Floridian high school senior aiming for T20 Schools (Biology/Cell Biology) [4.0 GPA in IB DP, top 2% rank, 1540 SAT]

Demographics

US Citizen

  • State/Location of residency: Florida
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public
  • Other special factors: IB Diploma Candidate

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Intended Major(s)
Biology, Cell and Molecular Biology, or Microbiology
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.7258/5
  • Class Rank: 10/701
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 SAT(790 ERBW/750 Math)

List your HS coursework

  • English: Pre-IB English 1 and 2, AP English Language and Composition (5), IB English Literature A HL (IP)
  • Math: Honors Algebra 2 and Pre-Calculus, AP Calculus AB (4) and BC (IP), and AP Statistics (IP)
  • Science: Pre-IB Biology and Chemistry, IB Biology 2 SL (6) and 3 HL (IP), AP Biology (5), AP Environmental Science (5), Marine Science 1 Honors
  • History and social studies: AP Human Geography (5), AP World History (5), Dual Enrollment Geography (A), AP European History (5), IB History of the Americas and Contemporary History HL (IP)
  • Language other than English: Pre-IB French 1 and 2, IB French 4 and 5 SL (IP)*
  • Other academic courses: IB Theory of Knowledge, AP Psychology (4), and IB Psychology SL (5)

Awards
Sunshine State Scholar and Scholarship Recipient
US Geography Championships and International Geography Bee qualifier
IB Diploma Candidate
AP Scholar with Distinction
Regional Science Olympiad Silver medalist in Green Generation and Ecology

Extracurriculars
President of Science Olympiad
President of French National Honor Society
Vice President of Model UN
Historian of Science National Honor Society
Member and Founding Vice President of a non-profit raising money and awareness for those hungry and homeless in my community
Member of Rho Kappa
Member of National Honor Society
Member of Mu Alpha Theta
Varsity Weightlifter for my school
Club Weightlifter for a gym outside of my school
Essays/LORs/Other
I was told by my advisor and IB English teacher that I have a strong essay, and I am unsure about my letters of rec, but I would say my Biology teacher knew enough to make a good one, but unsure about my other one.

Schools

USF Priority (Accepted)
FSU EA (Accepted)
UF EA (Accepted + Honors)
Michigan EA (Deferred)
Georgia Tech EA
Emory RD + Scholar Consideration
Johns Hopkins RD
Duke RD
Harvard RD

I don’t really have my own estimates other than the latter 3 being very low.

Do you have any cost constraints?

If so, are USF, FSU, and UF affordable, and have the net price calculators of the others indicated affordability?

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You have a chance ? But are they affordable and even if so, are they worth (at full pay) hundreds of thousands more than your in-state.

It’s hard to chance other than to say - yes they are possible. My guess would be you land at least one, maybe more but no one can say.

Emory and Ga Tech seem promising.

Good luck.

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Congrats on your acceptances! If they are affordable you are in good shape!

While you do have a chance at the remaining schools, nobody here can predict what will happen. Emory may work out, but that’s just a guess.

Are these schools affordable? What are you thinking of doing with your biology degree?

You are already in at three very good universities. Congratulations! You have earned this. Honors at UF sounds particularly excellent to me, but we live way to the north of you and I am not all that familiar with differences between the public universities in Florida.

These are fields where some sort of graduate school is likely. PhD’s are usually fully funded. PhD programs are however very competitive for admissions, and even with a fully funded PhD program some parent financial help can be nice (for example so that you are not living poor for six or seven years, and to allow you to start funding an IRA early). Other graduate degrees are often not funded, specifically including MD’s, DO’s and master’s degrees. If reasonably possible you would be well advised to keep some money in the college fund for graduate school, particularly if becoming a medical doctor is a possibility.

If medical school is a realistic possibility, then you would be best off budgeting for a full 8 years of university.

We have a daughter currently getting a PhD in a biomedical field. The various students in her program come from a rather wide range of undergraduate universities. The same could be said for highly ranked MD programs. Any of the schools that you are already admitted to can give you a very good start in this area.

I think that you are competitive for the remaining schools on your list. Unfortunately so are the large majority of other applicants. I think that all that you can do is to wait and see what happens.

One last thing to mention: With your intended major, you are going to be taking a lot of classes that overlap with premed classes (whether you are premed or not). Some of these classes will be very academically demanding, and which particular classes you find most demanding might vary from student to student. However, the excellent work and the hard work that you have put in up to now, and your excellent results from high school, are going to help you to be prepared for these academically very challenging classes. The biggest benefit that you will gain from your hard work up to now is NOT to get accepted to a famous university, but rather is to be very well prepared to do well going forward. Also of course getting into UF honors is no small feat, but is something that you have earned through your hard work.

Best wishes. I expect that you will do well regardless of which of the schools you end up attending in September. Wherever you end up, plan to show up on campus in September ready to put in a strong effort.

Hey!! You have a really strong profile! I am also a 2024 Sunshine State Scholar lol. I think you have a decent chance at every single on the top schools. I got UF but no Honors and I applied the exact same schools as you except Harvard.

I know this is a “chance me” post, but there is a lot to unravel here. Do you have a possible career goal? It’s ok if you do not.

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