Help with chances at top universities

GoldieG
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 16:22:16 +0000

Hi everyone. I am a rising senior hoping to apply to several of the Ivies, Stanford, Duke and other similar schools. My fallbacks are UMich, U of MN, and UI Urbana Champaign. I was hoping for some feedback on my chances. Please not that I am from a small, relatively low-income public school district so my EC resources have been severely limited.

Intended Major: Chemistry w/ Pre-Med
Coursework: 15 IB Classes (Diploma Candidate with additional Independent Study)
GPA: 4.0 UW/ 4.18 W
Rank: 1/200
ACT: 36 (36 E, 36 M, 34R, 36 S) on second attempt w/ 35 in 9th grade
SAT Subjects: 800 Math 2, 800 Chemistry, 770 Physics
PSAT: 1500 (likely Finalist Standing)

EC:

2 sport varsity athlete (swimming, tennis) w/ conference and state level recognition

High School (9-12) math team high scorer since 8th grade (also top 10 in region)

President of Volunteer organization w/ several hundred volunteer hours

MN All-State Math team (100 in entire state) and selection for ARML national competition (top 60/100)- did not place individually

Summer 2018:

Worked 25 hours/ week at a restaurant to pay for college

Trained with a swim club

Summer 2019:

Full time (40 hours/ week) STEM internship at MN Dept. Of Transportation (data collection in field work which was processed in CAD software)

Part time lifeguarding (additional 15 hours/week)

Performed independent chemical research on chemical recycling of plastic

Money went towards college

Family Info:

Middle Income (~$85,000)

Both parents have Bachelor’s degrees from U of MN

One parent has cancer but continues to work full-time. Other has severe COPD and works part-time.
State of Residence: Minnesota (Metro)
Ethnicity: Caucasian w/ European ancestry

Full list of colleges: Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, MIT, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, UC Berkeley, UCLA, USC, UMich, University of MN, UI Urbana-Champaign

I realize I have not distinguished myself to the full extent possible, but I would truly appreciate what you think about my potential chances of acceptance.

Thank you for reading!