Chances of getting in

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Rising senior female.

Planning to major in either biomedical engineering, biotechnology or biology as part of pre-med program.

Academics:

GPA: 3.91 (unweighted), 4.53 (weighted). Large public school in arizona .
Class rank: Top 10 percentile ( 90.5 percentile)
Total of 9 AP completed, planning on 5 more AP in senior year. (total will be 3 Maths, 4 humanities, 2 english, 5 science)
Subject Tests: Math 2 : 800, Chemistry : 780
ACT score composite 35
Likely National Merit commended list

Extra curriculars:

Tennis played on junior varsity, will be part of varsity team of state division 1, state semi-finalists
Play piano
Research projects initiated with state college professor in 4-d printing of bioprosthetic devices and limbs.
Completing research project with radiologist on vascular imaging
Volunteer for hospice for 1 year in their dementia unit
National Honors society member and participated in several volunteer projects

Schools applying for:

Safety : Case western, arizona state (barretts honors), university of arizona
Likely match: UCLA, UC berkeley, georgetown, emory
Reach : University of southern california, rice, washington univ at st louis, cornell
Super reach: dartmouth, johns hopkins, duke, u.penn, columbia, brown , northwestern, stanford
Combined BS-MD program: case western, rochester, brown, northwestern

Does this college application list sound reasonable ?

Will my low class rank hurt my application badly ?

any suggestions on college choices and my chances

2

How exactly is your class rank “low”? Don’t be hard on yourself. Your college list and categorization of certain schools as reaches and “super” reaches reflects a lack of confidence(I won’t say which ones you are totally wrong about). Revise it! Take time on your common app(start now!) and I’m confident you can go ivy. Public schools are tricky, the grades are less inflated than top private schools so colleges do see a lot of perfect GPAs but just make sure your strengths shine through. Any top college will agree, they could accept any perfect “paper student” but diversity of thought, drive and experience usually isn’t in the same range of GPA(considering individuality and the difficulty of the school you attend). You can do it!

-a rising senior going through the same thing

3

BioEngineering is very tough to get into at Berkeley and probably at UCLA. Your chances of getting in those 2 schools probably increase if you apply as Biology instead. This is based on experience with a couple of kids who didn’t get into Berkeley for BioEngineering this past year…

I would narrow down the list of reaches and matches down such that your total number of schools is say 12 at most. You don’t want to be bogged down with so many essays. If you intend on going ED, figure out which school that would be and then work down. I would guess that with your grades and test scores, most of the schools on your list are actually matches or low reaches instead of super reaches.

4

Case Western is not a safety school for anyone anymore and your matches are reaches. Look into finding more true match schools.

5

Admissions to the BS-MD program for CWRU (PPSP) is incredibly competitive. I am not sure the stats provided is strong enough to guarantee an interview with the program. On the other hand, the stats look quite reassuring for CWRU’s regular admission, except the potential concern of yield protection. Two of my son’s classmates were WL’ed by Case this cycle, and they both have SATs in the 1500s, looking for biomedical engineering majors. In previous years, I would think these kids will get pull from the WL and get thru the process, not this year though with Case since it is not taking people off the WL. This could mean Case will be even more selective next cycle. Since CW’s regular admission has no additional essay requirement (beyond Common App), and with the stats listed above, it is better off to apply EA and get the results before X’mas. Case also gives very generous merit aid on non-needed basis, the stats listed seem to suggest a 28K/yr or so package.

6

The work, sports, and extra curricular activities that you completed are great for applying to a competitive colleges. Many students are always trying to focus on academics, and often forget to do other things besides books. The broader spectrum that the admissions departments sees the better of a chance you have of getting in any where ever you’d like.