Demographics: Male, Indian-American, Ohio, Non-competitive traditional public School, first-generation
Intended Major(s): Data Science/ Political Science/ International Relations (Dual major for sure)
ACT: 35 (E: 36, M: 36, R: 32, S: 34)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.00/4.46; School doesn’t rank
Coursework: AP Human Geography(5), AP World History(5), AP Comp Sci Principles(5), AP Calc AB(5), APUSH(5), AP Chem(4), CCP Intro to Problem Solving and Computer Science, CCP Network Fundamentals
Senior year: AP Comp Sci A, AP Physics 2, AP Calc BC, AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Macro, AP Lit, AP Comparative Gov
Awards:
International Geography Championships Medalist (2 gold, 1 bronze)
4-time National Geography Bee Semi-finalist
2-time Governors Thomas Edison Scholarship for Alternative Energy and for Computer Science at State Science Fair
7-year state science fair award (Qualifying for the state level seven years in a row)
3-time County Science Fair First Place
2-time Melvin Scholar at State Science Fair (Awarded to the top 10% of projects at State Science Fair)
National STEM Challenge Finalist
National Merit Commendation
AP Scholar w/ Distinction
Extracurriculars:
Science Fair: Conducted novel scientific research in multiple fields since 5th grade, mainly comp sci/data science, and showcased it at multiple science fairs; won over 10k in scholarships and awards at all levels; inducted into the American Junior Science Academy
JSA/Model UN President: Organized meetings and presided over the JSA, basically Mock Congress, and Model UN chapters at my high school; Held a voting drive in school, signing up over 50 new people to vote; Doubled membership in both clubs
News Website: Started a news website about US politics and International Relations; Saw over 10k views and generated some revenue off of ads; Managed a team of over 20 people who helped develop the site
Academic Quiz Team Captain: Served as the top player and captain on my Academic Quiz Team; Led the team to 2 league titles; Qualified for the Playoffs of History Bowl; Contributed over 10k points in multiple formats over my quiz team career
Student Senate Treasurer: Served as the Treasurer for the Student Senate at my high school; Organized events such as spirit weeks, pep rallies, assemblies, and other student government events; Head of the Social and Spirit Committees at my high school
Author: Published two books; Published one trivia book about the states of the United States; Published a book detailing the history of elections in the United States, which detailed the history of elections and included multiple graphs and charts to demonstrate critical concepts to kids and teens; Books were featured in local libraries and on the local news
Data Scientist Internship: Did a mentorship/internship under a data scientist at a local company; Learned SQL and R basics; Created my ML model, which did inventory for the company for significant orders
VP of Non-Profit: VP of a national non-profit I started with my friend; Ran drives at schools for gently used school supplies
Varsity Tennis: Played varsity tennis for my school. 3-time league winner and All-league team awardee
Tutor at Library: Offered free tutoring through library, but still earned money through a grant; Did Science/Math Tutoring and ACT tutoring; Saw over 30 clients and made over 10k in profit
Youth Tennis Instructor: Tennis instructor at my local tennis club; Helped run multiple classes and served as assistant coach in various camps
Other ECs: Boys State Attendee (Elected Secretary of State there), Teen Leadership Academy Attendee, NHS President
Essays/LORs/Other:
Essays: decent
LORs: decent
Other: From the middle of nowhere Ohio and also come from a small traditional public school that has sent only like 3-4 people to the ives/T20s; Our school district also had a lot of administrative issues and so we had multiple classes and programs cut
Your school has only sent 3-4 kid to Ivies. Is that per year?
Stanford EA is incredibly difficult. You have an excellent profile and stats, but I’m a little skeptical that you’d make it for Stanford. Why not use your early shot at a school a little bit less competitive?
If its only 3-4 per history then thats an incredibly small number. Some feeder HS will routinely send 3-4 students per year to Stanford. So it sounds like you’ll face an uphill battle.
I would consider using your early app with a binding ED1 school. That will increase your chances the greatest. Especially since you are full pay.
You can combine ED1 with EA. For instance ED1 Duke + EA Chicago. You should also have a plan for ED2.
The 3 shots on goal strategy can further be refined. If you get deferred from your ED1 school, contact your EA school and convert it to ED2. This will effectively give you three shots in the early round.
Early apps (ED1 and ED2) really boost your chances by quite a bit. Almost to a similar level as being legacy. The EA app not so much.
This is not really the case at most selective schools. Not sure where you got this information. Some schools have a slight advantage for unhooked applicants.
So Ohio State is actually a really strong school for your interests. Given that, I think you are free to be reachy with the rest of your list if you like, and can REA Stanford if you like (and I do NOT think you should strategically ED to a college you do not prefer to Stanford).
That said, some of the reachy schools on your list are mid-size research universities–Stanford, Penn, CMU, Georgetown, Vandy, Northwestern, and Duke–not large publics like Ohio State. I think if that sort of university interests you, it might make sense to have some Target and possibly Likely schools like that as well.
And one possible suggestion along those lines is William & Mary. VERY strong Politics and IR school, technically a public but in feel much more like the sorts of privates you are looking at.
Given your stats there will be smaller public safeties like Miami Ohio and Pitt. William & Mary is mid size but not as urban as your list(nor is Miami).
Miami in Florida and Wake plus Rochester and Case Western could fit and all are possible. Targets.
For a safety, U Denver, closer to home Butler and Jesuits if interested like Creighton, Santa Clara, Loyola MD. These are safeties.
You could also look at a mid size like College of Charleston. You’d be a great candidate for both the Fellows and International Scholars if interested. My daughter is and the benefits have been outstanding . Both are invite only after Honors admission which you’d get. It’s a smaller campus size and 10k or so kids overall. You’d need the Fellows to make it a good fit for you I think but it’s within reason I suspect.
American University is another great IR school. Only problem is they don’t like being treated as a deep “safety” school so you have to find ways to demonstrate a lot of interest with high numbers.
Tufts is sort of similar in that as a Boston school it gets tons of applications from people with long lists of preferred universities, so is frequently accused of rejecting/waitlisting high numbers kids when it thinks they don’t really have a high level of interest. But it is also great for IR, and actually the sort of place you could just flat out prefer to other higher-ranked colleges if you have an IR interest, which you could try communicating to them in various ways.
I’m also wondering if you have thought about going even smaller with a Liberal Arts College. Like, Macalester would be a great choice given your interests, and it has a fantastic location in the heart of Minneapolis-St Paul. Even closer to home, Oberlin would also be worth looking into.