What are my chances to these top colleges?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello People of College Confidential,

This is my first post to College Confidential, and I was just wondering what were my chances to get into some of the top schools such as Stanford, Duke, Rice, and a couple of UCS and CSUs such as UCSD, UCD, UCB, UCLA, and CSUSLO.
I am a rising senior and want to major in biomedical engineering and minor in education.

Gender/Ethnicity: African American Male

GPA:
Unweighted: 4.0
Weighted: 4.5
Rank: 11 out of 379 (Top 5%)

SAT Scores:
New SAT 1460 (730 on both CR+W and Math) Essay 6/8
Plan to take SAT Math II and Biology E and M in the fall, hopefully score around the 700+ range

AP Scores:
APUSH: 2
APLang: 4

ACT Scores (kind of low)
31 (31 R 26 M 33 E 34 S 16 W)

Course Rigor:
I’ve taken most of the AP/Honors courses offered at our school. My senior class schedule is AP Calculus, AP Government, AP Lit, AP Physics, French 4, and Automation Engineering, and possibly TAing.

Extracurriculars (I don’t see as a strong point)

Participated on a FIRST Robotics Team for all 4 years of high school, Accumulated over 500+ hours of community service, and won lots of awards and even participated at the World Championship level in 2015
Became a Dean’s List Finalist junior year, the single most prestigious award a student can win in robotics.
Robotics Competition Coordinator for 3-4 years, and have done over 8 20-55 team competitions.
Varsity Lettered in Robotics
Outreach Director for 2 years, Engineering Director for 1 year

Questbridge: Became a College Prep Scholar

Won lots of achievement awards at School Awards Ceremonies

Lead Role in High School Play Freshmen Year

Played Junior Varsity Tennis for 2 years, won league 2nd year.

About Myself:

Low income as my mom was medically retired from the USAF and help her a lot at home.

Any suggestions are all appreciated.

2

Bump

3

Good chances though ACT is on the lower end. Are you in-state for UCs/CSUs?

4

Yes, I live in California. @tigerman333

5

Your GPA and ranking put you in a very good position to get into the college of your choice. Plus, your varsity lettering in Robotics is unique and impressive. Your standardized test scores are impressive, though your AP scores are lacking (but nothing detrimental). I would absolutely apply to the top top tier schools like Duke, Stanford, etc. because there’s a solid chance you’ll be accepted to at least one. As for the UC schools, you have an amazing chance to be accepted to most, if not all- I would consider Berkeley if I were you!
Best of luck!

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also please reply to my chance me!

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@eddoc7, why aren’t you applying to some ivies?

You should use your stats especially the new SAT scores to see what the big schools will offer to you.

I would also suggest that you also add USC and some other privates like Princeton.
You never know!

8

Definetley apply to Ivies. I’ve seen students that have a lot less than you (they did have Questbridge) and got into Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT.

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@ZealousScholar @“aunt bea” Thank you so so much, that’s really reassuring! Yes, I am applying to the other big engineering schools like Princeton, Yale, and MIT to hope I can get in all I know I can do now is to get good letters of rec and write great essays!

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@“aunt bea” any other low reach engineering schools you can think of?

My complete list is

Stanford
Rice
Duke
Cornell
Caltech
MIT
WPI
UC Davis
Cal Poly SLO
Georgia Tech
Carnegie Mellon
Yale
UCLA

11

I think you have a really good shoot at all those schools^. From last year, I have heard the GT was very competitive when it came to Biomedical Engineering but given your ECs and ranking, you should be fine!

12

@eddoc7 I would add UMich, UIUC, RPI and Purdue.

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i think you have a great chance at getting into your schools

14

I don’t see Stanford on your list.
How about the HBCU? Howard will be a shoo-in for you.

15

Johns Hopkins has the best biomedical engineering program in the country, so you may want to consider that.

With your ECs, I see a strong commitment to robotics/engineering, leadership, and community service - this is fantastic. Doing what you have done with your background is quite an accomplishment that I am sure will maker you attractive to many schools. That being said, I think you should add in a few more safety schools. I do not know a whole lot about QuestBridge, but I would assume that applications with it are free, so use that free-ness if it exists. Best of luck to you!

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You will get into at least one of these schools if you apply. JHU has a very good biomedical engineering program, so maybe you should consider it. Why not also add Harvard and Princeton?

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Completely forgot to add, but I not going to undergrad in biomedical engineering because of the whole “interdisciplinary” thing, so I will undergrad in mechanical or chemical engineering and master in biomedical engineering. Thank you all for the kind comments! I was really worried about my ECs and standardized test scores, but I’m trying to bring the latter up. @“aunt bea” Stanford is at the top :slight_smile: and I don’t really want to attend a hbcu. I like to have the entire experience!

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@row566 I would, but I’m really trying to shrink my list as much as possible? Do you have any suggestions for ones to take off? and that goes out to anyone also!

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Some of the very top schools like Stanford and Duke may be low reaches, but you definitely still have a pretty good chance since your GPA is pretty solid. Your extracurriculars also look really good! Good luck!!

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Thank you!