What are my chances for these tier 2 schools?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi. I’m kind of an average student (especially where I live) and am wondering what my chances are for these colleges.

STATS:

UW GPA: 3.42 (Have shown immense improvement since freshman year!)
W GPA: 4.02 (Have taken 3 APs and one honors class (my school encourages us to only take a few))
SAT score: 1970: M (710) W (670) CR :frowning: (590)
SAT II: Bio (760); I plan on taking the Latin one in December because it is available then (expecting a 750 - 800).

EC:

Managing editor of yearbook committee at school (Jr/Sr years)
Member of a business club: Deca (Jr year)
Leader of a Jewish Youth Group (Jr/Sr year)
Job experience: Part time job at a toy store (Sophomore year)
Job experience: Part time job at a grocery store (Summer-Sr. year)

Awards:

NLE summa cum laude award
World language award

  • Note: My freshman and sophomore years were really hard for me and I couldn't do as much as I could have :(. I plan on mentioning this in my essays. Also understand that I have shown vast improvement and my junior grades were tremendous and I plan on improving more!

Schools I am interested in (or plan on applying to):

Trinity (CT)
GWU
Muhlenberg
UMass Amherst
NYU
Holy Cross
Union

Thank you for the feedback! I’d appreciate any answer, especially ‘high match, low reach, high reach’ answers… Thanks :smiley:

2

You have a good shot at Trinity, Muhlenberg, and Union.
UMass is a safety but Commonwealth Honors a reach - apply anyway, you never know.
NYU: reach - and can your parents afford it? Their financial aid is lousy.
Holy Cross: reach - if you like Catholic colleges, what about UScranton, St Michael’s, and Loyola Maryland, which may be better safeties than UMass since you seem to like smaller colleges?

3

Thank you for the response MYO! I personally picked Holy Cross because I heard many kids applying to medical schools from there get into great medical schools. I personally don’t have a preference of Catholic or not.

I was anticipating that GWU, NYU and Holy Cross would be my reaches, but I probably will remove NYU because I probably won’t receive many scholarships.

Thanks for the advice and for recommending other schools to me! I’ll look them up!

4

Actually, Holy Cross had a policy of refusing Committee Letters for the premeds they didn’t deem worthy. So, sure, the ones they selected got into med schools, but the others were hanged out to dry. I think they’ve changed it but I wouldn’t recommend it for premed.
Also there is no such thing as “not-so-great” medical schools. All medical schools in the US are good. What matters is whether your college supports premed students with good advising and opportunities, then once in med school whether you can get a good residency or not.
Schools that are often recommended for premeds, but are farther away, include Rhodes College and St Olaf College. You’d have a shot at both.

5

Thank you MYO, good to know that Holy Cross has had complications. I looked at both Rhodes and St. Olaf; I am not interested in going anywhere in the South (Rhodes), but St. Olaf looks so beautiful and more prestigious. It seems hard to get into, probably comparable to Bates, Colby and other schools.

6

Academics are arguably as good, but it’s in Minnesota, not New England, so it’s easier to get into (just like Carleton can be compared to Pomona or Bowdoin, but is in MN so it’s easier to get into than these).

7

Oh that makes sense! MN is kind of far, but it is so pretty there. I’ll have to look into it more.

8

Holy Cross has great pre-med program and tremendous alumni network- current President of American Medical Association, famous NIH doctor, Nobel Prize Winner, several Med school deans. Perhaps contact HC on its pre-med program as it is very well respected .