Varsity Basketball
Started a program to teach underprivileged children how to write!
President of Medical Club
VP of Diversity Club
Internship at a startup company doing business development.
Avid investor who has garnered around a 40% return on portfolio within a year.
Founded my own company in March of 2017 and I am part of an incubator that is providing me with seed funding.
Selected to be part of a scholarship program in my school… and am one of only 10 students that have the opportunity to research and write a published (dissertation-like) paper.
I am from California and I attend one of the most rigorous private schools in the nation.
Just FYI: I’m interested in double majoring in BIO/NEURO and Business
Schools:
Boston University
Emory (Oxford) ED
University of Virginia
UCSD, UCSB, UCLA, UCB
University of Maryland College Park
University of Southern California
NYU
George Washington
Georgetown
Purdue
Northeastern
Michigan
^Agreed. High schoolers who actually found their own company and aren’t just application-padding are few and far between.
Your GPA and ACT are on the low side for almost every school on your list. BU, Emory @ Oxford, UCSD, UCSB, NYU, George Washington, and Purdue could be matches/high matches for your ACT score, but your GPA makes them reaches in my opinion. The others are high reaches or out of reach.
You don’t have a single safety on your list. Find some safeties you will love, and narrow this list down to just your favorite reaches.
@ConcernedRabbit and @glittervine What I mean by my own company is that I have started a business that is backed by early seed investors. The pilot program for the service I have actually created is set to launch in a couple weeks. This is not something I have done to pad my application like the majority of students. It is in fact a legitimate entity with actual funding behind it.
Initially wasn’t even considering putting on the application but my counselor said it would be a great addition??
i think those schools are good and some within your reach but definitely not guaranteed. at this point, other factors will make a difference such as recs and essays.
consider sending subject tests even though you took the act
You’ll definitely have to find a good way to explain the company that you done. It sounds like something that hasn’t really taken bloom yet…Be careful in your phrasing.
Well, in that case, the company sounds like a good thing to include. Just be careful not to exaggerate and be honest about where it is so far.
Although your UW GPA is low, your UC GPA is not bad, so you’ll have a better chance at UCs than at comparable level schools that don’t use that calculation.
For matches, you want to look for a school where both your GPA and ACT fit in approximately the middle 50% of applicants or higher (because your ACT is fairly high, there will be a lot of schools where your GPA is average and your ACT is above average – these are better match choices than schools where your ACT is average and GPA is below average, which is the case for a lot of schools on your list currently). A match for you will also have a fairly high overall admission rate.
Possible matches: UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz, Drexel, Syracuse
For safeties, you want at least one safety where you have (practically) guaranteed admission and that will definitely be affordable. Perhaps pick a Cal State campus. For other safeties, look for schools where your GPA and ACT are above the 75% and where the acceptance rate is high.
Possible safeties: UC Merced, University of Arizona
I’ll only speak regarding George Washington, as I’m a current student and have previously worked limited roles in the admissions office… I’d simply be googling information on the other schools.
Your GPA is quite low compared to the average GWU admit, and frankly, you may have a harder time mitigating it with a 30 ACT compared to other schools, as GWU doesn’t really value the ACT as much as it does the GPA (we’re actually a test optional school now). Luckily for you, I think that your EC’s are very impressive and can certainly overshadow the lower GPA. If you make sure to explain them well to prove that you’re not exaggerating, I say GWU is a match-level school for you.
Two further points specifically for your interest in GWU…
GWU does not have a neuroscience major. You can have a psych major with a cognitive neuroscience concentration, but that’s not quite the same thing, obviously. Our biology program is excellent though.
GWU has a handful of restrictions on what students are allowed to double major in. As a general rule, you can always double major in two related fields of study, (i.e. physics and engineering, business and economics, etc), but some limits are put on what students can and cannot do. I would search the GW business school website for information on whether or not you could pursue a double major in business and bio. If you can’t find this info clearly (I could not, though I only looked for about 2 minutes), you can email a business school academic advisor and they’ll respond to you. That may seem weird, but I promise that you’ll get a kind and friendly response in a short amount of time. You should probably look into this for every school you apply to frankly, as double majoring in bio/neuro and business is ambitious… and maybe a little too ambitious for many schools.
As I said earlier, I’m a current student at GWU who has done some limited work in the admissions office. So if you’ve got any more GWU questions now or throughout this process, I’m more than happy to help you.
Best of luck! Remember to have fun with this whole process!
EDIT: Grammar fix, and I forgot to add this bit… a school that may be worth looking into for you is SMU in Dallas, TX. It’s unlike most other schools on your list, but I bring it up because you say you’re interested in a double major in physical science and business. Like I said earlier, it is VERY HARD and often impossible to do that at most schools, but I know for a fact that you could at SMU. They have a very unique way of organizing degree requirements, which consequently allows for a ton of flexibility. I’ve got a buddy who goes there. He’s a double major in computer science and history (two diametrically opposite fields of study). He’s also told me that there’s actually more double majors than single majors. For you, that might be a HUGE perk. It’s worth looking into.
For matches, look at LACs ranked about 50-100 and universities ranked from maybe 70 on down to (?) 125. Keep in mind that it is harder to get into OOS publics than in-state publics. (an in-state match might be a high match or even a low reach OOS…)
Those are all going to be solid schools – just pick ones you can afford and that fit your academic, environmental and social interests.
For safeties, look at lesser in-state public schools or lower-ranked LACs and private universities.