Reverse Chance Me, stressed junior [TX resident, 4.0 GPA, 1450 SAT (1500 superscore); public health, global health, neuroscience]]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics: Male, Asian, TX, no hooks

Intended Major(s): public health or global health or possibly neuroscience

ACT/SAT/SAT II: SAT II: 1450 (750 Math 700 Reading) Superscore: 1500 (750 Reading 750 Math) Definitely retaking till 1550+

UW/W GPA and Rank: UW:4 W:5.11 not ranked

Coursework:
APS : (14) AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP Comp Sci Principles, AP Lang, AP Environmental Science, AP human, AP Psychology, AP European History, AP Research, AP Seminar, AP Statistics, AP US History, AP World History, AP Chemistry

-planning to take 5 more next year

Senior Course Load: AP Art History, AP Calc BC, AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Lit, Medical Microbiology and Pathophysiology

4’s on most of my APs and a couple of 5’s

Awards:
BPA: BPA State Alternate/Regional Finalist (financial analyst team)

Deca: Deca State Qualifier/ Regional Finalist (ACT)

Deca: State Finalist (ACT)

Region 24 UIL Solo and Ensemble Contest Rating of 1 for Ensemble at Regional UIL

Silver Medal at Regional Octathlon Competition

Extracurriculars:
-UT Arlington healthcare policy research under guidance of 2 local professors (cold emailing)
-UPenn healthcare policy research under guidance of 1 professor (cold emailing)

  • Vice President of Unicef at my school
    -Johns Hopkins Global Health Leaders Conference
    -Volunteer at local hospital (ICU Ward and Surgical Ward)
    -Chapter president of HSAFP (High School Alliance of Future Physicians)
    -Medical internship overseas that allowed me to understand some global health issues
    -Intern/shadowing at local dentist (75 hours)
    -Outreach manager for a local healthcare non profit (connects students to professors and professionals)
  • Sci-Mi Research program
    -Violin Player
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I’m not sure exactly what you want to know. Are you looking for college suggestions?

Are you top 6% in your high school class? That would make you an auto admit to UT Austin which is an excellent university.

What are your geographic preferences?

What can your parents contribute annually for you to attend undergrad school.

What is your career goal. It seems to me that all of these will require at least a masters degree. So you need to account for that as well.

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Planning to go to medical school after college, not ranked in the top 6 percent, cost doesn’t matter for me and I am geographically flexible for a t20 in my intended majors.

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Just curious. Why do you need to go to a T20 undergrad? You can take the required courses for medical school admissions at just about every four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded.

Medical schools really don’t weigh the ranking of your undergrad school when determining admissions.

So…please explain.

My advice. You need to find an undergrad school where you will do well, will be happy to be for four years, and is affordable (keeping in mind that medical school will be $100,000 a year unless you get accepted to a Texas public medical school).

So…find a couple of sure things for admission that you like, that are affordable, then build your list UP from there. I would not suggest starting with the T20 schools.

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Cost truly isn’t a problem for my family. Prestige matters more and I know it may sound crazy. I just want to know if I have chance and where I could match.

6

What colleges are YOU thinking might work! IOW, which ones have you wondered about. Give us a list and someone here will give you an idea of how realistic that is.

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Including medical school in the unlikely chance you get in? Medical school will probably be about $280k for in-state Texas public, $400k+ for others.

Meaning that you will not be satisfied unless you got into a college that is unlikely to admit you?

What is your rank? top 5%, 10%, 25%?

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8

Schools strong in the OP’s areas of interest, and which therefore may be regarded as T20s as defined by the OP, vary in selectivity, however. WashU, Boston University and SUNY–Stony Brook span a range of selectivity, for example.

9

Does reverse chance you mean suggest some schools?

10

You have a high GPA, high rigor, 1500 super score, and solid EC. You are competitive anywhere - congrats.

Top 20 schools are reaches for everyone. So pick your favorites and take your shot.

If you share more about what you are looking for in a school (beyond prestige) you may get more suggestions. For example…big or small school? City, suburb or small town, etc.

One other consideration…are you willing to ED? For most top 20 schools I think it only helps a little bit, if it all. But there are a few where the ED acceptance rate is significantly higher. You should only ED to your top choice but if prestige is your only consideration (is it?) then it’s worth at least knowing that some schools give you a significant ED bump. Some of the ED advantage is for hooked applicants. But even taking that into account there are some T20-type schools where the bump is big enough that it probably also significantly helps unhooked applicants.

Some T20/“prestigous” schools with significant ED advantage include UChicago, WashU, Northwestern, Cornell, Vanderbilt…there are others….these come to mind.

11

Congratulations on your achievements.

I can’t chance you but echo some of the comments above. Take your shot at some reaches, apply to a handful of targets (none will be T20 or schools with below 20% acceptance rate), and have at least one affordable safety that you would be happy to attend.

Have you identified target and safety schools yet? Those are typically harder to find for a student who is prestige focused, so make sure to spend time and focus on that.

Have you taken physics? If not, I strongly encourage you to take that senior year instead of microbiology and pathophysiology.

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Agreed. And what about foreign language? Do you have a foreign language to at least level 4?

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3 years

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Baylor, A&M, UT Dallas are all the safeties I would be happy going to. I don’t know if I should consider UT Austin a target or a safety as my major is not as impacted as others, but i’m not in the top 6 percent at my school.

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Yeah

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Yeah, I was definitely on ED’ing to a college. I was leaning towards JHU or Yale but I feel like even with ED I might not be able to get into these colleges. Also, do you think UT Austin would fall as a target or safety for me as public health and neuroscience are not very impacted majors there.

17

Guaranteed admit to UT Austin for HS class of 2026 is top 5%. What’s your rank?

UT Austin fills 75% of the class with top 5%, then another 15% of the class is comprised of in-state students not in the top 5%. So, that school can’t be a safety. It’s either a reach or a target, I would encourage you to speak with you HS counselor for the best perspective on the categorization.

And just circling back on the physics question I asked above. If you haven’t had physics that will make reach schools even reachier.

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Since you are not in the top 5% of your graduating class, UT Austin is not a safety.

Maybe a target.

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I can still replace the science classes and take physics. However, what value does physics add to my application if I am planning to be a public health major as my first choice.

20

Alright, I am top 15 percent at my school. I know I shouldn’t use other applications as an example but I recently saw a neuroscience admits’ stats. He was not ranked, lower sat score in one sitting and relatively equal ecs.