Chance an anxious CS-adjacent junior for the T20's and Cornell ED [3.85 GPA, 1570 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US Citizen
    East Coast
    Very Competitive Public High School
    Legacy at cornell

Cost Constraints / Budget
Will need financial aid (household income <100k)

Intended Major(s) - DS or Computational biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • 3.85 UW - Freshman to Junior
    4.3 freshman, 4.5 sophomore, projected to end my junior year with ~4.75
  • 4.5 W - Freshman to Junior
    ~top 5% of class of 500,
    1570 SAT

List your HS coursework

(Close to max rigor for my coursework)
All honors as a freshman
5 honors + 2 APS as sophomore
5 AP’s + 2 honors as a junior
6 AP’s senior year

Awards

USACO Gold
National merit commended predicted (1480 PSAT)
random volunteer award (100 hours)

Extracurriculars

  1. NSF-Funded Computational Biology Research (@ a R2 research institution) - paid to research molecular modeling, molecular dynamics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to predict which compounds from the fungus are most likely to be effective as pesticides. trying to publish (11, 12)

  2. Computational Aging Research (w/ a med school professor) - ML-based drug discovery: modeling DR gene signatures and predicting molecules to reverse aging-related expression. Submitting project to STS (11, 12)

  3. Summer Data Science internship at a DS firm. Developed dashboard employed by the firm that tracks the runtime of background web scrapes and jobs. (11)

  4. Varsity + Club Fencing: Placed T20 in state; Varsity Starter all 4 years. Competing in the 2026 Junior Olympics. (9, 10, 11, 12)

  5. President of Statistics Club - teach 25+ members, do community-oriented projects, and compete in competitions (11, 12)

  6. Optometrist Technician Intern - Do pre-testing on patients with machines, enter their information into the system, and schedule appointments. (10, 11, 12)

  7. Volunteer at Church - Mission trips: Went with my church each year to do home restoration for native american communities and completed weekly training beforehand. (9, 10, 11)

  8. volunteer organization - member/volunteer, weekly volunteering in the community, 100+ total hours (10, 11, 12)

  9. some club membership

  10. Freshman soccer team (9)

Essays/LORs/Other
stats teacher - 8/10?

CSP teacher - 7/10?

physics teacher - 7/10? i am not a top scorer in her class but i have gotten to know her personally, may use her depending on the college

Schools
not including my targets/safeties, please chance me for these schools below which i believe are my reaches:

Reach1:
UChicago (ED0???), Cornell (ED1), Vanderbilt, University of Michigan (EA), WashU, Notre Dame

Reach2:
Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Johns Hopkins, UPenn, Columbia, Brown

2

Are all schools (including your safeties) affordable based on their net price calculators?

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yes most of these private schools have good financial aid. most cover demonstrated financial need. for example ill be paying 8k yearly at cornell, which is doable for my family

4

So your UW is 3.85 for the first three years ?

See if you can get an English or foreign language LOR. Maybe drop physycs which you rate low. Some want balance in their LORs vs just STEM.

Are you doing a U Chicago Pre College Summer session ? I believe you need to for ED0.

I wish you were more varied in your ECs vs just STEM but you have fencing at least.

I assume some of your APs are STEM but you also have English/Foreign language APs etc. that you have 4 years in English, Science, Foreign Language, Math and Social science. It would be helpful if you listed coursework in each area.

In the end, anpply and see. Maybe 1-3 will bite. That you have affordable safeties is what is most important.

5

i don’t have the best relationship with my humanities teachers, although i could possibly ask my spanish teacher

yes i plan on doing a uchicago summer program.

i have taken AP lang and APUSH and will be taking HUG next year. i might be taking AP spanish next year not sure

6

You want 4 years of each core subject. Which AP Science (and I don’t mean CS but lab science) and which math?

7

i took ap bio and honors chem last year, this year im taking AP physics 1, next year i will be taking ap chem. im taking AP precalc right now

8

So you have better odds taking BC but don’t take it if they don’t think you are ready.

You have a chance but these are all tough admits.

Your back-ups (affordable safeties) are most important - but you are certainly worthy of trying. But put most effort into the back ups - because you need an affordable safety net and one you’d love.

Tons of great schools out there And with your stats for $20k-ish - hence those schools are loaded with smart kids.

You might look at UNC too as they meet need.

One thing you should do with mom and dad is determine a budget. Saying I need aid means little. You need a - we can spend $10k or we can spend $30k type statement. Compare that vs the NOCs and use it to pick safeties that are within budget.

9

all the schoosl i put down meet demonstrated financial need so im going practically free to the majority of these. if i get into an ivy, i go for free because most have promises for free tuition if you make under 100k. same with schools like vanderbilt or emory or nyu

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i have safeties btw i just havent named them because well i dont need to be chanced for them

11

Not exactly. Some look at assets and Emory is need aware. So it’s easy for them to say to sound good but they can turn you down because they need to give you too much. They changed from need blind to aware as they made that promise. By assets, one panicked mom yesterday thought they were getting free tuition at a school. But turns out she’s only getting $3500. Why ? Assets. So those tables aren’t necessarily as they imply. Have your parents run the NPCs. Michigan is a public. Unless it’s your state, assume $80k plus. Publics that rank highest don’t typically guve aid short of UNC / UVA that meet need but lesser ranked, like Alabama, Kansas and more, load kids up - hence they are loaded with smart kids you’d be $20k with auto merit at Bama and Miss State, as examples.

So assume you get into none of these - what is your affordable safety- affordable being the key word. That’s more important than any school on your list above. Spend more time thinking about that.

Good luck.

12

There are some interesting school choices for CS on this list. Some are very expensive and not known for CS or Tech. For instance, Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, and UChicago.

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I was thinking similarly but if I had a big need issue - we don’t know the student’s need -I would add some that are less selective (but need aware) - but like Case Western, Rochester, Miami or even LACs like Dickinson, Lafayette, Denison, and more.

We don’t know the student’s budget, but in a high need situation, you want to spread your bets. Its more about affordability than top name.

Many kids just open US News top schools and that’s it. For CS, we don’t know where the student is from but if they’re in NJ, Mass, or Maryland as three examples, they have top schools at their fingertips.

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im applying to case western but i didnt put safeties on my list here. another safety is rutgers for example. im also thinking about being premed so thats why im applying to schools like vanderbilt. also ive run through the cost checkers and for all my schools the pricing is not a problem

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uchicago is good for cs and econ, they send a lot of quants

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Pre med can be done anywhere. There’s not an advantage in going to high rank. There is an advantage in going to where you fit best, so you do best. Like law, your stats will drive things, not the school name.

Drs come from most every undergrad.

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well im not sure if i want to do premed or something in the tech space. im applying to the arts and sciences equivalent college for most of these schools

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Either way, budget needs to drive your decision. If the net price calculators meet what your parents can pay, then great. Each takes 20 mins. If they are above, then you can’t apply and you apply to schools you can afford. Rank is irrelevant. Have you ever looked at what goes into a U.S. News rank

Have them fill the NPC (net price calculator), not my intuition. If a school says they cover tuition under $100k income, they still need to do. Why ? Because it assumes low assets. A parent the other day only got $3500 bcuz her low income had hundreds of thousands in savings/assets. She thought her kid was going free based on a table and she wasn’t close.

Finally every high level student should look at W&L and the Johnson Scholarship because 10% of the class gets it. It’s mind blowing it’s so aggressive.

Now a school like Alabama - for you if today $22-ish but $20k-ish if CS - tons of brilliance. Why ? They but kids in. You get $28k off based on today’s merit matrix, $30.5k for CS.

And it has the McCullough Pre Mes scholarship. If Vandy is $40k and your parents say they can’t afford it, it’s nice to have a home, that’s potentially even less than Rutgers. Ok Vandy has merit so it’s the wrong example but if Northwestern or Cornell show $40k and they can’t afford that, it’s a waste of time applying. I know you said Cornell shows $8k great. Those are easy picks I hope everyone applying gets in but statistically you won’t - so that affordable safety is where you should put your efforts assuming you go 0 for not saying you will but you need to be prepared for it.

When you have a budget, there’s often options but not ones you desire.

Btw many schools med school acceptance rates are inflated bcuz at many privates they have committees - which you can read about in other posts but the schools basically decide whose apps they will support, thus inflating rates because if you’re not supported you likely won’t apply.

Ps - read the CWRU thread. They turn down or defer kids with better stats and don’t forget, they are need aware. That means if you require too much $, they can turn you down. Your finances count, just like your grades. Emory put out an income table - make less than this and go free. And they went need aware recently so they could turn down these same kids for their finances. Coincidence ? Bait and switch? Many wealthy schools have majority full pay kids.

Is Rutgers affordable? If Rutgers isn’t, there are less expensive both in and out of state.