Chance a Plant Lover for T10s! đŸŒ±[GA resident, 4.0 GPA, 35 ACT, environmental science]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US Citizen (Not International)
  • State/Location of residency: Georgia
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Private, Rural, Competitive-ish
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.) Rural, Legacy at Duke, LGTBQ+

Cost Constraints / Budget
No Constraints

Intended Major(s)
Environmental Science
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.7
  • Class Rank: School Doesn’t Rank but top %5
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: 2 Honors, 2 AP
  • Math: Up to Multivariable Calc (DE), 1 AP, 2 Honors
  • Science: Physics Honors, Chem Honors & AP + Organic Chem (D.E.), Bio Honors & AP, APES
  • History and social studies: 3 AP, 1 Standard (Forced by school to take standard level class)
  • Language other than English: 7 Years of Latin (The last year was D.E.)
  • Visual or performing arts: Did After School Music Groups (counted on transcript as Honors Courses)
  • Other academic courses: Engineering Honors, + More Random Electives

Awards
-ISEF Qualifier

1st place in state at Poem Competition

-National Piano Competition Award

-1st place in state for sustainability essay competition

-Prestigious Scholarship Semi-Finalist
Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Founder, President, & Lead Educator; School Hydroponics Lab

Founded hydroponics lab; raised $100k+ solo, supplies 33% of cafeteria food (9k meals/yr), cut climbing food costs 40%, and created STEM program for 300+ students.

  1. Youth President; National Sustainability Org

Youth President of national nonprofit; led 25+ eco-projects in 15 cities, mobilized 1,000+ volunteers, raised $250k+, and planted 20,000+ trees.

  1. Founder & President; Native Knitted Dyes Initiative

Founded initiative knitting clothing, dyeing with colors from native plants; made 3,000+ items, trained 7+ unhoused in green skills & job placement. 2k+ raised. Partnered with major clothing brand.

  1. Author; Primary State Newspaper
    Author of weekly (160+) sustainability columns for 300k+ readers; sparked local eco-initiatives, recognized for work in other national news articles.

  2. Climate Solutions Intern; Sustainable Solutions Org

Paid intern at sustainability nonprofit; worked 120+ hrs, secured $10k+ grants, ran audits cutting city energy use by 15% in 5 public buildings.

  1. Research Intern; T10 University
    Coauthored peer-reviewed research with 2 universities; 200+ research hrs; presented findings to 200+ attendees at academic conference. (Went into more specifics about the actual research just trying to be generic on here)

  2. Vegetable Delivery Lead & Chief Educator; Local Farm & Science Museum
    Coordinated local farm deliveries for 20+ families, harvesting 10k+ lbs/yr; volunteered 970+ hrs; led STEM workshops for 750k+ science museum guests.

  3. Lead Content Developer; [REDACTED] MC Studios
    Owned/developed 7 Minecraft servers with 2.5M+ players; built plugins/events, managed a team of 10+, and earned $1k+ from game monetization.

  4. Founder & President; School Environmental Club
    Founded/led 10-member eco-club; raised $2k+, planted 400+ trees, ran 12+ campaigns, cut school waste 20%, and educated 1100+ peers.

  5. Community Service & Private Musician

Violinist (13 yrs), pianist (10 yrs), choirs/orchestras (30+ concerts), 6 awards; composer of 20+ works with 300k+ YouTube views.

  1. Captain; Varsity Cross Country

  2. Gardener & Houseplant Caretaker

Initiated Plant Swaps and Conventions with over 300+ participants, Looked after over 150+ plants.

Additional Info
Caregiver for sick/injured Grandmother, sometimes up to 30+ hours a week.

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

Essays probably good, I’ve been widely recognized as the best writer at my school by all the English teachers.

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)
Everything is Affordable

Columbia - ED
MIT - EA (Just for fun, No expectations at all :skull:)
Yale - RD
Princeton - RD
Cornell - RD
Dartmouth - RD
NYU - RD
UChicago - RD
Brown - RD
UMich - RD
Duke (Legacy) - RD
Rice - RD

→ These are just my reaches, obviously I have safeties as well

Thanks for your time! :sparkling_heart:

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Budget ? And do you qualify for need if not full pay?

What a record - I mean your background is beyond bonkers - I can’t imagine it. Not disputing it - just can’t imagine it.

I’d say it’s safe to say you can get in anywhere. But as you noted, these are all reaches - I bet you’d get into one or two.

Btw look at MIT but I don’t think they have a straight major - maybe under Earth and Planetary:

Majors

The departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences jointly offer a bachelor of science in Climate System Science and Engineering.

Concentrations and Tracks

Many departments allow students to pursue tracks or concentrations within their majors that engage closely with environmental issues, including:

3

Yeah, my parents had 500k college funds for both me and my sibling, but my sibling didn’t end up going to college so now I essentially have a 1 million dollar college fund (This is not to brad, I’m beyond grateful that I am in this situation)

MIT Has been my dream school for a while now, but has seemed extremely unrealistic mainly due to my lack of major awards/Olympiads. Your course and concentration recommendations are super helpful regardless of where I go, so thanks!

4

FWIW I think you are a great candidate for Cornell if you are applying to the Ag School.

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I don’t think you need awards for any school.

I think you are fantastic for any school.

But study curriculums and make sure the schools you apply aren’t just a big name but also fit your needs.

Just curious - what are the safeties ?

On paper, you’re certainly wonderful.

6

The OP said
no budget constraints.

@Lurker7 as you know, the list you posted here has all reach schools. You are an excellent applicant for these colleges, but so are the majority of those who apply. You certainly have a chance at acceptance. But no guarantees.

I’m glad you are also researching other options. It sounds like you have a good plan.

Two questions:

  1. Do you want suggestions of less costly colleges?
  2. Do you want suggestions for colleges that are less competitive for admissions?

These answers will help guide the advice you get here.

It’s wonderful that your parents can fund any college you are accepted to. Some families won’t do that even if they can. Please give your parents a huge hug and a big thank you. This is a wonderful gift they are giving you!

7

Yes I missed it. They responded.

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I would definitely like suggestions for less competitive admissions, granted they are good schools for my concentration/major and future life goals. Thanks!

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You said you had safeties ?

What are they ?

What do you seek in a school - geography, size, weather ? Is there an area of interest - climate, water, the earth or something else ?

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I mainly wanted to apply to Columbia because it is:

  1. In New York City (lol)
  2. Also Ranked very Highly in Environmental Science (according to niche it’s #3)
  3. A plethora of other reasons but those are the most prominent.
    I wasn’t going to list safeties just because they are mostly local to my area.
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Ok - so you want to be in a city. If so, then maybe some of your list doesn’t work.

Instead of Michigan, as an example, how about UMN or U Wash ?

Do you have specific interests ?

If climate, UMN or ASU are more urban, especially UMN.

If water, how about BU or Northeastern ?

If the earth, how about Arizona, Arizona State, Wisconsin or School of Mines. Also Pitt and Ohio State are urban schools that likely do well here.

Your list is great - these are urban safeties in different areas of interest.

Well BU or Northeastern aren’t safe.

Any interest in LACs ?

I always put my daughter’s school in the ‘safe’ zone. College of Charleston. Why ? You might qualify for the Charleston Fellows program, which is a small cohort in Honors which gets a lot of extras. It’s an urban school as well. They have a school of SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES.

I think you’ll be fine but you have to be somewhere, four years day after day. Look less at rank, especially in this major, and find those that are in the environment you like - assuming urban.

12

Climate is my definitely my interest. I have looked at U Wash and it seemed intresting. School of mines actually is one of my safeties. I haven’t looked into LACs mainly because I was trying to be more stem oriented. I just don’t know much about them, are there any good stem ones?

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Which one? Colorado?

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Yes, a bunch of people I know have gone there, so I looked into it and is definitely something I like, despite not being super urban.

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University of Washington is a terrific school.

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Then I suggest UMN.

Vandy, like Rice, is fringe urban. Does this curriculum work or not science-y enough.

If you want urban, I personally don’t see Cornell and Dartmouth. Duke either but


CU Boulder may not be urban enough but would be a solid choice for a safety.

Personally it’s likely a low paying field and I get prestige, but I’d find the school where the curriculum fits vs a rank. So all those you named above fit curriculum wise for your interests ? Good luck.

17

It’s in the cool town of Golden
integrated nicely
near great hiking and a quick transit trolley to downtown Denver.

18

I don’t see Mines as a fit unless you are doing engineering.

This is why I say - don’t just look at rank but make sure they have your major (if Mines does, I’m missing it)
and check curriculums within.

You want to study what you want to study.

So check and that goes for your initial list too.

SUNY ESF has climate science opportunities and an Environmebtal Science major. It’s adjacent to Syracuse U, where you can also take classes - so it might be a good safety.

CU Boulder and U Oregon too. U Oregon is well know for its Env studies major and has a Climate Science minor. Eugene is a smaller city but a city and it’s a Stamps School - you could potentially be in the running. Stamps is so robust many would pick that award over the reaches on your list.

Just more safety thoughts.

19

MIT is definitely a fit school. It is a lot of work, and you have to want to do it. The desire to work that hard needs to come from inside you. Also I do not think that it has environmental science as a major. If you get accepted to Columbia ED (which is certainly possible) then you give up your chances to get accepted to MIT. You do not need to apply anywhere ED.

I do not think that you have to have major awards to get accepted to MIT (I didn’t). If you read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site it recommends that you do what is right for you, and whatever you do, do it well. This sounds like exactly what you have done.

And I think that supplying 1/3 of your high school cafeteria’s produce is way cooler than the vast majority of awards that a high school student would be eligible for.

UVM is quite good for environmental science. I expect it to be a safety with your stats (including pretty much a safety for merit aid, which of course you don’t need). McGill and/or Toronto are other options which would be very likely with your stats.

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This is extremely helpful, so thank you very much! I am someone who frequently reads through r/applyingtocollege or r/chanceme and all of them say “people on college confidential are incredibly disrespectful and unhelpful”. But all of this is 10x better advice than anyone has ever given on any reddit thread :rofl:

I’ve always been wanting to leave my state for college, but over 90% of my safeties and matches are in state. Thank you especially for all of the good college suggestions!

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