ACT/SAT Scores: 1600 SAT, NOT superscored, first SAT taken
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: Advanced ELA 2 years, AP English Language (5), AP English Lit (?)
Math: Advanced Algebra 1, Geometry, & Algebra 2, AP Pre-Calculus (5), AP Calculus AB (?)
Science: Advanced biology, chemistry, anatomy, engineering, AP Biology (4), AP Environmental Science (5), Biotechnology track (4 years, will be a certified lab technician at the end of the year), UT OnRamps (college-level) Physics
History and social studies: Advanced world geography, AP World History (4), AP US History (5), AP Macroeconomics (?), AP US Government (?), AP Psychology (4)
Language other than English: Advanced French for 2 years
Other academic courses: I donât recall any, but I will update this when I have my transcript on-hand
Awards
District-wide top 10% of class award for junior year
AP Scholar with Distinction
First Honor Roll since sophomore year
Extracurriculars
President of Animation Club with 30+ members
Officer of Crochet Club
Officer of Debate Club
Debate (Domestic extemp & congress, have advanced to finals several times)
Animation class YouTube channel manager
Drummer for 8+ years
Coding (CSS, HTML, Python)
Volunteer at animal shelter
Fencing (freshman & sophomore year)
D&D player and DM
Essays/LORs/Other
Essay: 9-10/10 (according to someone who works in admissions it is one of the best sheâs ever seen & she asked to use it as an example for others)
LORs: No idea, but I asked my AP Lang and Biotechnology teachers for them
Schools
UT Austin: EA
UW: RD
University of Maryland: EA
Purdue: EA
Extra info
My GPA is lower than typical because of pretty severe mental health issues I was dealing with for most of freshman year. I had bad grades purely because I was not turning in my assignments. The lowest grade I got at that time was a 79. After I got better (around halfway through my sophomore year), I got all Aâs and I was in the top 10% of my class considering just junior year grades. I wrote my extra essay about how I was affected by these issues, but I understand they will probably still bring down my application by a lot.
Keep in mind that UW Seattle is unlikely to look at your SAT score as part of their admissions process (they say that they only look at it in borderline cases). They will be making their admissions decision based on your GPA and other holistic factors.
Talk to your parents and work together to determine what is actually affordable. Can your family afford full price at all schools without loans? Have they already checked NPCs at each school and made sure the schools will be affordable? Or are they just hoping for the best?
Youâll also need at least one school on your list for which all of the following are true:
You are extremely likely to be admitted
You are certain that the school will be affordable
I have two in-state schools Iâve already been admitted to that I didnât include because I didnât need to be chanced: the University of Houston and Texas Tech University.
Iâll talk to my parents about it later today or tomorrow.
I teach in a Texan public high school. I think your ranking is hurting your chance at UT; however, your SAT score and your GPA trend makes you a strong candidate for their CAP program. I know several students who took that path. I believe one of them graduated last year with a Bio Engineering major.
Iâve heard from current UT students that have been in a situation similar to mine (terrible freshman year) that as long as you have an upwards trend in grades & explain it in your optional short answer, they might still let you in (even to CNS), but I imagine the pool of people Iâve spoken to about it is affected pretty heavily by survivorship bias.
It is relatively common for biology majors to end up studying for some form of graduate degree. PhDâs are typically fully funded. Masterâs degrees, and various forms of medical doctorates (MD, DO, DVM) are typically not funded and can be expensive â particularly for degrees that take four years. Some students go straight from a bachelorâs degree to a PhD program, but some get a masterâs degree first. There are a lot of ânext stepsâ possible after getting a bachelorâs degree in biology.
Once you get your offers in hand and can see what each is likely to cost, it might be a good plan for you and your parents to think about given the cost of each school whether they will have any college funds left over to help you with graduate school.
This uptrend should help you in at least two different ways. Admissions is one. However, as I was reading through your original post, I first saw the overall GPA of 3.26 and the intention of being a biology major. My first reaction was âbiology classes will overlap with premed classes, and premed classes can be academically demandingâ. Your uptrend is going to help you to be better prepared for the academically demanding classes that you are going to run into in university.
Have you thought about what you might do with a degree in biology?
Thank you for the response! I am planning to pursue a PhD or MS in Cell Biology after I get my BS. Career-wise, my end goal is to be a researcher or a lab supervisor.
I was considering becoming a doctor, but I donât think Iâd enjoy the work (or the debt!).
This might be quite similar to what my younger daughter is doing. She got her bachelorâs degree in biology with a focus on cellular biology. She found that she loved lab work and was good at it, and basically spent as much time in the lab as she could for the last three years of her bachelorâs degree. The result was that after graduating she was able to get a pretty good lab job that to me sounded very similar to what she had already been doing. After a couple of years of working she decided that she wanted to get a PhD, which is what she is doing right now. One thing that may have contributed to her desire to get a PhD was having some clear ideas on which direction she thought that the research should be taken, and wanting to be in a position to be able to influence this direction.
In this process we noticed that admissions to PhD programs is very competitive. A lot of research and lab experience, good references, and a clear understanding of what you want to do for a PhD will all be important. A strong undergraduate GPA may also help. Fortunately when you get to applying to graduate programs they will not care and will not ask what you did in high school.
Most of this however is something that you do not need to worry about for at least four years. For now there are a lot of universities that are very good for a bachelorâs degree in biology, and that can offer opportunities to help with research. You are already accepted to two of them.
I think that my younger daughter could have written the same sentence. Being a doctor just wasnât what she wanted to do. One advantage of knowing this early is that you can dive into lab work and research as an undergraduate student. While your friends from the same biology classes are getting premed experience in a medical environment, you can be in a lab getting research experience that will be helpful to you. Then once you have a bachelorâs degree all of that experience can help with either graduate admissions or finding an appropriate first job.
And in our experience there appears to be good opportunities for research at any one of a very wide range of universities. You will want to look for these opportunities once you get to university.
Being from Texas, there are some underrated schools that might be of interest to you if youâre planning biology or biochemistry. UTSA just merged with the UT-Health and Science Center. Theyâre a major recruiter for UTSA. You could easily make a career for yourself that way. The Health Science Center has masters and PhD programs as well. San Antonio has a strong market for well paid research job opportunities.
I just wanted to provide an update. So far, Iâve gotten accepted to every single one of my schools, and Iâve committed to UT Austin! Just waiting on UW now. Thank you all for your advice.