Chance?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Ethnicity/Gender: Asian/Male
Montana (Rural)
Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering / Biochem
Rank: 54/364 (Top 6th ish)
GPA: 3.52 (Our school makes the weighted and unweighted the same)
SAT: 2130 (770 Math; 730 CR; 630 Writing)
SAT II: 770 Math2; 760 Chem; 720 Phys</p>

<p>Course Info: Not the kind of monstrous curriculum I know they have at competetive schools, but I do challenge myself, especially in sciences and math. Completed Calc AB 8th grade and took up to Linear Algebra; all A’s. In sciences, I’m a year or two ahead of our school’s course. Biology Hnr freshman year, Chemistry and Physics Hnr sophomore year, Chem AP junior year, and College Chem senior year. Social studies and English, not so much (basic core curriculum, nothing too much). Bombed my second semester of Junior year, but have a 4.0 for senior year… if that makes any difference</p>

<p>Current classes: Linear Algebra, College Chem I, Government AP, English AP, Office Management, Adv Journalism</p>

<p>Awards: 2nd place overall, regionals science fair. ISEF finalist. Speech and Debate national qualifiers finalist last 2 years. Mostly.</p>

<p>EC: Speech and Debate (all 4 years), Debate Captain (junior year); Drama (sophomore year); JV Soccer (junior year); Science Fair (junior year, continuing)</p>

<p>Essays I think I did fine on. Know my Common App essay was my best, but the rest shouldn’t be anything alarming but nothing amazing either… Letters of Recommendation I’m confident on. My math professor gave me full marks, and my chem professor I believe gave me top marks too.</p>

<p>Counselor’s recommendation was below-average. She wrote like two sentences for me and turned it in.</p>

<p>Colleges:
JHU
Cornell
Case Western Reserve
Yale
Harvard
Boston U
Carnegie Mellon
Dartmouth
Duke
Rensselaer
Rice
UPenn</p>

<p>Pretty sure JHU and Ivies are pipe dreams but the rest?</p>

2

<p>Your being from Montana gives your application a nice boost.</p>

<p>Your test scores are not outstanding; but they do the job of warranting holistic consideration at the top schools. Unfortunately, your ordinary ECs do not sufficiently compensate for the subpar GPA and rank; being outside the top ten percent is a major obstacle.</p>

<p>You have very poor chances at the most selective schools on your list (Harvard, Yale); but schools like Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and Duke are within reach (though still unlikely). </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

3

<p>With the EC, I noticed that Common App allowed me to submit how much time I put into extracurriculars. Being someone who did policy debate, I spent upwards to almost 20 hours a week for 30 some weeks with S&D alone. Do colleges take this into consideration when they look at ECs?</p>

<p>Also, I’ve heard that JHU was actually quite selective with its sciences (esp BME)…</p>

<p>Is Rice attainable though?</p>

4

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<p>Yes, holistically reviewing colleges definately consider and value commitment.</p>

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<p>Indeed, Johns Hopkins is a highly selective school. </p>

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<p>Any of the schools on your list, other than Harvard and Yale, are attainable. However, your GPA and rank make the most selective schools highly unlikely.</p>

5

<p>Ah. Thanks for the input. I was aware that my GPA was shot to hell… was hoping that by taking advanced classes, I might be able to compensate for that</p>

6

<p>Bump (and some odd words to reach that char limit)</p>

7

<p>Bump (again)</p>