Chance me...! also maybe match to closer fit school than Princeton for REA? Phil of Science + Data Science/Statistics [4.0 UW GPA, 1580 SAT, MD resident]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic US Citizen
  • Type of high school: Large public hs w/ selective stem magnet within it.
  • Other special factors: double legacy at uva–very slim chance of coach interest at some d3 (caltech possibly)

Cost Constraints / Budget
No budget constraints

Intended Major(s)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0/4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.93/5
  • Class Rank: n/a (approx 800 students in class, ~100 in program)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1580 SAT (800 Math 780 Reading)

AP Scores if useful: 5’s on:
APUSH, AP Gov, AP CS A, AP Bio, AP Calc BC, AP French, AP World, AP Lang, AP Chem, AP Statistics

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: Honors 9, 10. AP Lang (11), AP Lit (12)
  • Math: Accelerated magnet precalc + algebra 2 (9), magnet analysis (10)(covers all of AP BC Calc). Multivariable Calc/Diffeq (A on college Multivar final exam) and Applied Stat (11), Taking math logic, complex analysis, linear algebra, and senior seminar in stat research this year. Also doing dual enrollment in discrete math at CC.
  • Science: Magnet Physics, Chemistry, Earth space systems, and biology. Physical chemistry, Analytical chemistry, quantum physics, AP e&m. neuroscience
  • History and social studies: APUSH (9), AP Gov (10), AP World (11), AP Macro and Micro (12). enrolled in online AP European history
  • Language other than English: French 4 (9th), 5 (10th), AP French (11th)
  • Visual or performing arts: photography
  • Other academic courses: magnet cs, algorithms and data structures, analysis of algorithms, modeling and simulation, digital electronics. Magnet engineering.

Awards

Global Essay Commendation & Shortlist (out of 100k entries). wrote about phil of science.

AIME qualifier (top 5% AMC 12); 2x Modeling the Future Semifinalist nat’l qual, math modeling papers

National Cyber Scholar: Top 2% of 40k+ entrants. $3k scholarship

HOSA ILC indiv finalist, top 30/10,000+ global entrants in category

National Merit Semifinalist (perfect PSAT)

Extracurriculars
(11,12) Selective 10% acceptance rate summer rsearch program and invited back by prof for data science rsearch tied to phil of science. shoudl have submitted paper to nature by time of application and preprint on arxiv

(9,10,11,12) Math team co leader+county arml team. Met w/ corporate sponsors to raise $13K for annual math tournament (2x prev years); co-led math tournament

(11,12) Research analyzing bias in historical data viz w/ replotting–awarded scholarship from nyc foundation to advance research (foundation founded by princeton prof idk if that means anything)

(9,10,11,12) Eagle Scout & Order of the Arrow (scouting america). also den chief and patrol leader for 40+ scouts. eagle project on pedestrian safety and subsequently built website reporting on safety issues and collecting concerns.

(10,11,12) Research w/ UMD prof on hellenic to renaissance approaches to astronomical study. Also used this ec slot to describe the essay comp essay abt philosophical approaches to science funding

(9,10,11,12) Cultural dance team captain. performed at showccases around county and school events

(10,11,12) Math modeling competitor. Papers on invasive insects, flight delays, data center impact and comp success.

(9,10,11,12) Volunteer at interactive stem museum. Taught science, programming to 4-13y/os and helpd run camps/workshops

(9,10,11,12) varsity xc and track. not sure if colleges care abt awards if not recruited but some regional/invitational wins indiv and team

(11,12) Co founder/captain for biotech club and grew to 30+ members, helped coordinate visits to firms

Essays/LORs/Other
worked on personal statement a lot. very niche quirky family interest/hobby w/ slight elements of reflection in case thats important for phil major

hopefully really good supps did a lot of research on schools for them as well.

LORs from Calc teacher, lang teacher, and research program prof. given some hint about calc rec from my eagle board likely 9/10. 8.5/10 lang and probably 9/10 research prof

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):

  • Extremely Likely: UMD (EA), Penn State (EA), UPitt (applied a couple weeks ago)

  • Likely: U Wash (EA), UVA (double legacy and EA idk if that helps much), RIT

  • Toss-up: UMich (EA), Purdue (EA), UIUC (EA)

  • Lower Probability: Duke, Georgia Tech (EA), Brown, CMU, Rice, UPenn, Berkeley

  • Low Probability: Princeton (REA?), Stanford, Harvard, Cornell, Caltech, MIT, Northwestern, U Chicago, Yale

    should i ed somewhere like penn, cornell instead of rea princeton? or rea somewhere else maybe? im not sure

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Congratulations on your achievements.

I can’t chance you, but expect you will have some good choices. What is your home state?

So no budget constraints…your parents are able to pay $100K per year for school?

Have you visited these schools? Pick your favorite and apply. You can still apply RD to the others. What factors are you prioritizing in your college search?

When will you find out about recruiting at CalTech? If you don’t know, contact the coach today and ask where you stand.

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Your current college list has 25 schools. Are you willing to attend any of these schools for the next four years equally? Could you be able to streamline this to 10 or 15?

This tells me that you are looking to apply ED as part of an application strategy or that you equally prefer Cornell, Princeton, or UPenn. If you do not have a clear number #1 choice, then do not apply ED anywhere. Only apply EA & REA at schools where it is allowed & of course RD.

Do not omit awards that you may mistakenly believe are insignificant for college admissions.

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home state is maryland! yeah they very much emphasize that i shouldn’t worry about the cost. i’ve visited most of the higher reach schools on my list and i do like yale, princeton, mit, stanford caltech the best which are probably some of the hardest :sob: but im more prioritizing academics and research opportunities, small student faculty ratio, research funding, as factors.

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definitely not willing to attend equally. i do think i will get into umd with some scholarship since im in state but a lot of these other safeties i applied to already because they had no supps and offered fee waivers. i would prefer princeton over these other schools (same with caltech and stanford, but am choosing princeton based on school outcomes and admissions strategy), but would not be super disappointed if i got in ed to a good school but wouldnt know if i could have gotten into a more preferable school.

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If Princeton is your number #1 choice (“the dream school”), then apply REA.

Princeton currently offers the philosophy major & the statistics & machine learning minor.

For now, I would drop all of these except for University of Virginia, since you have the double legacy. You will gain admission to University of Maryland, Penn State, & UPitt for sure so you’ll have these three options to consider, hopefully with good merit aid. University of Virginia should lead to an offer but you are OOS so no guarantee.

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It does seem you are prioritizing prestige rather than fit. I say this because your list is quite varied. With that said, if Princeton is your favorite there is no downside to applying SCEA, aside from giving up the ability to apply EA to private schools on your list. I wouldn’t say your chances are greater in Penn or Cornell ED, and since those aren’t among your favorite schools, why apply ED to one of them?

How are your supplemental essays going? I do agree with maijem that you should cut down on the number of schools you are applying to. It won’t be possible to do an A+ job on all the supplements.

Princeton has SCEA, not ED.

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A typo. I modified my post.

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So if you are serious about Philosophy of Science . . .

Pitt is a great choice, and indeed I would probably pick it over quite a few of your other colleges, including because of their History and Philosophy of Science major. So you could consider dropping a bunch of those if you are accepted there.

Washington, Michigan, and Penn would also be great choices.

Then three others I would personally recommend highly for Philosophy of Science, but not on your list at all, would be NYU, Hopkins, and WashU (has a dedicated specialization).

HYPS would all be good too, but I would not personally recommend MIT or Caltech for undergrad Philosophy majors. CMU is sort of dicey as well in my view.

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Being recruited by Caltech at most increases your chances to 50/50 (same for MIT). I’d stick with the Princeton REA path.

I’d rethink the other state schools except for MD, and UVA and focus your application efforts on the private reaches (6, no more than 8). Remember for the reaches, differentiating yourself in the essays (and LoRs) is what gets you noticed ahead of the thousands of other top notch students.

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I’m interested in phil of science and data science/cs so if i get into a school thats better at one i’ll probably lean more heavily into that field and use the other to supplement my research

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yeah i am casting a bit of a wide net at top schools i might end up dropping some like rice or northwestern or brown. ive submitted apps for umd upitt uiuc and penn state and finished supps fully for stanford and princeton. i have a lot of material from these that i can reuse luckily and i think theyre very strong

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i think i might drop the ones that have supps but some dont have any so im just going to apply on the off chance i dont get in umd. there have been some cases of good students in my program not getting in

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I would not drop Caltech or “PHYSM”. Consider applying to a maximum of four Ivys - the best fits.

The return of standardized testing requirements in many cases reflects internal research showing that standardized test scores help predict students’ academic performance at highly selective institutions.

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Congrats on - well, a record few have :slight_smile: Impressive.

I agree with your extremely likely. Given your major, I’d say U Wash is also extremely likely as is Purdue, RIT and UIUC. But if you’re ok with UMD, PSU and Pitt, it doesn’t matter how they’re classified. If you have an affordable safety you’d love to attend, what’s on the rest of the list or how one classified it is not relevant.

UVA legacy is not a thing (any longer) - I believe it ended a few years ago.

The rest are harder ins and I’ll leave it there.

You are NMSF - so let me ask you this, would you want to pay $50K+ for Pitt or $60K+ for Penn State if all else failed - where you could go free to an Alabama (a sub) for free - and even earn a Masters?

You have schools like Alabama and UTD that will - basically pay you to attend. You have others. Would that be of interest?

If so, what schools would it be of interest versus - because you can knock the others out.

You may say - well free (including living costs) vs. Penn State or UIUC, heck yeah or you may say no.

But NMSF has perks - if you take advantage - at more than two schools but they are two of the very aggressive.

As for ED, it’s not a game. Would you prefer to go to Penn over Princeton? If not, why would you ED there? Same with Cornell over Princeton? If not, why would you ED there? I could be wrong but it wouldn’t surprise me if Cornell sees a drop in apps that might make them a little less selective.

Anyway, if school A is your top choice, why would you ED to school B? ED is not a game - it’s meant to get you an earlier answer on your top school. It’s not necessarily a way to get a different admission decision - i.e. it may not make it easier to get in.

Great profile.

But I do worry that you are throwing out names without thinking about the differences amongst…other than they’re a big name and that’s where you belong.

Good luck.

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i didn’t know that about national merit, thanks for sharing!
that was my thinking in not ed’ing somewhere, but i would obviously rather get in to upenn than not into princeton or upenn if my rea app isnt strong enough. i wasn’t sure how much of a boost ed provided

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Last time Princeton University published them, the EA admit rate was ≈ 13-16% & the RD admit rate ≈ 3-4%. So, historically the EA admit rate is about 3 to 4 times higher than the RD admit rate, depending on the cycle.

Early Decision and Early Action (CollegeBoard)

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But that doesn’t mean that it’s easier to get in early vs. RD.

The composition of the applicant pool is what drives the higher rate- not the type of application.

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Forgetting boosts - if your idea is Princeton and you applied to UPenn ED (which then you couldn’t Princeton) - and you got into U Penn - then Princeton would always be knawing at you. Do you really want that? You’ve worked hard and accomplished so much - why would you not take a shot at your dream? But make sure it is your dream beyond being the best name in America.

If you’re going to grad school, well - it’s nice to have money in the pocket - but depends on the student. Here’s there - there’s more. U Tulsa would be most similar to your mid size school list. Bama is likely the king of the NMF awards - over 1K on campus.

National Merit Scholars | Afford

National Merit Scholars Find Home at UA - University of Alabama News

Scholarship Package & Benefits - UT Dallas Honors College

National Merit Semifinalist Package - The University of Tulsa

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yeah i also thought a lot of rea pool was legacy / recruited but i guess thats similar for ed too