My chances for higher-tier schools

Hi! I’m a Georgia resident, and I plan on applying to the following schools. I am graduating in three years.
Univ of GA
Ann Arbor
GA Tech
UVirginia,
Harvard
UPenn
UChicago
Duke

Class Rank: top 10%
GPA: 4 unweighted
SAT: 2150
APs: Macro/Micro, Chem, World, Bio, US History, Lang/Comp. Most rigorous schedule for three years, and a very competitive high school (top 100 in the US, blue ribbon magnet school).

Extracurriculars
Math Club (9th-11th)
-President: 10th
Student Government (10th-11th)
-Class Treasurer: 10th
Tri-M (10th-11th)
I got a 1320 on the 2015 PSAT, and completed the SAT yesterday.

Also, Asian male.

Your PSAT seems low even for a freshman if you are aiming to have it at 2150 a couple of years from now. Go to Kumon or something similar, or subscribe to the online training courses offered by College Confidential, and practice.

Top tier schools care a lot about whether you have distinguished yourself at a national level, or at least a state level. They will want to see more than grades, test scores, and AP courses. Those are the basics.

Sit down and plan out what you hope to accomplish OUTSIDE of school. You’ve set goals for school clubs. Go beyond that.

For a future science major, they will look at whether you have already done research, possibly at a university lab. Start conducting research, for science fairs or otherwise. Contact professors at local universities and tell them what research you are interested in conducting, and see if you can get a lab position.

You should also look at volunteering at a hospital to demonstrate your interest in medicine, and to confirm for yourself that you enjoy that environment.

You are in 11th grade and you are graduating in 3 years???

@mommyrocks the PSAT is out of 1520 and the new SAT is out of 1600

Why are you standardized testing so early?

Hello,

My understanding of your post was that you are a current junior, and are graduating this year, for a total of three years to graduate HS. If this is correct, you have already earned the SAT score, the PSAT, etc.

First off, standardized testing early is often a good idea. The SAT covers material covered in many schools at the Junior High School level (Alg 2 and lower, grammer and syntax rules, etc.) As a consequence the material is often fresher in 9th grade vs. 11th. Furthermore, it allows lower stress as the possibility of retakes are open. Finally, it reduces the total number of tests taken on the back end (subject tests will probably be mostly junior/senior year tests and having 1-2 tests per year is easier than 0 the first two years and 2-3 the last two years).

In terms of metrics, you are well set for the four schools at the top of your list (meaning you are a match for them, I do not mean “set” to indicate that you are guaranteed admittance). The four at the bottom, however, are more selective, and your resume looks below that of the average applicant (which is bad news considering over 90% of said applicants get rejected). This is not a post to demean you or discourage you; I intend to assess your stats on a point-by-point basis and provide as much detail as possible.

Note: I am not an adcom, but a college student at a peer school to the bottom four on your list. All statements to follow come from a combination of statistics from when I was applying (last year), and anecdotal evidence (those from my high school that went to certain locations as well as the stats of those at my university). Take this advice for what it is worth (it is a good idea to do this for all posts). All advice is for the bottom four schools on your list.

GPA: A 4.0 uw leaves nothing to be desired, but is common enough to only provide a small boost to your application.

Standardized test: A little low but acceptable. This will have minimal impact either way on your application.

Class rank: top 10% is good but too unspecific. Something like 98% of Harvard admits were in the top 10% of their class, and the vast majority of applicants in the top 10% were rejected. Where in the top 10% are you (top 1%, top 5%, etc.)? If you are in a huge tie for first as 10% of the class has 4.0’s, this indicates a lack of rigor at your school which will devalue the 4.0 to some extent.

AP classes: 8 AP classes is par for the course, neither exceptional nor substandard. To do this in 3 years probably puts you in the high-average range of applicants and the average range of admits. If you get AP National Scholar this will help a little (showing that your AP classes actually taught you the material). If you do not get this it will be a bit of a detriment (I’ve heard a great deal of dissent on this point; I will just say that almost everyone admitted to my school that were active in the AP program were AP National Scholars. The exception to this are students from schools with fewer than 8 AP classes; these students may only have 4 or 5 AP’s but will earn 4’s-5’s on all tests).

Extracurriculars: You have spent three years on the math team, and held a leadership role. Your leadership role happened in 10th grade. What happened in your Junior year (this looks a bit off, and may be a minor, but only a minor problem). More importantly, what have you accomplished in the math team? Speaking as one from a Mu, Alpha, Theta background, I (as well as the adcoms), are well aware that this is essentially an individual sport with minimal teamwork allowed. Have you won any state/national awards in contested tests (I have it on very good authority that getting "5th place in ‘math in video game design’ and other obscure tests is nearly worthless; 15th place in Integration or Statistics is much more valuable)? The latter two will provide a small boost to admissions, but are less than the achievements of the average “Ivy-league applicant.” For the remainder of this year, at least, try to win something at a national level; state wins and national awards are the norm, 1st place in any contested national event sets you apart.

Research/Internships/Evidence of real world accomplishments: I don’t see anything in this regard, which is problematic as this is quite possibly the most important part of an application apart from GPA. Ideally, you should have an internship at a company where you apply skills relevant to your future world of study. If this can’t be done, perhaps start a column in your local newspaper discussing scientific issues, or ask to make a presentation at a local museum in the summer about a topic of your choice. These will give your application a “second look,” that makes acceptance plausible. An applicant with nothing in this department is like an applicant who hasn’t taken the SAT/ACT- short of a miracle there will be a negative result.

The best way to strengthen your application is to boost the strength of your in-school extracurricular activities with evidence of devotion and excellence regarding your hobbies. More importantly, do something unrelated to school that shows that you are interested in your prospective major, competent enough to make a contribution (even a small one) to this field, and motivated enough to make it happen.

May I ask why you intend to graduate in three years? Doing so isn’t particularly impressive considering most applicants take enough college level classes to demonstrate that they could graduate within 3 years. What it does do is deny you about a summer and first semester to strengthen your application in the areas listed above. The exception to this statement is if graduating in three years is standard at your school. If you are expecting an adcom to treat your application favorably because of this fact, I believe you are misguided. Think of it this way. If you were an adcom, which student would you admit (everything else being equal):

A. I took the SAT twice, and got a 2300 superscored in 11th grade

B: I took the SAT once, and got a 1350 superscored in 7th grade, and never took it again.

Handicapping yourself by competing a year behind may act as a tiebreaker in your favor, but your application frankly is below average for an applicant to these schools, so this won’t be a significant boon:

In the final analysis, you are a match, perhaps even a little better than a match, for the first four schools; for the latter four, there is a bit of work that needs to be done in order to have a viable application.

Hope this helped; let me know if you want clarification on any of these points.

You SAT is in the low end for most of the schools on your list. Study to bring up
that score. Remember that OOS students have a higher bar for admission at UVA and Michigan.