Chance me for Barnard ED (among other schools) [CA resident, 3.75 UW GPA, 1590 SAT, NMSF]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: bay area, california
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): big public school, pretty competitive
  • Other special factors: first woman in my family to pursue STEM
  • upper middle class woman

Intended Major(s): I switched around a lot, but mostly biochemistry and neuroscience

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.75/4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.25/5.0 - 4.34 after first semester
  • Class Rank: n/a
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1590, 800 ERW 790 M
  • National Merit Semifinalist

HS coursework
13 APs, 17 weighted classes, highest math taken is multivariable calculus (highest offered at my school).

  • got 4s and 5s on all my tests

ECs:

- COO of a nonprofit thats represented in over 20 countries, has reached over 2000 students, is partnered w stanford medicine, etc

- senior member of another nonprofit and creating middle school workshops for computational biology, raising ~10k and also doing research for said nonprofit → i ended up presenting my abstract (first author) connecting MS to prion disease using linux and r etc etc at ucsf

- published research on ai in lung disease, presented at cambridge in front of Nobel laureates (got flown out) and also international audience, etc + also published on a new gene that was suppressed in testicular cancer

- was top 600/10,000 at international level of a comp

- finalist for local level competitions

- teach art, my art was published in unesco + i also did murals and such for the community

- extensive extensive volunteering (pvsa 3x);

- okay enough internships - pay to play definitely but theyre comparable to like ucsd cosmos level i guess?

Essays/LORs/Other
English Teacher: had for 3 years, i think it’s strong - she writes very good rec letters and is Amherst + NYU Alum
English Teacher 2: was very close with and writes very good rec letters (I alternated between English teachers depending on which school I applied to)
AP Chem Teacher: good enough rec letter, honestly did it because I needed a STEM one
Research Mentor: okay enough, i’m hoping the Cambridge + Oxford stamp means something
Employer/Art Teacher: I read it and it was good! yay!

I think they all know me in different contexts, which is good.

Schools
ea:

  • unc
  • cwru
  • fordham
  • northeastern
  • oberlin
  • penn state
  • umich

rd

  • usc
  • boston college
  • boston university
  • nyu
  • syracuse
  • scripps college
  • wellesley college
  • trinity college

scholarships would be nice, but not necessary.

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also!! my gpa is explainable due to medical reasons, which i outlined in my additional info.

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How many B’s will you have on your official transcript? You would not want to explain an A- average if that is what you truly achieved.

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What is your budget. When you say scholarships would be nice - tells me your folks don’t want to spend $400k.

Also you likely have too many LORs. So you’ll want to prioritize them.

I assume you have rigor in all areas - ie APs in English, foreign language, math, science, social science.

Did you take all 13 AP classes or some are self study.

NMSF - you know you can go to Tulsa for free tuition and room . It’s an excellent school, historically a back up for Rice. You’d prob spend $20k over four years.

Your list is interesting - from tiny to large.

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Your list seems solid. Fordham offers a scholarship for NMSF.

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a lot……. i missed over two months of school due to my doctors thinking i had brain cancer and also i was hit with a bunch of respiratory illnesses and was hospitalized. this led to me getting 4 b’s sophomore year and 3 b’s 1 c in junior year. once i recovered my grades all became a’s. i think my application would not be complete without talking about all of this

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my parents said that the amount they’re willing to spend varies for each school. for example, they’re willing to pay in full for a school like nyu or boston university, but they would probably pay maybe half for penn state.

i didn’t know too many LORs was a problem :frowning:

The APs I took that were self studied were APUSH and APES, but otherwise i took
AP Bio
AP World
AP Chem
AP Lang
AP Calc BC
AP Psych
AP Human Geo
AP Stat
AP Lit
AP gov
AP macro

i was told to apply broadly, and i’m honestly not sure what i want from a college. since i plan on being pre-med, i’m not sure a big school would be best for learning + internships, but liberal arts schools arent as strong for research and i do care about the social aspect (for example, penn state has amazing school culture)

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really? i don’t see it on their website. i hope so!

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Well Penn State is half (just over that of BU) so - for example, Penn State is a bit over $56K (you won’t get aid) while BU is over $90K. Much of your list is more urban - so I’m surprised you have Penn State vs. Pitt - which is well known for the major.

I think you’d get into Fordham, Oberlin and Penn State from EA.

From RD, Syracuse and Trinity.

The rest I think are reaches - but one never knows.

I think the two non-profits bring concern for truth, so please provide them a link, etc. in the other info if you can’t fit in the description. CWRU could happen for sure - if you have interest.

I think Fordham had a National Merit scholarship. @fiftyfifty1 may know if they still do. I know it was not assured most recently.

If you get NMF, you’ll have opportunities at free - but not at schools on your list. Then you have to decide - are you going to pay near $400K at USC or BU where you can go to say - Alabama or UTD - for $15K total? There will be others with free tuition.

You’re not asking that but that is a situation that could arise. So you might touch upon that with your parents as it might change their overall calculus on expense - especially because it’s likely you’ll be in grad school with those majors…and that’s more expense.

Best of luck.

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yes, i totally understand your concern with the non-profits. we have a lot of online presence, and my role is very well documented on my linkedin and the official social medias. also if they just search up the name, i pop up lol alongside the impact. the other non-profit is associated with UMich, so also very credible and well documented.

Also, I’ve demonstrated a mind-numbing amount of interest in CWRU since beginning of junior year, so fingers crossed.

i looked at fordham’s website and i didn’t see a specific scholarship for NM. fingers crossed!

i applied to some private scholarships, and i also plan to work as either a CNA, MA, or EMT (have all those certifications).

I’ve talked about money with my parents before, and to be very candid with you, it’s not huge of a problem. My parents would want me to stay in-state compared to out-of-state unless the latter option is significantly better for my major. However, if it came down to it, their price ceiling is incredibly high. We’ll burn that bridge once we get there (haha).

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Are those final grades and are final grades the only thing being shared with colleges on your transcript? 3.75 Sounds too high if unweighted and those are final grades.

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i took a lot of out of school courses that are compensating. 3.73 is what shows up on my high school official transcript, but with everything else it’s around 3.75.

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So you have UCs and CSU on your list too given your parents would want you to stay in-state?

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yes i’m applying to all the UCs. i was going to apply to cal poly and SDSU but the portal annoyed me (LOL).

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I agree with this. I also think that CWRU is a target if you show interest.

Have you visited Barnard? I think it is a reach but I also think you are a strong applicant and certainly have a chance.

Some schools don’t mind additional essays- you can ask. IMO your letter writers being an alum will not matter- what matters is you, and what is written.

Good luck!

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i had an internship at columbia for about a month the summer after sophomore year and i got the chance to visit barnard, and since then i’ve loved it :slight_smile:

i chose from any combination of the 5 LORs depending on the school’s values (my English Teacher 2 and 1 are completely opposites, for example)

i’ve definitely shown a lot of interest in case western as well.

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What sells Case - ED.

If you don’t get into Case, you’d get WL. They will ask you to switch to ED or ED2.

They have a very low yield non ED (about 6% I calculated) - and about 25% or so get WL and of that near 25%, 1282 were admitted. Only 1619 total enrolled - but of those 1282, obviously most said no to them that they had to go that deep.

But it goes to show you - you come from a family of means I assume applying ED to Barnard - so I think you’d have good odds of CWRU - i.e. they’ll like your family’s ability to pay.

They have to go deep to get enough people to attend.

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Maybe obvious, but it seems your ability to get admitted to a top school is dependent on what your transcript really looks like and whether the medical explanation gives admissions enough to overlook unweighted GPA which I suspect they may calculate to be lower than what you feel it is. I wish you luck and feel that no matter what you will get into your safer schools like Fordham, Penn State, and Syracuse.

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Half of Penn State is about $30k per year. The remaining $30k per year is unrealistic for you to cover with student loans and/or student work earnings, so remove Penn State from the list.

What about UCs and CSUs?

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https://scholarship360.org/colleges/new-york/fordham-university/

Scroll down to the section heading that says, National Merit Scholarships.

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