Aiming for >T20 [VA resident, 3.9 UW, 1540 SAT, neuroscience/pre-med/business]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics:

I’m your average first-gen immigrant Asian male. Current Junior.

I have two paths that i’m considering right now; major in neuroscience and go to medical school, or get an MBA from a T10 or above.

Stats:

Unweighted HS GPA: 3.9/4.0
Weighted HS GPA: ≈4.5-4.6/5.0 (Traditional System)
College GPA: 4.0/4.0 (Dual Enrollment Courses)
Class Rank: 10% (decile rank)
ACT/SAT Scores: No ACT Yet (projected 34 based on preparation), 1540 SAT (plan on improving)

Coursework

12 AP, 3 DE, 6 Honors
A’s in all business and marketing courses other than a B+ in Online Economics (pain).
Science is a BIG weak point.

Awards

-DECA Entrepreneurship (in progress)
-AP Scholar
-Student of the Month
-Presidential Academic Achievement Award
-Principal’s List & Honor Roll

Extracurriculars (I really need to tidy this up)

-Tutoring
-Founded two clubs, President for two clubs, Marketing team for two clubs.
-Cofounded a social media marketing agency spanning over 4000 customers.
-Creative director of an art page on Instagram with almost 100K followers.
-Research paper with neurobiology professor on connecting parts of the brain using simulations.
-Authored an edublog for a year, posting once every day.
-A bunch more, but like I said, I need to clean this part up.

Essays/LORs/Other
Family tragedy in Sophomore year caused grades to suffer.
Strong essays, been working on them for a year.
10/10 LOR from Marketing and Entrepreneurship teacher.
10/10 LOR from a Professor that I did research with.
Possibly Harvard Alumni Relations, Legacy at GWU.

Cost Constraints / Budget
Most likely none, but full scholarships would be really cool.

Schools
-Dream school is UPenn Wharton or UToronto.
-UVA since it’s in-state for me + Northwestern, Dartmouth, NYU, Duke, USC.
-HYPSM

I really appreciate anyone who comes along to chance me or give me some sort of advice on my ECs and grades. Thanks!!! :smiley:

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Typically schools expect LORs from two core academic teachers.

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Can you prove this - especially the first?

So for top 10 MBA, the where you go undergrad will matter little. But anyway, it’s a bit early to focus on this. First it’s getting to school and then taking advantage of said school.

Academically, you can, in theory, reasonably apply most anywhere but for selective schools, in most cases, getting a test score like you noted - will be needed at a minimum.

But rigor also matters. Will you have the required science needed for college - 3 years lab science preferred for many schools? You note science is a weak spot Will you be through calc?

Agreed you’ll have to swap out both LORs in some cases.

If you want scholarships / merit - than you have to apply to schools that offer them. So if Wharton is your choice, then just know, assuming you don’t qualify for need aid, your family will be paying $375-400K vs. say going to UVA or W&M and spending a fraction of that.

Also, Wharton - won’t get you to neuro.

UVA is not direct admit - and all your choices will be reaches but it’s not to say they can’t happen. They also won’t give you a nickel in money - so if you truly mean, a full ride would be nice (or money), then you have to totally change your mindset. Great business schools that would come in super cheap to much cheaper - would be Alabama Culverhouse, Georgia Terry, Florida Warrington, Maryland Smith, MIami Farmer and the ultimate safety if you deliver on the test score - IU Kelley.

You need a match and safeties - at a minimum a W&M type - but again, let’s see how your test comes out.

You also need to discuss budget with your family - because your schools will cost nearly $400K - and you need to ensure they’re ok with that vs. going to a fine school, attending an Honors program, and spending less than $100K.

And I’m assuming business.

Neuro - there’s likely many better choices for “value”.

Finally - back to MBA - you don’t go straight through - you work a few years - and that’s why where you go matters less - but getting substantive and impactful experience plus a great GMAT in most cases - will be what you need.

Good luck

PS: Back to LORs - see what each school says.

Dartmouth - you’ll need two new ones:

Two Teacher Evaluations: A teacher evaluation (or recommendation) is a written statement, completed by an instructor* from an academic course, that addresses the applicant’s academic performance, engagement with the course subject matter and classmates, and personal character.

For example, Penn says:

Teacher Recommendation (1): When asking a teacher for a recommendation, Penn would like to hear from teachers that you had most recently. These would be teachers you had during your junior or senior year in major academic subjects (such as math, science, history, English, or foreign language). The best academic recommendations come from teachers who know you well and who can speak to your engagement in the classroom — not necessarily the ones who gave you the best grade.

Other Recommendation (1): This may be a second teacher recommendation or a non-academic recommendation. We don’t prefer one option over the other (academic vs. non-academic) and encourage you to choose the option that works best for you. When asking for a non-academic recommendation, Penn would like to hear from someone who knows you personally and whose perspective would add information not captured elsewhere in your application. This second person may be a supervisor at work, mentor, coach, arts or music instructor, spiritual leader, or cultural leader.

UVA says:

We require the secondary school report and one teacher evaluation from an academic subject teacher for each first-year application.

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This is a very top heavy list. Are you assuming UVA is your sure thing for admission?

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Science is a weak point but premed? Lots of weed out lab science classes.

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Then you might want to reconsider premed.

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I’m just gonna put this out there for anyone replying to this, I did not put my safeties on here because, yes, they are safeties, and I’m almost 100% sure that I will get in.

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Nope… but from what i’ve heard from my peers, there’s an above 50% chance.

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What is an academy beach student?

If you have sure things for admission, you can apply anywhere else you choose.

I always suggest finding one early admission or rolling admission school. Apply early and get (hopefully) an acceptance early in the game.

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I can clearly prove the second point by pulling up the Instagram analytics, but the first one will be harder to prove due to all business being conducted through a social media channel that is now deleted. LORs are swappable, I’m on pretty good terms with most of my teachers. I’ve discussed budgeting, and it just comes down to “if you get into a good enough school, we’ll pay whatever”.

Other than all that, do you have any direct predictions for schools that I will get into? Thanks.

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Tell us more about the courses you’ve taken

How much science ? Math ?

Don’t put any accolades out there that cannot be proven true.

You are a kid. Schools know that.

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I am confused by premed …and science being a BIG weak point.

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Maybe the MBA will then become clear althiugh one can’t plan for this now….

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Every AP Science class other than Physics C, all AP Math classes. 2 B’s in Chem and Bio, rest A’s. All A’s in Maths + gonna take a Multivariable Calc class offered by my high school next year.

Thanks for the advice on the ECs, like I said, i’m trying to clean it up.

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Me neither tbh

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Me too*

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Too many kids act like they’ve cured cancer, started world class start ups and more.

You are 17. They are not dumb.

So let’s assume any STEM majors are out. Yes you can major in neuro but then I’d check curriculums. Some are heavier STEM than others.

For an MBA, if you’ll even need one, the where you go undergrad matters little. On the last published Harvard list I can find - they had admits from 264 schools - name the college - U of xxxx like Arkansas, Delaware, etc and it’s on the list.

I’d ensure a balanced list that you’d be happy to attend.

If UVA is the baseline, then find others you’d potentially choose over it. btw - Va Tech has a Neuro College…an entire college - maybe THAT should be the baseline. The Pamplin b school is also excellent.

Since med school is highly improbable (sorry), what are the outcomes of these students ? What kind of jobs are they getting ? Going to grad school won’t put you on an MBA path. Work will.

Step one for you - stay busy, get good grades, raise the test.

Step 2 - visit some schools of different size and environment and decide what you want.

Step 3 - put actual costs in front of your family. UPenn $90k plus. UVA $40K.

$200k plus difference.

Make sure they understand.

A lot of kids say their parents said what you just said and the parents realize later - they couldn’t comfortably swing it and the kid’s search was a waste.

So drill deeper……

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Is it you premed or mom and dad who say you should be pre med and you should only go high end ?

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Yep. Also, to mention your previous thread, I think that undergrad prestige matters if you want to be a partner in a consulting firm or investment banker in the future, because of internships and networks. Ultimately, for me, it comes down to where I can use my skills to make a bunch of money.

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@lkg4answers could you switch the title to pre-med/business or something along the lines of that?

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