What should my safety/match/reach schools be?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey!

These are my stats:

GPA - 3.6/4 uw, 4.24 weighted – i have a huge upward trend
New SAT: 1560/1600
ACT: 36 C
SAT Subjects: Bio (770), USH (800), Math2 (760)
Took 8 AP classes, and the rest were honors with 1 or 2 regular classes.

Clubs:
– President, cofounder of Media Club for 2 years, Founder and VP of Quill and Scroll for 2 years
– Volunteer Coordinator of MUN during senior year, was a member all 4 years
– Member of HOSA (4years), Envirostories (2years), and Math Club (3 years), NHS for 2 years, Relay4Life (all 4 years)
– JV Badminton for 2 years

Internships/Volunteering:
– Junior Health Scholar at Swedish Hospital, Seattle (volunteering for 400+ hours, earned a certificate from UCLA Public Health School)
– Paid internship at Fred Hutch Cancer Center during summer after junior year (paid)
– Worked at a Neural Engineering Lab at University of Washington for 9 weeks (paid)
– 6 month internship at Waste Management in Seattle (non-paid)
– Microsoft YouthForce yearlong internship (paid)
– Volunteered for 100+ hours at different non-profits

Jobs/Other ECs:
– Learned Classical Dance for 12 years on a scholarship
– Taught dance to beginners and intermediates for 4 years
– Worked at KUMON as a grader for about 2 years
– Started a organic, vegan skincare line

I already wrote my essay and it’s pretty good, as are my recommendations! I know that my GPA isn’t great but I can’t do much now :frowning:

My family income is just very low so most of my ECs had to be paid work so I could help support my family. I applied to a lot of opportunities but I had to ultimetly reject them because I couldn’t afford it or bcuz I could be working instead. I definetly need Financial Aid. My brother had similar stats to mine and he got a full ride to NYU (probably cuz of our family income.)

I want to apply to UC Davis, University of Washington (in state), Penn ED , NYU, Illinois - urbana champaign, UCSD, Boston University, USC, Georgetown (dream school!), university of Michigan, and Carnegie Mellon.

I’m not sure about my major just yet (not engineering!) but I definitely want to do PREMED.
I know that some of them like georgetown and cmu might not be possible, but please let me know what other schools would be safety/match/reaches for me!

2

The UCs are not going to give you much if any aid because you are OOS. So drop them. Same for UIUC. Michigan has improved their FA recently, but it still might not meet your need. BU is hit & miss on FA – hard to say if it will work out.

Run the net price calculators in each school website to see what you can expect in financial aid.

You have a great ACT and some solid ECs. Your GPA is on the low end for the top schools on your list.

I’d guess UW is a low match or safety. But then you have too many reaches. You need some affordable mstches.

3

You can get an idea from your various choices’ Common Data Set section C9 showing test scores and C11 for GPA of the last admitted freshman class. Compare yourself to the 25th and 75th percentiles for rough reach/match/safety.

4

I think this student has a challenge with a high test score and lower GPA. The Common Data Set may not help much. Plus they have a lot of unaffordable state schools on their list.

5

okay thanks for your advice. Yeah I do think that I added too many reaches. Do you have any suggestions for safeties and matches for me? @intparent

6

Do you think that I am better off applying to private schools? Will they give more aid? I prob will end up going to UW if I get in but I really want to go OOS somewhere. @intparent

7

You need to learn more about schools that meet need. Yes, some private schools will give better aid. I like this Wikipedia entry because of how it breaks it down:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission