What are my admissions chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello Everybody.
I am an Asian-American going to a competitive high school in California.
I am extremely curious as to how my college application will stack up against others.
Here are my stats
GPA:
(Academic GPA)
W: 4.4
UW: 3.84
(Total GPA)
W: 4.32
UW: 3.88
ACT: 34 and a 10 on writing (Will hopefully retake in June)
SAT Subject: 800 (Math II, hopefully, will also take Bio and Chem soon)
AP Tests: 5 on APCS and AP Chinese and 4 on AP Euro (so far)
CC: Introduction to Python Class (Attained a 98)
I will have gotten 7 B’s as of the end of this semester ( 1 freshman year, 3 sophomore year, and 3 junior year). However despite this, I took 2 honor classes during my freshman year, 4 my sophomore year, and 6 my junior year (including band).
Extracurriculars:

Volunteering at local hospitals: I spent this past summer volunteering extensively at a local hospital accumulating over 100+ hours. I also volunteer at pediatrics and have been doing so for over 3 years, helping children and the nurses there- I have maintained good relations with all of them. I also volunteer as a student docent at a nearby Chinese History museum. I have spent the last 3 years volunteering at the middle school band program helping students better their instruments and also learn collaborative work.

Band (4 year) : I have been apart of the marching band, symphony orchestra, and symphonic wind ensemble for 3 years so far. I served as the drum major this past season and will be the head drum major next. I was chosen as a junior drum major while most are primarily seniors. Additionally, I have also been apart of the county honor band and the top group in the California all-state honor band (top 3 in the state). Hopefully will make nationals next year, and applying for Young Arts. I have also been paying for my own tuba lessons since my freshmen year, which money comes from my job.

Basketball: 4-year athlete. 2 years on JV with a First team all-league nomination in the sophomore year plus Captain and MVP of the team. Junior year on varsity (but barely played :frowning:

Cafe Job: 4-year cafe job that runs on Sundays.

Piano: ABRSM Level 8 Certificate with Honors

Science Olympiad: 4-year contributing member. 3-year captain/President who has helped grow the group from a small 5 person team to a fully-fledged 30 person competitive team. Has placed in numerous tournaments around the state, very committed member.

TEAMS Qualification: School team qualified for Nationals

NHD: Currently has qualified for states, attained a championship at regionals. Projected to make it to Nationals.

Health Volunteering Organization: Created a youth initiative organization that works to outreach and attain supplies for many of the hospitals that have been crippled by the recent coronavirus outbreak.

School Club: Has started a prominent club on campus, attracting over 20 people each meeting.

App Development:
Developing an app that will help musicians practice, currently a WIP

I have very good relations with most of my teachers, and I will likely be able to get two strong recommendations for my character and how hard I work.
I am hoping to apply early decision to Duke for CS or UPenn for Nursing. If it isn’t clear, my two main passions are CS and PreMed/Nursing and I will be applying between these two majors to all of the schools I have planned. I will be “shotgunning” in that I will likely apply to the top ranking schools (not all ivies just brown, UPenn, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Columbia) and then the UC’s + other good ranking schools + liberal arts colleges. What do my chances look like to attain admissions next semester? Am I being unrealistic about my application? Any and all criticism will be appreciated.

Also, if I have any “hooks” please let me know. I feel that I am a very ordinary but hard-working student who has tried to make the best of what has been given to him.

Consider this: My family is lower middle class, and I live with a single parent (divorced). I sleep in a room with my parents and other siblings due to an overwhelming number of people in the household. However, I am very grateful to have a home and good meals to eat every day. Outside of home living, I am very comfortable with life as I am able to go out to eat regularly and able to buy what I want on occasion.

2

“7 B’s”
“Asian-American”
“brown, UPenn, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Columbia”, “Duke”

Are you currently a junior?

To me it looks like you are applying to a lot of high reaches. Where I live, 7 B’s would not put you in the top 10% of the high school class, and we do have a very highly competitive suburban high school.

Are you recruitable for basketball? If you are strong enough that schools will want you for their basketball team, then your grades are strong enough to not be an issue. If you are not going to be recruited for basketball, then I think that you need to focus more on matches and safeties and only send a moderate number of applications to reaches.

3

You have very good stats and EC’s … but so will everyone else that you are competing with for spots at the schools you mentioned. I would suggest doing some research for safety schools , Upitt has a very good medical school, Rutger has a great nursing program for example, both are very good schools where you may get a very good aid package for example. Did your parents go to college? , if not that may help your chances, sports or band may be another way to help your chances. I do not see how you can have the UW gpa you have with 7 b’s. You can get a great college education, hopefully wo much debt but you need to expand your search to include more schools where you have a better chance to get in with merit or finical aid making it work for you and your family. Also really put a lot of effect into your essay , it will help a lot, write from your heart about something that helps these schools see you as a person not just a student.

4

I’ve been taking 8 classes every year on top of the regular 7 periods but I don’t know how this will translate when colleges re-factor GPA in. Our sports classes also get translated into this GPA (My UW is more like a 3.79 ish).
I will definitely be including some of these “safeties” and “matches” (UPitt and Rutgers are both schools that I would love to go to). I am hoping to get a bit lucky in admissions and hopefully look over these grades that I have gotten.

5

I am currently a junior. Due to coronavirus outbreak, I was unable to bring up the one last B that I had this semester (sadly) and was not really able to depict a perfect “upward trend” in my grades. I’m not in the top 10% of my class- I worked really hard to do as well as I possibly could but despite that was not able to emerge as some of the “best” in my grade.

6

@ Ketail you do not need to be the best, you need to understand how college acceptance works for top schools, there are way more kids than seats, you have to stand out or have great hooks and can pay full amount , these things will help you, keep making your lists and do not forget safety schools.

7

Thank you very much this was very helpful.

8

I think you are a strong student but should as some more range in the schools you are considering. You might get into one of those schools that are reaches for anyone, but there are lots more great schools. I think the biggest issue might be that the virus is likely to increase the percent of students who defer and this could make next year’s admission rates much more competitive than usual, which would be unfortunate for current juniors. I think it is better to challenge yourself and get Bs than not and get As. I know someone at a top 5 school who got lots of Bs in top classes. She had good ECs and is a great writer. GPS is very subject. I used to teach high school and depending on who the teacher was, a student could get an A, B, or C for the same level of work in the same course. It is partly luck of the draw and I don’t agree that a given GPA means anything in particular about a student, but I would expand out and look for more schools with higher % of acceptance rates that you also like.

9

Thank you! I will definitely be including a few more safeties, however, I would strive to get into these schools.

10

UCLA has a very good nursing program, I’d suggest looking into it.

11

But I’m not sure if I could get in… All of the UC’s have great nursing programs!