Where Should I Apply?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi! I already have way too many “Chance Me” posts, but I was just wondering if anyone could offer me advice on where to apply with my stats. My favorite schools are UPenn, Brown, and Rice, but I don’t know whether or not I have a realistic shot at them. I’d also appreciate any thoughts on which school I should apply for ED and other schools that would be more feasible. Thank you for your time! Below are my stats.

GRADES/COURSES/SCHOOL:

UW GPA: 5.4/6.0 (for reference, UC GPA is a 4.0 UW, 4.36 W/C; other calculators give 4.0 UW and about 4.75 Weighted)

Class Rank: Top 12/120 (would be higher if GPA was weighted; should earn Cum Laude membership)

ACT (single-sitting): 34C; 36E, 35M, 32R, 33S

Junior Courses: AP Calculus AB(A+), AP Literature(A/A+), AP US History(A-/A), Physics Honors(A/A+), Spanish 4 Honors(A-/A), Intro to Programming (1/2 semester, A/A+), and 2D Art (1/2 semester, A-/A)
i*

Location: East Coast (very competitive private boarding school - 25% acceptance rate)

Personal: I am white, a junior, and do not need financial aid

EXTRACURRICULARS/VOLUNTEERING:

Sports: JV Soccer and Squash (have played all three years)

Community Service: I have about 150 hours of community service.

Community Project: I led a STEM Initiative in Zimbabwe, where I taught kids from under-developed schools about the sciences. The goal was to encourage these children to explore STEM professions and opportunities while also spreading the knowledge they received to their communities. This “spread” would allow for better food security and health.

Club Leader: I am the founder of the peer tutoring program at my school.

Other EC’s: Tour guide

Senior Leadership: I will likely receive at least 2 of these leadership positions my senior year: Academic Honor Committee, Head Tour Guide, or Table Foot (at formal dinner, helps organize things at a table)

INTERNSHIPS:
-I had an internship last summer at a real estate company.
-I have an internship lined up for this summer where I will work with a professor at Swarthmore in computer science, with a goal of helping disabled people (my passion is to help others – this opportunity was perfect).

STUDY INTERESTS:
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Other: Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, STEM in general

2

You have a great resume and would be competitive at Penn, Brown and Rice. That being said, those schools have extremely low acceptance rates and reject most similarly qualified applicants.

Apply ED if one of these schools is clearly at the top of your list and you won’t have regrets by not applying to the others.

Since financial aid is not needed, you may want to add some less selective public universities with strong engineering programs to your list (e.g. Purdue, Ga Tech, UIUC, UCxx).

Good luck!

3

@cc8912 You are definitely competitive for Penn, Brown and Rice. Based on your profile you look like someone who would fit in very well at Penn. Out of your 3 top choices, I would ED at Penn if I were you given your profile and your areas of interest. Let me know if you got any questions about Penn.

4

Thank you for your advice @magtf1 and @Penn95!

Do either of you think my EC’s are going to be too weak? This is my biggest concern – I have made efforts to demonstrate that I want to use my education in engineering to improve the lives of others, but I’m not sure if I have “enough”. My key EC’s, in my opinion, are my peer tutoring program, my initiative in Zimbabwe, and my internship at Swarthmore this summer, but I’d really appreciate your opinions on how unique or impressive these are.

Also, @Penn95, you say I’d be a great fit at Penn; aside from the obvious that you likely went there, is there any reason why you say this? The reason why I ask is because I’ve always loved this school, and if there is something in my stats that suggests a connection to Penn then I’d love to know what it is!
And, if there are other schools that you know of which also align with my information as does Penn, it’d be awesome if you could suggest those too – I really like Swarthmore, UMich (would consider aerospace engineering here), Columbia, and Cornell.

5

@cc8912 Penn is all about being able to balance rigorous academics, heavy involved in ECs on campus (that is a huge part of life at Penn), pursuing good internship and/or research opportunities and having an active social life. Penn students are known for being able to balance all that, and are in general very academically and professionally driven, social, well-rounded and also have one or two specific interests/passions/expertise outside of class that they pursue passionately.

To me it looks like you not only have the academics down, but you are also heavily involved in a variety of ECs where it looks like you have actually applied yourself and devoted time and effort and have shown leadership potential. Also you already have some professional experience which is a plus for Penn, since Penn is known for having a strong pre-professional element and valuing the practical application of knowledge. Penn in general values people who go out and do something with their interests and knowledge, instead of just learning for the sake or learning.

Based on your profile, it looks like you fit that description well.

6

If you are looking for merit aid for Engineering apply to RPI (Troy, NY) and Clarkson (also NYS). You could potentially get some great funding and both are excellent for engineering.

7

@Empireapple While I don’t know a lot about Clarkson, I’ve heard a lot of great things about RPI and will likely apply there as more of a “match” school. I don’t know too much about merit aid, but I will look into it more as I consider my options. NY isn’t too far from where I live, so both seem like good choices to apply to. Thank you for your advice.

@Penn95 That is really great to hear. While my EC’s aren’t necessarily extensive, I’ve done my best to focus them towards my interests, which also seem to align with what Penn is looking for. I am also going to receive a letter of recommendation from the professor at Swarthmore, and I think that will add a lot to the impact of my experience. Your advice has been really helpful, so if you have anything other thoughts on, for example, which engineering major to take, how to show interest, what to express during the interview, etc., that’d be great. Regardless if you do or not, thank you for your help – I really appreciate it.

8

I just realized I made a mistake on my post. I meant to say that the 2D Art and Intro to Programming courses were only for 1 semester and, therefore, 1/2 of the year. In addition, my senior courses are likely going to be AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C, AP English Language & Composition, AP Spanish, and AP Computer Science. I don’t think this information is too important, but I thought I’d add it.

9

More ideas for matches: Case Western, Lehigh

10

@cc8912 RPI will give merit aid to students like you with high stats. A good match for you. You’ll likely get $15-20K in merit aid to lure you away from schools like Rice, CMU, Cornell (worked for my D).

You have a great shot at your top schools, especially Rice. Congrats.

11

@lalalemma I live relatively close to Lehigh and will very likely apply. I’ve heard many excellent things about its engineering program, and I feel like it is a relatively safe option for me (based on the stats of the admitted students from my school). While I know Case Western is very strong in engineering, I am not as sure about whether or not I will apply there. That said, it would also be a safer match school and a great option to consider. If you have any personal experience with either of these schools, I’d be very interested in learning more. Thank you for your advice.

@insanedreamer That is incredible and something I haven’t really thought about. I’ll definitely move RPI up my list now, but I will still save it for the RD round. I’m not entirely sure how focused I will be on engineering, so the tech schools are still a bit daunting.

Also, the fact that you think I have a strong chance at Rice is really encouraging. While the only thing keeping my from applying ED there is the distance from my home, I have family in the Houston area and really love the school. I really appreciate your help!

12

@cc8912 I think applying ED to either of your top 3 choices is a good idea. My D applied to Penn & Rice RD (she didn’t apply anywhere ED, which was a mistake; she was waitlisted at Rice RD and she would have had a better shot had she applied ED; her stats were good but a tad lower than yours, and her ECs were a bit weaker). In retrospect I wish she had applied to ED to Brown (instead of say, Cornell), but she was focused on engineering schools. Penn might be the hardest of the 3 to get into, so if I were you I’d probably apply ED to either Rice or Brown for a better chance of acceptance (probably easier to get into Rice than Brown). Apply ED to the one that appeals to you the most personally - they’re all excellent. Good luck!

13

@insanedreamer Ironically, Penn actually has the highest ED rate at 22%, which is just about equivalent to Brown’s 21.9%, and Rice has the lowest by far at 16%. I really think Penn would be my number one school due to its proximity to my home and its strong engineering program (I really love Brown and its program, but it is not quite as strong as the programs at Penn and Rice). Because of this large difference between the ED rate and the RD rate for Penn, I would also think that this decision is justified logically as well.

However, you are definitely right that Rice might be the “easiest” place to get into out of the three. Although it has a lower ED rate, the applicants likely include some slightly less qualified students. Another thing to consider, that my counselor stressed to me, is that my decision to apply ED to Rice all the way from the East Coast rather than applying ED to the Ivies might look rather appealing. This is something that I am going to have to consider, but I still have to get over the distance aspect of it!

Your advice has been really kind and encouraging – thank you again. I’m not sure how old your daughter is now, but I hope she is doing well at RPI or wherever she might be today! :slight_smile:

14

Also, just a quick update, I received an 8 (8-8-8-8) on the Writing section of my ACT, but I don’t know whether or not this a good/bad thing. Since I got a 34 Composite though, and I demonstrated my abilities in English with a 36 on that section, I don’t think I am going to retake. If anyone has advice, please let me know.

15

Penn takes a huge portion of its class ED while Rice does not take as large a portion of the incoming class ED leaving more room for RD admits. Unfortunately Rice does not have ED2. If your school has it, look at Naviance for how other students from your school have done applying to Penn ED and RD and Rice ED and RD, then you can make an informed decision where to play your ED card. My D swung for the fences with an SCEA school and later got in Rice RD. It all worked out in the end.

16

@Houston1021 My school does have Naviance, but it doesn’t distinguish between ED and RD, which is a bit frustrating. A lot of the information is skewed too because of the high number of recruited athletes. Also, not nearly as many kids applied to Rice compared to Penn, but of those who did, more got into Rice. I would certainly think that I have a better shot at Rice, but I am more comfortable with applying ED to Penn because of the distance from home. I’ll talk to my counselor soon since he likely knows more about the ED vs. RD rates for my school.

Anyways, congratulations to you and your daughter on her decision to go to Rice! That is incredible and a choice I really hope I will have. If you could share any of her statistics that would be really helpful.

17

@cc8912 your guidance counselor has more Naviance data than you are able to access. Your counselor will also know who the athletes are so you can factor those out of the mix. Ask your counselor to give you the ED/RD break downs without identifying individual students. You can always ED Penn, and if that doesn’t work out RD Rice as Plan B. My D had a 33 ACT (35 E and R, 31 S and M) but was very close to the top of her class with just one B. Her school doesn’t rank but she was Cum Laude. She had an 800 Spanish and 780 US History on her SAT subject tests. Lots of the same AP classes you took with 5s. She was Editor of Yearbook, on Varsity Cross Country, and had lots of involvement in theater. She also had lots of Community Service ECs. She applied to the School of Humanities. She is from a nationally ranked private school in Houston that is well known to Rice admissions. For example, last year 14 students out of a class of 140 were admitted to Rice and 9 attended. This year, at least 2 other students in her class are attending Rice. With the exception of a couple of athletes, almost all of the students that Rice has admitted the past few years were Cum Laude members.

18

@Houston1021 Thank you for all of the detailed information! Your daughter’s statistics are really incredible. It is good to see that her and I have similar stats – very close ACT, I should do well on the subject tests (Math 2 is very likely going to be an 800, I will take the Spanish, and Physics is hopefully going to be >740), and I will almost certainly be Cum Laude (my counselor has given me confirmation on this).

One thing that concerns me, however, is that my EC’s aren’t quite up to par with hers. I have done a lot to show commitment to helping others through my service in Africa, my peer tutoring program, my internship at Swarthmore this summer, and my tutoring work for poor, migrant children who speak Spanish as a first language. That said, I don’t have much else, and I certainly don’t have anything like her theater involvement.

My school is top 100 nationally in private schools (don’t know if this means much), but I think my distance from Rice might add a slight appeal. My counselor really loves the school and likely has a good relationship with it, so that might help out too. Her stats really helped me gain some perspective, so thank you very much again!

19

Your bio is very impressive. I am sure Rice is familiar with your school, and it will help that your counselor has a good relationship there. The majority of Rice’s students come from Texas, but Rice also strives for geographic diversity. If you are very interested in Rice, it is a good idea to go for a visit and spend a night on campus this fall. Stay in the dorms, attend some classes, and interview while you are there. Such a visit will give you the best insights into the Rice culture. My daughter did this and it sold her on the school. The on campus interviews tend to fill up so get on the schedule early.

20

I think the most common thread among Penn, Brown and Rice – aside obviously from strong academics – is the mostly fun-loving, rounded student body.

At any of these you can be as intellectual or pre-professional as you like, as they have the curricular range to support those poles or anywhere in between. Many schools support that academically, but the work hard-play hard social vibes mean you might not lose your mind if you really go after rigor – you can easily blow off steam. Yin and yang. Balance.

Swarthmore, bless its heart for the absolutely top-notch academic rigor and intellectualism it provides, is not known for the work hard-play hard, mellow balance of P/B/R. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun there, but you have to – I think – love rigor, hard work, and be able to thrive on stress in order for Swat to be a fit. You might think hard about that one.

Most schools allow for work-life balance. It sounds like those are the schools you should shoot for: where your expectations are a bit flexible, in terms of what the school demands.

If you develop a clear favorite, apply ED. At the same time, keep reading for suggestions on other places to apply.

I think a few decent match-range schools could include your state flag (or another state school if the flag is Berkeley…), Lehigh, Case Western, Boston U (less traditional campus…), NYU (almost no campus…), U of Rochester, SMU, Tulane, U of Miami, Wake Forest. Obviously check available majors, environments, social vibe (read…), etc. to figure out which fit you well enough to apply.

Also, run the NPC before you apply: there’s no sense in applying to a school that will sink you into paralyzing debt.