Chance me + help w college list [TX resident, 4.0 UW, top 20%, 1440 SAT, psychology/premed]

Chance Me / Match Me
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applying to emory uni ED1

(im going to their precollege program in atlanta in July, ik it doesnt mean much by itself but maybe it’d help w supplementals)

other schools include UW, UT, BC, Northwestern

also please lmk what other schools I should apply to (targets)

assume good essays + supplementals (writing is my strong suit)

9/10 essays, 9/10 supplementals (if applicable)

rec letters will be a toss up (see additional info), but im thinking 8/10 for 2 of them and 7/10 for the other

1. demographics

asian, female, upper-middle class, not first-gen, not legacy, Texas resident

- major: psychology, premed

2. academics

gpa: unweighted - 4.0, weighted - 5.079

top 20% (no grade inflation, just an extremely competitive high school, 17 ap courses (@ time of application) with good ap scores so far)

sat: 1440 in march, retook in June, predicting a 1490

AP courses taken: APHUG, AP World, AP Art History, AP Seminar, AP Biology, AP Environmental Science, AP Precal, APUSH, AP Lang, APCSP, AP Psych

senior yr AP courses: AP Stats, AP Research, AP Lit, AP Euro, AP Econ, AP Gov

3. honors

ap scholar w/ distinction

president’s volunteer service award: gold

probably national merit commended

john locke comp psychology category commended

legaleaglebee court case comp, top scorer in tx

random writing competitions scattered

piano ABRSM grade 8 with merit; early diploma level musicianship

4. ecs (nốt in order)

- Dance *see additional info

  • Member of highest competition team

  • Trained since age 3

  • Consistent regional event titles

  • SDA Golden Ticket

  • World Dance Championships; top ~10%

  • WOD Summit Team Division; LA World Finals

- AYLUS: Alliance of Youth Leaders in the United States

  • Director of Recruiting

  • Crocheted hats for cancer patients

  • Served as main event leader, organized fundraising earning ~$300 per event

  • Recruited, trained, & retained >50% of all current volunteers

  • Contributed >100 hats

- Piano

  • Regularly played at nursing homes for residents with dementia

  • ABRSM grade 8 w/ merit + early diploma level musicianship

- Violin

  • Selected for all-region orchestra x2 - principal second violin

  • UIL solo competition - Outstanding Performer award

  • Seated in the top school orchestra

- Tutoring @ Schoolhouse

  • Tutored both verbal and math sections of the SAT

  • Guided multiple groups of learners, average cohort of 8

  • Average score increase of 90

  • 9 learners went on to become tutors themselves

- VolunTEEN program @ Children’s Health

  • One of 30 selected out of 600 applicants

  • Assisted families + visitors at the concierge desk by providing directions, info, & general support

  • Collaborated w/ Chief Nurse Executive on a statewide patient education initiative focused on blood disorders (CCDC unit)

  • Researched + wrote new educational materials to replace outdated info

- Cook Children’s

  • One of 12 selected out of 250 applicants

  • Provided items + emotional support to families of hospitalized children through the Ronald McDonald House Hospitality Cart program

  • Direct patient interaction every day (was basically doing what a childlife specialist does)

- Wait staff @ Waffle House

- Blog about neuroaesthetics

additional info:

hospitalized (inpatient) for anorexia nervosa for the following dates:

  1. November 2022-May 2023 @ children’s health (thought this was might be important to mention bc now I volunteer there)

  2. June 2023-July 2023

  3. September 2023-December 2023 (different state)

  4. February 2024-June 2024

  5. August 2025-December 2025

was not able to join school clubs (hosa, deca, etc) bc of hospitalizations and interim learning

*I had to quit dance bc of doctors orders (heart failure + osteopenia)

*all my extracurriculars were done with the little time I had outside the hospital

diagnosed w/ ocd + mdd + gad as well

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If your screen name is your real name, please change it asap. Here is how:

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You have all my empathy for your battle with anorexia. My niece went through the same thing, missing time in school and going to special residential programs as well as outpatient treatment. If it helps, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. She graduated from BC and now has her PhD in Psychology. She has a loving husband and a dear one-year-old

A couple of questions. What school is UW? You say that you’re interested in psychology & pre-med. Can you elaborate?

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BC worked well for my niece both because they were accommodating for her food needs and because there was a practice nearby in Boston that was connected to her outpatient treatment group with whom she had been working during her gap year after high school. You might check to see if you will need follow up services near college. A rural location for a campus will likely make this problematic while a city location will likely offer more options.

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In addition to the colleges already on your list, here are some more to consider

Rice - Close to home, which may have some benefits. Strong sense of community, built around the residential college system. Texas Medical Center is practically across the street, thereby providing opportunities for shadowing and/or volunteering as well as offering access to professional services if needed.

Trinity University - Another one close to home. Excellent liberal arts college. Strong sense of community with low key greek life. Neuroscience majors begin research in their first year. Easy city to get around.

Claremont Colleges - Strong sense of community. Greek life at the 5 colleges is minimal or non-existent. Offers the option of a women’s college, if so interested, within the 5 college co-ed consortium, My cousin’s daughter took this route to a PhD in Psych at Northwestern. Pick your favorite among the 5 colleges. All are excellent for pre-med.

Washington University/St. Louis - strong sense of community built around their residential college system. Multiple options for psychology & neuroscience. Has its own med school.

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If UW is University of Wyoming, it has assured admission for 3.00 HS GPA, according to First-Year Admissions .

If UT is University of Texas (Austin), it is a reach for applicants outside of the top 5% class rank. However, other UT campuses may be assured admission for your stats:

  • Arlington: top 25%
  • El Paso: top 25%
  • Permian Basin: top 25% or 3.00 HS GPA
  • San Antonio: top 25%

If the above are affordable, they can be safeties.

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Run Emory’s NPC with your parents to see if you will qualify for any need based aid. If not, make sure your parents are ok with the NPC cost estimate before applying ED.

Keep a screenshot of the NPC results (you should run all college NPCs before applying). NPCs may not be accurate if parents are divorced, or own real estate beyond a primary home and/or a business. Are any of those the case for you?

I am not asking for more details, but your last hospitalization was relatively recent. Your first priority is your health, so make sure you feel ready to attend college. You might talk with your HS counselor regarding your health issues and missed school, so you can decide how best to handle this in your college apps. It will be important to demonstrate that you don’t expect to miss significant time during college, and this can be difficult/delicate to do. You want to communicate that you have a treatment plan in place that will continue to be effective while you are in college.

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Also it’s best if you indicate “illness with periods of hospitalization” rather than be specific as to what the illness is. It shouldn’t matter what the illness is but colleges can be unpredictable wrt some illnesses and it’s a private matter anyway

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Here are a few other suggestions, which offer proximity to nearby medical centers:

Case Western Reserve
University of Rochester
Georgetown

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I was referring to the University of Washington @ Seattle! And yes, I am planning to major in psychology but continue down the pre-med track (prereqs, clinical experience, mcat prep and such), with the end goal of becoming a psychiatrist.

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Unfortunately, need-based aid is definitely out of the picture. My family income is around 400-500k. That alone disqualifies me, but adding in family assets makes it certain. However, I am extremely blessed, as my parents are willing to cover my full tuition for all 4 years. Regarding the hospitalization, I do plan on talking to a college counselor about proper execution within my application. I don’t want universities to see my situation as a liability, so I was considering not mentioning it at all. I know that my school counselor will more than likely mention it in her LOR, though. My only reservation is that colleges will find my lack of school involvement (e.g. clubs + leadership within the school) odd without context.

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I was thinking about CWRU actually! I’ve heard good things from friends and alumni.

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Okay, thank you!

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I understand. You should (ideally) understand what your counselor and teachers are going to write about your absences, as you can’t control that. Do your missed days show on your transcript? If you don’t know, find out.

Definitely a possible issue, at schools that care about ECs.

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My missed days don’t show on my transcript, and my grades don’t give anything away either. I earned the same grades when I was in school vs out, so there shouldn’t be any indication that way. I think my counselor is probably going to mention it briefly, but she’ll likely turn it into a reflection of my resilience (I hope, at least).

Would you say that my ECs are okay as of right now? I’m in the process of finalizing a few submissions for research publication, but it feels like I’m not doing enough.

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They seem fine based on what you shared, and are what they are at this point. Is your involvement in each of those for all four HS years?

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Yes, with the exception of Cook Children’s (11th and 12th).

I was in my school’s orchestra in 9th and 10th, but not the other 2 years. I still play outside of school, but my involvement won’t be on my transcript.

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CWRU has a couple of things in common with Rice. First is the very close proximity to UH Cleveland Medical Center, which has many specialized facilities and which is similar in prominence to the Texas Medical Center close to Rice. The med school at CWRU uses this as its teaching hospital. Second is that like Rice, it is located right by the city’s museum district. While some nearby neighborhoods are questionable, nearby Little Italy with its restaurants and University Circle with its museums offer nice amenities in the immediate campus neighborhood.

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Congratulations on preparing yourself academically for any college. Since you’ve asked for additional colleges to apply to, I made some assumptions based on the colleges on your current list, namely: you prefer medium to larger schools, in large cities, and (I suspect but am not fully sure based on the plan to ED to Emory) would like a school with athletic enthusiasm. As all of the schools have an enrollment of at least 11% Asian, that may be an important factor for you as well. Where an athletic letter grade is noted, that comes from Niche’s website.

For reference, here are the schools on your current list:

  • U. of Washington – Seattle: A for athletics; 22% Asian
  • U. of Texas: A+ for athletics; 26% Asian
  • Boston College: A for athletics; 11% Asian
  • Northwestern: A- for athletics; 21% Asian
  • Emory: B- for athletics; 25% Asian

These schools might be better fits based on the schools on your list. They have at least a B for athletics and at least 11% of undergrads report as domestic Asian (internationals are a different category). They are sorted by my guesses as to your chances for admission.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Loyola Chicago (IL): About 11k undergrads at this Jesuit college, B+ for athletics; 12% Asian

  • Saint Louis (MO): About 10k undergrads at this Jesuit college, B+ for athletics; 11% Asian

  • Seattle U. (WA): About 4100 undergrads at this Jesuit college; A- for athletics; 28% Asian

  • U. of Houston (TX): About 39k undergrads; A- for athletics; 23% Asian

  • U. of Minnesota – Twin Cities: About 41k undergrads; A for athletics; 13% Asian

Likely (60-79%)

  • U. of Pittsburgh (PA ): About 26k undergrads; a likely only if you apply early (like September), otherwise it’s a toss-up; A- for athletics; 13% Asian

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • U. of Maryland: About 31k undergrads; A+ for athletics; 24% Asian

  • U. of Wisconsin – Madison: About 38k undergrads; A for athletics; 11% Asian

Lower Probability (20-39%)

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Georgetown (D.C.): About 7800 undergrads at this Jesuit college; A- for athletics; 15% Asian

  • Rice (TX): About 4800 undergrads; B+ for athletics; 29% Asian

  • Tufts (MA): About 7100 undergrads; B for athletics; 17% Asian

  • Vanderbilt (TN): About 7200 undergrads; A- for athletics; 19% Asian

  • Washington U. (MO): About 8200 undergrads; A- for athletics; 19% Asian

These are other schools that might be of interest, but they may have a lower athletic grade or percentage of Asians. Again, they are sorted by my guesses as to your chances for admission.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Duquesne (PA ): About 5400 undergrads at this Jesuit college, B+ for athletics; 3% Asian
  • Marquette (WI): About 8k undergrads at this Jesuit college, A- for athletics; 6% Asian
  • U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 33k undergrads; A- for athletics; 5% Asian
  • U. of Denver (CO): About 6600 undergrads; A for athletics; 4% Asian
  • U. of Utah: About 28k undergrads; A for athletics; 6% Asian

Likely (60-79%)

  • American (D.C.): About 7500 undergrads; B for athletics; 7% Asian; show demonstrated interest
  • Southern Methodist (TX): About 7300 undergrads; A- for athletics; 8% Asian
  • Texas Christian (TX): About 11k undergrads; A for athletics; 3% Asian
  • U. of Texas – Dallas: About 22k undergrads; C+ for athletics; 42% Asian

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • U. of Rochester (NY): About 6600 undergrads; C+ for athletics; 18% Asian

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Case Western (OH): About 6500 undergrads; demonstrated interest is important; B- for athletics; 30% Asian
  • Villanova (PA ): About 7k undergrads; A+ for athletics; 7% Asian

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Tulane (LA): About 8200 undergrads; demonstrated interest is very important here; B+ for athletics; 5% Asian
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The most expensive colleges have list prices around $100k per year. Medical school can be that much or more per year (although in-state Texas public medical schools are significantly less).

Would your parents be able to fund your college and medical school to $800k+ total?

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