Chance me for the following colleges [MA resident, 3.88 GPA, 1440 SAT, public health]

Chance Me / Match Me
, , , , , , , , ,
1

US domestic

  • State/Location of residency: MA
  • Type of high school : Private
  • Other special factors: recruitable athlete (only at Caltech)

**Intended Major(s) Public Health

**3.88 UW, 4.43 W, and Test Scores: 1440 plan on taking again, Calc BC 5, AB 5, CSA 5, Physics1 5, Euro 4, Chem 4, APUSH 4

List your HS coursework
All the APs above + AP French and Lang (didn’t do well on those), honors for the rest

Awards
USNCO National Exam Nominee, HOSA Dental Terminology state 1st (ILC qualifier), NHS, AP Scholar w distinction, Athletic All star, top 100 in state math meets
Extracurriculars
mainly just XC and Track (captain), did swim team freshman and sophomore year, schoolhouse, I’ve shadowed professors, Concert Band in school and symphony outside (clarinet) teacher assistant at a non-profit for kids, and hopefully publishing a paper

Colleges: Cornell, UChicago, Emory, Caltech, UMich, UCLA, UC Berkley, BU, BC, Tufts, Swarthmore, UPitt, UMass, WPI

2

Congratulations being a qualified and competitive applicant.

For UCLA and UC Berkeley can you calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s using 10-11th grades for the UC a-g courses and only AP/IB classes taken during this time are given the Honors points in the GPA calculation.

Since you did not list your all your academic courses, have you taken a year of a Visual/Performing arts course which is a UC requirement?

The UC’s are test blind, so your SAT score will not be considered during the admissions process nor for merit scholarships but only for course placement.

Do you have a college budget?

3

Yeah, I’ve taken band every year except sophomore year. The budget depends on how good the college is. For the Cornell, berkley, umich, emory, and ucla my parents are ok with paying full price.

4

My UC GPA iss 4.57W and 4.0 UW.

5

I just have to ask…why Caltech? @aunt_bea might be able to discuss Caltech.

And for public health, you will likely need a masters at least to work in that field.

Make sure you apply to UMass in the early round. That is where many of their incoming class comes from.

And apply to Pitt when the application goes live. You could garner some merit aid there if accepted.

Is WPI your sure thing for admission? Will your parents pay for this school?

The rest of your list is reachy, but you are a strong student.

As long as you have a sure thing for admission that you like…that your parents will pay for…then it’s ok to apply to those reach schools. But please please make sure you have that sure thing. That really is the first school you should identify.

Apply to Pitt soon and you will have a decision pretty quickly. If accepted then you have your sure thing locked up!

1 Like
6

Here is some statistical data for the Public Health major at the UC’s listed.

UC Berkeley: Admit rate 5% High demand major/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.16-4.28 Campus Weighted 4.31-4.65 Campus Unweighted 3.89-4.00

UCLA: Admit rate 13%/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30 Weighted 4.32-4.74 Unweighted 3.89-4.00

Best of luck.

1 Like
7

BU, BC, Tufts, Swat, Uchicago are very pricey colleges. Will your parents pay for those?

1 Like
8

WPI is right where I live and I’d be able to run there. The coach reached out to me from Caltech (and who’s gonna turn down Caltech), I don’t think athletics help much with admission but she said if I could get my SAT up I might have a shot.

9

We’re hoping it doesn’t come to that. If it does, then we might start considering safeties. I also spoke to the coach at Swarthmore (so that might help).

10

thanks

11

Please read this thread I’m about to link. You seem to have a couple of surer things on your list. These are important! The student in this thread was a tippy top student…NMF, class val, excellent LOR, excellent ECs, excellent GPA, excellent SAT score. No one thought he would get rejected everywhere he applied…but that’s what happened. He did land very well on his feet after a very well crafted gap year, but the end of his senior year in HS was not a happy time.

This is an old thread but admissions have only become more competitive…and you just don’t want to be in this position. Read the whole thread…

3 Likes
12

A lot of people…Caltech is not your typical college experience. It is something very specific, which is great for a tiny minority of students, and a terrible fit for the majority of students.

12 Likes
13

You need a budget. My parents will pay for the right name is not a budget when it might cost $400k and you’ll need grad school. You need to pay for that. Public Health - what do you gain by going to schools that don’t have it.

I recommend you redo your list. Have a budget and pick realistic schools - not schools like Swat that don’t have the major undergrad.

If I had to guess, you can get into Pitt, UMass and WPI - which has a minor only - so what will be your major? If you can run there, where else can you ? Your need ED to BU or Tufts.

If you seek attainable names with the major, add UMD as possible (not assured), UGA (same), Rutgers (safety), and Lehigh (not assured) although I don’t see why I would choose any over UMASS. UCI and UCSD are arguably the top two UCs in the major but why over UMass ?

Finally, I’d check curriculums. Public Health majors come in a lot of flavors. Which is the flavor you want to study - science, public affairs, community health or more ?

Good luck.

1 Like
14

I’m hoping to do public health alongside a pre-med track. I’ve heard liberal arts schools are ok for that (which is why I’m considering Swat). But my main plan is UMass, WPI, and Pitt as safeties, UMich EA, Cornell ED and Emory ED2 if I don’t get in. If I don’t get into either then I’ll probably apply to colleges like BU, Tufts, and Case Western and weigh out my options from that. I’m not banking on Caltech but feel like I could handle the environment. Also, is UMass Amherst really that good? Almost everybody from my school above a 3.0 got in.

15

If you are going to med school, go to UMASS or another inexpensive school. You have to pay 8 years. Yes, UMASS is excellent and gives you the same chance as med school as Michigan. If you didn’t go to med school, you’ll have saved well into six figures - is any school worth that ? Personal call.

Where you go undergrad won’t matter. You can find countless threads on here where the experts note this - direct from medical schools themselves. Your MCAT will though plus grades, shadowing, etc.

Here’s a list of some Radiation residents at the following academic hospitals - where they went undergrad.

I was a patient at Vandy in Radiology - and here’s where the residents went to school (first two year residents):
Auburn
CWRU
Florida A&M
Florida State
Fordham
Lipscomb
Luther
Murray State
Northern Illinois
Pitt
Princeton
Tulane
Tuskegee
U North Carolina
U Puerto Rico
U Tennessee

Duke Medical - this was just the early letters of the last names of the alphabet

Arkansas
Michigan
UNC
Princeton
Rochester
South Florida
Southeastern Louisiana
Texas

Taking it further to Johns Hopkins - resident undergrads:

JHU
UMD
UMBC
U Miami
Morgan State
South Carolina
TCNJ
U of Puerto Rico
UT Dallas
Towson
Vandy
and more

1 Like
16

Thanks. My parents have also been saying that undergrad name doesn’t matter as much as residency. I don’t think my chances at the really selective schools are that high anyway so it’s quite possible that I end up going to a less prestigious but more affordable school.

17

I would also have a talk with your parents. The comment that they will pay full price for some colleges and not other’s doesn’t sit well and really makes no sense. Why penalize you for going to a college with a different name attached to it? They’re putting value on the wrong thing.

5 Likes
18

If you don’t go to med school and you likely won’t, then where would you want to be ?

Public health with a bachelor is likely low paying or requiring grad school.

Prestige likely means little. Many choose safeties over reaches every day. Both mine did.

You should decide budget up front.

If they’d rather spend $35k vs $85k, then why apply to Michigan at all ? Why put yourself in that pickle if you get in ?

If they are ok with $85k plus grad school, then it’s a different story.

19

Interesting you say my parents say this about any school / med school but then you say for certain schools they are willing to pay full pop. Which is it?

20

My dad’s big on name and my mom just said to go with the best deal. Frankly, I can’t resist chasing the name. And yeah, they’re assuming I’m going to grad school MD or something else.