Chance Me/Do I even have a chance?! Columbia, Duke, WashU, Brown, Johns Hopkins, OU, UNC, UMich

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hey! I am a rising senior getting ready to apply to colleges and universities on this upcoming school year. Please give me your honest opinions and feel free to list any advice to raise my chances for such schools.

(This is just a template copied from a results page.)
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): (Have not taken, will take in October, aiming for a 1550+)
ACT (breakdown): Composite: 30 (31 English/Math, 30 Science, 28 Reading, 8 Writing, I am not a great test taker but aim for a 33+ on the next ACT)
SAT II: 690 Math II, 690 Latin, (Plan on taking Math II and Bio in August and am aiming for 770+ on both)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): (School does not send)
Weighted GPA: 4.24
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): (School does not send)
AP (place score in parenthesis): I am only sending APUSH (4). (Limited AP access)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Chinese, Latin V, English Seminars, OrGo
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):National Latin Exam (Perfect, Gold, Silver), High Honor Roll

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Violin (Member of school Philharmonic (4 years), Made some honors orchestras, have gotten superior ratings at state for solo/ensemble/orchestra, member of the Oklahoma Youth Phil, Concertmaster of Youth Church Orchestra), Piano (Accompanist for school orchestra, tutors music theory to younger students), Science Olympiad (4 time state champion, 8th Place in an event at Nationals Tournament), Chinese Club (Will likely be co-president, member for 4 years), Tennis (JV for 2 Years), Church (Served as a treasurer of youth council for 5 years, 2000+ Hours)
Job/Work Experience: Worked as a Waiter, Cashier, and Host at a local Chinese Restaurant (~200 Hours)
Volunteer/Community service: Volunteered at a Federal Veterans Hospital (~195 Hours)
Summer Activities:Volunteering/Working
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Have not done
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): "

Teacher Rec #1: "
Teacher Rec #2: "
Counselor Rec: "
Additional Rec: "
Interview:"

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology/Biochem
State (if domestic applicant):Oklahoma
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Independent College Prep
Ethnicity: Asian (Malaysian)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: <50,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection

Strengths:
Weaknesses: Test Scores, Asian, Intended Major

Please be as candid as possible (I don’t expect much anyways). Thanks for taking the time to read this and best of luck to those rising seniors!

2

You have to calculate your uwGPA in 4.0 max scale for chancing. There is no standard in wGPA.

3

@billcsho

The school that @usnavi and I attend reports GPA out of 4.33. Best estimate for his unweighted GPA would be around 3.915 (?). Hope this helps!

4

Match for Oklahoma but the others are all high reach because of test scores. 1500+/34+ would make them reaches.

The shadowing at the VA hospital looks good, but other than that I don’t see any ECs that indicate an interest in biology though.

You might want to consider BU, Tulane and possibly Case Western as schools of interest.

5

As of now, UMich would be a reach for you. Try to bring up your test score. The OOS admission rate is around 20%. Your current score is below admission average and your chance is likely lower than that.

6

Thanks for the input. Could you guys list some test prep tips or methods that don’t cost much money? That would be very helpful since my testing is the biggest problem I have currently. Do I even have any chance getting into Duke or Columbia ED with higher test scores? I am split between the two but will most likely ED Columbia.

7

Check out the prep books from public library. That was all my D did.