Chance me (Class of 2026) for Yale REA, Emory, Stanford, etc [NY resident, 94/100 GPA, 1560 SAT, biology, need FA]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hi guys! Im currently a junior stressing out about college apps :slight_smile: Chance me and match me if you cannnnn

Demographics

  • State/Location of residency: New York
  • Type of high school : Public, Large, Suburban (transferred from boarding school for 10th grade)

Cost Constraints / Budget
Needs partial FA

Intended Major(s)
Biology
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 94/100
  • Weighted HS GPA: 99/100
  • SAT Scores: 1560

List your HS coursework

  • English: English I, English II Honors, AP English Language
  • Math: Geometry, Algebra II Honors, Dual Enrollment Precalculus/Calculus I
  • Science: Biology Honors, Pre-AP Chemistry, AP Biology (AP Physics senior year)
  • History and social studies: Global History, AP World, APUSH
  • Language other than English: French I, French II, French III Honors
  • Visual or performing arts: Studio Art, Ceramics
  • Other academic courses: Science Research, Neuroscience, Climate Change

Awards

  • Local Science Fair (1st Place Medicine and Health)
  • College Board National Recognition
    (preparing to compete in more regional fairs, hopes to participate in ISEF)

Extracurriculars

  • Research at Weill Cornell on Blood Cancers
  • Supervisor for community organization that helps younger kids with science fairs
  • New York Blood Center Volunteer
  • Nursing Home Volunteer
  • President of Human Rights Club (leading initiative raising money and awareness for food insecurity and health related services for the local homeless population)
  • Science Honor Society (Biology Peer Tutor)
  • Secretary of Black Culture Club

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Essays on internship and working with kids on science fair, trying to come up with creative ideas
  • LORs - AP Lang, AP Bio, Cornell Lab Mentor

Schools

  • Yale REA
  • Stanford
  • Duke
  • Emory
  • Bowdoin
  • Vassar
  • Syracuse University
  • UConn
  • Penn State
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Do you know approximately where your grades would rank you in your class, or (even better), what sorts of unweighted GPAs successful applicants from your high school to your Reach colleges usually have?

Also, have you checked the Net Price Calculator at all your colleges?

My other big observation is you have four pretty Reachy midsize private research universities, and two pretty Reachy LACs. You then have two large public universities, and Syracuse which is private but in some ways almost feels like a public in terms of size and other factors.

Normally kids with your Reaches in my circles also include Targets and Likelies among midsize private universities and LACs. Sometimes in fact they end up chasing merit at those sorts of options–which would seem like a good idea if you are looking for financial aid. If you would like suggestions along those lines, we could help you out.

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You have zero reason to freak out.

People who “mess up” the college search mess it up because they don’t plan right, either affordability or in school choice.

So choice wise, with SU, UCONN, and Penn State, you’re good to go.

If you like mid size or smaller, given your reaches, then there are subs to those three safe/likelies you should find instead.

The second piece is budget.

You say you need financial aid. Often times the schools don’t agree so you need to run each school’s net price calculator - or rather have your parents run it.

For UCONN and Penn State - you’ll be paying OOS tution. There is a chance for merit at UCONN but it’s unlikely at Penn State. So Penn State will be $65K for tuition, room, and board. Is that affordable? If not, you need a sub for it - Ohio State, Michigan State, etc. and then the question becomes - why no Bing, Buffalo, Stony Brook, Albany, etc. - in other words, why no in state. But again, a lot depends on your budget so have that discussion with your folks.

So no reason to freak out - but I’d ask:

  1. What’s your budget - have that discussion now with your parents. Note - college costs more than tuition, room and board.

  2. Do the NPCs line up with that budget - if Yale says it’s $90K and your budget is $40K, no reason to apply. Have your parents run the Net Price Calculators for each school.

  3. What do you want in a school - you have tiny and you have huge - it’s not impossible someone could love Vassar and Penn State - but it’s not something you’d expect to see.

  4. With a bio major, what do you plan to do with it - because outcomes aren’t great and often there is grad school - which brings more cost.

Answer these types of questions to figure out - how your list should look.

But no need to freak out - it’s good you came here.

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Agree with this.

Also, any SUNYs or CUNYs?

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I’m surprised Cornell is not on your list, especially since there is a significant tuition discount to any of their contract colleges for New York residents.

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Hi!!! Students at my school that go to Ivy’s usually have in the 100s as weighted. The class of 2025 valedictorian had a 106. I take dual enrollment towards Syracuse and have increased chances of enrollment because of one of their programs.

I am looking for financial aid and would love to get some, but it isn’t much of a dealbreaker for my family.

I’m looking more for schools with good research opportunities but I’m also open to LACs.

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I didn’t know that. I’ll definitely look into it. Thank you so much!

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I was thinking about Stony Brook but idk.

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Most schools have l research.opportunities. You simply need to ask. A higher pedigree school doesn’t necessarily mean they have whereas others don’t. On the other hand, more students may want them there making them more competitive.

Don’t say budget isn’t a concern but you need partial FA.

Talk to your family. College can be $80k over four years, $400k or anything in between. How much can they afford? Even if it’s $400k - how much do they want to afford ??

Clear that with them now. Too many say what you do and find out later theur parents got sticker shock. But have them run the NPC because they might qualify.

As I showed you Penn State is $65k plus and likely with no merit - are they willing to pay ?

Finally - are you expecting further schooling ? They need to budget for that too.

When you say this - “I am looking for financial aid and would love to get some, but it isn’t much of a dealbreaker for my family - we need to know if you qualify for any because if not, then you seek it via merit.”

With your stats, there would be a lot of merit opportunity - but not at Yale and Vassar etc bcuz they are need based aid only.

Or they might (your folks) $40k at Wooster is better than $90k at Vassar.

An actual budget figure and a running of NPCs are steps 1 and 2 really b4 anything else.

Thanks.

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I would ask your parents to complete the NPCs on these schools. If the cost works for them that’s great, and if not it allows for an adjustment such as adding schools where you are likely to receive merit.

I would also add 2 SUNY/CUNY schools.

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Syracuse is an excellent university and actually has some merit too, so that is a very solid possible path.

Just a few other random suggestions:

First, totally agree about checking out SUNYs/CUNYs. I note Binghamton has a really cool undergraduate living system.

William & Mary has a very good Bio department and it is a very unusual university in general. Feels much more like an Ivy-style private than a public, great campus, but their tuition is considerably less than full pay private. In my circles the joke is William & Mary has an automatic merit scholarship (meaning it costs less for the same quality and type of experience as various privates).

Rochester has a robust merit program and it is an excellent research university with a very flexible curriculum structure.

I note in my circles, W&M and Rochester are common application list choices for the sorts of kids who also like Vassar or Yale–including in fact my own S24, who is a likely Bio major, and applied to all those colleges. Although he actually ended up at WashU–which is also a good choice but somewhat redundant with your other Reaches.

In terms of smaller colleges, you might want to check out another of my S24’s application choices, Haverford. Very good Bio program, cool location on a train line to Philly, you can also take courses at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Penn (Bryn Mawr being most common, although there are some joint programs with Penn that involve getting Masters degrees that are very interesting). No merit, though.

At little farther afield, St Olaf is a forum favorite for good reason. Really strong natural sciences departments including Bio, nice campus in a nice college town only about 45 minutes from the Twin Cities, and they have robust merit.

Kalamazoo in the city of the same name in Michigan is another with similar sort of appeal. Kalamazoo the city is actually a bit of a life sciences hub, and there is a train to Chicago as well. Really nice LAC with another very flexible curriculum (they call it the K Plan), and robust merit.

If you would prefer to stick closer to New York, it happens Pennsylvania has a lot of nice LACs for Bio (in addition to Haverford and Swarthmore). Ursinus, Juniata, Allegheny, and Franklin and Marshall would be some names to check out.

That’s a lot of potential ideas, but I think you have time to check them out. Of course you may get into a preferred Reach, or generally may prefer Syracuse, a public, or so on (particularly after accounting for cost). But I don’t think it is a bad idea to at least investigate what else is out there.

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Something that I wonder about: What is the plan with a degree in biology?

The first reason that I ask is that many students who start university as biology majors are at least considering being premed students, and thinking about possibly trying to attend medical school at some point.

This in turn brings up three issues. One is the medical school is expensive, and premed students really should budget for a full 8 years of university. Another issue is that there are a LOT of universities that are very good for premed students, and this definitely includes multiple SUNY and CUNY universities. The third issue is that the large majority of students who start off thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some forms of something else are medicine-related, such as biomedical research. Some forms of “something else” could be very different (law, computer science, …).

By the way one daughter has a bachelor’s degree in biology. She briefly thought of being “premed”, but quickly discovered that she likes lab work and likes biomedical research. She is currently studying for a PhD.

As others have mentioned it would be helpful to try to get a better understanding of what your budget is. At least in our experience sometimes the schools with the most financial aid were also the most expensive before considering financial aid. The real issue is what the final cost comes out to be.

This is very good.

Your grades will be evaluated in the context of the high school that you are attending. This implies that your GPA is only slightly lower than is typical for students from your high school who typically attend Ivy League or equivalent highly ranked schools. However, these schools are reaches or high reaches even for the strongest students.

Three things pop out to me looking at your list of schools. One is that a lot of them are reaches. The second is that there is a range of different types of schools. The third issue is the lack of SUNY’s and CUNY’s on your list. I do not personally understand what you will get for example at U.Conn or Penn State (which are a very good universities) that you could not also get at a SUNY for a lower in-state cost.

As I mentioned there are a LOT of universities that are very good for premed students. Similarly there are a LOT of universities that are very good for students who intend to go on to biomedical research, or even who switch to an unrelated major (which is a common thing to do). A lot of universities will have good opportunities for premed students to get medical related experience, and other opportunities for students to instead work on various kinds of research projects (whether biomedical or something else). If you look at the students in various graduate programs (whether MD programs, or master’s degree or PhD programs or something else) they typically will have come from a very, very wide range of undergraduate schools.

You might want to think about what type of school would be most comfortable for you. Would you be happier at a large school, or at a smaller liberal arts college (such as Bowdoin). Would you prefer to be in a small town, a suburban area, in a city, or somewhere else? You might want to also think about how much travel you want to do. As one example, at least in my experience some students do travel across country or internationally for a bachelor’s degree, but it might be a bit more common to get a bachelor’s degree closer to home.

There are a lot of universities with very good research opportunities.

To me it looks like you are doing very well and you are starting to ask the right questions at pretty much the exact right time. The various contributors on this web site should be able to at least help to give you some questions and some ideas to think about.

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Just an FYI. The net price calculators are currently set up for students starting college in fall 2025, and that is not you. So use any results you get with caution. For the 2026-2027 academic year, the 2024 tax return information is what is used…those haven’t been done yet, right?

And yes, financial aid calculation policies do sometimes change.

Just an FYI.

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