Chance me Columbia+others

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Current Senior
Intended major: Undecided
Schools: (I probably will cut a few of these)
REACH:
Columbia University in the City of New York (early decision)
Yale
Harvard
Cornell
University of Chicago

MEDIUM:
United States Naval Academy
Georgetown
John Hopkins
Northwestern
UC Berkeley

SAFETY:
University of Washington
Tulane
New York University
UNC- Chapel Hill

Demographics: 3rd generation American Chinese Male from suburb of Seattle, Dad went to Berkeley, mom went to SF state

Scores:
34 ACT (superscore 35)
1490 SAT
610 SAT Bio, 660 SAT U.S. (probably won’t submit subject tests)
PSAT 1420 (213, 99th percentile)
GPA unweighted= 3.91, weighted= 4.49
AP Scores: 5 on World, 4s on both Econs, calc AB, U.S. history, 3s on French and physics

Summer of 8th Grade:
University of Washington Seattle French 134 A: First-Year Intensive French, 15 credits (took as matriculated student)
French 101
French 102
French 103

UW= University of Washington in the high school course
Sophomore course load: AP Chem, AP World, Honors English, AP French, AP Euro (Independent study), UW Precalc, Honors Bio
Junior course load: AP U.S. history, Honors English, AP Micro/Macroecon, AP Calc AB, Honors French 5, AP Phys 1
Senior course load: AP Stats, AP Calc BC, AP Comp Sci A, AP Gov, UW Composition, UW Psych

ECs:
Varsity Wrestling -4 Varsity letters including this year
Varsity Track and Field -Varsity letter in sophomore year, injured for season in junior year
Volunteering for trail-building
French tutoring -tutored French students every Tuesday and Thursday
Marching Band -Percussion section (9th)
7-day Intensive Naval Academy Navy SEAL Wrestling Camp (9th)
Naval Academy Track and Field Camp (9th, 11th)
Naval Academy Summer STEM Camp (9th)
Naval Academy Summer Seminar program (11th)
J. Robinson Technique Wrestling Camp 10th-11th

Clubs: (Might not mention all of these)
HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America)
National Honor Society
French Honor Society
Math Honor Society
Science Honor Society
Chess club
JOG (Junior Orthopedic Guild)
Speech and Debate

Leadership positions:
Link Crew Leader 11th-12th
Historian of French Honor Society 11th
Vice President of French Honor Society 12th
Wrestling Team Captain 12th

Awards:
1st place in Public Service Announcement at HOSA Statee (10th)
4th place in Public Service Announcement at HOSA Internationals (10th)
2nd place at track and field regional championships (10th)
Participated at the state track and field championships (10th)
3rd place at wrestling district championships (11th)
Participated at wrestling regional championship (11th)
PSAT commended scholar for class of 2019

2

Your whole list is way too aggressive. Your “medium” schools should also be considered to be reach school and your “safety” schools with the possible exception of UW if you are in-state, are more match schools. You really need to add some true safety schools. And I hope you have determined that all of these schools appear affordable.

3

Totally agree with happy1. Other than U. of Washington, your whole list are reach schools. Do more research for true match and safety schools.

4

I don’t think that NYU or UNC are safeties. NYU would only be a match if you are fine with paying $290,000 for four years of university. Given that you are in-state for U.Washington, and given how strong UW is, I would not personally pay $290,000 to attend NYU on the other side of the country.

Given this list you might end up at UW. On the other hand, that would be a pretty good outcome!

5

Your stats are very strong. As some have pointed out, UW is a clear safety. But just to give you some context, here are the acceptance rates for the Class of 2022 at these schools:

Harvard - 5%
Columbia - 6%
Yale - 6%
UChicago - 7%
Northwestern - 8%
Cornell - 10%
Johns Hopkins - 10%
UNC (OOS) - 13%
Georgetown - 15%
Berkeley - 15%
Tulane - 18%
NYU - 19%

:slight_smile: Therefore all of these schools are reaches. The acceptance rates for some of these schools have been declining 2% or more per year recently and it’s gonna be even harder to get any scholarships at those schools which offer them. The admissions process for most of these schools is a complete crapshoot so I wouldn’t worry too much about your chances. Just make sure that they’re a good fit and affordable.

6

For the exception of UW, all of your schools are reaches. What you’re going to end up with is a small handful of acceptances to schools you can’t afford. Even if your parents have the money, paying $250,000 for a bachelors degree is completely insane.“Prestige fever” is where a lot of students and parents make very big financial mistakes.

7

Only Nobel Prize Laureates, Olympic Athletes, and Presidents of small NATIONS(not clubs) consider Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Berkeley, and Georgetown to be “medium.”

8

Anonymous546, you are WRONG! Let zooweemama believe. He def has a chance to get into any school that his heart desires. Just focus on your essays and emphasize who you are. Your list is beautiful. The academic achievements are fantastic. In this situation I’d consider Columbia a match school, maybe even a safety. Your application is so strong that you should consider applying straight to grad school and skip undergrad, or even a Job in whatever career you decide. Best of luck, zooweemama!

9

I personally think you’ve bucketed your schools more less appropriately.

Maybe the largest discrepancy is putting NYU and UNC as a safety.

I think if you wanted to focus on where to improve your application for RD, I would work on taking some SAT II exams if feasible to earn 750+ scores…but while balancing essay writing I realize that may not be possible.

10

@JakeLog I could cure cancer at the age of 17 and still not be able to call Columbia a safety, so I find it quite preposterous for you to tell OP that. I agree with the other posters, while your stats are very good, 1490 SATs and OOS status at most of these schools would place them in the reach category for you, other than Washington. It’s very well possible that you do get into any of the schools you mentioned, but it would be unlikely based on stats. I would recommend adding a couple real safeties to the list. @JakeLog is being a bit overconfident in your application I feel (which is very good nonetheless) but I wouldn’t be 100% confident, or even 50% confident, about acceptance into any of those schools other than Washington. GL!