STATS:
3.95 UW
4.33 W
ACT: 31
APs: KAP Law (Kenyon College AP), AP Euro (5), APUSH (4), AP Psych (5), AP English 11 (5), AP Government (5), AP Calculus AB (4), AP Bio (4)
– TOTAL: 8 AP classes
HONORS: Honors Algebra 1, Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 2, Honors English 10, Honors Biology, Honors Chemistry, Honors British Literature, Honors German 4, Honors Anatomy and Physiology, Honors Physical Science
– TOTAL: 10 HONORS classes
ECs: Core Student Body Leader, Key Club (VP), Student Council (VP), Amnesty International (Secretary) and New Student Network (Communications Ambassador)
Home State: Ohio
Nationality: Native American / Caucasian
AWARDS: National Merit Scholar (Semi-Finalist), National AP Scholar, 2nd place in state Science Olympiad competition (not super relevant but notable)
NOTE: College is paid for by scholarships and savings - thanks!
MAJOR/MINOR:
Major: English
Minor: Political Science
– AIMING FOR LAW SCHOOL AFTER UNDERGRAD.
SCHOOLS:
Cornell (RD)
Dartmouth (RD)
UPenn (EA)
Case Western (RD)
Kenyon College (RD)
OSU (RD - safety)
BU (RD - safety)
I’m currently an English (and psychology) major at Cornell, and I will tell you that the faculty of the department here has a larger role in selecting admits than at other colleges I considered. As such, your essays are going to be doubly important.
In general, I would advise you to beef up your resume as much as you can before your applications go out, or try to tie what you’re working with together in a creative way. Most students at top-tier schools have either very strong resumes or they have another angle for their application. In my opinion, you’ll be fine for OSU, BU, Case Western, and Kenyon, but the rest are going to be a reach with so many qualified candidates. There are a lot of people who want to go to law school, so I would suggest, again, finding a creative way to make your app stand out. Your stats are decent enough but par for the course among Ivy applicants, so the essay is going to be your main avenue to make your case. Also, no matter what scholarships you have/hope to have, money is going to be a concern if you’re looking at law school on top of undergrad. You aren’t planning to apply ED anywhere, so at least look at your aid packages before you make your final decision.
If you have any questions about Cornell or the applications process in general, feel free to message me
Penn only has ED not EA. Your ACT score won’t help but your URM hook will. I suggest writing all your essays for your RD schools now so in case you don’t get into Penn you won’t have to scramble and write a bunch of essays. Do you know which school at Penn you want to apply to?
URM status helps, but I think Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell are all still reaches. You are probably competing against other URMs for spots, and some will have higher test scores.
The rest:
Kenyon - Low reach/high match
Case Western - Match
BU - Match
OSU in-state - Safety
I’m not sure to what degree Case and BU consider URM status. I think they are matches or high matches on stats, but if they do give a bump for URM, they might move into Low Match territory.
I am pretty sure you will get a bump at Kenyon. Ohio State I think would be a safety, or a very low match, based on your stats and Ohio residency. If they consider URM at all, it is almost certainly a safety… and a good one at that.
Regardless, as long as you like and can afford all these schools, you have a nice list: a few reaches, a few match-range schools, and a (virtual) safety. They are all good schools, so you’ll have the opportunity to get a great education.
Nationality: Nepali
Percentage:82.6%
SAT score: 1450 math 770 CR 680
SAT II: maths 750 physics 780 chemistry 770
intended major: Biomedical engineering
rank: no ranking but top 10% if ranked
financial aid: needed
Achievements and awards
• Best student of the year 2015 (10th grade)
• Best consistency award
• 1st prize- Debate competition in English Language (10th grade)
• 1st prize- Debate competition in Nepali Language (9th grade)
• 1st prize- Best Assembly speaker (10th grade)
• 1st prize- Quiz competition (9th grade)
• 1st prize- Duo Talent show-science and technology (9th grade)
• 1st prize- Duo Talent show-environmental engineering for sustainable development (10th grade)
• 1st prize- Duo Best web designer using HTML (9th grade)
• Discipline Award (9th,10th grade)
Work experience and skills
• Author, discoverer, Marketing officer and member of Management Team in nationaldiscoverychannel.com since 2015, which is a blog hosted from Nepal
• Worked as script writer and illustrator for upcoming Documentary “Journey to The Past”, which is related to possible theories regarding Time Travel
• Leadership skills as House captain (9th grade)
• Leadership skills as School captain (10th grade) and hosted many annual functions at school
Passion and hobbies
• Loves to work in science and technology related fields
• Loves to discover new stuff, create new theories and write related articles
@duke1021 You are mixing up apples and oranges here.
CollegeData is showing you the averages for the enrolled students. In other words, 30 is the average ACT for ~3,500 students who actually enrolled at BU, probably for Fall 2016. And that number is probably accurate. There’s just one problem: the enrolled student average isn’t necessarily the number that you should be looking at.
BU’s “Class Profile” is showing you something different: the ACT average for the accepted students. In other words, 32 is the average ACT for ~15,000 students who were accepted by BU, in this case for Fall 2017. This group is obviously much larger, and also has significantly higher ACT scores, than the enrolled student group.
Both of the numbers are right. Together, they tell you that (1) BU mostly accepts students with ACT of 32 or above, but also that (2) BU mostly enrolls students with ACT of 30 or below. In other words, BU wants students with 32+ ACTs, but has to settle for less. This is presumably because most of the high-scoring students that get acceptance letters from BU decide to go to other schools (like maybe Cornell or Dartmouth) instead.
At this point, you want to be one of the ~15,000 students that BU accepts, so that’s the group you should be looking at. And a 31 ACT is subaverage for that group, so it’s not a “safety”-level score. Of course, the ACT score isn’t everything – BU could, in theory, still be considered a safety, if you had other strong qualifications to compensate.
The valedictorian from my high school a few years back (in NE Ohio) was rejected from Case Western Reserve, and he had strong stats and EC’s… I do believe they look at demonstrated interest (my stats weren’t as high as his but I was accepted RD–had lots of demonstrated interest like visiting, signing up for mailing list lol). I’m not 100% sure but I think it will help your chances if you show interest. Otherwise I think you have a great shot there! Ohio State got weird this year and waitlisted a bunch of high stat kids from my school with ACT’s in the 28-31 range but I think your EC achievments will do you well there. Good luck!
*also, which college at Cornell are you applying to? Cornell places HUGE emphasis on your fit with the major you’re applying to, and the acceptance rates vary from college to college (with engineering and arts & sciences being the most competitive I believe). Make sure your Cornell essay really fits well with your intended major *
