Chance me + early decision dilemma

Chance Me / Match Me
1

My intended major is something in relation to environmental or atmospheric science - I’m most interested in meteorology but will probably pursue something less math-heavy.

Currently, I’m rather torn over whether to apply ED to Cornell or REA to Stanford. I would rather attend Stanford, but I feel this might be a waste of my early acceptance option because I’m not really sure if I’m up to the standards of Stanford. On the other hand, I think I am more likely to get into Cornell, but I am wary of getting into a binding decision for a school I have never visited. Or maybe both are just too far out of reach and I should apply to another school early decision entirely. I would really appreciate input on this!

Other schools I plan to apply to:
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
Cal Poly SLO
UC Berkeley (grandpa attended and great grandma founded a particular orchestra here, but from what I’ve heard this isn’t really that helpful for a public school)
UC Santa Cruz, Davis, Santa Cruz, Irvine
Santa Clara
University of Michigan
University of Washington
University of Oklahoma
Ohio State

Stats:
*GPA: 4.27 (W), 3.91 (UW)
*Rank: 11 of 550
*SAT: #1: 2000 (650 CR, 690 M, 660 W)

2: 2150 (730 CR, 730 M, 690 W)

*SAT II: 670 (U.S. History). It’s bad, I know. Planning to take bio &/or lit in Oct/Nov.
*APs: Euro (5), Enviro, Psych [self-studied], APUSH, and Lang (expecting 4-5 on all)
*Senior year courseload: AP Gov, Econ, AP Bio, Advanced Systems Physiology (req to take AP bio), AP Stats, AP Lit, Peer Helping, and AP Comp Sci

ECs:
*President of Make a Wish club - we do a few events per year pertaining to both the Make a Wish foundation and other community events, but not a ton.
*President of CSF [California Scholarship Federation - statewide scholastic/community service club] - for this year and next; I’m extremely involved in this, planned almost all of our events singlehandedly. Will be starting a CJSF program for a local middle school in the fall and coordinating all aspects of that; very time consuming.
*co-coach for a middle school Odyssey of the Mind team - first year, made it to state finals.
*Other - member of NHS, treasurer of SPCA club. Will be attending a two-week summer program for weather research. I’m also in the process of organizing a big charity walk from the ground up - I am the event chairperson and this is the first time the walk has happened.

Other things:
White, female, senior, CA. My dad died when I was a freshman, so I come from a single-parent household. (not sure if this can be indicated on my app, but this was also a big reason why I got Bs in AP Calc, which is keeping me from a 4.0 UW, and opted not to take the test).

Anyways, thanks for reading!

2

Whoops - just realized I put UC Santa Cruz twice. One should be UCSD :slight_smile:

3

Bump :slight_smile:

4

Bump

5

It sounded like you’ve posted this in other places, so I dunno if anyone else has given you advice, but I’ll try my best.

How good are you at writing essays? Essays are a big part of Stanford applications, and an excellent place for incorporating the fact that you come from a single-parent household.
Also, Stanford is, if I may quote many other people on here (I’m applying REA to Stanford so I’ve asked around, whoohoo), Stanford is a “crapshoot.” It is a reach school no matter how amazing you are. People with better stats and with worse stats have both been accepted and rejected. It all depends on how you make yourself unique and desirable to Stanford. If you want to go to Stanford and feel like your stats may not be as amazing, then applying REA says “hey, this is my top college. I’m giving up applying ED to Cornell to apply REA here.” From what I’ve heard, that’s a good thing. And since it’s going to be a reach school anyways, you might as well try to apply! Heck, if you don’t apply, you’ll never know.

Good luck with all of your applications! I hope you end up at a great school, no matter where you decide to apply.

6

Thank you so much for the advice and kind words! I really appreciate it, and thank you for letting me know about the essays and Stanford - I wasn’t aware of how big of a role they played in applications. I am a pretty good essay writer, so I think this will work to my advantage. Good luck to you too!

7

Your resume is decent but both schools will be a reach. In my opinion, you should choose the one that you really want to go to.The acceptance rate for Cornell is much higher than Stanford but its still highly selective. You should also apply to some other schools that are more selective than your safeties but less than ivies.

8

Yes that makes sense, thank you for the advice!

9

Your SAT is right at the admission average for UMich last year while your GPA is above average but below 75th percentile. UMich LSA would be a very high match to low reach for you.

10

Thanks for the insight into UMich!