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Demographics
- US citizen
- FL resident
- Public college prep HS (300 per grade)
Intended Major(s)
Neuroscience
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
- Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
- Weighted HS GPA: 4.89
- Class Rank: 15/330
- ACT/SAT Scores: 36/1600
List your HS coursework
IB student (will attain IB diploma)
11 APs with more to come senior year (calc/chem/APUSH/World/Euro/Lit/Psych/Precal/HUG/Stats; 5s in all except a 4 in Stats)
Awards
2025 American Chemical Society National Chemistry Olympiad (qualified to
nationals from local exam)
Quiz Bowl
o Individual National Championship NAQT participant (11)
o District Team Championship (11)
o Player of the Month (March 2024)
o Battle of the Beaches (October 2023, Most Individual Points Scored, 3 rd
place)
 Highest score on AP US History Exam – Mr. Piper (November 2024)
ď‚· AP Scholar with Distinction, 2024
ď‚· Mu Alpha Theta (9, 10, 11, 12)
ď‚· National English Honor Society (11, 12)
ď‚· National Science Honor Society (11, 12)
Extracurriculars
- Swim team (School and club; 5 days/week)
- D&D, Dungeon master/leader
- Great Books and Big Ideas (Writer’s workshop & Big Ideas)
- Church Youth Group and involvement
Essays should be strong
Schools
Yale
WashU
UChicago
Princeton
Northwestern
Harvard
Emory
Georgia Tech
Where else should my son apply? Worried we may end up in the trap of applying to all far reach schools and then end up out of luck. Applying to UF and FSU (safety) because free, but those schools are way too big. WashU accepting 60+% of students ED is really screwing everything up as son originally wanted to ED there. ANY and all advice would be helpful.
What is your budget?
As a suggestion, University of Pittsburgh is well regarded in Neuroscience and is a much easier admit than the ones you list. Admission is rolling and if you apply early, you are likely to get an admission pretty early in the season which will take a lot of pressure off. It’s also not as huge as many public universities.
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If we HAD to pay for these we theoretically could. So I’m not sure $ would stop us, but merit would be great. Son is an extreme introvert so a large state university wouldn’t be a great fit. So we’d be willing to stretch budget to keep him in a good mental health state where he could thrive
Would he be interested in a smaller school such as a liberal arts college? There are quite a few with neuroscience majors, I believe.
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Thank you! He doesn’t want to have to navigate a big city but maybe a trip to Pitt is in order?
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Case Western would be a good target school. You just need to show them some love via demonstrated interest. Second Pitt as a great safety. U of Rochester is also strong for your son’s intended major.
As an aside, Chicago and Northwestern are other schools that fill the majority of their class in ED.
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yes, we are touring Amherst now. He’s a little worried about the lack of research opportunities at a SLAC. But he also LOVES to write so we’re looking for a school that meets the intellectual stimulus of neuro and the “hobby” of creative writing
Does the school have counseling ?
What is your budget ?
Do you qualify for need ?
What happened to ED ?
Any interest in something as small as FAU Wilkes ?
We probably won’t qualify for need. His HS is amazing, but terrible in college counseling. 2 biggest challenges are finding target (not reach) schools and deciding whether to ED anything. Feels like giving up on himself if we ED.
I don’t get giving up. Are you willing to spend $400k ?
You need a budget before picking schools.
What’s the goal beyond school?
I updated the previous message with one thought.
Oops. Neuro not chem.
Any interest in FAU Wilkes ?
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Does he know what he wants to do with a degree in neuroscience?
William & Mary is another good one to look into.
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Sorry; I meant if we ED somewhere like WashU are we giving up on getting in RD other places? Technically - yes. So that’s why it feels like giving up. If you bet on yourself getting in RD you may have more options (both in admit and $); but if you instead apply ED because a school accepts 2/3 of students that way (WashU), did you sell yourself short but not giving RD schools a chance?
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I’m not sure where you got this information, but it isn’t accurate. The actual number is around 25-30% according to WashU’s own website. And if he wanted to apply ED, I’m not sure how this would be a negative anyways.
It’s also important to note that ED typically has recruited athletes in the applicant pool and they are admitted at a very high acceptance rate, probably close to 100%. So the overall ED acceptance rate is often skewed by this.
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Is Wash U his first choice and is he certain he wants to attend? If not, I would not ED.
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Some of your schools have no merit aid. So run the NPC on Yale and Northwestern etc to see if $$ are possible. If they cost too much I’d lose them.
If you want merit, you need to go where you’re a star.
Thoughts - Pitt mentioned is an easy in. Rochester. Brandeis is another.
Good luck.
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Bigger schools will have more research going on, but will also have more competition to participate in the research. Bigger schools that have graduate programs will also have graduate students participating in research which might reduce opportunities for undergraduate students.
One daughter attended a “small primarily undergraduate” university in Canada (even though we live in the US). This is as close as Canada has to a “liberal arts college”. One thing that she found was that she had relatively small classes and got to know her professors. This plus the lack of graduate students meant that she got the opportunity to participate in research. The research that she did as an undergraduate student at least to me sounded a lot like the first job (in the US) that she got after graduating, which in turn helped her get into a good PhD program. I think that there will be similar stories for quite a few students who attend LACs in the US.
Amherst is a great school. I like the location, although it does have real winters and is quite a ways from Florida. I am pretty sure that it offers good need based aid but no merit aid. For us the NPC was not encouraging, but your results may differ.
UVM (Vermont) is a moderate sized school that would be a safety with your son’s stats and where some merit aid would be very likely. For us their NPC was spot on in terms of predicting merit aid.
Neuroscience is a field where some graduate school is reasonably likely. PhDs are typically fully funded but admissions can be very, very competitive. Master’s degrees are typically not funded. It would be a significant gift to your son if you can budget to support this also. Even if he goes straight for a PhD, the money that you saved in case he had gone for a master’s can help make the marathon more tolerable (it is a long path to receive pretty nearly any doctorate).
Your son is a competitive applicant at any university in the US (and probably any university anywhere else that teaches in a language that he can speak). However, your reaches are still reaches. You might expect that something like 80% of applicants to highly ranked schools are competitive for admissions (I pulled this number from an article years ago in the Stanford alumni magazine, but I doubt the number is much different at Yale or Princeton or Harvard). Of course their admissions rates are way, way lower than this.
Your son needs to find and apply to safeties that he would be happy attending and that you would be happy paying for.
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In the 23/24 CDS WashU admitted 3855 kids. Of those 1158 were ED.
Some were no doubt hooked.
Their yield is under 50% so even with ED more turn down than go. I personally don’t think it has the brand strength of a Vandy, Northwestern, etc. it’s as good but like Rice maybe not the brand strength.
I don’t see National Merit anywhere but U Tulsa has the highest % of students that are NM Scholars. Even if you aren’t, I’m guessing you’ll get awesome merit.
I go back to budget - you flat out need one.
You say this - “If you bet on yourself getting in RD you may have more options (both in admit and $)”
You’re not getting merit at Yale, Northwestern, or Harvard. Are you spending $400k over UF and Bright Futures ?
First thing you have to decide knowing you’ll likely have more school after. Stroking a $50k check 2x a year isn’t easy but many are willing.
Are you ? Before you have a list, ED or otherwise, you need to decide that. For me it’s a heck no. But for many others it’s an absolutely. You say you can afford. That’s very different than I want to afford.
Ps - why Ga Tech over a Pitt or W&M as far as publics.
Total safety with big aid - good school - Furman. And Rhodes - likely under $40k.
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Thank you! This is why community is important. On our spreadsheet this was the one I had wrong. Doing the math again you are right. Which may make all the difference for ED/RD.
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Seconding @tamagotchi’s suggestion of Pitt. Great neuroscience department there. And you’d get an acceptance at a great school right off the bat!
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You’re probably confusing with # admitted vs enrolled.
1828 enrolled. 1158 were admitted ED so likely 95%+ enrolled so yes, well over half attending would have been admitted ED.
But of course many admitted RD go elsewhere, enough that their yield is a fair amount under 50%.