Chance me for Brown, UCB, Columbia, Columbia, etc

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographic:

Gender: Male

Race/Ethnicity: White

Residence: Washington State

Household Income: ~100k+

Stats:

UW GPA: 3.72
W GPA: 4.3

SAT I: 1580 (790 Reading, 790 Math), and 1590 Superscored (790 Reading, 800 Math)
SAT IIs: Math II - 800, Biology E - 800, Chinese - 800

My school doesn’t tell us our class rank

Course Rigor: 7 Honors Classes + 6 AP Classes + 5 AP Classes Senior Year

NOTE: My school doesn’t allow us to take APs until Junior Year (but I did have opportunities to take honors classes freshman and sophomore year which I didn’t)

NOTE: I didn’t really start caring about college admissions or academics until the summer after Sophomore year, so my grades prior to Junior year were mostly Bs and some As (3.5 GPA) and I didn’t take many challenging classes. Will my spike in grades help or hurt my chances?

APs Taken:

Junior Year: AP Computer Science A (5), AP Chinese (5), AP US History (5), AP Language and Composition (5), AP Psychology (5), AP US Government and Politics (5)

Senior Year: AP Environmental Science, AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP Microeconomics, AP English Literature and Composition

Major Applying For:

Intended Major(s): East Asian Studies, Chinese Language and Literature (anything related to Chinese)

Extracurricular Activities:

Member of the US Wushu Team (2020 - present) (National youth team for a form of Chinese Martial Arts called Wushu - I’ve been doing Wushu since 2010)

Co-Founder of the SAT Prep Club at my school (helped other students prepare for the SAT by giving them advice and resources)

Member of the Rocketry Club at my school (won a National Award in the TARC competition)

Vice President of the National Chinese Honors Society club at my school (NCHS)

Spent 50+ hours volunteering at a hospital

Spent 20+ hours volunteering at Wushu Competitions (helping set up, judging, etc.)

Part of my School Youth Orchestra (2018-2020)

Awards:

National Merit Finalist

AP Scholar with Distinction

3x 1st Place Medal at CanAm International Martial Arts Competition

2x 1st Place Medal at World Wushu/KungFu Online Championship (had to do online due to COVID)

2x 3rd Place Medal at CanAm International Martial Arts Competition

Letter of Recs:

One from my APUSH teacher - 7.5/10

One from my Precalc teacher and SAT Club Advisor - 9/10

One from my Wushu Coach - 10/10

Essays:

Wrote about how I was able to grow from my parents’ divorce and how it broadened my world view - 8.5?/10

Desired Colleges:

Im applying for 24 schools but I’m curious about my chances at:

Brown
UC Berkeley
Columbia
Stanford
UPenn
USC
Rice
University of Washington

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I mentioned this somewhere else today, but Brown is ridiculous this year. There’s something in the water in Providence. It’s also the Ivy that the typical “elite” student would not get into because they’re notably more holistic in their admissions. Truthfully (obviously I don’t know you) but from what you wrote, you don’t scream “Brown” to me, even though it’s ridiculously impressive what you have in this list.

For the rest, I’d say you could lump these:

Columbia, Stanford, Penn, Rice: If you’re on this site, I know you know that these schools are insane. You could be the perfect candidate and these two would still not be givens. I know comparatively UPenn is not with the first two, but in terms of the quality of applicants, you’re up against hard ■■■■. I’d say you’re anywhere in the 20-30% range for Penn, and probably 10-15% for Columbia and Stanford. I honestly don’t know much about Rice, but if I had to guess I’d say that’s probably somewhere between Columbia and Stanford vs. Penn.

Berkeley, USC: I’d say 20-30% as well here. Competitive state schools can typically be lumped together.

Washington (assuming you mean State and not St. Louis?): you have a good shot here as it’s not crazy competitive and you’re already in-state. I wouldn’t worry about this one as long as they don’t think you’re applying just as a pure safety. If you mentioned in your application that you felt like the school could give you something and vice versa, there should not be any problem for you for Washington.

I think that spike in grades might hurt you, honestly, because it might be obvious that you weren’t focused on school. Rising grades helping admissions chances can usually be attributed to students growing their study skills and wanting to challenge themselves.

Again, your list is very impressive. You have a very classic “pre-professional” résumé; obviously very skilled in a number of things. I’m sure you didn’t mention EVERYTHING on here, but it would also help your applications to include smaller clubs and achievements, anything you’re in, that’re more fun or passion based, if that makes sense? Again, schools want the quirks and range in your personality. It definitely helps that you’re also a white male going into humanities. Schools are getting a huge influx of STEM applicants and that could hurt your chances if you applied to, say, engineering.

Good luck with everything! I’d be interested to hear about your results!

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I am guessing that you will surely get into U of Washington as you are the resident. For the other school listed above, not sure

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Wait. Just had an additional thought to continue on my Brown line of thought - while you’d likely not be a good Brown candidate, I’m sure Yale would be good for you the same way UPenn would. I think I used the phrase pre-professional somewhere in my original post. Those two are obviously different but they have a similar “vibe”.

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For when you are ready, this might represent the best Chinese abroad program available:

Best of luck with your decisions.

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Note that USC is a private university.

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My mistake, thanks for letting me know. Did a lot of copy and pasting on that comment before I posted it. My numerical guess at the admissions chances still stands, though.

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What are your UC GPA’s (unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted)?

See link to calculate: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

UCB is test blind this admission cycle so unfortunately your excellent test scores are not a consideration. You can still send the scores but they will not be used as part of your application review.

You look like an accomplished and competitive applicant but UCB should still be considered a Reach school.

Can your parents afford $65K/year to attend?

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 12%

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 38%

2020 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range: [/b]

UCB: 4.22 (4.13-4.30)

Best of luck.

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My unweighted UC GPA is 3.83

My weighted UC GPA is 4.39

My weighted and capped UC GPA is 4.28

And my parents will most likely be able to afford the tuition