Zero extracurriculars--do I need better safeties?

Applying to College
1

This has been really bugging me, I’ve put together what appears to be a good list but I’m still afraid that my complete lack of EC’s (don’t worry, it is a complete lack) are gonna make me viable at none of these places. First of all, here’s my stats:

SAT (new): 1550
ACT: 34
GPA: 4.0 (98 on a 100 scale)
Rank: 2/~400
SAT II’s: Chem-800, Physics-780, US History-800, Math II-800, Spanish-800
Courseload: all honors and AP/dual enrollment. Freshman/sophomore year it’s 1 AP each and one dual enrollment plus everything else honors, then junior/senior is all AP/DE.
APs: Chem-5, Enviro-5, Physics1/2-4 on both, English Lang-4, US-5, Bio-4, Gov-5

EC’s:
Again, basically empty. Got Spanish National Honor Society but really it’s just something to write down. I haven’t participated in it at all but I’m still technically in it. Really all it implies is that I got good grades in Spanish, which my transcript shows anyway.
Summer job at the same place for 4 years. Again, nothing special or dazzling or lifechanging about it, it’s just something I did
Honestly, that’s it. My hobbies are nothing special or interesting, just boring (well, I think interesting) stuff that involves zero community involvement or personal commitment. No competitions or stuff like that either.

My intended major is chemical engineering

My schools:

MIT
Stanford
Caltech
Berkeley
Georgia Tech (all rejects so far, I know)
UT Austin
UW Madison
Purdue
UMichigan
U of M Twin Cities
UIUC
Texas A&M
SUNY Stony Brook
SUNY Buffalo (in-state for the last two)

What I’m afraid of is that the schools below the reject pile and above my in-states are hopeless for me. This is mainly because I’m out of state and mainly because of my major. It really makes me think that their 40-60% sticker admission rates are really on par with those of the rejects, even though my stats are way above average for most of those places. But all that’s fine in my opinion, although it would be really disappointing. What my real fear is is that my in-state picks will reject me too. There’s just such a huge focus on EC’s and outside stuff that I really do feel like having zero of that automatically disqualifies me. I know most in-state places give guaranteed admissions for certain stats, but I think in my state only community colleges do that. I’d be okay with a rejection from Stony since it’s significantly harder to get into than Buffalo (Stony is about 40%, UB is around 60%), but do you think that even then I need better safeties? There are 4-years with automatic admissions for stats regardless of residency, but is that really necessary for me or do you think my current safeties are good enough?

2

First have you run the Net Price Calculators for your school list? You are in-state for NY so you would be paying OOS rates for all the public Us. Second, google the Common Data Set for each of those schools and look at section C7 to see what weight ECs get. For the most part, GPA and Class Rigor > Scores >> ECs.

3

A job is an EC. What are your hobbies?

4

What’s your parents’ budget for your college?
Most universities don’t care about them.
If you’re worried: Apply to Iowa State and UAlabama, they don’t care about your EC’s, they’ll look at your GPA and test scores and you’re in, guaranteed. You’d likely get a good scholarship at Iowa State and guaranteed at UAlabama.

5

@MYOS1634

That’s funny, I was just thinking about Iowa State. It’s 100% guaranteed admission (according to my rank, ACT, and GPA) so that really gives me peace of mind. Really I’m confident in at least getting into UBuffalo, but of course admission isn’t guaranteed there. Iowa is cheap enough (obviously not as much as a SUNY, but still not bad) and more importantly, it’s good for my major unlike a community college. At community colleges engineering is much more hands-on and skill-based than at 4-years. They prepare technicians really, not engineers. And that’s really not good for what I ultimately want to do, which is patent law (the huge focus on undergrad is so my degree can be something to fall back on). But anyway, I think I’ll just add Iowa to my list so I can hope for the best without having to worry about a pile of rejection letters.