I’m looking at applying to Duke ED as well as Vandy for ED II (assuming Duke says maybe later or no thanks) and a bunch of misc Top 30 RD schools if none of my ED’s work out. Of course with the unpredictable nature of these school’s admissions, I really should have a back up in mind. Additionally, I am graduating early (after my junior year, I’ll be 17) because I’ve taken all the courses my school has to offer and my school doesn’t have any dual enrollment programs (that’s a whole different story if you want to counsel me on that let me know lol) so I REALLY should have a few safeties in case the top 30 doesn’t understand why I’m graduating early.
My stats:
4.0 unweighted. 4.3 weighted as of now, will increase next year with more AP’s
1440 SAT (730 CR 710 M). Yes, this sucks. I don’t really have an excuse other than I took it for the first time. I’m studying a lot harder and hope to boost especially my math score and get into the 1530+ range.
Haven’t taken my SAT II yet, but I’ll take them in June. I’m taking Physics, Math II, and Spanish
Upon graduating I’ll have:
6 years of Math (including AP Calc and Stats)
4 years of English (including AP Lang and AP Seminar)
3 years of Spanish (all honors courses, my school got rid of AP Spanish this year but the Spanish I’ll take next year will be an accelerated class covering both Spanish 3 and 4)
4 years of Social Science (Including APUSH and AP Psych)
8 years of Science (including AP Bio, AP Chem, Physics (my school doesn’t have an AP or honors), Biomedical Sciences and Medical interventions, plus some prereqs)
I started taking HS courses in middle school. These will be on my transcript and are factored into my GPA. That’s why I have over 4 years of things. And also why I ran out of classes to take at my school.
I have a decent amount of ECs including starting my own nonprofit (focusing on neuroscience and music), Spanish Club (founded by me) some theatre and choir things, academic competitions with awards at the state level and studying languages. I feel like although this assortment feels random, it ties into my “applicant identity”-- a neuroscience prospect who ties in linguistics and music.
I intend to study neuroscience and linguistics. If my safety school doesn’t have that, I can probably make due with a psych or cognitive science thing with some sort of foreign language minor. I intend to go to medical school after college
My only hook is that I’m a latina (Puerto Rican) and a legacy at Northwestern and Boston University.
I live in Indiana but I really don’t want to go in-state. I understand those would be the safest schools for me, but I really dislike Indiana and I’ve visited most of the in-state schools and just couldn’t see myself there.
Money isn’t an issue for my family either.
I could really use some safety recommendations, thank you so much for any advice you can give me!!