Weighted HS GPA: 4.5 W (A+=98-100 +1.0 for AP, DE, IB, +0.5 for honors)
Class Rank: top 10%
ACT/SAT Scores: 1550
List your HS coursework
10 APS (limited by some mandatory classes at school), 3 DEs, multivariable calculus
Coursework: AP World History, AP Stats, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Bio, AP Calc BC, AP Spanish, AP Chem, AP Physics C: Mech, AP US/Comp Gov, Multivariable calculus, a few other DE’s like DE Spanish, DE Research, DE English
Awards
2x First author pub in IEEE
3rd place at an international computational bio conference
won a design/engineering comp (national)
top 10% of entrants in Toshiba exploravision comp
AP scholar with distinction Extracurriculars
independent research (pub in IEEE), intl research collaboration, started an educational organization with 30K+ impact, did state gov school (not sure abt acceptance rate, heard it was 5% though), internship with biotech startup (contributed directly to product dev, getting LOR), science olympiad president (3x medalist @ regionals, raised 1K for team), NHS officer (helped coordinate 3 community events), on school district advisory board and working with superintendent, mentor at school for freshman where we help them transition to HS
Essays/LORs/Other
expecting strong essays, solid LORs from teachers, and really good LOR from internship
Too many schools. Narrow it down. You have a chance anywhere, and i believe you have a very good chance at schools that tend to accept 10-15% of applicants. Choose your best safety, maybe 3 matches, and the rest reaches.
I’ve been thinking I am applying to too many as well. I don’t have any financial constraints, the only thing is my sister will be in med school so that’s something to consider. The problem is a lot of schools don’t consider that for aid (at least from what I have seen). For MIT, I’m scared because kids from my area don’t get in often, but I have considered it. What would you recommend removing from my list so that applying to MIT could become more feasible (in terms of workload)?
And the UCs don’t give any need-based aid at all to out-of-state students, so if you’re taking cost into consideration and looking to cut down your list, the UCs might be the first cut to make…
So you have a lot of really reachy midsize private research universities on your list. But then you also have a lot of large public research universities on your list.
Have you thought about the differences between those sorts of universities? Any preference for one or the other?
I note one of the reasons I am asking is despite the length of your list, you are quite light when it comes to private universities in the Likely or Target range. You have Case Western as a possible Target, but Case is known to be a demonstrated interest college. Boston University is in that “interesting” category of being overwhelmed with applications given its location such that is has a very low acceptance rate.
All of which would be OK if you actually preferred large public research universities, but then you have SO many reaches that are not that. So some clarity on what you would really want in a college experience might be helpful.
You have a lot of safeties on your list. Is one of those your favorite? You could drop the others. For example, applying in-state, is U Va your favorite safety? (I believe that this is a safety for you.) If so, you can drop the other in-state schools.
Then look at your other schools. Which of them do you prefer to U Va? Which of them is not worth the additional 200K that it would cost you, over U Va? Drop the ones not worth the additional 200K to you, drop the ones that you do not prefer over U Va.
Your goal is a list which includes one or maybe two (if you cannot decide yet) in-state academic and financial safeties, and the rest of the schools are schools that you really would prefer over that safety, and are worth 200-250K more to you.
I don’t think that any OOS public is worth applying to, for you, since U Va is such a good option for you, is a safety for you, and is much cheaper than any OOS public, for you, unless you’re also chasing merit money.
The big question is going to be which of the reach schools are worth an extra 250K to you, were you to get in, especially if you’re thinking of medical school, too.
I would remove them all. They will all be quite expensive (at least $70K/year, no need-based aid available to out of state students) plus they require a separate application which can be quite time consuming. That is time you can redirect to making your other applications stronger. I mean, since the UCs use their own app, if you apply to one, you may as well apply to all that you want since there’s no additional work…But if they are going to be more expensive than you want, you’re better off not dealing with that application at all.
You seem naive about schools’ required stats and acceptance rates, and your own stats. You have really quite high stats and impressive ECs. Plus you are in state. You dont need 25 acceptances. You need to choose your in state safety, U Va or VTech seems right, and then jettison any schools you wouldnt prefer over them. Why pay for a UC when you are in state for U Va? Why apply to any school you do not prefer over U Va? Why pay thrice the cost of U Va if you are premed?
To be completely honest, I am. This post does come from a place of anxiety, so I may be rating myself low. Thank you for your advice, it is truly helpful! I have already looked into cutting down some OOS publics in my list and have also begun looking into removing the UCs. My family rather likes the UCs because we have relatives there, so my family has considered moving there to establish residence for in-state tuition, though I am not quite sure how that process works.
If you want instate status at a UC for tuition purposes, your family needs to have moved last summer…before your senior year of high school. You will be graduating from a VA high school. IF your family relocates to CA after you graduate high school, you will be paying at least one year of out of state costs…at least. @Gumbymom
I would suggest you apply Early Action to UVA as you will have a decision by mid February. And maybe apply to one other VA public where you would be happy to attend.
You are a strong applicant, but for reach schools, there are no guarantees.
@AustenNut i know this is a long list of colleges…but can you give your ideas of chances for acceptance for this student?
Congratulations on making yourself a strong candidate in high school!
Based on this description, I would talk to your school guidance counselor about your chances. Although it seems incredible that you wouldn’t have your pick of in-state colleges, I have heard that northern Virginia (if that’s where you are) can be extremely competitive for admission to UVA and perhaps also Virginia Tech and/or William & Mary. I’m going to page a couple of people who might have some additional insight on that dynamic. @OctoberKate, @DadBodThor, and @Meg.VA
Also, @hebegebe, would any of OP’s awards cause a significant shift in typical chancing?
I am not a professional, but I’ll make some guesses as to what your chances might be, assuming that none of your awards will cause a substantial shift in your odds of admittance. I excluded UCI and UCSD because I generally don’t chance for the California publics (except UCB and UCLA as they’re always low probability), but @gumbymom may be able to give you better chancing if you provide your UC GPAs (UC GPA calculator).
Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
George Mason
VCU
Rutgers
Likely (60-79%)
UVA
Virginia Tech
Toss-Up (40-59%)
Lower Probability (20-39%)
Boston U.
Case Western
Emory
Georgetown
UNC – Chapel Hill
UT - Austin
Low Probability (less than 20%)
UCLA
UCB
Johns Hopkins
Duke
Northwestern
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Brown
UPenn
Cornell
As you think about how you want your college list to look like, I would strongly advise you to think about how you deal with rejection. Some people can get tons of rejection and it just fuels them to burn brighter wherever it is they land. Those types of people can have a very reach-heavy list. For many, receiving tons of rejections can be very mentally or emotionally damaging. I find that most people tend to do better with more acceptances than rejections/waitlists, but that is a general principle. You’re the only one on this board who knows you, so you’re the only one who can best guess what the right balance of colleges is on your list.
In looking at the schools I classified as likely or extremely likely, they majority of them seem to be pretty different from the majority of the schools in the lower or low probability category. If you want suggestions for more mid-sized schools to consider that have likelier admissions, just let us know.
To establish California residency for UC tuition purposes, the family and student need to move and live in California for 365 days prior to the residency determination. You must relinquish all ties with your former state of residency and show proof you plan to make California your permanent home.
As noted by @thumper1 , if you wanted to receive in-state tuition rates this move should have happened last summer.
Thank you this was helpful! I am from the northern Virginia area (not TJHSST), which is why I was concerned about UVA. My UC GPA is a 4.0 UW and a 4.4 W. I also would like to know about some more mid-sized likelier schools. Thank you!
If you want likelier mid-sized schools, since you’re in-state, any reason William and Mary isn’t on your list? Their CAMS program and its Mathematical Biology track could possibly be a good fit for you. A little under 7,000 undergrads, with great opportunities for undergrad research with professors, and a ton of recent investment in science labs and facilities.
I’m always hesitant to offer chances (personally, I think calling UVA a “safety” is a bold move, Cotton), but W&M’s admit rate is squarely between UVA and Virginia Tech.