Chance me Junior for Ivy leagues 1550 SAT 3.97 GPA Middle class Asian with no hooks [IL resident, NMSF, biology of biochemistry major]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics: Chinese Female Middle-high income family. Immigrant family but not first gen college student, non-legacy, US resident, Illinois
Type of high school: Selective enrollment public high school (So it’s hard to get into.)

Intended Major(s) Biology or Biochem

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores I’m confident that I will get straight A’s this semester (light classes), making my end of Junior gpa to be 3.97 UW GPA and 5.21 WGPA (on a 6 pt scale). 1550 SAT retaking again because my school requires it. My school doesn’t do rank.

AP tests and test scores I usually don’t struggle with AP tests so I’m going to assume I’ll get 4’s and 5’s for the ones I haven’t taken yet but so far my scores are as follows:

  • AP mandarin (5)
  • AP micro (5)
  • AP Chem (5)
  • APUSH (5)
  • AP CSP (5)

Currently taking AP bio, AP lang, AP psych, AP Stats

EC’s, Awards, other stuff

I’m really worried about this category along with the " I have no hooks" thing because I haven’t really done a lot of stuff over high school, or specifically, I feel like I haven’t dedicated myself enough to anything and also don’t have many awards or honors.

  • I volunteer at a hospital so like 100 ish hours in that
  • National merit semifinalist
  • Had an internship at a hospital over the summer but it was more like a program
  • Also volunteered as a research assistant (position usually given to undergrads only) at a local university
  • I co-founded club this year that’s kind of a service to immigrants club
  • I am part of 2 clubs (2 sciencey clubs) that I definitely be getting leadership in next year, and 1 club that I will most likely be getting leadership in next year. But no leadership in anything this year besides the club I founded.
  • One of those is HOSA and I was a state finalist last year, this year doing it again hoping for better
  • Getting a service award from HOSA this year from my volunteering
  • 2 Varsity sports (badminton and Basketball) but no hope to get recruited 2 years each (JV then Varisty)
  • JV science olympiad just started this year (but I don’t have to specify JV on the college app right?)
  • I’m also in the chinese honor society for 1 year

Essays/LORs/Other

My Essays are probably gonna be weak because I have no significant struggles. Letters of Rec probably strong too because my teachers for the most part like me.

Cost Constraints / Budget No budget, I have a significant college fund and I’m the only child.

Schools

I haven’t started really thinking about my dream schools but I want to go to UIUC as a safety and then Northwestern/ U michigan as a reach and IDK what my targets could be, I want to also apply to most of the Ivy leagues because heck it

If anyone could chance me to Northwestern, U michigan, Brown, Stanford, NYU, Columbia (I want to go to new york lol), Yale, UCLA and other UC’s? I would super appreciate it thank you guys

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Ok.

Let’s step back.

You’ve accomplished a lot EC wise but can you show the impact of what you’ve done - and quantify what you’ve done.

Your essay is a bigger issue. You don’t need to have struggled to write a good essay. That’s silly. You can write a wonderful essay - the topic may be generic or off the wall. One Auburn student by me got into Yale but turned them down - her essay was about the exhilaration of waiting for Papa John’ Pizza delivery. I know of a kid who wrote about the yellow fuzz on a tennis ball.

So you don’t need to have struggled.

So what is the end goal ? If grad school, then it costs even more money. Would it help you to save what you have for grad school or for your parents to gift it to you later ?

So I see a few things - you note Michigan and Northwestern - but your title says Ivy. All are certainly possible although maybe not probable.

You have a great fund but you have National Merit - so there are schools you can go for free - excellent Tulsa, for near free including grad school (Alabama, like the over 1500 Illinoisans do), UTD, U Maine and more. Schools like USC offer scholarships to admittees. So depending on the desired outcome, going to a Michigan is great but maybe not necessary vs another flagship. Just a wrinkle.

Ultimately you’ll have to package yourself right. That means a great essay and proper descriptor of what you’ve accomplished. Based on what you wrote, it seems there’s a lot more meat on the bone than what you’ve described it as.

If you want to go to NY, you have NYU and Columbia. Fordham could potentially reward your National Merit. It’s a safe school for you with a fine name.

Yes beyond UIUC your list is heavy but if you’re ok at UIUC, then great.

I gave you some schools where you could take advantage of NMF. Matches for a Michigan might be a Wisconsin, Florida, Florida State, Washington, Maryland, Va Tech - but likely most any public would be great.

For the NU or Ivies - W&M, Miami Florida, Rochester types. Maybe Wake. Lehigh.

Lots of safeties would be great too.

Stay positive. Position yourself properly.

You have a lot to offer.

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You seem liken an amazing student.

you are certainly in range of academics that all schools look for from what I see! AP chem before junior year, with 5, is pretty darn impressive to me!

I think the above gives great advice. Your essay can be fantastic, you need not to have overcome some huge trail or barrier. Take time writing your activity list, and really showing them in best light. Think of something interesting/impactful, that enhances your application for the summer before senior year. Tell a good story how you will contribute to these academic, residential, communities.

Make sure you have taken (or will take) AP Calc, which I don’t see mentioned. (I am assuming your school offers calc given all the other things you have taken!). AP Stats is seen as “lesser” by AOs and with a STEM major Calc will be assumed. (Note, I went to an ivy 25+ years ago and AP calc was standard even then). Also if you don’t take in HS will be VERY hard to do in college with no background that everyone else has.

Also, top schools have lots of supplemental essays, etc, the more you apply to the more you risk doing not an amazing job on them, and lowering your chances (or distracting from courses). I might reduce list of high reaches…

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I agree that your academic qualifications appear to be competitive anywhere. Some colleges are low probability for anyone, but you will be in the mix. I would not worry about your ECs–just be active and enthusiastic.

I also agree you should NOT think you cannot write essays that will help you get admitted to very selective colleges, but you have to understand what that means.

Taking a step back, the most selective US colleges are mostly holistic review, and among other things that means being sufficiently academically qualified is just part of what they care about. They also want to have a clear vision of you being active in their community in other ways, hence asking about activities, and finally that you will be the sort of person who really thrives in their community, both benefiting from it and contributing back to it.

But there are many ways to excite them about what you would be like in their community. In some circles you would get the impression they have a certain formula they want all their admits to follow, and an application is a test to show you scored a 100% according to the formula. That is usually the exact opposite of what they think, they actually want to blend together different people who will all benefit from being in a diverse community. Different interests, different activities, different backgrounds, different goals, and so on. But the common denominator is understanding that is their underlying goal and showing you would thrive in that community in your own specific ways.

OK, so your essays are your opportunity to show you understand what they are trying to do, are excited about what that means for you, and to give them a clear vision about how you would thrive at their college, both receiving and giving.

And you can do that!

But here is the REALLY big trick. You can do that best if you actually mean it! Like, you didn’t just apply to any college because it was ranked highly in some magazine, or is in a certain football conference, or so on. Instead, you spent the time to carefully look at what different colleges are like, to imagine what it would mean for you to be in those communities, and then you ultimately chose the ones where you were particularly excited about what that specific college could mean for you, both academically but also non-academically.

OK, so since you are just a junior, you have plenty of time to do this right. Why Illinois? Why Michigan? Why Northwestern? What appeals to you about those schools specifically? Have you considered other types of schools? Maybe visited some different schools just to see what they are like? Start broad and open-minded, and only gradually narrow down as you really start refining your preferences.

As a final note, I think a lot of people do this in the exact wrong order. Once you really know what you like, reaches are easy. The fun ones are the likelies and the targets. There are so many colleges out there that would love a kid with your numbers. They have all sorts of different departments and programs, different formats and settings, many offer merit scholarships to try to woo kids like you . . . . Exploring these schools and ultimately deciding which excite you the most is the fun part. Then adding in a few reaches as well along the same lines is the easy part, to the point it is actually kinda boring because it becomes so obvious.

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OP- take some time one weekend to settle down with Emily Dickenson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and their peers to see that a good writer can create something compelling out of the ordinary, boring, day-to-day experiences. Ask your English or history teachers for suggestions of writers who had limited life experience/faced no big challenges but created fantastic literary works.

That might get your juices flowing.

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Three things immediately come to mind reading your post.

First of all, you are doing very well. You are a very strong student who has accomplished a great deal. Your stats are superb.

Secondly, in terms of EC’s, I think that you once again have already done quite a bit. I would recommend that for the rest of high school do not worry about what university admissions wants you to do. Instead, think about what is right for you and what would be helpful to the club or activity. Then whatever is right for you, do it and do it well. Meanwhile, you can read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. The recommended approach of “do what is right for you and do it well” is what my wife and my daughters and I have all done, but what each of us did was four very different sets of things, and led to different universities for each of us.

I am wondering what you are planning to do with a degree in biology or biochem. I did notice:

Which makes me think of “premed”. However, I also have a daughter who is working for a biotech company, which is of course another option with a degree in biology or biochem.

There are a LOT of universities that are excellent for premed, and that are very good for biology or biochemistry. UIUC is one of them. I just noticed that biochemistry is in the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology at UIUC. Cellular biology is what my younger daughter majored in.

These are also potential majors for which some form of graduate school is likely even if you decide not to pursue medical school.

If either medical school or a master’s degree is likely in the future, then you might want to avoid debt for your bachelor’s degree. Saving some money for medical/graduate school would be even better. To me this suggests that an in-state public school is also very much worth considering, particularly when the in-state public university is UIUC. It is not obvious to me whether the other schools that you have mentioned are any better for what you want to do, even if the other schools are also excellent.

Also, whether you are premed or not, you are going to be in classes that overlap with premed classes. These will be very academically demanding classes. Your excellent results from high school suggest that you will be very much ready to take these challenging classes, but keep in mind that they will be a lot of work at any of the schools that you have mentioned. You are very likely to see premed classes full of very strong students, with at lest some tough midterm exams with a class average in the 40’s or 50’s (and many or most of the students in the class will have never had a 50 in their life – some will have never had a B in their life). There will be a few students who can pull off 80’s or 90’s on these exams.

You are obviously competitive for admissions to any university in the US, and any university in the world in which you speak the language of instruction. However, the schools that you have listed are very competitive for admissions, admissions to top ranked universities in the US is not just based on merit, and being Asian will not help your chances. Similarly being out of state for public universities will not help your chances. Some spots will go to athletes and legacy students at each of these schools. I do not think that your chances at these other schools (other than UIUC) are much different from the overall admissions rate. For most of your out of state public schools I also wonder whether they are worth the additional cost and travel time compared to UIUC. You most likely will for example be traveling around Christmas and/or New Year, when snow can mess up travel plans.

I also agree with a comment above that you should make sure that you are happy with your safeties and matches rather than reaches. The reaches are often easier to pick out since they are all famous schools. On the other hand, if UIUC is really a safety (your guidance counselor would know this better than I) then you might have this covered already. When I was coming out of high school I had McGill as a safety (in-province), which put me in a similar situation where with a safety this good you might not need anything else other than reaches (and might not even need reaches).

And make sure to think about which schools are a good fit for you.

I think that you are likely to do very well wherever you end up.

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What is your estimated class rank? If you’re in the top 5% then that bodes well for Ivies and T20. If you’re outside of that (even top 10%) you are still a great candidate, but just note that you’ll have to aim a bit lower.

Are you interested in medical school? Then note that the prestige of your undergrad degree matters little in admissions decisions. Most of it will be based on GPA + MCAT. So go to a college where you can get a high GPA, and keep costs low.

Since you are full pay, make sure you take advantage of the early application advantage. Consider ED or EA, or both. Also make sure to consider ED2.

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Absolutely. Some people are one and done with their flagship, which is often very reasonable and always very enviable!

Of course maybe you also would prefer a different format of college, or would like to go some distance from home from college, or would like to be in a certain job market for experience opportunities, and so on. In cases like that, exploring schools that would fit those criteria and be affordable might be reasonable even if they are not “better” than Illinois, just different.

But none of that is mandatory, just something to consider.

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