Can I Get Into a Reach? [CA resident, 3.79 GPA (4.15 for UC), 1550 SAT, physics]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • Bay Area California
  • Private HS
  • Legacy @ Princeton and Hamilton
  • Cost Constraints: None

Intended Major(s)

Physics and potentially double with engineering or AI

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.79 (first semester p/f→3.4→3.6→3.85→3.95x3 (assuming this semester goes well which it should)
  • Weighted HS GPA: We do not have APs, IBs, and only have honors junior and senior year. Took the same classes as everyone else first two years, now take most rigorous offered
  • We don’t rank
  • 1550 SAT (780m 770RW)

List your HS coursework

Overall the same coursework as everyone else since it’s very strict for the first two years (although non honors math and took an extra course) and junior and senior year I’m effectively taking the hardest courses offered

  • English: no way to differentiate at my school
  • Math: only non-honors and honors, was non-honors first two years and now honors track
  • Science: Biology, chemistry, electrical engineering and comp sci, and advanced physics with calculus (very competitive course at my school with needed coreq as highest level math course). No way to differentiate within a class
  • History and social studies: no way to differentiate
  • Language other than English: After senior year French IV (honors I guess but there’s no other version)
  • Visual or performing arts: theatre first two years
  • Other academic courses: MARC EED as an extra course sophomore year where you assemble a project over a whole year

Awards

Potentially AIME qualification. Doing work for it this summer despite not touching math Olympiad before and getting 75-80 right now without studying.

Extracurriculars
had a 4 hour total daily commute for freshman and sophomore year so it was hard to engage with extracurricular then

Long-time member of debate, philosophy, and engineering club but no direct leadership

60 volunteering hours

Quantum computing mentorship where I’m building quantum circuits with someone at LBNL

Making an auto-sorting trash can for my schools cafeteria in partner with them

Harvey Mudd ASPIRE program this summer

Made a CNN to hopefully classify gravitational lenses for the Vera Rubin observatory but due to it being delayed haven’t been able to use it (they didn’t ask me, sheer love of the game)

Cross country for last two years but no direct leadership

Top 5% raw returns UPenn Wharton investment competition

Math Night, which is a surprisingly competitive program at my school I got into where I reverse engineered Spotify’s algorithm, did a case study on it with some friends where we made our own, and then presented it in front of a few hundred people

Essays/LORs/Other
Likely very strong essays. I had a 100% both in English and history all year and even have an essay coach for this who said they’re good.

I had perfect grades and max extra credit in EECS and history which is where my letters are coming from, and my teachers both liked me a lot. My EECS teacher even sat down with me for an hour so I could give him everything he needed to make the best letter possible

We are a big feeder for some schools, with a 20% RD acceptance rate at WashU, a 40% RD acceptance rate at NYU, and a 60% RD acceptance rate at Northeastern alongside sending multiple kids out of our very small class each year to Stanford and brown

UC capped weighted 4.15 (4b+ first semester sophomore, all other semesters are all As

Schools

  • Extremely Likely: CU Boulder (hopefully honors college), UCSC
  • Likely: University of Washington, UCI, University of Rochester, UCD
  • Toss-up: UCSB, NYU (big feeder), Case Western Reserve, Colby, Davidson, Hamilton (legacy)
  • Lower Probability: UCSD, Cornell, Williams, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Harvey Mudd (ASPIRE program), Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth
  • Low Probability: MIT, Caltech, Stanford (small feeder), Princeton (legacy+SCEA), UChicago (ED2)
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Oh and I also am taking Advanced Mathematical Thinking & Inquiry which is an application only math course at my school

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I would definitely apply to Princeton & Hamilton, if interested in attending those schools, due to your legacy advantage. But remember, even if the legacy admit were 50% (not suggesting that it is), that’s a coin flip of heads or tails. Would your lack of direct leadership experience outweigh your legacy advantage & SAT 1550 score (with 1600 being within your SEM range)?

I would need to know a bit more about your high school. You have provided some historical admit percentages for some schools like Wash U. & NYU. Has your high school sent graduates to Caltech, Chicago, MIT, & Harvey Mudd before - do they tend to be 4.0 students, 3.9+ GPA, how about any lower? Can you estimate a percentage class rank with a 3.79/3.80 GPA?

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What do your guidance counselor and coach say about your list and your chances? A private school counselor and college coach are going to have much more context about your school and where you fall within your cohort and will be more accurate about your chances.

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I would guess my class rank is above average but not by much. Of course upward trajectory is a nice factor for me, but I would say our school situation around GPA is a bit weird. It’s inflated compared to what an average should be (I would guess 3.7 is typical?) but also much harder due to the school’s 10% acceptance rate and only 100 kids per class (we had two kids transfer in with 4.0s from public school this year and both flunked out). I would say our odds at those schools are better, but we actually don’t have enough students to get graphs or other information for them. For the graphs I can see, we have ~20-30 students applying to a typical competitive school and 3-4 will get accepted with 3.8-4.0 gpa and 1400+ SAT, and then there’s 1 or 2 that are spread out. I’m looking at Cornell right now and a kid got in with 3.59 GPA 1090 SAT, and at Duke I see two with under 1200 SAT and under 3.7GPA

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So I have a school college counselor but it’s very stigmatized to talk about odds which is why I’m coming here. She said the list is “solid” but I just have no idea what that means in my context and what I should be expecting from outcomes.

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Would you have any idea if these were hooked (athletes, legacy, donor etc)? While I could see GPA being taken in school context, the SAT results give pause about these.

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Ask what they mean by solid. You must have at least one highly likely school that is affordable…make sure your counselor agrees with those.

I expect these students were hooked in some way, ask your counselor. They may have also applied test optional… Duke is still TO and Cornell had been until this cycle.

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This is data from the last three years so includes when they were test optional. I would guess a good chunk are in the field though because my school is very affluent and the kid did ED. That being said, I also have legacy for Princeton and much better stats so I’m hoping for a similar outcome despite not having donor status

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Ask your parent who is the legacy at Princeton. AFAIK, Princeton still puts alumnae in 4-5 donor/participation/volunteer categories, and the kids of legacies in the higher tier have a relatively greater chance. My understanding is the Princeton alum group is forthright with people about the tier they are in.

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I don’t really have any budget constraints; of course cheaper is always better but I would rather go to MIT for full price than even UC Berkeley for free. My counselor has told me I have very good odds at some of those mid-tiers (all she’s said about odds is that I should be expecting a “coinflip” at Hamilton, Davidson, and Colby) and looking at the graph I likely have 60-80%+ at NYU due to our feeder status. I agree with the students being hooked in some way, it’s just hard to tell though.

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Okay, so you are estimating that a 3.7 GPA is about 50th percentile, half the senior class below & half above, so with a 3.8, you could be around 61st-67th percentile, outside of top 25%. At your high school, regular likely compares to honors in a public school & honors compares to gifted. The Cornell & Duke examples - interpret with caution, they could benefit from legacy but also depending on what schools they applied to & what majors they are pursuing - degree programs that don’t necessarily require a 1550 SAT score to be successful.

AIME qualification will provide an admissions advantage & compensate for taking regular math classes previously (honors vs. gifted). You have a decent list of ECs - is there any way for you to gain a leadership experience as president or VP of something - that to me looks to be your main disadvantage. I understand that this can be hard to do at a small high school and colleges should understand. Also, have you done any research?

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So with what you know from your counselor and school history, along with your preferences, how have you arrived at your app strategy? Are you considering other strategies? Have you talked thru this with your counselor? If not, perhaps that’s how you frame your discussions with them.

Which of these schools have you visited? You must visit UChicago before applying ED2. Also remember, results can be unpredicatable at the reaches in the RD round.

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Again I have the mentorship but no research just because I’ve only been learning about quantum for three months now and that field is incredibly esoteric. For leadership I was thinking about starting an SAT tutoring org and got a few of my friends to be tutors so I may just advertise online and see if I can do anything with that. (would nonprofit, for-profit, or a club at my school for it look better? I don’t want me starting a nonprofit senior year to seem cliché).

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Lots of students tutor & mentor younger students at all levels - ES, MS, & HS. Not sure if admissions committees would count that as a leadership experience. But again, you attend a small high school with just 100 students in your class. There aren’t 100 clubs & honor societies available.

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For UChicago I have not yet but will be soon and if I can’t I will certainly swap it out for something else. I’ve visited every other school on the list though besides Colby, Davidson, NYU, Case Western, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, and U of Washington. I don’t really know what you mean by an app strategy though, can you fill me in?

For applications though, I like all my reaches (except I’m not the biggest fan of Harvey Mudd and UCLA) and don’t really like anything below the reach category which kinda sucks. It’s difficult because I want to look at doing frontier tech and physics, and those things require resources, VC money, and a lot of attention from faculty which I’ve been told by my college counselor are things I just can’t find in a target.

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I was more-so thinking about starting a club and recruiting tutors at my school to do the teaching for the club, or recruiting and outreaching outside of school, not necessarily doing the tutoring myself (although I might on top of that). What do you think about that?

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If it is an activity that you are passionate about & have the time for, then go for it. It shouldn’t come off as just an application or resume filler.

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So try to reach out to alums then? My dad is pretty much clueless about this stuff when I’ve asked him about it, although he is still very involved since he does a lot of research there.

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You don’t need research, nor do you need to start a non-profit. These won’t have much impact on your app as they will be so new.

I would call creating an auto-sorting trash can and landing a partership with the cafeteria leadership (among other things like entrepreneurship, identification of improvements/need analysis, engineering/build skills, project planning.) It’s all how you position what you have already done.

Another idea…Can you help run math night this year, or take a leadership position in debate, philosophy, or engineering clubs? My point is no need to re-invent the wheel or start something…work with what you are already doing, which I presume you like.

I would also only do math olympiad if that appeals to you, again, that’s not going to make much impact in the next few months. Even if you are an Aime qualifier…it’s just kind of late.

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