Chance Me for Stanford/BRDD or Match Me [international, 3.8 GPA, 1540 SAT, <$80k, visual art or cognitive science]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics
international student
Location of residency: east Asia
Type of high school: international private high school
Other special factors: None

Cost Constraints / Budget
~$80k/year (highly flexible)

Intended Major(s)
Visual design/art, Cognitive Science/Symbolic system (if Stanford)
better if interdescipline

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.7
  • Class Rank: ~20%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1540 (750/790)

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: AP ELC
  • Math: AP Statistics
  • Science: AP physics 2
  • History and social studies: AP World History
  • Language other than English: None
  • Visual or performing arts: AP 2D
  • Other academic courses: AP psychology

Awards
None, will add journal accepted if so

Extracurriculars

  • 3 psychology papers (submitted to journal and 2 is currently under review)
  • Started a fashion online store and now had 15k+ fo & $10k+ sale
  • Started & helped entrepreneurship with family
  • Organized some peer fanartists and made a fan art book together
  • Self-learnt a niche game engine and made half of a VN game
  • Exhibit my store in art festivals (1 in-school and 1 city-level)
  • Participated in organizing school art festival & designed posters

Essays/LORs/Other
Essay: I plan to write the method I figured out to push me through these multitask and stop me from giving up
LORs: 1 psychology teacher, 1 statistics/physics teacher (havent decided yet)
Supplementary recs: 1 2D teacher

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): Parsons, Pratt, Chicago Art (all RD)
  • Extremely Likely: RISD (RD)
  • Likely: WashU (RD)
  • Toss-up: Brown, BRDD (RD), UChicago (RD)
  • Lower Probability: Stanford (REA)
  • Low Probability: Other Ivy Leagues

Please Chance me for Stanford and BRDD (Brown & RISD dual degree)! And Match me for schools not on the list. Thk you everyone who comments!!

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btw My language stat is TOEFL 106 (bestscore) as an international applicant. And thank you for your advice on LOCs teacher, essay topic, admission plan and etc if you have any​:heart_hands::heart_hands:

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I also planned to submit art portfolio to comprehensive universities. I have some questions about Stanford’s requirement posted in my profile

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Any program that requires a portfolio submission should not be viewed as a sure thing, in my opinion.

You are a very strong student. In addition, it looks like your family can fully fund your studies here which will be an asset for need aware colleges.

But, in my opinion, your list is very top heavy. And I’m not sure your assured or very likely options are.

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These should be moved down to lower probability

And these are all low probability

That’s great. Just be aware that your cost could be as high as $95k/year, plus the cost of your flights to and from home.

Given that you’ll very likely need to return to your home country after graduation, which of these schools are best known in your country?

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Congratulations on your achievements.

I wouldn’t call these assured admission, but likely. Is “Chicago Art” the School at the Art Institute of Chicago?

The rest of your schools are reaches, some higher than others, but still reaches. The Brown/RISD dual degree program, for example, has a 2%-3% acceptance rate (it only has 20 spots per class.)

Does your HS have a history of sending students outside the top 10% of the class to highly rejective US schools? The quality of your portfolio will have an impact at the schools where that is required, like RISD, and that makes your app impossible for posters to chance.

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Are you also looking at colleges in Europe where the arts are very valued, and international students are welcome?

@MYOS1634

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For cognitive science, look into Vassar.

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You should consider this as a high-quality safety

And/or

It doesn’t include art as a subject although it could potentially be 1/4 your 1st&2nd year courses.

https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/study-maynooth/undergraduate-studies/courses/bsc-computational-thinking

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Don’t all these require portfolios? What makes you say assured and highly likely when portfolios are such an important part of the admit process?

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As others noted, you have overestimated your odds at many of these. Don’t get me wrong you are a VERY accomplished candidate but so are most people applying.

Low Probability (FOR everyone)
WashU, Brown, UChicago, Stanford, Ivys

WashU isn’t really “likely” for anyone but recruited athletes or huge donors. I just checked my kids naviance - there like 6 kids with 1560+ SATs and over roughly 5.0W GPA (over 4.0 UW - we have 4.3 for A+) GPAs that were waitlisted or rejected, This school’s kids all have excellent ECs and many would be full-pay. Are there kids who got in with lower? Sure, but not many! And a few got in with these stats, but very very few.

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Physics teacher is fine for a recommendation- Psychology may or may not “count” as a core academic subject so I’d rethink that.

When you say you’ll be completing AP stats- does that mean you’ve already completed math through calculus and just taking stats because you’ve run out of math classes? Or that your HS offers calculus but you’ve opted not to take it?

And adding to the voices here- you cannot count any school which requires a portfolio as a safety. And given the tiny odds for some of your more academic options-- I’d put all of them (Stanford, Brown, Wash U, etc.) in the high reach category. If your self-assessment of being in the top 20% of your class is correct- your odds are very, very low at colleges which have their pick of the top two or three students at competitive high schools.

You sound like a fascinating person and a great student- but the numbers are what they are.

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Could be a problem. Depends upon how admissions ranks one’s submitted portfolio in the admissions’ process. Typically, a class rank of just top 20% would make RD admission to U Chicago & to WashUStL unlikely and make Stanford highly unlikely.

My suggestion is to focus on Brown/RISD as your reach rather than Stanford.

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RISD won’t care about class rank- Brown WILL care. Very much.

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BRDD = get into both , independently. Brown design engineering is not accredited. Georgia Tech and Purdue are very good too