Chance a Northern Virginia Resident For T20s Applying for Comp Bio [3.95 GPA, 1550 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

US citizen

State/Location of residency: VA

Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Magnet, public, competitive, somewhat small

Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.): none

Intended Major(s): comp bio, bioinformatics, biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95 UW

Weighted HS GPA: 4.5 W (A+=98-100 +1.0 for AP, DE, IB, +0.5 for honors)

Class Rank: top 10%

ACT/SAT Scores: 1550

10 APS (limited by some mandatory classes at school), 3 DEs, multivariable calculus

Coursework: AP World History, AP Stats, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Bio, AP Calc BC, AP Spanish, AP Chem, AP Physics C: Mech, AP US/Comp Gov, Multivariable calculus, a few other DE’s like DE Spanish, DE Research, DE English

Awards

  • 2x First author pub in IEEE
  • 3rd place at an international computational bio conference
  • won a design/engineering comp (national)
  • top 10% of entrants in Toshiba exploravision comp
  • AP scholar with distinction

Extracurriculars

  • independent research (pub in IEEE), intl research collaboration with students from an hs abroad (no pub but first exposure to research), started an educational organization for comp bio with 100K+ students taught, did state gov school (not sure abt acceptance rate, heard it was 5% though), internship with biotech startup backed by harvard’s innovation lab (developed early diagnosis ML model, getting LOR), science olympiad president (3x medalist @ regionals, raised 1K for team), NHS officer (helped coordinate 3 community events), on school district advisory board and working with superintendent, mentor at school for freshman where we help them transition to HS

Essays/LORs/Other

personal statement is on my journey away from focusing on competition and more on intellectual curiosity (was rated strong by an AO)

supps: wrote about how my struggle with chronic illness has motivated me to tackle this issue, and how I plan on using comp bio for that, wrote about experiences with cultural dissonance and my cultural background, wrote about experiences starting my org, had a few other major topics

recs:

history - probably like a 6, was okay but tbh weren’t super close, but she did tell me she was going to write about specific details so we’ll see

math - closer to an 8, helped me get into gov school and have known her for long

internship - 10, very close, told me he wrote a 3 page rec. also he is an harvard alum but seriously doubt that would have any bearing on the harvard app specifically, right???

I only feel scared bc someone in my school in my grade has like 4 pubs to their name in some journal called the IJSSER :sob:, to be honest though i heard the program they did was pay-to-play and they had like 50 students on one paper so…

Schools i rly care about (i have other schools, mainly safeties, but I would prefer people’s opinions on my chances at these schools):

Ivies

Northwestern

Duke

Stanford

JHU

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You have accomplished a lot and should be proud of your work. I’m sure you’d do well in at any of these schools. I could make a good case why you should be accepted to any of them. But there are literally thousands of other kids with similar accomplishments also applying to these schools. They could probably double the size of their incoming class without sacrificing admission standards at all. All that to say it’s possible but not probable you’ll get into any or all of them. Make sure to cast a wide net and apply to some target schools just in case. You have some great options in state in VA where you’ll have better odds at half the cost. Good luck!

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So off hand I see a mismatch between your stated list of colleges and your interest in doing Computational Biology at the undergrad level. Some of the notable colleges which actually have such a major include:

CMU (Computational Biology):

Pitt (Computational Biology):

USC (what they call Quantitative Biology, or QBIO):

Case Western (what they call Systems Biology):

https://bulletin.case.edu/arts-sciences/biology/systems-biology-bs/

Virginia Tech (also calls it Systems Biology):

https://www.vt.edu/academics/majors/systems-biology.html

WashU (Major track in Genomics and Computational Biology, also a minor in Bioinformatics):

https://artsci.washu.edu/explore-academics/biology-major-genomics-and-computational-biology

https://bulletin.wustl.edu/undergrad/engineering/computerscience/minor-bioinformatics/

Harvey Mudd (Mathematical and Computational Biology):

WPI (Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, with a five-year BS/MS option):

RPI (Computational Biology with concentration options in Biomolecular or Ecological):

Colby (major option in Computational Biology):

https://www.colby.edu/academics/course-catalogue/department-and-program-requirements/biology-requirements/

MIT has their Computer Science and Molecular Biology course (Course 6-7):

https://catalog.mit.edu/degree-charts/computer-science-molecular-biology-course-6-7/

Off your original list, I would also include Brown’s Computational Biology concentration:

At least at most of the other colleges you named, I believe Computational Biology is more a graduate and/or med school program, although you might be able to do some related courses as an undergrad. But I know the institutions I listed above have a robust, formalized undergrad program.

1 Like
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In these schools, it’s near impossible to stand out, so your chances are going to be around 5-10%. All you can do is apply and find out. Just remember, even if you get in, that’s only half the battle. Paying for it is where the REAL selection takes place. Sometimes you get a good financial aid package. Sometimes you don’t. If you can’t pay, there’s always a richer kid with slightly lower stats that they can put on a waiting list.

Keep the match/safety schools handy. It’s hard to go wrong in your state flagship school. Also, I’m a big believer in scholarships. Graduating from an honors program is a tangible accomplishment you can put on a resume.

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For accuracy:
This is not how it works at need blind, meet full need schools like the ones OP has listed.

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