What are my chances at top schools? (Harvard, Berkeley engineering, Duke, etc.)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m new to CC, but I’ve seen a lot of really supportive individuals around here and I’d like some input on what people think my profile is like :))
My college list as it stands is: Harvard (SCEA), USC, Duke, Vanderbilt, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, Boston University, Rice University, WashU, Johns Hopkins, UMD College Park, Miami University (Ohio),

Objective:
New SAT I: Overall: 1590, Math: 800, Reading/writing: 790
ACT (breakdown): Overall: 35
SAT II (place score in parentheses): Math II (780), Bio E (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0/4.0 (weighted GPA 4.82, currently at the top of my class)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): no ranking but like I said, in the running for valedictorian/salutatorian
AP (place score in parentheses): AP European History (5), AP Bio (4), AP CompSci (5), AP Stats (5), AP Chem (5), APUSH (5), AP French (5), AP Psychology (5), AP English Lang (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Economics, Math 254/255 (community college course), Evolutionary/Organismic Biology (community college course), AP Physics C, AP Art History, AP English Literature
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): 2016 Regional Level 7 Acrobatic Gymnastics Champion, placed 4th at the 2016 National Acrobatic Championships, etc. National Merit Semifinalist, National AP Scholar, 3rd place in the 10th Annual High School Honors Statistics Contest, Girl Scout Silver Award

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parentheses): Acrobatic gymnastics (competitive level 9 gymnast), research intern at UC San Diego (cowrote a paper), Girl Scout Ambassador, Varsity Dive (grades 10 & 12), UCSD Biology Mentor Assistance program (grade 11), Amnesty International Club, CSF, piano, saxophone, and guitar.
Volunteer/Community Service: Volunteer year-round at Flip Force San Diego as a gymnastics/trampoline&tumbling coach, CSF community service hours
Summer Activities: After 10th grade, interned at Flip Force San Diego as a camp counselor teaching parkour, gymnastics, and cirque. After 11th, interned at UCSD in a biology lab.
Teacher Recommendations:
1st: 10/10 my art history teacher, I am extremely close with her and set the curve every time in her class, also had her last year for psychology so I am confident she will write me a good one
2nd: 8/10 my college math professor, she loves me but I don’t think she’s going to write anything that’s groundbreaking, but she’ll present me well as someone who’s good at math etc.
Counselor Rec: 9/10 in his words, my letter is “bomb”
Other Rec; my boss at the lab at UCSD wrote me a letter of rec, I think that’ll give me a boost
Essays: I wrote my common app on gymnastics and how it drew me to biology and how it shaped my work ethic and I like it a lot. My supplement for Harvard is very true-to-heart and in general I’d say I’m a decent writer, not ground-breakingly exceptional

Other
Applied for Financial Aid? I will, most definitely
Projected Concentration: Biomedical Engineering
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: F
Income Bracket: $200,000-$250,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I am originally from France though now have US citizenship as well; dual citizen

Reflection
Strengths: Perfect grades & scores, very competitive athlete, but also showed passion for biology in my essays and activities. Also showed community commitment with girl scouts. Also I think my letters of rec will be good, and my interview with Harvard went super well–my interviewer loved me.
Weaknesses: I’m not sure, I never really was a president of a club or did ASB because I’m so busy with school and gymnastics. Hopefully that won’t affect me too much? I can’t do it all, after all.

2

bump

3

Biomedical Engineering is very competitive, but cowriting a paper is definitely a strong draw. If you wrote good essays, then I think you have a very good chance at all of them (except perhaps Harvard, but you can never tell with Harvard). The lack of leadership positions is supplemented by your sports career and strong volunteer/academic experience.

4

Do you think being a girlscout will show off my leadership qualities?

5

Hello! I was just admitted to Duke and my stats aren’t even half as good as yours! Overall your look awesome. Your test scores, APs, and GPA are beyond superb. Also your EC’s are really extraordinary. I have always heard rumors that being a girlscout/boyscout is really helpful in admissions but I may be wrong. Overall, DO NOT WORRY. You have a very strong chance of getting into those schools. Now relax!

6

@acrogymnast the gymnastics stuff looks really impressive to me

7

YOU HAVE GREAT STATS!!! Don’t worry as much :slight_smile:
Harvard (SCEA): match, (still a reach cause so elite)
USC: match (I think you’ll get in and is pseudo-safety)
Duke: match (chance you won’t get in)
Vanderbilt: match (I expect you’ll get in)
UC Berkeley: safety-match (you’ll get in)
UC Santa Barbara: safety, you’ll get in
UC Santa Cruz: safety, you’ll get in
UCLA: pseudo-safety, you’ll probably get in
Boston University: safety, you’ll get in
Rice University: match, you’ll probably get in
WashU: match, you’ll probably get in
Johns Hopkins: match, you may get in
UMD College Park: safety, you’ll get in
Miami University (Ohio): safety, you’ll get in

Chance me: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1946391-emory-emory-oxford-wake-forest-davidson-nyu-holy-cross-gw.html#latest

8

Always take chancings by a fellow high school senior with a large grain of salt.

9

Whenever anyone says you’re a “match” for Harvard or Duke or Vandy or Rich or JHU and then asks you to “chance” them, take it with a large block of salt.

sheesh

10

Agreed with the above posts. Take what you get in here with a grain of salt.

11

I understand that the whole “chancings” is a bit of a crapshoot. I just haven’t seen that many profiles on CC that are similar to mine-- aka not that many school clubs, but very competitive athletics (nationally ranked) as well as STEM-oriented activities. I’m just unsure of how this will play out for me from an admission’s point of view.

12

did you get deferred from Harvard?

13

I’d say you’re a very talented and competitive student, but elite schools get lots of similar applicants.

14

You’ve got a great application, but as always there’s a lot of similar students applying and getting rejected.

Harvard (SCEA): Reach, probably a reject.
USC: High Match. You never know with this one, they like rejecting students who don’t apply early and go great lengths to preserve their yield rate.
Duke: Low Reach. You’ve got a decent chance.
Vanderbilt: Low Reach. You’ve got a decent chance.
UC Berkeley: Low Reach. You’ve got a decent chance. BioE is pretty competitive, and you never know with Berkeley admissions.
UC Santa Barbara: safety
UC Santa Cruz: safety
UCLA: High Match. Like Berkeley, BioE is competitive.
Boston University: safety
Rice University: High Match. Same deal with USC.
WashU: Low Reach.
Johns Hopkins: Low Reach. BME here is intense, definitely ougher to get into than the university as a whole.
UMD College Park: safety
Miami University (Ohio): lol

15

@wormholes yes I got deferred.

16

With that income, you won’t qualify for financial aid except for loans. However, because of your scores, you may qualify for some merit aid. Did you check the Net Price calculators before you applied?

17

@“aunt bea” My income is high but we have almost no money saved up because we’re immigrants. I don’t get much money but it’s significant. And I’m applying to a bunch of merit scholarships. The real reason I’m applying to no other ivies except Harvard is because they offer no merit aid at all.

18

It doesn’t matter to the colleges if you don’t have money saved. You won’t get financial aid, other than loans, for need because of your income. Please check the NPCs at the colleges you’ve applied to and get your estimated costs.

Merit scholarships are based on grades and not income. You need to look at the aid packages to see what’s affordable.

19

@auntbea I do get financial aid actually. I’ve done the net price calculators. Plus my brother is in college so thats a tiny boost in terms of financial aid.

20

@T26E4 the thing about Vanderbilt is that many people seem to FEEL it is a match because of its “low” US News ranking, and therefore believe it significantly less competitive than other peer institutions, if you ask me.