Chance/Match Me: Science-focused Activist HS Junior [NY resident, 90.07 UW, 1490 SAT] for Marine Bio/Sci Major, Env Studies Minor]

Chance Me / Match Me
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High school Junior with a focus on marine science and LGBTQ+/disability activism.

Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: NY
  • Type of high school: Public
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Male/Transmasculine (ftm); White/Caucasian
  • Other special factors: First Gen

Intended Major(s): Marine Bio/Sci Major, Env Studies Minor

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: Current 90.07 / 3.5 (usually higher, around 3.7)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): Same as unweighted atm
  • College GPA (for transfers): N/A
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: PSAT 1300, have not taken SAT yet (taking in May)

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))

3 APs: APUSH, APES, AP BIO
1 Honors: Chem
Reached Spanish 2 before dropping
Academic Electives Taken: Earth Science, Outdoor Exploration, APES, Science of Food, Bioethics, Animal Behavior
Doing Independent Study for Marine Bio next year

Awards
High Honor Roll (90+ avg) 9th + 10th grade, 11th grade results not out yet

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

Volunteer at local aquarium, given high tier/leadership role due to commitment (100+ hours so far)
Used to go to sailing summer camp where we did M Bio lessons
Attending Washington Youth Summit on the Environment this summer
Occasional theater tech (sound board operator) contract jobs through dance companies that rent out my school theater
Technical director (appointed position due to commitment and leadership; not a democratic role) of theater club, help runs tech crew, does sound for school plays and musicals
Running an Etsy shop and social media based art commissions since 2018

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

Essay will likely be strong. Counselor rec, 2 teacher recs, and volunteer supervisor rec coming in over the summer.

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.)

No constraints, although scholarships and such would take weight off my parents.

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)

  • Safety: UMaine
  • Likely: ?
  • Match: SUNY Stony Brook (hoping to get in to the Simons STEM Scholars program, will be applying EA)
  • Reach: Bowdoin College, McGill University

Note: unfortunately cannot/will not apply to any schools in the south (Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, etc.) due to the large anti-queer population

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I’m also attending this year’s UNIS-UN Student Conference (highly selective)!! The topic is gender inequality. Forgot to mention that earlier :slight_smile:

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Actually not sure if my GPA conversion is accurate - the 90.07 is my avg right now, but I don’t have a reliable source for the 4.0 scale conversion. This is just what my dad told me.

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SUNY ESF is a good one. It’s contiguous with the Syracuse U campus and you get access to the classes and resources of Syracuse as well.

They include marine biology in their aquatic/fisheries science major, and also offer a marine science minor and a bunch of different enviro minors.

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Stony Brook is pretty competitive. I think it would be closer to a reach? I know some 2023s with mid 90s ect who were rejected. But obviously there are a million factors! You definitely will have a lot of great choices. Good luck!

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Roger Williams University(RI) and University of New England (ME) are smaller schools with good marine biology programs 4-6 hrs from NY. 80% accept rates I beleive. Unsure about LGBTQ+ activism.

My daughter also applied and accepted to UCONN and URI for Marine Biology but decided against as too large. UCONN did offer a $24K Females in STEM Scholarship.

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I totally get it but my first thought was Jacksonville U.

Kutztown?
U Wisconsin-Milwaukee?
Coastal Carolina?

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Some colleges can now cost up to $90k/year. Is that possible for your family? If it is not, make sure your family runs the Net Price Calculator that does not offer merit aid (like Bowdoin). If the price does not come back as affordable, then it should be eliminated. If you let us know what your family would need the price to be after any scholarships, that can help us in narrowing down our focus.

From the list of schools you have, it appears as though you want to stay in the northeast. You have large schools and small schools, so I’m not sure if you have a preference. As you’re looking for scholarships, most of the schools I’m sharing are likely to be generous in that respect, and/or have lower list prices. When you’re looking for merit aid, you often want to be in the top 25% of the population in terms of stats, though there are schools that are generous with more than the top 25% of their incoming class.

Below are some additional schools you may want to consider. I’m not familiar enough with Canadian admissions to chance on McGill, but perhaps @DadTwoGirls can help?

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Cal State: Monterey Bay: About 6200 undergrads (in case you are interested in leaving the northeast)

  • Roger Williams (RI): About 4200 undergrads

  • Salisbury (MD): About 6400 undergrads

  • Stockton (NJ): About 8100 undergrads

  • SUNY Brockport: About 5100 undergrads

  • U. of Delaware: About 19k undergrads

  • U. of Maine: About 9800 undergrads

  • U. of Rhode Island: About 15k undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

  • St. Mary’s College of Maryland: About 1500 undergrads…this is the public liberal arts college of MD

  • SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry: About 1600 undergrads and, as @ColdWombat mentioned, can take classes at neighboring Syracuse.

Toss-Up (40-59%

  • Rutgers – New Brunswick: About 36k undergrads

  • Stony Brook

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Bowdoin
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You may want to check each college about whether level 2 in foreign language is enough for them. Also check for foreign languagegraduation requirements.

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I agree that Bowdoin and McGill are both reaches.

I am not sure whether McGill has marine biology. It is very good for environmental sciences, and regular biology.

There are multiple other universities in Canada that are very good for marine biology. UBC and Dalhousie come to mind. I think that Memorial University of Newfoundland is also very good for both marine biology and environmental sciences. Among smaller schools, Acadia University (in Nova Scotia) is also very good for marine biology (and biology overall) and environmental sciences. Most of these (any other than UBC) would be significantly more likely for admissions compared to McGill. Some may also cost less than McGill for an international student.

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UMAINE-Orono may award you strong merit and placement in the Honors College. It’s also one of the strongest Marine Science Programs in the Country. There are ample opportunities for research too.

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Yeah it is pretty competitive, but most of the big chancing calculators say I have a good shot!! I think it would be a reach without my EC’s and if my GPA was always this low but overall I think I’m a pretty good candidate for them :slight_smile:

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Is Roger Williams actually a good school? I’ve heard that the M Bio program is good but elsewhere is kind of meh, especially for the pricing. Will probably apply to UConn just to have some more options but considering the out-of-state tuition for an average state school, not sure if I’m really truly looking at going there.

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I’ve never heard of any of these apart from Jacksonville - for the south, unfortunately like I said I dunno if I’d really make it down there. I spent a large majority of my life in the south (Miss., Louisiana, Florida, Texas, SC) and on top of the harassment I faced, it just wasn’t really my type of living. I have pretty bad heat intolerance too due to some chronic health issues.

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Yeah, that would be possible for us! Like I said, we don’t really have any economic limitations. Don’t really have a preference for large vs small as long as the environment feels like it’s comfortable / safe and the program I join is highly rated.

I might actually consider Cal honestly, thank you for the suggestion! It’s a really nice place to be studying marine sci. UMaine is a top in terms of location but way lower on my list when it comes to ranking and academic achievement. I know I shouldn’t be too picky about that but my parents have kind of influenced me in that way haha.

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Have done so! I have all my needed credits for HS, can easily pass a placement exam for at least SP 3/4 when I start college, and can likely get a credit or two if I need to during my freshman year. I lived in Miami for 5 or 6 years so I pick up on it easily.

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McGill does not have MBio, but they have some other programs that are similar that I can use for undergrad (then go somewhere else for grad). Thank you for the suggestions! I’ve actually looked at Acadia but I’m not sure if I’m gonna apply considering the cost vs quality, but it is a really pretty looking area. I just love the McGill campus, Montreal in general, and my parents would be verrryyyy happy for me to go to a school as good as that.

For Bowdoin, I feel like I probably won’t get in, but Maine is a top location for me and it has literally everything I want (at least in undergrad) so I’m gonna shoot my shot and hope for the best!!!

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Ooh I haven’t looked into Orono much, I’ve mostly been looking at Machias – is Mach not better for MBio? I thought that was like their specialty.

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McGill admissions is much more transparent than US unis. You can lookup the minimum stats required for the major you are applying to. I suggest doing that soon so you have that baseline information.

I look forward to following your journey! :smiley:

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Just to clarify for you, I mentioned Cal State: Monterey Bay. When people refer to “Cal” they are usually referring to the U. of California - Berkeley. Just want to make sure there’s no confusion. :slight_smile:

It’s great to know that your family is willing and able to pay up to $90k/year for your college education. Something that your family may want to reflect upon is that many of the best schools for marine science are not necessarily the ones that are at the top of the USNWR rankings. So if that’s an influencing factor in the decisions, that’s something to be aware of.

Almost all of these schools will have honors programs, and if you’re accepted into them, that can mean a more high-performing cohort than the school as a whole.

Since you’re open to California, I would look into Occidental, Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo, and Cal Poly - Humboldt as well. If you’re concerned about the out-of-state pricing at UConn at around $56k, your family would likely be even more concerned about the UC costs of $70k plus. The UCs give very minimal merit aid (perhaps a couple thousand to the very top students, which really isn’t much of a dent when the school costs $74k). Many families feel that uncomfortable paying that much money for a big state school when the hassles and bureaucracy of big state schools is still very much a factor. But if you and your family want to consider the UCs, I’d look at UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Santa Barbara.

Also, one thing to note is that the California publics put a strong emphasis on GPA and are test blind (i.e. they won’t look at any SAT or ACT scores). Most of them don’t look at grades from your freshman year either (Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo might be an excelption). If you calculate your GPAs (including weighted, capped, etc), then @ucbalumnus or @Gumbymom are likely to give you much better info about your chances for those schools.

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