the SAT doesn’t make that much of a difference.
I’m also from Maryland! Which high school do you go to?
You have very strong credentials. I would strongly suggest retaking the SAT 2s. You definitely want to get at least 700 on them. Math II seems like the exception to the rule, as Math II is pretty heavily curved, so you’d probably want at least a 750.
Give the ACT a shot, because why not?
UMD should be no problem for you. I’d expect you to get into the Honor College. (I did with a lower SAT and lower GPA)
You shouldn’t have a problem with UT Austin or Rutgers either.
UVA and UNC should be relatively safe.
Duke, UPenn, Northwestern, and Princeton are all extremely selective. Although your credentials are definitely competitive, they can deny you for whatever reason, but you definitely have a shot at them.
Also, just curious. What’s the article name you published to GenBank? I intern at UMD analyzing DNA sequences on GenBank.