Chance me for Ivies, UCs, t20 with sub-par gpa [CA resident, 3.85 UW, 1580 SAT, Electrical Engineering + Business]]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • Bay Area
  • Small Private School

Intended Major(s): Electrical Engineering + Business when possible (aka upenn m&t or ut austin)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • 3.85 UW (not included on transcript)
  • 4.32 W (school avg: 4.17) - a+ = 4.3, a = 4.0, a- = 3.7 etc etc…honors + ap classes give 0.5 boost
  • No class rank
  • 1580 SAT (800 Math, 780 RW)

Coursework

  • AP Scores: csa, world, phys 2, bc, bio, apush, chinese (all 5)
  • Currently Taking: ap lit, ap econ, ap stats, ap phys c (mech + e&m), study of art (i have to), stochastic processes (:skull:)
  • Other notable courses: multivariable calc, lin alg, astronomy

Awards

  1. national + intl champion in synchronized swimming

  2. state science fair 3rd

  3. regional science fair 1st + hon mention

  4. national merit semifinalist

  5. chinese national honor society

  6. ap award

Extracurriculars (my swim club didnt let us join any school clubs in freshman year so thats why im not very involved in my school’s stuff, wish i could)

  1. 2 independent research projects submitted to science fairs (3 years): 1 astronomy, 1 software. software project published to app store. recognized by city mayor

  2. synchronized swimming (4 years): competitive + private coaching (stopped competing after freshman year)

  3. swim instructor (3 years): manage athlete placement + train new hires

  4. founder of indep. social media channel advocating for women in motorsport + teaching motorsport tech (3 years): 100k+ views, 6k+ likes, blog posts

  5. internship: did technical marketing / finding leads / strategizing product distribution at AI+ESL startup (< 1 year)

  6. a lot of summer programs (probably wont put these for all schools): Wharton Global Youth, Harvard Venture Tech, ESAP, genelab

  7. duolingo (4 years): 1000+ day streak, 5 languages

  8. google maps reviews (2 years): level 6 local guide, 600k+ views

most of my ecs are self initiated because of the freshman year thing mentioned above so there arent any like traditional leadership positions so rip

Schools
applying upenn ED (m&t + legacy), all ivies, all ucs, lots of other t20s

safeties: uc merced + riverside, purdue, and cal poly pomona

targets: uiuc, ut austin, uw madison

im just looking to gauge what my expectations should be bcs my stats r kinda low. hopefully i clutch up on the essays but i dont think im getting in anywhere lmao :sob: anyways any advice appreciated tysmm <3

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Do you have a budget? Applying for financial aid?

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no, i’m above the threshold for need-based aid and am applying to merit-based scholarships but no hard cap

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Ok, as long as you realize the Ivy League (and some other) schools do not give merit scholarships and outside scholarships usually will not cover much.

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What are your UC GPAs and CSU GPA?

Looking at your list, my guess is that Purdue would be more of a target (not a safety), and UIUC and UT Austin would be reaches (not targets) as an OOS student applying for this major.

Do you need help finding more safeties and targets?

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idk those rankings were based on a software (collegekickstart) my school has to compare you against other ppl from the school who went to a certain college

im applying to uc merced + riverside and cal poly pomona as my safeties too

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Would you be happy attending Merced, Riverside, or CPP?

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yeah i think so

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I guess my question is, why are your grades lower than your 1580 and ability might indicate? Will you have to worry about not-great recommendation letters?

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If you are interested in motorsport, are you looking for schools with great Formula SAE teams? I can suggest some, if you like :wink:

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i really struggled in precalculus in freshman year (B, B+) which brought down my gpa and i feel like my school’s curriculum is more rigorous than other schools (i am so sorry if i sound like im making excuses)

as for recs i think i culivated a pretty good relationship with my teachers for them and im pretty sure they aren’t going to be “negative” per se

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Colleges will most likely recalculate your unweighted gpa even if not on tbd transcript.

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I think that’s reasonable - are you saying you only have one non-A grade? If so, no worries. I don’t think schools (except those with the SRAR) actually do any calculating; they just look at the transcript. A transcript with all As except one freshman year advanced class will be just fine.

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yeah ive gotten all a’s (albeit a decent few a-) otherwise

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The first thing that comes to mind is that if you attend a small private school, then both your grades will be on a slightly different grade scale compared to what most of us are used to, and you probably have very good guidance counselors in your high school.

Can you explain why all 8 Ivy League schools are a good fit for you? As a fairly obvious example, can you explain why Dartmouth College (4,400 undergrads, 6,700 total students, rural NH) and Columbia (37,000 total students, big city) are both a good fit? Of course you do not need to convince me. This is however likely to come across in your essays one way or another.

You might want to think about what type of school would be the best fit for you. You are a strong student and are likely to have multiple options, and you would be best to find a university or college where you will be happy.

These are very good universities. Make sure that your guidance counselor agrees that they are safeties.

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deleted.

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Personally, I would suggest cutting your Reaches to just those that really make sense for you given your academic interests. Like some of the “ivies” and “T20s” don’t even have undergrad business programs (including no business minors), and/or are not really strong choices for Electrical Engineering.

I would also note almost all of those colleges are private colleges (except if you count Cal and UCLA), and yet you have no other private colleges among your Likely/Foundation colleges or Target/Match colleges.

But with your interests, I would think colleges like RPI, WPI, Lehigh, or Drexel, say, might have a lot of appeal.

Like RPI actually has an accelerated Engineering + MBA program you might want to consider eventually (you would not have to decide right away):

Their business school also has a nice variety of minors–Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Finance, and Management:

WPI has a similar range of programs including a BS/MS and a variety of minors:

Lehigh then has its Integrated Business & Engineering program, which is actually a type of honors program and you can, say, choose Electrical Engineering as your major within that program:

Drexel also has an integrated Business and Engineering program:

You can do what they call a concentration in Electrical Engineering, and choose from one of the longest list of Business minors I have seen:

There are many more. For your interests, you could also look at universities like Case Western, Rochester, Clarkson, RIT . . . .

Olin is another interesting option. Olin has a strong ECE program, but then you can also take classes at Babson (or Wellesley). Babson is of particular note given your interests, because they offer a Certificate in Management to Olin students:

Anyway, that’s just some examples of the alternatives you might have for non-Reaches, versus going with only large publics. Of course if you prefer your Likely UC options, that’s fine. But even just applying to a few colleges like this to maybe get some interesting offers to consider can be worth it.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to note that all of those colleges I mentioned have merit (not a coincidence). Realistically, they probably won’t get competitive on price with your in-state options (although you never know), but some might get competitive with OOS options. I personally think your profile in particular is likely to be of interest to them because they know kids like you are sometimes gettable with a nice merit offer.

No guarantees of course, but again a few applications to these sorts of colleges just to see what sort of money they might put in the table is not at all a bad idea, including just because it can feel good to be wanted like that.

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Blockquote

yeah ive gotten all a’s (albeit a decent few a-) otherwise

If you only got one B as a freshman (well, 2 I guess if you count both semesters) then a lot of colleges will recalculate your UW GPA as much higher than 3.85. Many use a “4” for any A, including A minus. Your grades and test scores are competitive. But T20 schools are ultra competitive and a reach for everybody…especially M&T. You might get one or many acceptances but it’s just really hard to predict when school has a single digit admit rate. You have some safeties, so you’re good as long as you are good with those. BTW UT Austin OOS acceptance rate is 10 percent overall and even lower EE and business so it’s a reach for anyone OOS. And actually anyone in state for those majors. Good luck!

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I agree with this assessment.

and Purdue, UIUC and UT Austin are also unlikely to provide much (if any) merit money.

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Talk to your private school counselors.

I know others mentioned budget. If you don’t qualify for aid, some of these are $400K.

No one can say - but since you’re applying to 80 schools it seems :slight_smile: and wait til you see the essays so all Ivies plus all top 20 is like top 20….but I’d say

Yes to your safeties. Yes to UW.

Unlikely for UIUC and most UCs because your SAT won’t matter. I would add an ASU/Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio State, RPIs strong likelies - strong because they are great schools. And if you want a name that over delivers but is small and rural - Rose-Hulman. It’s the #1 school for engineering without PhDs - and packs a career outcome delivering wallop.

Good luck.