Stats and chances for public Ivies and lower school [IL resident, 3.91 GPA, 30 ACT, pre-med psychology]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Can I get some insight on my chances for the schools I’m applying to? They’re at the bottom under my stats. Please let me know what I can do to improve as well!

Demographics
US citizen, Illinois resident, public high school

Budget
Merit aid could be a consideration, but is not a large factor

Major
I want to do pre-med but will probably major in psychology, I’m considering applying as a biology related major and then switching to psych just so my pre-med focus is clear.

GPA and test scores
UW GPA - Around a 3.91 (I had 3 Bs and the rest As, my school doesn’t calculate)
W GPA - 4.62 (My school adds .2 for each honor/AP)
ACT - 30 (retaking, aiming for a 31)
Rank - Not calculated by school, but assuming that I’m probably in the top 10%

HS classes
6 APS, 12 honors (AP hug, gov, lang, psych, stats, and bio)
4 years English, 4 years science, 4 years math, 4 years social studies, 3 years language
Took honors bio (ended with As) chemistry, physics, and AP bio (1 B)
Took algebra, honors geometry, algebra 2 honors, AP stats, and pre calc

ECs and awards

  • 4 yrs varsity cheer (captain)
  • President of best buddies club
  • HOSA member
  • Psychology club
  • Worked as a youth gymnastics coach for 2 years
  • Volunteered as coach of youth cheer team
  • Volunteered at week long PALS summer camp with kids with Down syndrome for 2 summers (200+ volunteer hours)
  • Georgetown medical academy summer program
  • Volunteered at hospital + 20 hours of shadowing a physician
  • Volunteered as a Special Olympics track coach for 2 years
  • Coordinator of freshman mentorship program
  • Monocle nation club (committee ran by athletic director to create student plans to promote school spirit)
  • School ambassador/guided touring + mentorship of new students and families

Honors/awards:
National Honor Society
Spanish National Honor Society
HOSA State Finalist
AP Scholar with Honors
CPR/AED Certified

Schools I’m planning on applying to

U of SC
Auburn
Clemson
IU

University of Florida
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
UGA
UW - Madison

Vanderbilt
UMich
UNC Chapel Hill
Tulane

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You can major in dance as a “premed” as long as you take the necessary prerequisites for medical school. Major in what you want.

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As I’ve mentioned before in these pre-med threads…My radiation oncologist with an MD from Harvard Medical School was an English Lit major in undergrad :slight_smile:

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I think your list of schools is reasonable given your stats. I would ask though why some of these OOS schools. OOS costs may be affordable now, but med school is expensive and you/your parents may want to save some for the grad school kitty.

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No need to indicate a bio-related major so that the college knows that you’re pre-med.

Below are my guesses as to what your chances for admission might be at the schools you’re considering:

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Indiana

Likely (60-79%)

  • Auburn

  • U. of Illinois

  • U. of South Carolina

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Clemson

  • U. of Wisconsin

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • U. of Georgia

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Tulane (but if you show a lot of demonstrated interest, your odds improve)

  • U. of Florida

  • U. of Michigan

  • U. of North Carolina

  • Vanderbilt

If you’re interested in some other schools that might be extremely likely admits, you may want to consider:

  • Louisiana State
  • U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • U. of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
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Those chances seem pretty low. What are some reasons for this, especially for UGA, Clemson, and Wisco? Also would u recommend applying psych or bio, what are going to give me the best chances?

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Cost is just not really a factor for my family. My parents are able to pay for my undergrad and med school, I’m extremely grateful. But yes, going to UIUC would be a good option. What do you think about my list, especially UGA and UF?

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Good schools, but I noticed quite a few Southern schools. Is this a desire for warmer weather or just wanting to go to school in a different part of the country? Finding a place where you will be happy for 4 years is important. For med school (or other grad, professional school or job prospects), how well you do in school will be critical. As long as you complete the necessary prerequisites, your major will not matter.

9

Out of state acceptance rate is around 40% or so for Madison. Overall it has been hit or miss for many high stats applicants. I know many instate kids with same or higher stats as you have been rejected. Major will not matter between the 2.

UGA-out of state acceptance rate is under 30% plain and simple. Clemsons is around 35% for out of state.

To remotely be considered for Tulane you should visit asap and apply ED. My kid toured there and they are very open with the fact that take a huge majority of their acceptances in the ED round.

The thing high school students need to remember is that when they are looking at acceptance rates that it often includes those kids with perfect stats. Too often applicants look at “stats needed to get in” and assume if they are at or above that level that somehow they are guaranteed in. Nope. Look at the “stats needed” or “average admitted” stats and when looking at acceptance rates, assume that all the kids had those stats.

So Madison for example. Google says average gpa is 3.9 and out of state acceptance of 46%. This means 54% of out of state kids with gpa of 3.9 or higher will be rejected.

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That makes sense. If I’m not able to tour Tulane I probably wouldn’t apply b/c yeah, it’s very unlikely I’d get in if I didn’t apply ED. I really am hoping to get into UGA.

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Yes and yes. I’m not dead set on going somewhere south, but it would be nice. Trying to find a balance between manageable rigor (for a better GPA) and also pre-med research opportunities/hospitals nearby. That’s why I really like UGA, hopefully I can get in.

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Here’s info from College Navigator, the feds’ website. The data is for students entering in fall of 2023, and I strongly suspect that admission at these three schools have only become more challenging since that cycle.

UGA

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U. of Wisconsin

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Clemson

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Additionally, you’re an out-of-state student for all three so admission standards will generally be higher than if you were in-state. As state-funded institutions, their priority is for their own residents.

UGA’s admit rate is 37%. It requires all students to submit a test, and yours is in the middle 50%. (For fall 24, their middle 50% rose to 29-34, from 28-32 the year before, as an example of the increasing competitiveness of these colleges (source)). There have also been rumblings from the Georgia legislature about requiring a certain percentage of students to be Georgia residents (similar to what NC does). I don’t know if it has become official policy yet, but it’s certainly something the university is likely keeping in mind as it probably wants to maintain its state funding levels.

If you look at Wisconsin and Clemson, it’s a similar story.

Bio vs. psych shouldn’t make much of a difference in your odds for acceptance.

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Unless you absolutely love Tulane, I don’t think a binding ED application is worth it. It’s a private school with a 70k price tag vs. your excellent in state flagship for around half of that.

If accepted, you don’t get to shop around for your “best fit” school.

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I can speak to UGA.

UGA’s overall acceptance rate this season was just under 33%. While they do not break down the stats by GA/OOS, since the goal is to enroll 80% GA / 20% OOS and the applicant pool is approximately 40% GA / 60% OOS, it is easy to see the acceptance rate for OOS is significantly less than 33%.

UGA is known to have excellent support for pre-health students. My niece is a current sophomore pre-PA (survived Ochem… yay!) and is loving her academic and social experience.

I encourage you to read the UGA Admissions Blog which has a wealth of information about their admissions process. I’ve linked a few recent topics that may be of interest. Also calculate your UGA GPA to compare to this year’s admitted students. Best of luck! You are undoubtedly a competitive applicant even though it is a reach; I look forward to following your journey.

UGA 2025 Freshman Admits

UGA GPA Calculation

How UGA looks at the ACT (new as of Apr 2025)

UGA Admissions and Majors

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I’m not sure you can infer that the 54% of rejected students had a 3.9 gpa but I think your point is well taken.

I spoke to someone who worked in admissions at both an extremely selective school and a very selective school. At both places, he said they rejected the majority of applicants who matched the median gpa and sat scores of admitted students. At the very selective school it was a closer call but at the extremely selective school they rejected 80%+ of applicants with 4.0 UW +1500+ SAT scores.

There’s a lot more to holistic admissions at selective schools than numbers + similar types of EC activities. That’s especially true as an out-of-state applicant to selective publics. Years ago, UCLA used to release the admitted student gpas and SATs of admitted students and it was clear out-of-state applicants needed higher scores all around.

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Do you want to go to a big school mainly because you think it will give you an advantage in med school admissions? Or is it mainly because you think you’ll just like a big school better?

If it’s because you think it will be better for premed, that’s not necessarily true. You can do excellent research even at a small liberal arts school, and many of them are near hospitals / clinics (you can also do those hours during summers).

There are tradeoffs between big school vs small school for premed, and we can go into more detail if you want about those. But the size of your undergrad school won’t offer you a med school admissions advantage. Prestige of undergrad school also offers very little, if any, advantage in med school admission.

But if you know you want a big school, that’s great. Although Tulane isn’t huge, so I wanted to hear your rationale.

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Agreed but trying to drive the point home that meeting or exceeding “average admitted stats” does NOT equal acceptance. I think we have all heard “but they had a 4.0 and I can’t believe they didn’t get in” more than once. And sadly, we hear of way too many high stats kids getting totally shut out with zero acceptances because they made the assumption they met admissions standards.

To OP, the best thing you can do is to really fall in love with at least one or two schools with a 70% or more acceptance rate that your family can afford. And of course, keep trying for those tougher admit schools but with a realistic point of view. Flip the term “highly selective” or “popular/public Ivies, etc” with “highly REJECTIVE” schools. It may suck but that is the truth in the college admissions. Thousands of schools out there.

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Your premed focus will be clear regardless of your major…if you take the required courses door medical school applicants, shadow doctors, do volunteering with underserved populations, have some kind of patient facing medical job or volunteer work (CNA, EMS, etc), a great MCAT score, great LORs. You don’t need to start with a bio major to make your intentions clear.

You can apply undeclared and choose your major once you get to most colleges.

Since you have a number of southern schools…what about University of Alabama where you could net some merit scholarship money.

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I just know myself personally that I definitely want that big college experience. Also, do you think my 6 APs is weak? For UGA the average was 8 but I really don’t know how I could fit more in without making my schedule insane. Unless I dropped Spanish 3 ACP next year and did AP micro/macro instead. But would only 2 years of spanish be bad? Ugh not sure

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I know I’d get money at Alabama, but I want to go to an academically better school. My family especially would rather me go to a better school and pay more.