Demographics
US Citizen
Senior
Public High School
Asian Female
Intended Major
Undecided, maybe pre-health
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.81/4.0
Weighted HS GPA: 4.22
SAT Scores: 1430 (690 Math, 740 Reading) - Retaking in October
High School doesn’t rank
Coursework*
Up to 11th: AP Chem, AP Physics 1, AP World, APUSH, AP Lang
12th: AP Calc AB, AP Bio, AP CS Principles, AP Psychology, English 12 Dual Enrollment, US Gov Dual Enrollment
Extracurriculars
School clubs (health, national honors society, math/science/music honors society, chess,…)
Girl Scout Gold Award program - founder of project to raise mental health awareness among teenagers
Volunteer for the Red Cross in the hospital during the summer (200 hours) and school year
Summer health camps (Georgetown, Walter Reed Army Medical Center)
Chess (as a hobby, and co-founder of free chess/tutoring program for local kids)
Other small community projects (Afghan Refugees Care, adopt a highway cleanup, etc…)
Essays/LORs/Other
In progress
Cost Constraints / Budget
No constraints
Schools
I’m still building my safety/match/reach schools. I’m in Virginia and would appreciate any suggestion.
Are there schools that I should apply EA or ED? My parents would like me to try ED in one of the top 20 schools, but I’m not sure of my chance. I didn’t get a chance to tour any school yet.
Should I apply EA or RD to UVA? My grades so far are ok, all A/A- except 2 B (Algebra 1 & 2 Honors in 8th/9th grades) and 1 B+ in AP Physics 1 last year.
No budget constraints and undecided? That seems like a bad recipe to me. There are MANY schools that will cost over $300,000. That’s a lot of risk without a fairly firm vision of what you want to accomplish for that investment.
Not yet knowing what you want to do is not a concern to me. It does suggest you should research schools with a strong liberal arts curriculum that will allow exploration. If pre-health is a consideration, also look into the pre-health advising resources.
What does concern me is considering ED when no schools have even been visited. An ED school should be your top choice, and you can’t know that without seeing it. The T20 schools are quite different and some do not give a boost for ED. Additionally those schools are a reach for any 4.0/1600 applicant due to the limited seats so I encourage you to spend time researching the many excellent schools that may be a better fit for your stats.
You are lucky to be in a state with top notch public and private schools and to have no cost constraints. Hopefully you can visit a few campuses close to home to at least get a feel for the type campus you like… rural/urban/suburban, small/mid/large, how far from home?, big sports, etc. That will help us narrow down the many schools that could fit with the limited information we have now.
Regarding UVA, apply EA to ANY school offering it, assuming there are no restrictions such as with REA.
We are happy to help once you give us a bit more to go on! You have many options with your stats and ECs.
For any school with nonbinding EA or rolling admission, apply early unless prevented by REA at another school. The reason is that some schools fill up the class or desired majors or scholarships early, so what may be a likely school early may be a reach in RD.
For binding ED, apply only if it is a no regrets top choice that is affordable.
You have many options with your stats and ECs.