Need help with my list!

Toothpick8394
Fri, 17 Jun 2016 21:11:20 +0000

Okay guys, so basically I’m in a bit of a predicament.
I have my mind set on a handful of schools that I really like and am hoping to get accepted into, but don’t really have much else besides that.
I’m primarily looking for more safety/match schools, so I’m not going to go into the nitty gritty about my dad passing and uncle passing to melanoma and how it lined up with a drop in my GPA (probably not a coincidence). All in all ever since that bad second semester sophomore year I’ve had straight A’s in all advanced classes (AP Chem and AP Bio, PLTW engineering classes, Pre-Calculus (I’m at the highest rate they allow at my school for math, I’ll take AP Calc next year), etc.)
Keep in mind that I am going to be mentioning this in my application so I feel like it might give me a bit of leniency because it is a great reason to be motivated and that makes me stand out (I want to do biomedical engineering and end up doing research, possibly go and get an MBA way down the line and start a biotech company, idk yet, maybe pharmaceuticals, more into the research right now though). This being said, I’m just going to give my stats and ask to be matched based on those because after all I’m looking for matches and safeties, not reach schools which is where that will factor in.
Here are my stats:

Rank: 44 out of 400 (should go up after senior year first semester, that’s too late though)
GPA (w): 4.04
GPA (uw): 3.74
Race: White
Gender: Male
Planned Major: Biomedical Engineering, Bioengineering (possible PhD/MD in the future, there’s a decent chance I’ll do med school)
Family Income: Widowed ~120k, this years are screwed up though so closer to 180k.
State: MO

Senior Year Courseload:
A generic fourth year English class (I never took honors English classes except sophomore year so why start now)
AP Calculus
AP Statistics
AP Physics
AP Micro/Macroeconomics
Medical Interventions (PLTW)
Biomedical Innovation (PLTW)

ACT:
Highest single sitting: I’ve gotten 3 33C’s, all with scores ranging, the one I’d probably submit would be (33C) 29E, 34M, 34R, 34S. If I had to submit writing I just took one in April and got (33C) 35E, 30M, 32R, 36S, 30W. If I superscore between the two I have a 35C with 35E, 34M, 34R, 36S, 30W. I’ve never studied for an ACT, don’t plan on it unless you guys really thing it’s necessary. I don’t think I should need to take it again.

PSAT: 1440/1520, index 215. Pretty decent chance I’ll get at least NMSF.

New SAT Score: (very unlikely I will submit unless I have to, I didn’t study at all and just had a bad day of testing)
R&W: 680
Math: 690

Taken SAT Level II Math, Biology E, and Chemistry, I expect to get around 800 on Math, >700 for Biology and Chemistry

I took the AP exam for Chemistry and Biology this year, expecting a 4/5 for both.

ECs: Not really anything too big, played baseball for 9th and 10th, I was a catcher so I guess theoretically that’s a leadership position but I’m not going to really dwell on it, and then National Science Honor Society for 11th and 12th, I don’t really know what else I’ll be doing next year. I’ll probably be participating in some city science competitions because of research I’m doing this summer

Work Experience: I worked at Panera for a year and 9 months, I was an associate trainer so that’s leadership I guess.

A really big part of my application is what I’m doing now, I have basically a summer internship (it’s a paid full time position) at a research lab at WashU in St. Louis. I’m working under an extremely well respected professor, like extremely well respected, so that’s going to be a big application boost I think, especially considering it’s research and I plan on doing research in my future, and I already have started pre-college so that’s pretty nice. Decent chance I’ll be on a research paper in the near future too, not going to bank on it being published though by the time I apply (not ED at least). He’ll probably give me a pretty good recommendation letter, I’m the only high school student he’s ever hired.

So now the big part, the schools I’m looking at:
Reaches: Northwestern (will most likely apply ED), WashU (hopefully should get in because working here, idk though.), Duke, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Harvard, Yale, probably won’t bother applying to Caltech but I’ll throw it up here.

Low Reach/Match: help

Safety: UIUC (bioengineering)? possibly idk, need help

I just really need help deciding on good match schools and safety schools for what I want to do. Like I said I want to do BME, and do undergrad research, and continue to do research postgrad.
Money for schooling is not an issue, can afford whatever I get.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated, thank you for your time!