Chance a TX resident, 3.97 UW, NMF, 1560 SAT, top 8% for biology or neuroscience, premed

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: Texas
  • Type of high school: Public
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Indian (South Asian) Male
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): None

Intended Major(s) Biology (Molecular and Cellular) and Neuroscience, Pre-Med

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.97
  • Weighted HS GPA (out of 6.00): 5.21
  • Class Rank: 40/567
  • SAT Score: 1560 | PSAT Score: 1480 (Index: 221) | National Merit Finalist

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

14 APs | AP Scholar with Distinction
5s: AP Biology, AP Psychology, APES, WHAP, APUSH, AP Human Geography, AP Lang
4s: AP Calc BC
3s: AP Chem
In Progress: AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Lit, AP Stats, AP Physics 1

Keeping this next part vague:

Awards

  1. Congressional Recognition Award by Congressman/U.S. Representative
  2. Presidential Volunteer Service Awards (Gold 2x and Silver 1x)
  3. UN Community Service Awards (Ambassador 3x)
  4. BPA National Winner (3rd Place)
  5. Academic Decathlon State Team Winner (3rd Place)

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Founder and President of large community service organization aiming to close needs gaps identified within local Texas community

  2. Texas Boys State, served as County Commissioner and Party Platform Member

  3. Lab research internship at UT Austin

  4. Literacy Subcommittee Leader for major Texas organization dedicated to closing literacy gaps

  5. Mayor’s Youth Council Councilman, led research for innovation fair idea presented to City’s Council

  6. Part of Environmental Ambassador Board in City’s Environmental Services

  7. Texas State Volunteer Head in organization dedicated to campaigning and raising funds for children with cancer in rural India

  8. Officer, Librarian, and Media Team Member in High School Orchestra Officer Council, also practiced advanced cello music for city-wide and school performances

  9. Over 275 hours of medical shadowing, shadowed interventional cardiologist, interventional radiologist, urgent care physician, and observed medical procedures

  10. Over 110 hours of tutoring and managing student teachers on teaching students ILA, Math, Science, and SAT strategies (invited by College Board to tutor in SAT Bootcamps)

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

Common App Essay: 7.5-8/10 (maybe 8.5), it has a pretty unique subject and hook about coin collecting/numismatics, and connects it to unique experience within my organization

LORs: 8.5-9/10, I feel that my recommenders really liked me and could speak on my accomplishments and values very well

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

One-job household, Estimated SAI around 17000

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

This is my first time doing something like this so please forgive me if the school list is wonky or wrong!

ADMITTED (SO FAR):
Baylor University (Honors) (EA)
UT Dallas (Honors) (EA - Auto-Admit)
UT Austin (Priority Deadline - Not Auto-Admit)
TAMU (Honors) (EA - Auto-Admit)
Texas Tech (Honors) (EA - Auto-Admit)
The University of Tulsa (EA)
University of Houston (Honors) (EA - Auto-Admit)
University of South Florida (Honors) (EA)
University of Arizona (Honors) (Rolling)
UAB (Honors) (Rolling)
The University of Oklahoma (Honors) (Rolling)
NJIT (Honors) (Rolling)
SMU (Honors) (EA)
University of Alabama (Rolling)
UPitt (Honors) (Rolling)
University of South Carolina (Honors) (Rolling)
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (Priority Deadline)

Waiting:

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)

None

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)

UCSD (Applied for Scholarships)
Case Western (Applied for Squire Scholarship)

  • Match

Emory (Rejected from Scholars Programs)
UC Berkeley (Applied for Scholarships)
UCLA (Applied for Scholarships)

  • Reach

University of Southern California (Got Deferred) (National Merit Scholarship)
Rice
WashU (Rejected from Scholars Programs)
Johns Hopkins
Duke (Rejected from Robertson Scholars)
Northwestern
Yale
Harvard

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You have been admitted to all of these colleges already? Are any of them affordable for your family? If so…you have a lot of choices amongst a bunch of colleges already.

You know that your cost to attend any of the UCs will likely exceed what your family can pay. They give precious little merit aid to OOS students.

IIRC, the USC scholarship for NM is half tuition. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong. So how will that be affordable?

In terms of your reaches…just wait and see.

And celebrate the many acceptances you already have! You have done very well so far!

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Well, UC Berkeley and UCLA are not matches, they are reaches. What do you mean that you have applied for scholarships? How would you pay for a UC (which is about $75K/year)?

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I meant that I applied for general scholarships through the UC application, but I did not know how to input that here.

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The scholarships offered by the UCs to out of state students will not be enough to get you down to your SAI of $17,000, though. Does you family have additional funds?

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Thank you! Yes, I realize that the aid in the top schools will be pretty low, but I still wanted to simply try my chances for both admission and aid.

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Are you eligible for need based aid? If so and you applied…these top schools have very generous need based aid.

But NOT the UCs for OOS students.

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Yes, I have applied for need-based aid (though I won’t be expecting UCs to give any sort of aid)

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Additionally, due to my status as national merit finalist, a lot of the schools I was accepted into given me hefty scholarships. Some schools I applied to because they have Direct Medical/ BS/MD programs and good aid combined.

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Which of the schools that admitted you gave you affordable net prices after scholarships and financial aid?

Of the pending ones, which ones are affordable based on their net price calculators?

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Did you get accepted to BS/MD programs? Check the fine print. Very often once you enter the medical school portion of your studies, your aid changes. So which schools are affordable for undergrad…and medical school? I know that at some, your aid can continue for a fifth year…which could be part of medical school.

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No, I have not yet been admitted to BS/MDs. However, I do understand that there are differing circumstances for aid in each school though.

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Congratulations on your acceptances!

Do you have one or more favorites at this time, that are affordable?

Commenting only on the schools I know more about…

CWRU is unpredictable; many high stat students are rejected. Some say that this is because of yield protection, but it is possible that they are just very holistic and looking for specific things. They also want to see demonstrated interest. They would probably have liked it if you had switched to ED2, but since you presumably didn’t do that, it’s more of a match than a likely.

The UCs are test blind, so they will not see your high SAT score, and I am not sure if the UCs take national merit into account at all? My guess is that UCSD is somewhere in the match to low reach range for you. UC Berkeley and UCLA are reaches. UCLA likes high stat students, but the admit rate is so low that it’s a reach for everyone. UC Berkeley is the most holistic of the UCs and therefore can be difficult to predict.

As others mentioned, the UCs have very limited scholarships and aid for OOS students, so you can probably cross them off your list for that reason.

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USC’s NMF scholarship is half tuition. The other half is approximately $33K/yr. The scholarship doesn’t include fees or housing.

Tulsa has a very nice NMF package

  • Full tuition (excluding summers) for five years or until an undergraduate degree is earned. Students must maintain a minimum of 15 hours of coursework per semester.
  • Tier I Housing
  • Tier II Dining
  • Standard Student Fees
  • Textbooks (all incoming students receive free textbooks for the entirety of their undergraduate years)
  • Secured spot in Leadership TU led by President Brad Carson
  • A minimum $750 scholarship for National Merit Finalists from the National Merit organization. Renewability is based on the type of National Merit funding received.
  • $6,000 monetary gift per year (funded by the Oklahoma Regents or the TU Board of Trustees)
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Yes, they sure do. If my child happened to be NMF and considering premed, I would hope they would take a good long look at that.

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for pre-med students, UPitt is a very good university with access to UPMC.

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At this point, it’s just waiting - you have tons of options but a low SAI so the UCs will be out. Tulsa will be free - as in $0, right?

What do the NPCs show for Emory, USC, WUSTL, etc. If you get in, can you afford?

No matter what- you have great options already.

Just ensure you pick one you can afford.

Good luck.

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Based on the NPCs for most of the private schools, I would get decent aid (for example for Johns Hopkins I would pay around 20k to 30k per year).

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They most likely won’t be interested in paying the high costs tied to the UCs

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You have 17 acceptances right now. I think you will have a great place to attend college even if you don’t get accepted anywhere else!

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