Texas Cowgirl Shoots For The Stars! (4.0, 36/1570, etc) [rank 2/644, NMSF, biomedical engineering and English]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • State/Location of residency: Texas
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Competitive Public School
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.) N/A

Cost Constraints / Budget
None

Intended Major(s)
Biochemical Engineering and English (Weird, I know. I still love both.)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.79
  • Class Rank: 2/644
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 36/1570

List your HS coursework

  • English: Adcanced English 1, Advanced English 2, AP English Language and Composition, AP English Literature and Composition
  • Math: Advanced Algebra 1, Advanced Geometry, College Level Algebra 2, AP Precalculus, AP Calculus BC, Multi-Variable Calculus
  • Science: Advanced Biology, Advanced Chemistry, AP Physics 1, AP Environmental Science, AP Physics 2, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics C E/M
  • History and social studies: AP Human Geography, AP World History, AP US History, AP Psychology (Half Year), AP Government and Politics (Half Year), AP Macro/Micro Economics(Each Half Year), Dual Credit Sociology
  • Language other than English: Dual Credit German 1 and 2, AP German Language and Culture (Self Studied), AP French Language and Culture (Self Studied)
  • Visual or performing arts: Advanced Orchestra 1-4
  • Other academic courses: Advanced Computer Science 1, AP Computer Science A, College Level Computer Science 3, Health and Physical Education

Awards

  1. National merit Semi-Finalist
  2. Young Arts Writing Winner With Distinction
  3. Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Short Story and Poetry Gold Medals
  4. African American Recognition Award
  5. National Linguistics Olympiad Gold

Extracurriculars

  1. Orchestra
    -Orchestra; Officer
    11-12th grade: Varsity Orchestra
    ARBSM Level 8 Viola
  • Volunteered to teach middle school violists from 10th-12th grade
  • Placed in State solo contest in 11th
  • Led Student Ran orchestra 11-12th grade
  • Became officer from 11-12th grade, planned events
  • TMEA All State 2 Years in a row
  • Raised $3,600 for orchestra activities and and equipment
  1. Speech and Debate
  • 10-12th grade: Secretary in 10th, Co-president in 11th and 12th grade
    -3rd place in first ever competition
    -Placed nationally in my speech event

  1. Breast Cancer Awareness Club
    -President
    Goal: Raise awareness for breast cancer and show patients that they are not alone in their fight; We have their backs.
    9th-12th Grade:
    10th grade: Secretary
    11th grade: Secretary
    12th grade: President
    -Revamped club to visit breast cancer patients in the hospital
    -Grew consistent members from 10 to 45 in 2 years
    -Raised over $2000 for Breast Cancer Research

  2. Writing
    -Writer of many award winning or published Short stories, poems, and essays
    From 9-12th grade:

  • Won 1 Scholastic Arts and Writing Gold Medal in Short Story and 1 in poetry
  • National Young Arts writing category winner with distinction for short story and poetry
  • Short Story published
  1. Chick Fil A
    Chick-Fil-A; Front of House Team Member
  • Worked at Chick-Fil-A from 9th-12th grade
    -Worked about 8 hours a week on Saturdays
  • Took orders, make drinks, made desserts, delivered orders, stocked up, sauced food bags, etc.
    -Started training new employees in 11th grade
  1. Simmons Research Summer Program
  • Accepted into and attended Simmons Reseach Program 11th grade
  1. 3 Year Energy Internship
  • Participated in a 3 Year Energy Internship from 10th-12th grade
    -Paid internship 1 month every summer
  • Menored by successful Ivy league graduates, Entrepreneurs, and CEOs
  1. Medical Camp Councelor
    9-12th
    -Volunteered every spring at a camp for kids aged 9-16 with health conditions as a junior councelor for the elementry schoolers
  • Learned alot, the kids were so sweet, never bitter
    -Cared for the kids throughout the weekend
  1. VBS Councelor
  • Taught at a one week Bible Camp as a councelor for elementry school kids, teaching them about the bible
  1. Linguistics
    -Fluent in 5 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, and Mandarin
  • Placed Gold in National French Exam
  • Love to learn languages, helps me read and write better too

Essays/LORs/Other
AP Lang Teacher: 9/10
-Loved me. Told me that I was one of her favorite students, and the reason she stayed at our school after leaving another. She taught me everything I know about English, I can literally talk to her about anything.
Speech and Debate Coach: 11/10
-Known me for 3 years. I am on of his favorite students. He used to be a news reporter and has alot of connections (ex: has talked to and interviewed Donald Trump, know him personally)
I am one of only 2 students he has ever given a rec letter to. The other one went on to work at Fox news right out of High school with his rec letter.
AP Physics Teacher: 8/10
-Also knew me for 3 years, and I am one of his Favorite students. Literally does whatever he thinks will make me succeed.
Councelor: 8/10
-We are really close because I visit her alot. She said that she really admires me, and I am one of the wisest and best students she has ever known.

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
    University of Texas at Dallas - EA, Rolling
  • Extremely Likely:
    University of Houston - EA, Rolling
  • Likely: N/A
  • Toss-up:
    University of Texas at Austin - EA
  • Lower Probability:
    Rice University - RD
  • Low Probability:
    Duke University - RD
    Harvard University - RD
    Yale University - RD
    Brown University - RD
    Stanford University - REA

Note: I know that I am auto-admit for University of Houston, UT Dallas and UT Austin. I did visit all of these universities and demonstrate interest, even those that said they do not count demonstrated interest.

2

Do you mean biomedical engineering, or perhaps chemical engineering? I am not familiar with “biochemical engineering.”

3

I’m sorry. I meant biomedical engineering.

4

Although, Biochemical Engineering is a major, I mistakingly wrote it instead of Biomedical Engineering.

5

Sorry, I’m confused. Are you currently a junior and will be applying in the fall? Because I’m seeing awards(National Merit Senifinalist) that haven’t been awarded to current juniors yet and also EC officer positions for 12th grade. And your letters of recommendation have already been written?

Can you please clarify what grade you are in?

I will say that with auto admits to very good schools, you certainly should be “reaching for the stars”.

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6

I am in 12th grade. I had been writing this thread earlier as a draft, and at the time I was planning to apply to Stanford Restrictive Early action, so I left my schools as EA, but I actually applied to Stanford Regular Decision, and have not received my Decision from UT Austin.

7

Thanks for clarifying. Have you been admitted anywhere yet? I think UT Austin recently released EA decisions. And why did you not apply REA to Stanford?

8

Any cost constraints ?

Harvard, Yale, and Stanford offer the major, however, they are not accredited. I’m not saying their programs don’t carry the necessary weight but just noting it. Stanford is bio, not biomedical it appears.

So the question is - can your family afford $90-100k a year ? If yes, do they want to ? Especially when you can go for $0-20k a year if you are National Merit and $20k if not.

Alternatively, perhaps you qualify for need aid which would reduce the costs of those you named. .

Obviously your record is fantastic and while anything is possible, you need that assured safety - which you have - Houston and reading your next note - UTD.

Surprised no Rice….

Good luck.

9

I have been admitted to the University of Houston and the University of Texas at Dallas. I did not apply to Stanford REA because my counselor said that I may be rejected REA but accepted RD.

10

My family can afford it, although I applied for the University of Houston Tier 1 Scholarship, and received an on campus interview. I also applied to the Eugene McDermott Scholars program at UT Dallas. I did apply to Rice University Regular Decision-I realized that I forgot to put it on my schools list too late.

4 Likes
11

Also, I did not receive my UT Austin decision on the 15th, like I was supposed to.

12

If you don’t get tier 1 you still have this assuming you become NMF - looks to be automatic.

Ps I think Rice will happen.

You’ve done all anyone can do. Best of luck.

If you get into one, it will come down to your parents - pay $380-400k or UH and worst case pay 60-70k (room and board).

Let us know.

13

Thank you!

14

I am going to start here. You do not need a double major. Whatever you can do with a dual major, you can do with a degree in biochemical engineering having taken the classes in English.

That being said, the ability to write well can be very valuable to an engineer. This combination of skills can definitely help you for your entire career. At least in my experience the ability to write became more valuable as I got further into a career in high tech. As a gross simplification at first you figure out how to make stuff work, then you write stuff that helps other people figure out how to make stuff work.

I also do not quite know what biochemical engineering is, although I am guessing that perhaps you might create the medical compounds that my biotech daughter (and others like her) then tests on human cells in a lab. Alternately after someone else creates the compounds and a biologist verifies that they work, you might figure out how to make a lot more of the same thing. Or alternately I might just not know what biochemical engineering is. Update, I see that you meant biomedical engineering, which I think is close to what I was thinking but I am still not quite sure.

For some universities just getting to a bachelor’s degree could very well cost you $400,000. If you add on a master’s degree, by the time that you get there is likely to be over $100,000 per year unless you attend an in-state public university. Of course you have really good in-state public universities in Texas.

These are of course reaches. You have done very well in high school and are a competitive applicant at any university in the US (or any university in the world that teaches in a language that you know). Unfortunately the large majority of applicants to these schools are also competitive applicants so it is difficult to predict your results other than saying “apply and see what happens”.

If you do end up in-state at one of your excellent public universities, and if you intend to do some form of graduate program in the future, then these reach schools will still be there and will definitely know how strong for example UT Austin or TA&M are. I did get a master’s degree at one of your reach schools (but in a sub-field of applied math) and the other students in the same program had come from all over the place, and there were definitely lots of students who got their bachelor’s degrees at schools ranked lower than UT Austin (which is of course not low at all).

Is there a reason that T.A&M is not on your list? I expect that you know a lot more about it than I do since you are in-state.

I would expect your chances to be quite good at UT Austin. Given how excellent it is, it might not be an easy decision regarding whether Stanford or one of your other reaches would be worth the additional cost. A bachelor’s at UT Austin plus a master’s at Stanford might possibly cost less than just a bachelor’s degree at Stanford (particularly if the master’s is a one year degree).

I think that you are doing very well, are very competitive at every university you apply to, and are likely to continue to do well wherever you end up. Best wishes!

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15

Student was clear. Cost constraints…NONE. This is an issue to be discussed with her family. If the cost constraint is really no limit…please give your parents a huge hug and thank you. Paying the full cost of any college is a wonderful gift to you. Some folks don’t do that even if they can…so please thank your parents.

You are fortunate to have the Texas schools as assured admissions…so congratulations!

Your reach schools are…reach schools so you will just have to wait and see. You are a strong applicant, and have a chance at them (as well as Rice), but there are a LOT of very strong applicants to these colleges.

Please let us know how your admissions turn out. :crossed_fingers:t2:crossed for you!

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16

Why do you have UT Austin as a toss up if you are an auto admit? If you are auto admit, it should be high probability, right? Because you are guaranteed acceptance.

Is there some reason to think otherwise?

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17

I put it as toss up because I know that I would get in, but I may not get into engineering.

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18

Thank you for the explanation.

19

The OP seems likely to be admitted to Texas A&M engineering (and has assured admission to the campus), but the secondary admission (ETAM) to biomedical engineering tends to be highly competitive, with not a lot of space left for students who do not meet the 3.75 automatic admission college GPA.

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20

REA or EA is generally considered not worse for admission chances than RD (and may be significantly better at some schools). Stanford is said to reject most non-admitted REA applicants, although that is presumably because it sees the rejected ones as being non-admissible in RD.

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