Chance me/Match Me: Astrophysics, Earth & Planetary, CS, REA/ED to an Ivy [CA resident, 4.0UW, 1560SAT, multiple research EC]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic (permanent resident)
  • State/Location of residency: CA, bay area
  • Type of high school: private hs
  • Other special factors: women in STEM??

Cost Constraints / Budget
no budget but prefer merit base scholarship for private university

Intended Major(s) Astrophysics/Earth & Planetary Science/CS (for target/safety public schools)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.79/5.0
  • Class Rank: no ranking but estimate top 3%
    *SAT Scores: 1560SAT (790M)

Highest math: Multivariable calculus
13 APs taken all 5: highest level examples - both AP physics Cs, AP lang, AP calc bc, AP Bio, APUSH, etc.

17 APs total

Honors
2 x AP scholars with distinctions
sally ride science academy (UCSD) merit scholarship
highest honors roll
president’s volunteer gold
CVPR 2023 project acceptance

EC!!!

  1. 7 Publications (research papers/abstracts to conference/musuem galleries) - 5 are first author, all on planetary / machine learning topics
  2. SRA, research paper on machine learning published at JEI, first author
  3. Founder of a research club & ML study group
  4. Physics club officer
  5. Research with a mentor for 4 yrs, went to her college lab on GeoChem & plasma physics this summer
  6. president of a internatinoal art orgnization

Essays/LORs/Other
Ask math & physics teacher for LOR, both reach out to me saything they write good rec for me.

Schools
Likely applying REA/ED to a Ivy, debating between yale or upenn. Currently abt 20 schools are on my list.

EA: Purdue, UIUC, UT Austin, UMich, USC, Gatech
RD: Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Cornell, williams, amherst, wellsley, UCs, rice, SJSU, SCU, cal poly, etc.

Ig my advantage and disadvantages are pretty clear. Pretty good stats & ECs (in my opinions), especially on the research i did outside of school. All of the research are focusing on my intended majors (planetary science by ai applications).

Disadvantage: very sad honors / awards. I am pretty bad at competitions and have a late start. Thats why I’m previously considering REA to caltech but hesitate of my chances due to my lack of hard science honors. I am also hesitating in REAing to any school at all, since seems like HYPMS acceptance required at least AIME qualify + USAPHO gold.

For the essays I am still working on the PS but feeling pretty good on the supp essays. Please let me know you guys’s comments and advices!

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Just an fyi, most of the private schools on your list do not give merit scholarships. And they will be hard to get at the OOS publics you’ve listed.

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Agree with the above re no merit scholarships. If merit money is important for your family, you’ll need to redo your list.

In addition:

Aside from SJSU I don’t see any target or safety public schools on your list (except maybe Purdue as a high target). CS is a hard admit at all these schools. You would be better off applying for astronomy or astrophysics at these schools - but apply for the major you’re interested in. Don’t try to pick a major just because you think it’ll be easier to get in to a particular school.

Not really, sorry. There are (thankfully) plenty of women applicants in STEM at these schools. However, the one school you’d have an advantage at is CMU because they aim to have a 50-50 gender ratio.

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So a couple notes first.

(1) I agree that if you are interested in privates with merit, you need to redo your list pretty broadly as you have chosen privates which are not suitable for that purpose;

(2) You seem interested in considering Liberal Arts and Sciences colleges (Williams, Amherst, and Wellesley), and mid-size private research universities (Yale, Penn, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, and Rice). But you only have those Reach colleges on your list, no Targets or Likelies.

Fortunately, you can address both these issues at once by adding LACs and private research universities that have merit and would be potential Target and Likely options.

Like, I think one obvious possibility for you would be Whitman College. Great overall LAC, very strong in physical sciences, and they have a flexible curriculum with formal support for combining Physics with other disciplines, including Astronomy or Geology:

They place a lot of people in grad schools (seems like a likely path for you if you continue with your current interests), and have merit.

Another obvious choice to me is Franklin & Marshall. Similar general appeal in that it is well-known for being strong in physical sciences, a grad school feeder, and has merit. Unusually for an LAC, they also have a full Astrophysics major:

You could also combine that with a minor in Geosciences:

In terms of research universities, I would think Rochester could be an excellent option for you. They have merit, they are generally strong in physical sciences, very strong in Physics, again very good grad program placement, and have a flexible curriculum structure making it easy to do interdisciplinary stuff. They have a BS in Physics and Astronomy suitable for Astrophysicists:

Again you could think about combining this with their Earth and Planetary Sciences Minor:

Finally if you are interested in a more MITish STEM-focused university but with merit, you might want to check out RPI. They have a very flexible Physics curriculum where you could do either of Physics or Applied Physics, a minor in Astrophysics, or a track in Computational Physics. They mention on their website that they have approved Computational Physics tracks in Astrophysics, and you could also design your own:

These are just a few examples. If you are interested in more like this, we could help you out.

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… and mid-size public universities and large R1 public universities

So I’m guessing size and type aren’t really a consideration for OP?

The only common thread I see for the majority of these schools is prestige, and that’s perfectly fine as a fit factor.

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  1. Don’t worry about awards. Worry about what you accomplished which appears a lot.

  2. You can get in anywhere

  3. Don’t estimate your rank. If the school doesn’t rank it doesn’t rank.

  4. Add Arizona and UCSC - tops in your interest area. CU Boulder too. I’d lose SCU and UT as you don’t need them. Wont need SJSU either.

  5. You need a budget - you can’t say full pay but want merit and apply to schools that don’t offer it - which is most privates on your list. Is your family willing to spend $375-400k? If not, you need to shrink the list or apply to privates that do offer merit - schools like Rice, Vandy, WUSTL, Emory, Case Western and more - and realistic merit at schools like Denver, Rochester, Brandeis, etc.

Good luck.

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That could be, although in my experience there are some kids who start off this process with a sort of background assumption of the form that there are Reaches and Safeties, and Safeties are publics but Reaches can be privates, including possibly LACs.

The framing we use in our feederish HS is instead that there are Likelies, Targets, and Reaches, which are defined relative to the individual kid, and typically there are all sorts of colleges in each category. And if you are also interested in merit, it tends to be the case your best merit chances will be among your Likelies and Targets, possibly including LACs if that format is of interest.

Of course this is all up to the OP, and if she is only interested in small-to-medium privates if they are Reaches without merit, OK. But that didn’t seem consistent to me with what she was generally suggesting, and so I wonder if she might not have realized yet the sorts of options that actually exist.

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Are you by any chance a National Merit Semi Finalist?

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CS is the most selective major at SJSU.

OP should recalculate HS GPA using the CSU method shown at GPA Calculator | CSU . Do not use weighted HS GPA calculated by your high school unless it is specifically using the CSU method.

Multiply that recalculated HS GPA by 800, add any bonus points listed at Impaction | Admissions , and compare to the previous admission cycle thresholds at Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions (these thresholds can change from year to year). For fall 2024 entrants, the threshold for CS was 3440 (equivalent to 4.3 recalculated HS GPA without any bonus points), while the thresholds for geology and physics were both 2080 (equivalent to 2.6 HS GPA without any bonus points).

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I agree with everyone else that you have too many reaches and you don’t appear to have any safeties.
With regards to Caltech, our son attended Caltech and we thought that given his SAT score his EC’s/sports, GPA and being Hispanic, that he would get a token merit award (Because schools like USC and UCLA were bending over backwards to get him).

He didn’t receive anything other than a bill from the bursars office. He explained that everyone, at Caltech would qualify to get a merit award. I think he knew a couple of kids that were from very low income backgrounds that got some funding (need and merit) but everyone else was full pay and it’s not cheap.
I repeat this over and over and over again. Caltech is a research institution. You won’t get a regular university experience.

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It’s a non merit school:

“All scholarships and grants at Caltech are need-based, as the Institute does not have a merit aid program.”

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Here’s my advice. Go for a school you know you can afford. CA has a wide selection of universities to choose from at a fraction of the cost of private or out of state.

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TBH I am inclined toward a small size close knit community, thats the reason for LAC been up on the list. However, there’s a choice for me here in terms of value and price. My parents fs prefer in state public schools (ie. UC) over LAC due to the tuition consideration, and just in general out state public school is cheaper than private LAC and large U.

For all the t10 schools my parents are definitely willing to pay the full tuition. However for t20s and LAC rank, Cal and UCLA >> others if without merit base scholarship. This is on the tuition pov.

For me though its probably LAC >= private research U >>>>>>>> large public U, if not considering tuition as a factor.

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nope. My psat score is 1470, merely below the cutoff for Cali.

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Thanks for letting me know. I will do more research on LAC for targets and safeties

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Rlly helpful! Thanks for the suggestions, definitelly welcome more if possible.

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There are public LAC type schools that may cost less than private ones. There are also small schools that focus on the physical sciences and engineering (some public, some private).

But also, with small schools in general, check if the upper level offerings in your majors are adequate.

What about midsize schools like UC Merced?

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Sure! Here are a couple more to consider:

Oberlin is another LAC very strong in physical sciences with merit. They have an available Astrophysics concentration in their Physics and Astronomy Department:

They have a Geosciences minor that seems pretty flexible so you could probably concentrate it in Earth Sciences specifically:

Case Western (actually not far from Oberlin) is VERY strong in STEM generally, and has merit. As I understand it, with an Astrophysics interest you could either do an Astronomy major with like a Physics secondary major or minor, or a Physics major with an Astronomy secondary major or minor:

https://astronomy.case.edu/academic-programs/undergraduate-program/

https://physics.case.edu/undergraduate-programs/undergrad-degree-programs/

You could also do a minor in Geological Sciences within their Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Department, and it looks like they might have a lot of courses of interest:

https://eeps.case.edu/undergraduate-courses/

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To me, this sounds like you need to find schools that offer merit aid so that you can get the LAC experience that you want at a price that your family prefers. @NiceUnparticularMan has already mentioned Whitman and Franklin and Marshall as well as Rochester and RPI, all great suggestions. Some other schools that you may want to consider are included below, sorted by my guesses as to what your chances for admission might be.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Agnes Scott (GA): Women’s college of about 1k undergrads in one of the most walkable areas of Atlanta. Can also take classes at other Atlanta-area colleges like Emory and Georgia Tech as part of the ARCHE consortium.

  • Florida Institute of Technology: About 3400 undergrads and located along the Space Coast

  • Ohio Wesleyan: About 1400 undergrads

Likely (60-79%)

  • Illinois Institute of Technology: About 3100 undergrads

  • Mount Holyoke (MA): About 2200 undergrads at this women’s college in the 5-college consortium with Amherst, Smith, U. of Massachusetts and Hampshire.

  • Occidental (CA): About 1900 undergrads and students can also take classes at Cal Tech

  • Rensselaer Polytechnic (NY): About 5900 undergrads

  • Union (NY): About 2100 undergrads

  • Whitman (WA): About 1500 undergrads

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Bryn Mawr (PA ): Women’s college of about 1400 undergrads in a consortium with Haverford and Swarthmore

  • Franklin & Marshall (PA ): About 2k undergrads

  • Lehigh (PA ): About 5600 undergrads

  • Scripps (CA): About 1100 undergrads at this women’s college and part of the Claremont Consortium which gives it access to many features of a mid-sized school.

  • U. of Rochester (NY): About 6800 undergrads

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Case Western (OH): About 6k undergrads and you will want to show a lot of demonstrated interest here if you want an admission

  • Smith (MA): About 2500 undergrads at this women’s college in the 5-college consortium with Amherst, Mount Holyoke, U. of Massachusetts and Hampshire.

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Harvey Mudd (CA): About 900 undergrads and part of the Claremont Consortium which gives it access to many features of a mid-sized school.
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