Please chance me for any of the following schools:
Pomona (possibly ED)
Stanford (possibly EA)
Northwestern (possibly ED)
Duke
Berkeley (OOS)
UCLA (OOS)
Oberlin
UMichigan - Ann Arbor (OOS)
UVa (OOS)
CMU
NYU
UCSD (OOS)
UChicago
Brown
Yale
Cornell
Bowdoin
USC
Wake Forest
Reed College
Colorado College
Wesleyan
Georgia Tech
UWashington - Seattle (OOS)
Also if you have any insight into which of these schools ED, etc. would be actually useful, any input is appreciated.
Note: I’m a junior and from PA so not in-state anywhere.
Some stats:
UW GPA: Around 3.75/4 (including +/-) - but more like 3.7 w/o freshman year - I assume that will hurt me
- I had a good freshman GPA with easier course load and then a really bad 1st semester sophomore year, but since then a huge upward trend (around 3.9 for junior year, and expecting at least as good next year).
Weighted GPA: Around 4.3-4.4/5 (4.4-4.5 w/o 9th grade)
(UC GPA: 4.19? Not sure if I calculated this right - I only weighted AP and college courses as OOS, no idea what “approved UC honors a-g courses” are)
Class rank: top 5% - something like 20/460 in a very competitive public school (with extreme junior grade deflation)
Course load: Basically the hardest offered
10th:
AP Psych - A-/A
AP World History - C+/A (long story short I failed all the DBQs (which were on every test) until I got to see the rubric for them which basically said what to write in them, halfway through the year)
Honors English - B/B+
Honors German 3 - A-/A
Honors Precalc - B/B+
Honors Chem - A/B+
Health / PE - A/A
1st semester: 3.33 (3.89 W)
2nd semester: 3.67 (4.24 W)
Summer before 11th: AP Calc AB online through Johns Hopkins (CTY)
11th:
Honors/AP German 4 - A/A (4 and AP were a combined 2 year class but i took the AP test after the first year)
AP Euro History - A-/A?
AP Macroeconomics - A
AP Calc C (independent study - online through Johns Hopkins CTY)
Honors Calc 2 - A
AP Comp Sci A - A/A
AP Physics C Mechanics - A/A
AP Lang & Comp - B/B? (this was one of those classes with grade deflation)
1st semester: 3.84 (4.65 W)
2nd semester: 3.88 (4.69 W)
12th classes (probably):
AP Lit
AP Phyics C E&M
AP Stat
AP US History
AP Bio (possibly AP Enviro)
Experimental, Abnormal & Social Psychology
Advanced Instrumental Studies (?)
AP tests:
World History (4?)
Psychology (5)
Music Theory (5)
Awaiting scores for:
German (3-5?)
Calc BC (4-5)
Euro History (probably 5)
Macroeconomics (4-5)
Comp Sci A (probably 5)
Physics C Mechanics (probably 5)
Lang & Comp (4-5)
Enviro (didn’t take the class, probably 3-4)
By end of HS: will have also taken Lit, Physics C E&M, US History, Stat, Bio, maybe Spanish
ACT: 34 composite (taking again, might be able to get 35)
SAT (taking again but not expecting much)
720 CR (hoping to get to ~750)
720 Math
710 Writing (hoping to get to ~730-750)
Composite: 2150. Probably not sending this unless I get 2200+.
Taking SAT Subject Tests next fall, probably Math II and Bio
PSAT: 226 (National Merit Semifinalist, would have also gotten it in 10th grade)
ECs: Lots of variety but nothing particularly special. I explored a lot of different things during highschool so I didn’t get too deeply into anything for most of the time.
Varsity Track (only spring - 10, 12, JV 9) on nationally dominant team (PA indoor/outdoor state champs 9/10, top 10 nationally, not that I contributed much to either. I’m not a recruited athlete and wouldn’t be competing D1 so I doubt that would have much effect)
Cross Country (all 4 years)
Ultimate Frisbee team (11)
Ski & Snowboard Club (all 4 years)
Jazz Band (9, 10, 12)
School of Rock House Band (11, 12) on guitar and bass - very competitive audition process, plays various gigs/tours etc.
Indoor Percussion Ensemble (10)
Several different instruments since early childhood (guitar, bass, drums, piano, sax, clarinet, vibes, etc.) - probably writing something about how this influenced my life in an essay
Currently working on an album but probably won’t be done by admissions time.
Student Council (12)
Student representative of campaign to move my school’s start times later through school board (ongoing)
NACLO (Computational Linguistics Olympiad) (9, 11) - top score in school in 9th but didn’t win anything past that
Guitar Club (10-12) (founding member)
Made film in district’s annual Film Festival (11-12) - hopefully winning something this year
National Honor Society - fair amount of hours tutoring and volunteering (haven’t really counted)
National German Honor Society (possibly president next year)
National Merit Scholar Semifinalist
I’m sure I’m forgetting things.
Work experience: Not much
Paid engineering apprenticeship at the Navy this summer
Camp counselor this coming summer (paid)
Demographic: White male from a high (but somewhat inconsistent) income family, can afford full OOS tuition
Not legacy or anything
Hooks: none that I can think of
Undecided major thus far, assume college of arts and sciences or the equivalent at most schools (I’m interested in engineering but don’t want to commit to a major or specialized school any time soon)
I can write pretty good essays so those should probably make up for any shortcomings. The only problem there would be if I had to write a sob story about adversity, as I haven’t really faced much other than a problematic sleep disorder (which was largely responsible for my sophomore grades) and running cross country with serious asthma. My teacher recs should be very good, but my counselor rec is likely to be a bit of a disaster (at this point she has reason to legitimately dislike me).
It sounds like I have a good chance at Northwestern ED, so I mainly want to find out if I have any legitimate chance at my other reaches (i.e. Pomona, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke) in which case I probably wouldn’t want to commit to Northwestern, but I don’t want to lose my chance to go to NU if those other schools really aren’t feasible.
I can provide any other information if requested. I will also chance back. Thanks!