Chance Me for Top 20s: TX Resident, 3.89 UW GPA, 1480 SAT [top 15% rank, <$50k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • (US citizen or permanent resident)
  • State/Location of residency: Texas
  • Public High School (5A)
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.) - Nope

Cost Constraints / Budget - Within 50k per year cost for attending

Intended Major(s) - Computer Science, Aerospace, Biomed, and forensics (basically any stem major because I am very indecisive)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.89
  • Weighted HS GPA: 5.126/6 in Texas, Out of 5: 4.45
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • Class Rank: Not Posted but in the top 15%
  • ACT/SAT Scores:
    • SAT: 1480 (790 M, 690 RW)
    • ACT: 31 (33 E, 32 M, 28 R, 32 S)
      • I am taking it once more and am expecting around a 33 or 34

List your HS coursework

  • AP Classes
    9th Grade: AP Human Geography (5)
    10th Grade: AP Bio (4), AP Physics 1 (4), AP World History (4), AP CSA (3), and AP Seminar (3)
    11th Grade: AP Calc AB (5), AP Physics 2 (4), AP Physics C Mech (4), AP Physics C E & M (4), AP US History (4), AP Lang (4)
    12 Grade (planning on taking): AP Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Econ (macro or micro), and AP Psych

-Note: adv —> Advanced-

  • English: English 1 adv, English 2 adv, AP Lang, AP Lit
  • Math: Alg 2 adv, Precalc adv, AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC
  • Science: Bio Adv, AP Bio + AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2 + AP Physics C (both)
  • History and social studies: AP Human Geo, AP World History, AP US History, AP Gov + AP Econ (semester each)
  • Language other than English: Spanish 3 adv in high school and 1 & 2 in middle school

Awards

  1. AP Scholar With Distinction
  2. Top 10 UTD Battle of the Brains CS Novice Competition

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

-Not in order of best-

  1. Vice President of Mu Alpha Theta (11th -12th Grade) : Organized school wide tutoring and hosted information meetings on other math competitions

  2. 100+ volunteer hours (11th - 12th grade)

  3. Part of Science Olympiad Club (11th - 12th grade was unable to participate)

  4. Part of Computer Science Club (10th - 12th grade): Participated in CS competitions

  5. USCF Chess Rating of 1550 (I don’t know if this counts because my last game played was in middle school)

  6. Academic Decathlon Club/Class (10th Grade): Participated in Octathlon and other district competitions

  7. Working as a tutor in a friend’s startup coding tutoring company (11th - 12th grade)

  8. Part of National Honor Society (10th - 12th grade)

  9. Took F = MA Physics Exam (11th grade): I did poorly :frowning:

  10. App development for IOS: This is in its rough planning and outlining stage, but I am expecting to complete with help of others within 2-3 months.

Essays/LORs/Other
Essay - Expecting it to be fairly decent
Physics Teacher Recommendation (~9/10): I was part of her class for two years and through 3 different physics APs
Math Teacher Recommendation (~8/10): She was host/supervisor of our Mu Alpha Theta club

Schools

Safeties: Texas A&M and UTD (both EA)

Targets: UT Austin (EA), UVirginia, UMiami, UPitt, UIUC

Reaches: MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Cornell, Caltech, and UChicago

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
  • Extremely Likely: UTD, Texas A&M
  • Likely: UMiami, UPitt
  • Toss-up: UIUC, UVirginia
  • Lower Probability: UT Austin
  • Low Probability: MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, Cornell, Caltech, and UChicago

My school has a bunch of people with national and state level awards. So, I am kinda worried because my extracurriculars are late and not that great. I hope you guys can help me plan ahead for senior year.

:slight_smile:

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Little reason to be worried. You have a great background - and many schools don’t loook at ECs or to the level you might think. Or at all.

You’ve done well.

Your rigor is great.

Agree on UTD. Depending on major, A&M may be a target.

Pitt, if you apply early is safe but unlikely to hit cost. UMN might be a safer bet to hit cost - or U of SC in regards to an urban campus.

U Miami is a target to reach - and unless you have need, won’t hit cost. Has your family run the net price calculator ?

UIUC is major dependent on getting in but for engineering is a reach. UVA is a reach. Neither will hit cost. Schools like UF, Ohio State, Arizona, UMN, Alabama ($20k a year for you) will hit cost - so I don’t see why you’d apply to to UVA or UIUC.

Your reaches have no merit aid - have you run the NPCs? You might sub in Rice, Vandy, WashU etc because they have full ride merit etc. you need to find out if you qualify for need. Schools like RPI could get to your # and is a great STEM school. Others to look at with an outside chance to hit - Case Western, Rochester or Syracuse could - and they are easier (but not easy) admits than your super reach list. Ga Tech would be right at budget and Purdue under - both would be tough but at least if you get in, you don’t have to turn it down over cost.

Best of luck to you.

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This is very reassuring to hear. My family has not run the net price calculator, but I am fairly certain that I won’t get much financial aid. I agree that some of these colleges can be considered reach or targets. What I am mainly worried about is whether or not my extracurriculars are sufficient enough for the reach colleges I listed (ivies, etc.). Thank you so much for the help!

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You need to do that ASAP. Those reaches don’t offer merit, only need-based aid, so if you don’t qualify for need-based aid, you’ll be paying full price and that will be out of budget. So find out BEFORE you apply because there’s no point in applying if you won’t be able to afford it. Or - who knows - maybe you’ll be pleasantly surprised. But you want to find this out sooner, rather than later.

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Be aware that Texas A&M has secondary admission to engineering majors. Popular ones like computer science almost require getting to the 3.75 college GPA for automatic admission.

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You can run the NPC for UMN and they will estimate merit aid (if you’re OOS and outside their immediate area). However, I do not know if they have updated their NPC calculations for the coming year. Tuition is planned to rise significantly for OOS students, and I do not know if merit aid will also fall.

From The Minnesota Daily

Nonresident tuition rates will increase by 7.5%, raising out-of-state tuition costs to nearly $40,000 a year.

Colleges across the University will additionally face a 7% cut to academic programs, student services, research and other general operating costs.

Edited to add: I don’t actually see UMN on this student’s college list, so I guess I am just replying to @tsbna44’s comment.

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They are but getting an acceptance that doesn’t hit your budget makes zero sense. In fact, it’ll be painful to your psyche.

So if no aid is the case, lose UVA, UIUC, and all your reaches. U Chicago doesn’t have Aero or MechE and would be unaffordable. Miami and Pitt are doubtful but not impossible cost wise.

Making a budget friendly / appropriate list is always most important.

As for ECs…you are who you are. I think they’re fine (yes a bit late slanted) but get those likely/safety affordable on your list - and you’ve got that covered. If you are good at UTD - then all good.

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As suggested by other posters, I would run the NPC to quickly eliminate schools on your list that exceed the 50k budget. If the average of the NPC results for your reaches isn’t way above 50k (e.g., the average turns out to be 60k with 3 of your 9 reaches coming in at less than 50k), I would also run the NPC on several top private reaches with great engineering that are not already on your list, such as Duke, JHU, Northwestern, Rice, and CMU. The idea is to try to replace all existing reaches above 50k with new reaches below 50k, that you might not have thought of when you first started.

9

Thank you guys for the replies. I did run a financial aid calculator on some of the reach colleges, but they aren’t the comprehensive version (I will do that as soon as I can). It seems that for some of these colleges like Columbia and MIT, I can get it to $40k.

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I see pretty much reaches. That 1480 needs to be closer to 1520/30. Act 33/34.

I would like to see more safeties especially when applying oos.

Too bad you didn’t play chess in high school or did you? Nice rating. It counts if you played on high school team or independently on your own while in high school.

Once you know your real finances than you can cultivate a list. Good luck.

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If I were to play a couple games this fall that are rated for chess, then can I put that on my extracurricular list or do I have to spend most of my high school playing?

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For each extracurricular activity, you will be asked to indicate how many hours per week, how many weeks per year, and for which of the four years, were you involved. Thus, you can’t just do it for a few hours and claim the activity. The degree of involvement matters.

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I don’t think it moves the needle. Your ECs aren’t spectacular but not bad.

Your issue is overreach - and bad list management based on your budget, assuming no aid. You didn’t construct a list for your needs other than UTD and A&M, which is reasonable.

There’s no magic bullet to change either issue in regards to getting to a big name which seems that you are chasing. Given your interests - aero, forensics, other STEM - you don’t need the biggest names. A&M, Syracuse are amongst the top in forensics, as an example - SU is dicey to hit budget. George Mason and Hofstra are other top schools in forensics. Aero will matter little where you go etc

Focus on fit for your interests vs big name. Find schools that cover the gamut. ASU does as does U Delaware, tops in chemistry and has forensics, mechanical (will have aero content) and CS. These are big name schools and more - that fit your needs.

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Your approaching this wrong. The question is if you were a 1550 chess player in 8th grade why didn’t you continue? In Chicago many high school’s would of been going after you to join their state level team’s. Why didn’t you try to be a master level player?

So playing some games to look good on paper won’t help. Play the game’s only if you really enjoying playing chess.

What things do you really like to do? What excites you? What are your interests?

What colleges are looking for is commitment for a few year’s in a few activities. They want to know how you will be an active participant on their campus and help their culture. How will “they” improve with you on campus? .What do you bring to the table per se?

Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions Applying Sideways | MIT Admissions

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For your safeties, your ECs are fine, your GPA is very good, and your SAT score is very good. Your safeties are very good universities and can give you a very good education that will help you do well in life. 790 on the math part of the SAT exam is very good for someone who is interested in a STEM field (particularly the TEM part of this). I think that you are doing very well and are in good shape.

These are all indeed reaches, or high reaches. “Top 15%” is very good in general, but will not impress MIT or Stanford or any of your other reaches. I think that your reaches are relatively unlikely, and your list of reaches is too long. You should think about which of your reaches are the best fit for you, maybe (or maybe not) keep 2 or 3 or 4 of them on your list, and cut the rest from your list. At a minimum, I think that you should get your other applications in first and only start on the long list of essays for your reach schools after you have completed applications to safeties and targets, or at least both safeties plus the targets that you like the best.

And make sure that TA&M really is a safety.

Studying at MIT has been compared to drinking water from a fire hose. Classes go fast. Homework is tough and there is a lot of it. Exams are tough. I remember a homework assignment at MIT that was an unsolved research problem in probability theory. There was no one in the entire world who knew how to solve it. The professor did not know whether it was even possible to solve it. It was nonetheless a homework assignment for undergraduate students in an introductory course (I did not succeed on this particular homework assignment). I remember as a graduate student (at Stanford) spending six hours on a sunny Saturday (mid morning through late afternoon) solving one problem out of 6 on a homework assignment, for one of my 5 classes. Do you want to spend six hours on a sunny Saturday doing homework? If you do and you are able to solve it, will you feel like you wasted your Saturday or will you be thrilled that you were able to solve it? Caltech is no easier, and I doubt that Cornell or Chicago would be significantly easier. You might want to think about whether you want to work this hard, and if not consider dropping some of these schools from your list.

And you need to run the NPCs, or have your parents run the NPCs, and see whether any out of state or private schools on your list are going to be affordable.

Make sure that you apply to safeties and that you are happy with your safeties, keep your budget in mind, look for a good fit, and I think that you are doing very well. Best wishes.

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So a few general questions/thoughts.

First, have you ever taken HS level Chem?

Second, how many years of Languages did you take in HS?

Third, you have a lot of midsize privates among your Reaches, and one quite small one (Caltech).

But you don’t have Likely/Foundation or Target/Match colleges like that. It is up to you, but if that is the sort of experience you would prefer, there are many more options, some of which might offer you merit.

So if you are interested, we could help you identify opportunities like that.

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My opinion…

UVA should be moved to the reach list.

Could you please delete the list that is not most accurate. They are not the same.

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I would move UT, UIUC and Miami to the reach column also if not done yet. Especially for oos.

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What is your family income? I would put UT under reach.

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I do like playing chess, but I felt that I wouldn’t have been able to manage everything else in high school while continuing to play competitively. I have, however, been playing regular games throughout much of high school.