High school Junior from NYC aiming for Princeton [3.8 GPA, 1500 SAT]

“Your stats look to be not all that far off from a typical applicant to Princeton, or Stanford, or Columbia. You know as well as I do what the acceptance rates are for these three schools. UVA and U.Penn out of state are definitely not safeties, and I do not understand why either of these would prepare you any better for medical school compared to one of the SUNY’s.”

@DadTwoGirls , Can you explain why you stated it like this? UPenn is a private school in the Ivy League, not a state school?

To the OP, Princeton and the other top-10 schools on your list are very very large reaches with your current resume, due to your unweighted gpa and your coursework seems to indicate you have not taken the highest level offered in some of the core areas. You can increase your chances by challenging yourself in all core areas for the semesters you have left, getting all As this year and next fall. You may gain perspective from talking to your counselor to see what type of gpa/rigor has led to successful applicants from your school. Apply, for sure, but add matches and safeties.