I’m super anxious please chance me and I’ll chance back
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2380; 800 M, 780 CR, 800 W
ACT (breakdown): Didn’t take
SAT II: 800 M2, 800 Bio, 790 USH, 780 Lit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0 UW; 4.58 W
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 1% (school is really competitive)
AP (place score in parenthesis): 5 Bio, 5 USH, 5 Stats, 5 BC Calc, 5 Chem
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP English, Multivariable Calc (community college), AP Physics C, AP Enviro Science, AP Art History, AP Econ
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Finalist, AP Scholar w/ Distinction, lots of MUN Awards including Best Delegate, Principal Honors past three years (given to 5 out of 500 students per grade)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): MUN (Founder and Pres but club is small); Political Newspaper (Editor-in-Chief); Varsity soccer (Captain); Varsity basketball (MVP of league last year); Knitting Club lol (Founder, Pres)
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service: 400 hours all of high school at local hospital; shadowed emergency medicine doctors
Summer Activities: Volunteering at hospital for freshman and sophomore year; Research w/ Stanford Professor which was totes awesome my junior year; co-authored paper with the same Professor my senior year on stem cell regeneration
Essays: CommonApp essay 9/10 according to adults; Yale essays were iffy so probably 8/10. I talked about being a minority in academic environments, a little bit about my little brother, and some stuff about medicine
Teacher Recommendation: First one from bio teacher who really likes me and is known for good recs. Got a 98% and a 5 on AP test and talk a lot of politics with her. Second one from English teacher who’s had me for 3 years and really likes me too (I think)
Counselor Rec: Should be good since we talk a lot and has been really supportive of me
Additional Rec: From Stanford Professor (I hope it doesn’t conflict with Yale lol)
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology, Premed
State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Black
Gender: F
Income Bracket: <$40k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, first gen
Well, the good news is that you’re par academically with the competitive pool for the elite schools, so adcoms will at least consider you in-depth. I think your ECs are a nice mix, and great job with the co-authoring on a research paper!
Still, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford are reaches for anyone simply because of their selectivity, but you’ve got a decent shot nonetheless. Brown and Columbia are reaches as well, though to a lesser extent. Cal is definitely a match or high match, as is UCLA and UC Davis. And UCSC is a solid match to low match. I don’t know much of Tufts, so I can’t say much, unfortunately.
Have fun choosing from your entire college list. Honestly, with your URM status, top-notch numbers, and assuming that you wrote a pretty good essay, you’re in.
Post #4 “All I can say is you have nothing that stands out”
This is the most “College Confidential” comment of all time! Congratulations, @tyronium !
OP, you are very highly qualified candidate, with two hooks - you have as good a shot as anyone at Yale and the others. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but if you wrote good applications, you should have some interesting choices.
^^ Agree. Although, I wonder why you didn’t have time to get an early app in. I guess in your case in won’t matter much but for most other strong applicants it makes sense to at least send an app(s) to a SCEA or EA school(s). Good luck!
Your hooks are extremely helpful, and it gives you a good shot at all of your schools. With your excellent statistics, I can’t see how you won’t get into at least a few of your top schools.
You’re obviously very highly qualified. Good job on publishing research! Along with your wonderful achievements, your hooks make me feel that you will have some interesting choices to make, come April.
I think you’re in at the schools you’re applying to. College admissions is a gamble so nothing is guaranteed, but URM, First Gen, Low Income with incredible stats and EC’s, makes you one of the most desired applicants in the RD pool.
