Chance Me, WA state, 3.81 GPA, 1530 SAT, looking for anything biology related for Pre-med

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: WA state
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): competitive high school
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.): legacy for UVA, only one parent went to college, transferred high schools across the US after freshman year, part of an advanced learning program so I took HS classes in MS

Cost Constraints / Budget
None for now, just looking for chanced colleges and universities

Intended Major(s): biology, biochem, health policy, pre-med track

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.81
  • Weighted HS GPA: N/A
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1530 (770 Reading 760 Math)

List your HS coursework – this is including my high school coursework that I took in middle school

  • English: English 1, English 2, AP Lang, AP Lit, Advanced Studies in English
  • Math: Alg 1, Geometry, Adv Alg w/ Trig BC, Pre-calc, AP Calc AB, AP Stats
  • Science: Env Sci, Biology, Chemistry, AP Chem, AP Phys 1, AP Biology, Anatomy & Physiology, AP Env Sci
  • History and social studies: World Studies, AP World, APUSH, AP Gov, AP Psych, Civics + Contemporary World
  • Language other than English: French 1-4
  • Visual or performing arts: Piano 1-2, Guitar 1-2, Composing Music with Tech, Graphic Design/Computer Graphics
  • Other academic courses: Exploring Comp Sci, Intermediate Comp Sci, Business Law
  • Outside of School: Certification in R Programming and Data Science through edX

Awards

AP Scholar with Distinction

Extracurriculars

  • Summer 2025: internship at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts university, worked closely with Tufts scientist and team to further current nutrition projects, skilled in fly husbandry, helped design a post doc’s experimental trials and proceeded with a few of those
  • fall 2025-2026: internship at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center exploring treatment resistance mechanisms of prostate and bladder cancer by employing molecular techniques and working with solid tumor oncology research teams with the Human Biology Division
  • 2024-25: independent research project with IMSA RISE on the effects of dietary restriction and environmental stressors on Drosophila melanogaster (dumpy variant) as a model for dieting and obesity, worked closely with Tufts scientist (same as the one in the first bullet point)
    • I am working on getting this published in the Journal of Emerging Investigators (JEI); I have entered peer review.
  • 2022-23: independent research project with IMSA RISE on the synergy between Salvia officinalis and penicillin against moderately resistant Staphylococcus aureus, worked closely with UIUC mentors to complete a research paper
  • Mock trial co-pres (2023-26), leading a team of around 15 students alongside our state’s district attorney to prep for tournaments. This is our third year as a club and 1st competing in an official tourney.
  • Student Ambassador for non profit org for female empowerment, over 150 service hours logged worked closely with our local gov’t to set up city-wide events, part of the fundraising team and raised over 10k
  • varsity girls golf in freshman and sophomore year, not junior year, planning on joining for this senior year as one of the team captains

Essays/LORs/Other
from my AP Lit/Advanced Eng teacher and Biology teacher, also from the Tufts scientist

Schools
Princeton, Yale, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, UCLA, Berkeley, Irvine, UVA, Tufts, USC, Northeastern, BU, Univ of Rochester, Fordham, Syracuse, Case Western, UT Austin, College of William and Mary, Santa Clara, UW

Univ British Columbia, Univ Toronto, Queen’s Univ, Imperial College London, University College London, University of Glasgow

I’m mainly looking for chancing but if you have any match ideas let me know! :slight_smile:

Concerns: I’m mainly concerned about my GPA/grades, SAT score, and lack of awards. I had a tough freshman year due to personal issues and had 1 C both semesters and 1 B both semesters. I have 3-4 other B’s across my high school career. – hence my GPA. I would consider my SAT score pretty low for Ivies and public/hidden Ivies. I also have no awards. Also, the area I live in is very competitive and I’m starting to doubt whether my ECs and stats will allow me to shine.

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  1. Zero concern with lack of awards. Awards tell you little. The kid moving shopping carts at the grocery store or walking dogs at the shelters doesn’t get awards.
  2. I am concerned with your ECs - well you have golf and mock trial - the internships are too ‘narrow’ but you have golf.
  3. I am slightly concerned you moved on math to stats from calc when you are looking at top schools. Yiu should have kept going up vs easy.
  4. I’m always concerned with budget because you are looking at $800k of expense with med school - and where you go undergrad will have little, if any, impact. And if you don’t go, you’ll still likely need a Masters given your major
.

As for chances, and I’m not an adcom, so my chances mean nothing but

Princeton, Brown, Columbia, Yale, Cornell - no

NYU - possible

UCs - no.

UVA - no

Tufts - no

USC - no

NU, BU - if you are full pay, maybe

Rochester - 50/50

Fordham and SU - if you demonstrate interest and can pay - yes

CWRU - target - demonstrate interest

W&M - 50/50

UT - no

Santa Clara - yes

UW - likely but not assured. If pre med, your smartest move. You should add WWU or WASU

Can’t rate Canadian schools. Your list is way too long, too top heavy, and you really really need to understand budget implications, especially as a pre med.

Match ideas - schools like Pitt, UMN, Colorado (safe), Ohio State, UGA. Safer but better because they are cheaper for you - Oregon State(WUE), Alabama and the McCullough Medical Scholars program. College of Charleston given its proximity to MUSC would be worth a look to if you are invited for the Fellows program. For privates, if full pay, Wake Forest, Trinity, Brandeis, Whitman to stay close (safety) or Willamette (safety) U Denver (safety) for mid size. SMU, Lafayette and American too.

But again - no way you can pull off all the essays on your list. Shorten your list - but first step back and look at budget.

You are prestige hungry but it’s not needed for med school. And why apply to overpriced UCs (who won’t see your test) when much cheaper large schools abound - and cheap for you Alabama (low 20s all in) has the McCullough pre med scholars program.

Good luck

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This is of course a WICHE/WUE state (WUE is the undergraduate part of WICHE). This might help with the cost at participating universities.

Three things come to mind for any premed student:

First of all, probably most important of all: You need to budget for a full 8 years of university, where the last 4 years are going to be expensive. You would be best off if you can save a LOT of university dollars for graduate school (whether medical school or some other form of graduate school). You really, really, really do not want to take the cost of medical school as debt. Even 1/2 the cost of medical school as debt would be a LOT of debt and could take a very long time to pay off even on a doctor’s salary.

Secondly, the large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some forms of “something else” are biomedical related, some are not.

Lastly, there are a huge number of universities and colleges that are very good for premed students. If you look at the students at a highly ranked medical school, or if you look at the graduate students in pretty much any related field, you will find that they come from a very wide range of undergraduate schools.

You do not need to attend a famous or highly ranked university to get into medical school, or to get into a different biomedical-related graduate program. The famous highly ranked universities might get a higher percentage of their undergraduate students into medical school, but a LOT of this, and some might speculate maybe even all of this, comes from the consistent high quality of the students who start off as freshman at the highly ranked schools in the first place.

I do think that your GPA could be an issue at some of your reaches. However, your GPA and SAT will get you into schools that are very good for a premed student, so long as you make sure to apply to safeties.

My younger daughter briefly considered being premed. She however got involved in research while in university and decided that she would rather do research. She is currently studying for a PhD in a biomedical field. This is of course one example of an alternative to medical school (which some might call a “plan B”). PhD programs can however be very competitive for admissions. She seems to like it quite a bit.

I noticed UBC and Toronto on your list of schools. I am also guessing that “Queen’s” on your list is the one in Kingston, Ontario. If you are looking in Canada then Simon Fraser and U.Victoria might also be worth taking a look at (they might cost less for an international student compared to UBC), as well as perhaps Alberta and/or Calgary. McMaster (in Hamilton, Ontario) has a hospital right next door, but this may be true at many other universities as well.

Universities in Canada will not care about your freshman year of high school. Admissions will care about your most recent two years of high school. Your SAT is quite good for any university in Canada (and for most in the USA, some of your reach schools being among the few exceptions).

U of Toronto is known for grade deflation, which might not help with medical school admissions.

Taking away freshman year might help your chances at the universities in Canada.

Given this many Canadian schools on your list, do you have Canadian citizenship? If so, then you would pay Canadian tuition rates even if you have never lived in Canada (we benefited from this at one point).

The total number of B’s, plus two C’s, might be an issue at many of your reach schools (my best guess is that it will be).

Really, you do not need to attend a highly ranked university to do very well on a premed track. Let me mention one example:

My older daughter (the one who is not getting a PhD) was pre-vet. The required pre-vet classes are the same as the required premed classes, so a lot of her friends were premed students. She was at a university that is ranked somewhere in the 100 to 120 range (one ranking had it slightly lower), but many of her premed friends were very, very strong students. One boyfriend had never had a B in his life, but was attending a university ranked in the 100-120 range. He is an MD now (I don’t think that he has quite completed his residency). Another friend had only had one or two or maybe three B’s in her life. She is also an MD now. They attended a very good university that was affordable for them, which is helping all three of them (my daughter included) at this point in their lives. This particular daughter did go to veterinary school, and got her DVM this past May. Having attended an affordable university for her undergrad did not stop her from doing very well in DVM admissions, getting accepted to several very good and highly ranked DVM programs, and doing well in her program. Her formerly premed / now MD friends had a similar experience.

Since you are in-state in Washington I will assume that this is the University of Washington. This is of course a very good university and would be very good for a premed student, or for a student who starts off thinking premed but ends up with a different focus. I am wondering whether it is a safety and whether you should also include an application to Washington State or maybe Oregon State. My guess (only a guess) is that it might be likely but not a safety, and you should apply to a safer school that is either in-state or in WICHE/WUE.

The Universities of California will be expensive for an out of state student. The other schools on this list are expensive unless you qualify for need based financial aid. Tufts is getting close to $100,000 per year. Four years there plus four years of medical school will most likely be over $800,000 and might approach $900,000 unless you qualify for need based financial aid for the first four years. Make sure that your parents are ready to pay this much.

I agree with @tsbna44 that you have way too many reach schools on your list. This is too many essays to do a good job on. Given your GPA, if you did get accepted to one of your highest ranked reach schools, you would be walking into premed classes as one of the least well prepared students (at least in terms of high school GPA) in very tough classes. You would be way better off attending an affordable university where you would be walking into the tough premed classes at least in the top 1/2 of the incoming students. Top 1/4 would be better still.

I like your research experience. I think that this does count as “good ECs”. This does make me wonder whether you will follow the path of my younger daughter and end up in a research oriented path rather than a “treat patients” oriented path. This is however something that you can figure out over the next four or five years, or even longer.

And even if you do not end up in medical school, money that you saved with the intent of using it for medical school can be put to good use. You are looking at a major where for example a master’s degree is a possibility, and even if you go for a fully funded PhD some parent financial help can make the marathon more tolerable for a PhD student.

Mostly I think that you need to trim your list, look for schools that are a good fit for you, make sure that you apply to at least two solid safeties, and make sure that you budget for a full 8 years of university.

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If cost is not an issue, I actually think your chances are good at UCs since they do not look at freshman year grades. You might need to calculate your UC GPA to confirm. There are resources to calculate on the UC pages in the forum.

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UC GPA calculator:

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Your list looks to be a lot of reaches. Each of those schools is extremely different. How did you pick your list? Have you visited any of these schools? How are you going to target the essays? It just appears to look like a prestige-seeking list. Your grades won’t help get you into these most competitive schools. You don’t need to go to a magazine-rated school in order to do your undergrad, e specially if everyone else who applies is a straight 4.0 GPA.

As for WUE, for the UC’s, they limit the number of students for WUE fees at the popular UC’s. So assume that your fees are going to be about $80,000 a year. Is that what your parents are willing to pay? If you don’t reside in that state you don’t get a penny of aid. The only aid is financial aid from the government and that complete aid for the total of four years is STUDENT LOANS of $27,000. So what have your parents saved for your college fees and expenses?
If you are able to go onto med school, and you happen to get into one of the few spots somewhere, then assume about $100k each year for med school.

The UC’s won’t see your SAT scores. You may want to consider staying in state. UW has some exceptional medical programs and the fees for the university are a lot less expensive than some of the other schools you’ve picked.

I have just edited to add that government loans are maxed out at $27,000 over four years and that’s the aid that you might receive if you intend to apply to UC schools. It’s a drop in the bucket about what you would have to pay.

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Your list consists a lot of reach/high reach schools, and depending on your family’s finances, could be very expensive. My guess is that you (most) will not be accepted, but I do not make that decision.

Rochester, Fordham, Syracuse, W&M, Case (show interest) and perhaps 1-2 others are possible, but they could be very costly.

My advice is to revise this list. You could keep 2 reach schools and 2 “maybe” schools IF..and only IF
the NPC shows an affordable cost. We do not know your finances.

I would add your in-state schools and others that are lower cost than what you listed (ie Pitt) and where you may get merit. You might consider adding the University of Delaware.

Med school is very, very expensive. A different type of grad school is also expensive. That should be considered when you make your list.

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You might benefit from researching LACs, which can excel for the study of biology and for the ultimate success of their premed students. This site highly rates colleges such as Amherst, Haverford, Pomona, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Williams, Barnard, Wofford, Grinnell, Bowdoin, Davidson and Hamilton:

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Secondly, the large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some forms of “something else” are biomedical related, some are not.

This is more likely what I think I will end up doing, not necessarily being a doctor. I’d say, like your daughter, I am more interested in the research aspect (ex physician scientist). I did forget to mention this in my original post, but I there is a bigger chance I will not end up going down the med school route, hence not really factoring cost into my decision because there’s a decent chance I won’t go to med school. That said, I do realize cost would become a much bigger consideration if I do end up pursuing it, since I do still have some interest.

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Really? Other than GPA would you say that my other stats could hold up against other applicants going for UCs?

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If you do not go to med school there is a strong chance you will be in some type of graduate school, given your major.

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My school only offered up to AP Calc AB in terms of difficulty. the only other math class left was Stats.

Could you clarify by what you mean “narrow”? – or I guess why this would be a concern/disadvantage. Obviously I see that they’re strictly research/STEM related, but I hoped that would show my interest and passion for research. I also genuinely enjoy being involved in research and didn’t think it’d make sense to be heavily involved/focused in other ECs.

I wonder why you recc’d these schools in terms of acceptance chances? Their acceptance rates range from the high 20s to 30s, which considering the no’s for UT, W&M, Fordham, SU, Rochester
?

Thank you for the feedback though – really did help open my eyes. Being a bit too hopeful with the Ivies, haha.

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I had an appointment with a cardiologist last week. He is faculty at the nearby niversity med school. He was being shadowed by a first year med school student. She had graduated from Wheaton College, a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts of no particular reputation. The point is that you don’t have to go to a “top” college to get into med school or any other graduate school. You need first and foremost to excel at your undergraduate studies wherever you go. So, the most important factor in your decision is to pick a college where you think you’ll be able to excel. :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:

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I can talk a bit about what appeared to allow my daughter to successfully pursue this path (at least up to the point of getting accepted to a PhD program and liking it for the first year plus a bit). Some of this is stuff that you will not need to worry about for several years.

PhD admissions is very competitive. It is a good idea to plan to have an application that is strong in multiple dimensions. Good grades as an undergraduate student will help. Research experience is most likely essential. Fortunately you are already started on getting good research experience. Letters of reference will be important, but is likely something that may result from research experience. It is important to have a good idea what sort of research you are interested in, and why. Having some research experience again can help you decide in more detail what you want to do. Eventually, when it gets time to actually apply to PhD programs, it will be a good idea to understand what research is already going on at each school you are considering, and how that relates to what you want to do. As one example, when my daughter was applying to PhD programs, she had already read the academic papers by professors working in her field at each university she was considering, and could refer to this in her essays. Before interviews she re-read each professor’s academic papers, and went into every interview with at least one question to ask each professor about their specific research.

PhD programs are typically fully funded. The university pays your tuition, fees, and provides health insurance. Also, you typically get a stipend which is enough to live on as long as you live very frugally. One small issue is that PhD’s can take 5 or 6 or 7 years, and it is not really a great idea in the very long run to postpone contributions to retirement funds for this long. Congress has apparently clarified that the academic stipend counts as income for purposes of funding an IRA, but you are not going to be able to afford to do this unless your parents or someone else helps you out financially. Also, the stipend is typically minimal, and some small amount of parent financial support can make the 5 to 7 year marathon easier to put up with. With a small amount of parent support (emphasis on “small”), a PhD can become basically an interesting job that provides you with the opportunity to do interesting research, with the understanding that in the off chance that your research eventually succeeds they are likely to eventually give you a doctorate.

Of course one definition of “research” (that I first heard from an MIT researcher) is: “You might fail”. When you are trying to do something that no one in the history of the world has ever succeeded in doing, success is not guaranteed. Patience is going to be needed. “When” (not “if”) your experiment fails, the ability to figure out what most likely went wrong and fix it next time will be important. You might have already learned part of this from the research that you have already been doing.

I do not understand how someone could pay off undergraduate student loans while also pursuing a PhD. This is just another reason to avoid undergraduate student loans if you can.

To me it looked like applying for a PhD was partly like applying to university, and partly like applying for a job. Similar to a job application, the professors deciding which students to accept might be thinking about whether they want to work with someone for multiple years. My daughter has said that the program that she is in seems to have accepted students with kind, responsible and cooperative personalities. I expect that this will come across both in letters of reference and in interviews.

This is however the right path for some students. Also, a huge percentage of humanity’s long term progress depends upon someone doing research and doing it well.

By the way, if my daughter had not gotten accepted to a PhD program there is a good chance that she would have been accepted to a master’s degree program instead. A master’s typically is not funded. One plus here is that a master’s is typically two years, or for some professional master’s degrees (not research-intensive) maybe only one year or 1 1/2 years.

Of the other students in her PhD program, quite a few have master’s degrees but I am pretty sure that the majority do not. Quite a few had some work experience after getting their bachelor’s degree before applying to PhD programs, but not all did. Some came from famous undergraduate schools (Harvard, a top LAC), but most came from more average universities and some came from colleges or universities that I have never heard of. Some were not from a “top 100” undergraduate program. “All over the place” might be a good description of where they got their bachelor’s degrees.

ECs might be difficult to fully evaluate, and people commenting her on CC might have different opinions. My personal belief is that for ECs you should do what is right for you and do what you want to do, and whatever you do, do it well. To me this is my understanding of the recommendations in the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site (which is worth reading if you are applying to any highly ranked school, or even just to read it and see one perspective). This also looks to me to be what you are already doing. Personally I like your ECs. What a university admissions staff will think of them is yet to be seen.

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I am going to list some UC Statistical data as informational. I agree that the UC’s are wonderful schools but the costs of attending and the number/competition of Pre-med students at the campuses does seem worth it in my opinion.

Overall OOS admit rates for 2024 Freshman:

Campus OUT OF STATE
Berkeley 7.3% (29755 apps/2184 admits)
Davis 58% (12267 apps/7081 admits)
Irvine 50% (15732 apps/7853 admits)
Los Angeles 9.3% (31841 apps/2929 admits)
Merced 85% (1539 apps/1312 admits)
Riverside 95% (2753 apps/2623 admits)
San Diego 33.6% (24169 apps/8112 admits)
Santa Barbara 38.4% (17466 apps/6718 admits)
Santa Cruz 81.7% (7691 apps/6288 admits)
Campus Biology/ UC GPA admit range Biochemistry
UC Berkeley 15% for College of L&S/ Capped weighted 4.17-4.30 Uncapped weighted 4.31-4.65 Unweighted 3.89-4.00 14.8% for College of Chemistry
UC Davis 43% for College of Biological Sciences/ Capped weighted 4.07-4.28. Unweighted 3.80-4.00 43% for College of Biological Sciences
UC Irvine 33%/ Capped weighted 4.12-4.29. Unweighted 3.86-4.00 Capped weighted Major not available for Freshman applicants
UCLA 12% for College of L&S/Capped weighted 4.22-4.32 Uncapped weighted 4.40-4.74. Unweighted 3.95-4.00 11% for the College of L&S
UC Merced 92%/ Capped weighted 3.40-4.00 90%
UC Riverside 66%/ Capped weighted 3.76-4.07
UC San Diego Estimated 33% UC Capped weighted 4.13-4.29. Unweighted 3.84-4.00 estimated <35%
UC Santa Barbara 34% for College of L&S/ Capped weighted 4.14-4.29. Average Unweighted 3.91. 32% for the College of L&S
UC Santa Cruz 69% / Capped weighted 3.90-4.23 55%
Campus Public Health/ Admit GPA range
UC Berkeley 5% High demand major/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.16-4.28 Weighted 4.31-4.65
UC Davis Global Biology: 39% Public Health Sciences Minor only/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.07-4.28 Unweighted 3.80-4.00
UC Irvine PH Policy: 26.9%/PB Sciences 39.1% / UC capped weighted 4.13-4.22 Unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA 13%/ UC capped weighted GPA 4.20-4.30 Weighted 4.32-4.74 Unweighted 3.89-4.00
UC Merced 85%/ UC capped weighted GPA 3.42-4.00
UC Riverside Major not available
UC San Diego 17%/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.08-4.22 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara Major not available
UC Santa Cruz Global/Comm Health: 68% / UC Capped weighted GPA 3.68-4.08
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I don’t have any issues with your activities. It looks to me like you were busy doing things you enjoy, and that’s what matters.

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I don’t know if MD-Phd is on your radar, but keep in mind that funding for these programs might not exist moving forward. I have a family member who recently graduated from an MD-PhD program and they lost funding.

You can be involved in research with a masters, or do a combination of patient contact and research, publishing etc. You have time to sort this out. Research funding is not what it was, but it does still exist in certain careers.

Besides Pitt and UDel, you might look at the University of South Carolina, and Ohio State. Rochester is a great school but it’s very expensive- use the NPC.

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Absolutely. And a number of schools’ admissions presentations emphasized depth over breadth.

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I’ll try to respond to your question on these schools, but you can find the information on gpa of students’ in each schools current class on their common data set, which you can obtain by googling the school name + common data set.

I’ll first note that all of the schools mentioned by both you and @tsbna44 state that standardized test scores are not an important factor in their admissions decisions, and most of their applicants did not submit any standardized test scores. They will consider test scores if submitted, but . . .

I can’t comment on Wake Forest without your class rank because they don’t report the high school gpa’s of their current students. They do report that almost 2/3 (64%) of their current freshmen were in the top 10% of their high school graduating class, so if you’re not in the top 10%, they would be a stretch.

Both Texas and William & Mary are partial to in state students. Texas, for example accepts 38% of their applicants overall but only 10% of their out of state applicants. W&M accepts 34% of their in state applicants but they are similarly a much toughe admit for out of state students. Both would have to be considered a reach.

I would consider you to be competitive for all the rest of the schools in this post:

Trinity
Brandeis
Fordham
Syracuse
Rochester

Your grades are in the middle of their freshmen class high school gpa numbers or better. The two schools in this group where you should have the best chance of acceptance are Rochester and Fordham.

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Btw, just looking at stats, if I had a 4.0 GPA and maybe a higher SAT score would my admissions chances be higher? I believe my extracurriculars and essays (which I haven’t posted here obviously) reflect my genuine passion and commitment, and I can’t help but wonder if that could offset my 3.81. Obviously I understand that a 4.0 is better than a 3.81, but I mean, if it’s really the 4.0 that’ll help
 but also I do recognize that it’s my own fault for my grades.