Chance me for MIT or Columbia and other colleges (Junior) [3.9 UW, 1540 SAT, Biology/pre-med, TX student]

Chance Me / Match Me
, ,
1

Guidelines

  • Please check back to answer questions.
  • Please do not share identifying information.
  • Please do not include your race.

Demographics

  • US citizen - TX
  • Slightly competitive public high school (avg sat 1200)
  • i’m lgbtq but i have no idea if that has any effect on my college admissions

Cost Constraints / Budget
100-150k annual salary

Intended Major(s): Biology/Pre-med (I intend to pursue either CS or finance as a career after college, but most of my extracurriculars are centered around biology. I believe MIT and other ivies let you choose your major after you get in, which is why I am applying as a biology major to these schools. For other schools I will be applying as CS/data science major to other schools that don’t let you change majors after admission.)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.9 (currently) - i think this will go up after junior year
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.65 (out of 5)
  • Class Rank: 50/850
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (800 RW + 740 math) - will retake in March

List your HS coursework

  • English: 9th - pre-ap english 1, 10th - pre-ap english 2, 11th - AP lang, A’s in everything so far
  • Math: 9th - Pre-AP Geometry, 10th - Pre-ap algebra 2 & AP Precalculus, 11th - AP Calc BC, A’s in everything
  • Science: 9th - Pre-AP Biology - A, 10th - Pre-AP Chemistry - A second semester, B first semester, AP Physics 1 - B first semester, A second semester, 5 on exam. 11th - AP Biology, AP Chemistry
  • History and social studies: 9th - AP human geography, 10th - AP World history, 11th - AP US History, A’s in everything so far, but I am not taking the world history or us history exam
  • Language other than English: 9th - Pre-AP Chinese 3 (A), 10th - AP Chinese (B both semesters), 4 on exam
  • Visual or performing arts: Varsity orchestra (3 years)
  • Other academic courses: AP Seminar (10th), AP Research (11th)

Awards

  • USABO: I made top 20% my freshman year and made semifinalist (top 10%) sophomore year

  • a few science olympiad regional medals and like one state medal

  • scholastic writing gold keys (submitting again this year)

  • texas all state and all region violinist (2 years)

Extracurriculars

  • science olympiad (2 years)

  • biophysics research internship at small local uni: no publication yet, but plan to publish next semester

  • varsity orchestra (2 years)

  • founded a nonprofit where me and other violinists perform for children at daycares - reached around 400 kids and 7 daycares

  • editor of a high school poetry magazine

  • biology club secretary

Summer Activities:

  • 9th grade: volunteered with my taiwanese cultural organization, performed as part of an ensemble in this organization at cultural events

  • 10th grade: volunteered at a veteran’s hospital as part of like a hs volunteer program

Schools

I haven’t really looked at target/safety schools outside of my state yet

MIT, Columbia (might ED), UChicago, Stanford, Princeton, UT Austin CS (in-state), NYU, Georgia Tech, Texas A & M

2

Please clarify. If you intend to work in CS or finance, why would you take the required courses for medical school applicants (at most colleges “premed” isn’t an actual major. It is at a few).

MIT, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, Chicago, MIT have such low acceptance rates it’s really not possible to chance someone. The vast majority of applicants are very very strong ones….and get rejected.

If your class rank doesn’t auto accept you to UT, it is a target (I’m not an adcom, but I think you have a decent chance of acceptance anyway). A and M is very possible.

Being LGBTQ has no impact on college admissions.

The very first school you need to find is your sure thing for admission, that you would be happy to attend, that is affordable. Have you considered UT Dallas?

3

Congrats on a fine record. Don’t worry about ECs other than you have a few and you’ve had tenure and impact. They needn’t match.

A few things:

  1. You’re not sold on pre med so remove it from the equation. But so you know, where you attend undergrad likely has little to no impact on med school admissions. I’ll give you the example of two of the top teaching hospitals in America - this is where their residents in certain disciplines have gone. The point - don’t think you need to be at the highest ranked school. You need to be where you can excel and do well.

At Vanderbilt’s Hospital, schools like Ole Miss, UMass, Sewanee, UF, Murray State, N Illinois, Kansas, Luther, Lipscomb, OK State. And yes the UNCs, Lafayettes and Vandy’s of the world too - but not by and large.

For Duke Hospital, Tuskegee, UCF, Muhlenberg, Minnesota - that’s four of the first five. The 5th being Dartmouth.
The next year’s residents - Temple, FSU, Cornell, Gannon, Earlham, and Campbell.

So you mentioned budget and gave an income range. That’s not a budget. A budget is my family is able or willing to pay $20k or $50k or $100k. Your family can run each school’s net price calculator to see.

Any top school is a reach so hard to change based on single digit acceptance rates and students like you in droves - rigor, grades, test.

But in chancing, I’d put MIT at no. I’d base that on the SAT math range is 780 at the 25th percentile and 800 at the 50th.

The other privates are also reaches - some less so but still reaches. Before you ED Columbia, check the NPC. Make sure you can afford it.

I think you are worthy of applying to Columbia etc. But that doesn’t mean you get in - statistically you won’t.

Ga Tech OOS will be hard -but again, why not you ? But unlikely.

UT - are you top 5% ? If yes, you’ll get into UT but CS is another thing.

A&M you’ll get in but you have secondary admissions in CS.

If you want CS, you need to add schools.

One thing I’ve noticed, other than A&M, these all urban. Is that something you seek ?

Do you want more names ??

First settle on budget.

As far as LGBTQ, it shouldn’t impact admissions but given the governments actions, like with UT, you never know.

More than admissions I’d wonder - are there certain states, like Texas, I want to avoid?

Good luck

4

@supernova61 please clarify…are you interested in applying to medical school or do you want a career in CS or finance?

2 Likes
5

I am confused as well. Are you planning a career in medicine or CS?

2 Likes
6

For colleges on an exploratory model where you are not admitted by major and you choose your major after taking courses, there is typically no advantage to not accurately reporting your interests. Instead, you will benefit from having an honest and coherent application in light of what you are in fact currently thinking about doing in college.

In terms of chances, for very reachy colleges it is basically impossible to say much more than that you have the sorts of qualifications that will make you competitive. It appears so far you are on track. I do wonder if you are planning to do more than two years of language, however. Ideally you would do at least four years in each core area.

Given how hard it is to predict who will actually get admitted to the reachiest of schools, highly qualified applicants should definitely be thinking about what ELSE they can do with their qualifications besides just apply to such schools. Common possibilities include seeking our merit scholarships, and seeking out colleges that would be a particularly good fits both academically and non-academically. Sometimes you can get merit offers from colleges that are great fits. Honors programs/colleges can also be a variation on this theme, and sometimes have merit associated as well.

I note not infrequently people end up choosing such an offer over a “higher ranked” college that is either a lot more costly, or not as good a fit overall, or both. Or not. But it is great to have choices like that.

In your case, I see you have listed a lot of private research universities. You also have CS and possibly Finance as academic and career options. There are quite a few different private colleges you could consider that would be excellent for this combination of interests, and might offer merit.

Right now you don’t have to decide, but I think it would be well worth some time seriously exploring options like that.

Just to get you started, kids who like the academic mix at MIT might also like other tech-focused colleges. One you might consider is RPI. RPI is great for CS and has merit. They also have a good business school, and they specifically have a dual majors program that might be of interest to you:

Several of the more popular combinations they mention seem potentially suitable, such as their Business Analytics and Computer Science program.

WPI would be another well worth considering (three letter acronyms are apparently a thing in this space), another very strong CS college, again with merit possibilities. WPI has a lot of ways of potentially connecting your interests, including what they call FinTech:

As you will see there, WPI is very well known for its focus on project-based learning.

If you were looking for maybe a little less of a tech-focused college overall, so more like a Columbia say, you might want to check out Lehigh. One possibility would be their Integrated Business & Engineering program:

This is a type of honors program, Finance is one of the possible Business majors, and Computer Science and Engineering is one of the possible Engineering majors, as distinct from Computer Engineering (see the course lists below for the difference in curriculums):

One thing all of these colleges share in common is a lot of ties to major financial centers on the East Coast, which you also have represented quite a bit in your current list. Consistent with that theme, you might want to check out Fordham, another excellent NYC school with a very well-regarded business school. Again they have a variety of ways of combining your interests, but one you might want to check out is their 4+1 accelerated Masters programs, and particularly their MS in Quantitative Finance, which you can do after a BS in CS. Here is more about the 4+1 program:

https://www.fordham.edu/gabelli-school-of-business/academic-programs-and-admissions/undergraduate-programs/undergraduate-to-graduate-pathways/41/

And the Masters:

https://www.fordham.edu/gabelli-school-of-business/academic-programs-and-admissions/graduate-programs/academic-programs/ms-programs/quantitative-finance/

Finally, Fairfield in Connecticut is another very connected school. Among other things, they have a dedicated Dual Major in Finance and Computer Science:

OK, that’s really just scratching the surface. But it is a big world out there, and there are a variety of colleges doing a great job educating people in these areas. Having a robust list of these could really help you end up with a variety of compelling offers to consider.

5 Likes
7

I have considered UT Dallas but I have visited its campus and I thought it wasn’t somewhere I’d want to go to college.

8

Thank you so much! I am retaking the SAT and I have been studying for the math section lately so I do hope I will get close to a 800 in the math section on the next try. Also I do really prefer urban colleges a lot more than rural colleges, which is one of the main reasons why Columbia and NYU are pretty high on my list

9

Sorry I didn’t clarify, I meant that I wanted a career in CS or finance. I thought pre-med was a major

10

Thank you for the suggestions! I have actually taken a test to skip over the first two years of foreign language, so it appears that I have taken four years of language on my transcript. I have heard of Lehigh and RPI and I will definitely look into the colleges you suggested more. Also for the top colleges (Ivies/MIT) is it really almost based on luck or is my application not competitive enough?

11

Im hoping one of our finance experts will chime in on possible majors.

Premeds take courses like organic chemistry, and biostatistics, for example. I’m not sure those would be valuable for finance or computer science. And they are tough courses.

@MYOS1634 @Mwfan1921

2 Likes
12

I heard one possible career path was something called quant finance? I have no idea what this is but I was friends with a guy who got into MIT from our school last year and he said if I went to a “brand name school” like that I should consider quant

13

@WayOutWestMom can you explain what this is?

14

@hebegebe?

15

So you should add some schools if interested in Quant Finance but you should learn more about it first of course.

Babson. Stevens Tech, CUNY Baruch, BNC State, Fordham, and U Wash amongst others - all urban. All but the bookends are reasonable for admit I think (still don’t know your budget). Babson a target and UW a target for business but a reach for CS.

Where did bio come in ? Pre med is a mention, a desire - not a major. Like law, you can major in anything and be pre med but unlike law it has pre reqs to complete for a med school application.

I’m guessing you should look through some school catalogs. See what really interests you. And pick a school or two with the major of interest, reach out to the dept the major is housed and ask for a 30 minute session to learn more.

Ps you can go to school unsure or change your mind. But if you think something is of interest you want to ensure the school you attend offers it.

Good luck.

1 Like
16

I think that I’ve always been really fascinated in biology but I realized I didn’t want to be a doctor or in academia, so there weren’t many feasible careers for me if I were to be a biology major. That’s why I want to apply to most schools as CS/finance

17

This I don’t get - all or none.

It’s odd to say, at these 8 I want CS but these two bio.

Your major is more important than your school. You shouldn’t pick a school, no matter how prestigious you think it is, if you can’t study what you want. Major over school.

18

I’m applying bio to some schools because I heard that bio majors were easier to get in than CS? And also because I basically have no CS ecs so I feel like applying to super selective colleges as CS without a CS background would lower my chances a lot

19

I’m looking at your ECs, and I’m not getting the impression that CS is your passion in life. If you are attracted to CS because you are thinking of big salaries, you should know that the job market for new grads in CS is not what it used to be. There are far fewer jobs for new grads now, and at the same time many more people are graduating with this degree.

5 Likes
20

  1. ECs needn’t match.

  2. Go back and read my last note

If you want to study CS, why would you apply for bio ?

Do you want to spend four years at school A studying what you don’t want instead of school B studying what you want ?

That would make a long four years.

And if you think can game your way in and then transfer, think again. At most, that path is closed. They aren’t dumb.

Apply to the major you want. Major is more important than the school name.

In other words, U Houston or Texas Tech is CS is better than UT in bio.