Chance me/Match me [CA resident, 4.0 GPA (4.0/4.33/4.58 for UC), chemistry or biochemistry]

Chance Me / Match Me
21

I didn’t say he won’t have more.

I said I can assure you he’ll have - in my opinion , at least 3.

I can’t really chance the UCs but a lack of test and/or ED will hurt at others like Northeastern.

Good luck.

22

Will he be ready for calculus when he enters college? Chemistry and biochemistry majors will need to take calculus. Statistics at a more advanced level than AP statistics will list calculus as a prerequisite.

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Like others, I think he’ll have more than 2 - but it’s so hard to predict, none of us have the full picture of the application, and none of us are on the admissions committee. For what it’s worth, I think he has a solid chance of getting one or more of the schools you identified as targets.

24

I think he’ll be ready for calculus when the time comes. It really came down to trying to preserve straight A’s and leveling down in math his second semester of junior year. And as a result, the only AP math option was Stats. We knew that AP calc was more desirable from an admissions standpoint but we had to weigh the downside risks of a B (or worse in precalc with limits).

NE seems to like students from his HS (I think they admitted 13 students out of a class of 700? not sure what the denominator is). I actually question how competitive it is to get in. Certainly the acceptance rate is very low but I read a few articles about how NE made a conscious effort to improve their ranking on US News and World report which uses admissions selectivity and yield as criteria. As a result, they made it extremely easy to apply by not requiring a supplemental essay and waiving the application fee. In a pretty short time they went from being ranked around 180 to 50. I’m not saying my son can get in nor am I saying that it’s not highly selective, I’m just saying that there’s probably a lot of students applying that normally wouldn’t apply because there’s no barrier preventing them from doing so. In contrast, Columbia required multiple additional essays which were fairly difficult so applicants had to be very committed.

25

College calculus may be faster paced than high school AP calculus, especially if the latter is AB. So if his high school does not consider him ready for AP calculus, there could be significant risk in college calculus, or that the college’s math placement exam may give a result recommending that he retake precalculus (which could delay progression in a chemistry major).

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OP, for your reference. S24 with same UW GPA, same UC CAP GPA, lower W GPA and less # APs and Honors got accepted to below Engineering schools from your list:

UCD, uDub, SDSU

In case you want to add more safeties. S24 also got accepted:

UCR, CPP, Oregon State, UofArizona

Good Luck.

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final report card

Columbia 12 6 8800 NYC 4 declined
UC-LA 15 7 32000 LA 9 declined
UC-Berkeley 15 5 32000 Berkely 11 waitlist
Washington U 21 30 9000 StL 12 declined
U Mich 21 29 33000 Ann Arbor 17 waitlist
Emory 25 25 5700 Atlanta 14 waitlist
UNC 27 31 21000 chapel hill 11 declined
USC 28 14 21000 LA 12 declined
UC-San Diego 28 21 33000 SD 25 waitlist
UC-Davis 28 37 15000 Davis 42 waitlist
UIUC 33 40 36000 45 waitlist
UC-Irvine 33 61 29000 Irvine 26 Accepted
UC-Santa Barbara 35 24 24000 SB 28 Accepted
NYU 35 46 29000 NYC 13 Accepted
U Washington 40 26 37000 Seattle 54 waitlist
Boston University 43 48 18000 Boston 14 Accepted
Northeastern 53 85 16000 Boston 18 Accepted
Santa Clara 60 25 6110 Santa Clara 52 Accepted
Miami 63 82 14000 Miami 20 waitlist
UC-Riverside Accepted
UC-Santa Cruz 82 92 17000 Santa Cruz 62 Accepted
Cal Poly SLO 83 83 22000 SLO 30 Accepted
SDSU 105 43 32000 SD 38 Accepted
CSU-LB LA Accepted
Oregon 109 Accepted

and numbers in columns represent USNWR ranking from last year, Forbes ranking, students, and overall acceptance rate from prior year…

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28

Are all of the admissions affordable?

29

well cost is a consideration but not a deal breaker. Personally, I think UCSB is the best option from a geographic, career and cost perspective but I’m going to leave it up to him. OTOH, NYC is a great place to live for 4 years and it would be a new environment (we’re from SoCal). It’s a shame because Mich and USC were his top choices but we have to move on and just thankful that he has good options.

We’re going to NYU next weekend for admitted students day and then the following weekend to UCSB admitted students day. Speaking with my son it sounds like his heart is set on NYU…

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30

Congratulation for all the great acceptances. To be honest, I would pick UCSB, UCI, CPSLO in state over NYU for chemistry/biochemistry major. I know, kids have their own reasoning…

31

Yeah
Like I said, I think ucsb is the best option but I’m going to let him decide. I have wonderful parents that paid for my very expensive education (private HS, private college and med school) and left me with zero debt so I intend to do the same.

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