1Chance Me For Top Universities

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi I’m a senior from Ontario Canada just turned 16, could you chance me for schools below for pre med, here are my stats:

GPA: 92%
Rank: My school doesn’t rank but assume in top 10%

AP/IB: My school and any surrounding schools don’t have ap or ib courses. So I decided to graduate in 3 years. I took 10 core credits a year for 3 years plus summer school and night school whereas the norm is 8 credits first year, 8 credits second year, 7 credits third year and 7 credits fourth year.

SAT: Test Optional

Race: Indian

Background: I lived in Michigan for 9 years, then moved to rural India for 4 years then moved to Canada and have been here from 2017-present.

Extra Curriculars:

When I was 10 I started my own kids magazine and recruited kids that were struggling to read/write, taught them how to write compelling stories and conduct interviews. Their grades went up a lot after my magazine and I received an award for community service from the Detroit Tigers on center field. It also got appraisal from the school district, the governor, the president and local and state news.

When I moved to India I taught rural and underprivileged kid programming like Arduino, python and scratch and also started a book club for them.

I am also an experienced professional archer since I was 10. In India, I won 6-7 national gold medals and my team was invited and won the international Indo Bhutan Tournament. I also participate in state tournaments in Canada and played to qualify for the Canada Winter games.

I also volunteer a lot at a non profit organization that takes care of kids that have physical and neurological disabilities. 100+ hours

I was inspired by my time there and started writing poetry to talk about their struggles on stage. Eventually I wrote a published poetry book and partnered with an NGO to give all my sales to (they research new treatment for neurological disorders). The sales are estimated to be 8000+ CAD

I got an honorable mention for a well known national poetry competition.

I also run a citywide food drive in partnership with the mayor. 56 hours

I also have 32+ hours of shadowing with a physical therapist (didn’t have many options due to covid)

Have stellar recommendations from my bio teacher, planning your future course teacher, my archery coach, and shadowing

Common App Essay:9/10

Schools I’m applying to RD:

WUSTL
U Mich Ann Arbor
Vanderbilt
John Hopkins
CMU
Brown
Columbia (supplemental for creative writing included)
Northwestern
NYU
Rice
Baylor

1 Like
4

You sound absolutely amazing, but given your clear strengths and accomplishments - why a 92%? Was there a deliberate tradeoff between your co-curricular pursuits and academic success? Would you please explain, in detail, your unweighted and weighted grades and describe your courses? - I know you said there is no option for harder classes. Also, please help me understand how the kid’s magazine and your involvement has evolved over the last 6 years? Similarly, how current are your archery accomplishments. I tend to be less excited about accomplishments from early grades and more excited about how they evolved over time. Are you also test optional?

6

It does and thank you. Rather than giving you odds for each school, please consider that top students with 95+ in more difficult classes will be applying to those same schools, also test optional. You are very impressive and I believe you will get into 1 or more of them if your background/activities sell as well as they seem to. On the other hand, expect that your admittance will likely not come from the Brown and Columbia-types. Just one opinion and I hope things go your way.

8

That’s a dangerous question for me to answer. Baylor, IMO. Oh… you knew that. None of the others qualify.

10

What is your total budget with no loans for a full 8 years?

Given the price of medical school in the US, and the price of medical school in Canada, plus the outstanding quality of medical schools in both countries, plus the ability to do medical school in Canada and do a residency in the US, why do you want to attend university in the US? What do you think that you are going to get from any of the US schools on your list that you could not get at Toronto, Queens, McGill, or another university in Canada?

12

Are you a Canadian citizen/resident, too? If you are, you most definitely want to do college and med school in Canada. SO much cheaper. How are you going to pay for a minimum of 200K for undergrad, and maybe another 300K for med school?

That being said, I’m sure you know that “pre-med” is not a major here. You need to major in something that you can do really well in, so it’s got to be something that you love. Applying to school saying you want to do pre-med is less impressive than applying to school saying, "I want to major in neuroscience, because I am fascinated by the brain, rapidly developing field, so exciting, do research, blahblahlah, with the end goal of becoming a neurologist because I was inspired by my volunteer work with children with cerebral palsy to become a neurologist and help them.

Honestly, I was pretty impressed with your credentials. A lot is going to depend upon how you “massage” the elements to submit a great application package. Colleges are going to be a little wary of only 3 yrs of high school, but if you’re in a rural area with no AP/IB/early college dual enrollment, then it makes sense. But ALL your schools are high reaches, except Baylor. How comfortable would you be there? It’s a Baptist school in a very conservative Texas city of 145K.

Any idea what you’d like to major in? You can major in ANYTHING, and still go to med school. Our med schools LOVE non-science majors. Your choice of major, selectivity of perhaps 40% or better, and schools that give merit aid or good financial aid, should guide your selection of schools to apply to.

15

I got confused from the fact that you are currently in high school in Ontario. I am assuming that you also are not a Canadian Permanent Resident. Is this correct?

17

Hmmm, looks like I guessed your interest! Okay, so PLEASE consider what I’m about to say. Do your undergrad and med school in Canada. You qualify as a permanent resident there to go to any school there, at resident rates. If you can get into McGill, go there. Otherwise, go to the best school you can get into in Canada. Then go to the best medical school you can get into in Canada. You’re looking at under 100K total for undergrad and med school, maybe under 50K, depending upon your provincial residency, vs as much as 750K total for undergrad and med school in the US.

Unless you come from some incredible family wealth, and are an only child, there is no argument you can make that outweighs possibly 700K difference in the cost of your education. There are many brilliant US students who would KILL for the chance to go to McGill undergrad and McGill med at Canadian resident rates.

It’s not a bad thing to finish in 3 years, if you don’t have college level education available to you at your high school. But overall, admin committees in the US are going to think, “Hmmm. 16. Is this kid ready for college? Why is he leaving high school early?” Whereas from what you say it’s no big deal in Canada. In the US, no one thinks, “Oh, he’s SO smart that he finished high school in 3 yrs!” They think, “Does this kid have a social problem that he’s escaping - family troubles? Outcast in high school?”

At the very least, make reach, match, and safety options for yourself in Canada, and then for the heck of it, if you want to, throw in a few applications in the US at schools you might want to go to, which might give you substantial merit aid (unless you are incredibly wealthy and don’t need to consider money).

Your backstory is interesting. Your extracurriculars are interesting, but achievement at the middle school level is not what they’re looking for, and not in archery. There is nothing in your application that helps an admissions committee to rank you against your peers academically. Small rural Canadian school, and you’re not first in your class, or top 3 there. No standardized test scores. No competitive exam achievements.

I have a feeling that an admissions committee would see you as an academic mystery. Top schools would pass on you, and less competitive schools that award merit money might admit you, but not award merit money.

If you are absolutely one thousand percent determined to go to the US for college, I would say you should prep hard for the SAT or ACT, get a stellar score, and apply next year. Meawhile, take online high-level classes through something like the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins, or via online classes at the most highly respected, known Canadian college you can get them at, or self-study for some AP classes and get 5’s on them this spring, so that you can give an admin committee for next year some hard data points so that they can assess you academically.

18

From the perspective of university admissions and cost (such as the tuition that you pay), this is the same as being a citizen. This means that you can save buckets of money and avoid buckets of debt by doing your bachelor’s in Canada, and buckets more by doing your MD in Canada.

The universities that I mentioned in my first post (Toronto, Queens, McGill) are all ones which are significantly more expensive if you are an international student, and less expensive if you are a permanent resident (or a citizen) of Canada.

22

I would bet that concrete evidence of high academic achievement is what the extraordinarily competitive BS/MD combined programs are looking for.

24

Combined programs, from my experience, are extremely challenging.

26

Yes, there is a very slight chance. What is it about those, in particular - besides that they are very strong? Do any other US colleges interest you; if you have your heart set on those. Drop a level and you will go 50% - think BU-types. Note those are also very strong.

29

That is a dangerous question for me to answer. There is a lot I don’t know about you and how they will perceive your Michigan/India/Canada path (one may like it more). Feel like the ceiling is a slight chance and maybe that is CMU or U Michigan (because of some state tie), or maybe Rice, NYU or Wash U - all well above your profile though IMO. I would select the one or two from those you like and give it a shot. No point applying to any reach schools without full effort. Case and Rochester are great schools, too, and somewhat more in range, but certainly not safe.

Maybe I will be wrong. That would make me happy.

31

You need kindness and encouragement, not stomping on your dreams. But frankly, I don’t think you have any chance of getting into any combined BS/MD program in the US. They are hypercompetitive. And I think that the list of schools you gave are beyond reaches for you. I do think you have a chance at US schools which are less selective, those that accept 50% or more of their applicant pool, but I don’t think you’ll get merit aid. But you’re applying to highly selective schools, that mostly take fewer than 20% of their applicants from out of state if they’re flagship state schools, yet you’ve given them no firm data point that shows high academic qualifications. They have no basis to evaluate achievement at your school in Canada. You’re a US citizen, right? So you’d qualify for financial aid, but the less competitive schools are also less well-endowed, and most of your aid would be in the form of loans.

So again, it raises the question. Why pay so much to go to a non-competitive US school, when you have access to good schools in Canada, for so much less money? Why plan for med school in the US, when it will be SO much cheaper for you in Canada?

Were you able to take an SAT or an ACT, or even any SAT subject tests? I just saw that you’re the person who accidentally had scores sent, with an SAT of 1390, to a couple of schools, but you wanted to apply test optional.

Here’s the thing - that SAT of 1390 is not bad, it’s 95th percentile, and more importantly, it’s a hard data point that the colleges can look at to evaluate you, to put your 93% average at your high school in Canada into context. You can USE that 1390, and focus on somewhat less selective schools, and you’d likely get in. Paying for it would be another story, but I don’t know anything about your family’s financial standing.

32

I’m just curious - you’re applying to so many schools that are dream reaches for you, then you say they’re “just backups”, then you talk about combined BS/MD programs, Then you talk about expanding the list to even more schools. Do you have a fee waiver, so that the sky’s the limit on the number of applications you submit?

34

I know you did not ask this question, but from my experience, too many applications produces worse results. You can’t compete with someone equally strong, putting in a similar amount of time, on 1/2 the applications. Please consider that - k?

37

Okay. More is making sense here. If you have a financial waiver for applications, then you would probably qualify for full financial aid (assuming no change in your family’s financial situation). If you are not qualified for McGill, you’re not qualified for T20 schools in the US, either. Your EC’s are interesting, but not of the national or international level of achievement that compensate for less than superb academic qualifications. You’re assuming that test optional has opened a window for you into the top schools this year, when it probably has not. You’re unlikely to get into the T20 type schools that you’re applying to. You might get a good fin aid/merit package at a school where you are far more qualified than the average applicant. Any fin aid package that you are offered is probably going to consist of a lot of loans, and you’re talking about also wanting med school in the future, which in very expensive. You do not want to take out loans for undergrad, if you can avoid it.

You say you live in Ontario. What about U of Toronto? Toronto is an amazing city, and U of Toronto is a fantastic school, right in the city. The energy there is incredible. Your GPA and SAT score will get you in there. They also have an excellent medical school, so surely there would be research opportunities there. I really hope that you have applied there. It would likely be an excellent match school for you.

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How would you pay for college in the US, assuming that you got in anywhere out of the many schools you say you 've applied to?

43

Toronto would be an excellent match, but you just added another reach. Although Americans think McGill is Canada’s best… you just named it. Take that back.

44

On the other hand, if you apply into their equivalent of liberal arts, and one of those majors fit you - you would likely get in. Sorry @parentologist, I jumped the gun.