Chance me: Indian, rising senior, praying to not get rejected by every business school [TX resident, 3.8 GPA, 1400 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

PLEASE BE BRUTALLY HONEST
Rising senior, South Asian in Austin, Texas

Major: Business/Finance
GPA: 3.8 (unranked)
SAT: 1400

ECS:

  1. Developed a statewide incubator program for students, helped raise money, grow partnerships, and launch their startups. Hundreds of students participated, and over $15k was raised

  2. President of a globally recognized & one of the largest youth-led advisory groups that help students start their own nonprofits, businesses, initiatives, passion projects, and more.

  3. Co-founder of a social media page with 15k followers, we post career content. 7 Mil views, 600k likes & more.

  4. Chief Marketing Officer at a startup I co-founded with some friends, we make stress toys, kits, and host events to promote student & teen mental health

  5. Paid intern at a VC firm to find quality startups and review pitch decks

  6. Debate club co-president

  7. Internship at a real estate and investment firm. Contacted hundreds of 200k+ networth individuals and secured a 35k investment in a land property for the company

  8. Mentored AI research project under a Goldman Sachs vice president, where I made an AI chatbot that analyzes the stock market in real time based on 15 indicators and gives analysis

  9. Internship at a stock transfer agency that handles blue sky filing fees, where I wrote articles and researched different SEC filings (got a freelance return offer where I got paid to continue to write articles).

  10. Roblox game developer: I made 3 Roblox games with about 2k visits in total, and had a clothing group that made around 55k Robux

Awards:

  1. ICDC qualifier for financial services event
  2. Debate national qualifier
  3. Secured $53k worth of credits from Microsoft for Startups and Notion for startups programs
  4. Won third at a local pitch comp and received 2k in seed money

Top schools:
UT Austin McCombs
Wharton
NYU Stern
UMich Ross
Columbia
UTD
UIUC

2

You asked for brutal honesty, so here it is:

I don’t think you’ll get in to any of these business schools except for UTD. I hope you have some likelier schools on your list.

3 Likes
3

Thank you for your upfrontness. What do you think I can do better?

4

Your ECs are very good. Your GPA and SAT scores are also good, but not strong enough for most of your list.

3 Likes
5

My top school is UT austin mccombs. I go to a pretty competitive high school, and some students outside of the top 5% threshold got into McCombs last year. If I raise my SAT score to 1450, do you think my chances would change?

6

Are you a US domestic applicant (US citizen or permanent resident) or an international student?

Do you qualify for Texas residency for college purposes?

What are your cost constraints?

For Texas public universities, what is your class rank?

1 Like
7

No cost constraints, first generation. I’m a U.S citizen and have lived in texas my entire life (born here)

1 Like
8

You’ll get into UTD.

Look at Indiana - if you have a 3.8 on your transcript (not a 3.79), you’ll get into IU Kelley.

What can you do better? You are already great - obviously a higher test score helps, better grades.

We don’t know your rigor - how much science, math, AP, etc. but there’s great schools out there.

Do you have a budget - some of those you listed are near $100K a year.

Other than a GPA (with no classwork mentioned) and an SAT - we know nothing academically.

Good luck.

2 Likes
9

IU’s business major may change its automatic direct admission criteria.

However, it historically accepted weighted GPA from high school transcript at face value, so students at high schools with significant weighting may find its GPA requirement not difficult to meet.

2 Likes
10

You’d probably want 1500+ to be competitive for some of those schools on your list. Places like stern and Wharton have low single digit admit rates. So even with great stats and test score its still a reach.

5 Likes
11

This is unweighted? Do you have a weighted GPA?

Was this your first sitting? Did you already study before this one?

12

First generation to college? (That’s what matters, not whether you’re a first generation American).

Don’t all Texas high schools provide a rank?

1 Like
13

Yes, first generation to college. When I mentioned Unranked, I meant that I’m not in the top 10%, I’m in the top 20% which doesn’t offer me auto admission.

14

First sitting, retaking in august and September

15

Ok, since neither of your parents has a college degree, that’ll give you a boost at some colleges.

Got it, thanks.

Several posters have asked about your budget or cost constraints. Do you need (and qualify for) need based aid? Are you seeking merit aid?

Answering these questions will help posters here make appropriate school suggestions.

16

My opinion is that this is a reach.

If you would like additional college suggestions, please let us know. Also, your annual budget for college from your family would be helpful…so we recommend colleges that will be affordable.

2 Likes
17

I would suggest add or replace a few schools. Like for example instead of NYU and Columbia, maybe NYU Or Columbia and Fordham. Similarly may be add Purdue or IU-Kelley along with UIUC.

2 Likes
18

I’m not sure Fordham is a slam dunk either.

Once we know this student’s annual budget for college, it will be much easier to make good suggestions.

1 Like
19

Thanks it is fixed. Any way the point is to add some less reachy schools in the same geographical region of interest.

20

Maybe Fordham would not be a slam dunk, but I’d expect it would be a solid target.

4 Likes