What is the chance to get into UChicago, Cornell and Dartmouth? what is the best fit ED school? [MA resident, 3.72 GPA, 1540 SAT, bioengineering]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen)
  • State/Location of residency: MA
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Public high school
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.) Soccer, MLS Next player

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Intended Major(s) BIoengineering

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.72
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.18 (out of 4.5)
  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
  • Class Rank: none
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1540 (M790+RW750)

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: FRESHMAN LIT & COMP, honor, A; SOPHOMORE LIT & COMP, honor, A-; AMERICAN LIT & COMP, honor, A; AP ENG LANG & COMP, AP, B+
  • Math: GEOMETRY, honor, A; ALGEBRA II, honor, A-; PRE-CALCULUS, honor, A-, Calculus BC, AP, B-; AP STATISTICS, AP, A; MULTIVARIABLE CALCULUS, honor, B+
  • Science: BIOLOGY, honor, A; AP CHEMISTRY, AP, B+; AP PHYSICS I, AP, A, Biology, AP, A; COMPUTER SCIENCE PRIN, honor A-; ENGINEERING DESIGN, honor, A
  • History and social studies:WORLD HISTORY, honor, A-; MODERN HISTORY, honor, A; AP US HISTORY, AP, A;
  • Language other than English: SPANISH II, honor, B+; SPANISH III, honor, B+; SPANISH IV, honor, A-
  • Visual or performing arts: STUDIO FOUNDATION, level 2, A; CERAMICS & SCULPTURE I, level 2, A
  • Other academic courses: Arizona State University MAT 265: Calculus for Engineers I, A

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work:

Awards

Extracurriculars
Soccer since 7, competed at MLS Next level, recruitable athlete

Essays/LORs/Other
Lifelong dream of becoming a professional soccer player was derailed by a severe back injury, but his determination to recover taught him resilience and self-discipline. Those same qualities helped him overcome academic setbacks, excel during a gap year, and discover a new passion for biotechnology—transforming obstacles into opportunities for growth.

Schools
UChiago, Cornell and Dartmouth for ED; GeorgiaTech, UMichigan, UMass for EA; long list of schools for RD

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Referring to “he” so I assume you are the parent?
Has he visited those schools yet and if so which one did he like the best? ED should really only be absolute top/no regrets choice - does he feel that strongly about any of them?

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So just to be brutally honest, these grades, while very good, don’t seem to be quite what those sorts of colleges tend to be looking for in a successful unhooked applicant. Of course if you are being recruited for soccer, that is a whole other situation. But if not, I think one should be realistic about it being a long shot whether or not you apply ED to any of them.

That doesn’t mean a person with this profile can’t ED to any of them. ED can make sense if you have a clear favorite, you know it would be comfortably affordable, and you know you would not want to compare offers before deciding. But assuming they are all comfortably affordable, this would then come down to which is a clear favorite.

In situations like this, the real “strategy” is just making sure your overall list makes sense for you. Like, I note Chicago, Cornell, and Dartmouth are all privates, and Dartmouth is actually a particularly undergrad-focused private for a research university. Georgia Tech, Michigan, and UMass are all then larger publics.

It is of course fine to do a mix, but I think he would want to consider if there are other privates like the ones he is considering, with Bioengineering. Like, for example, has he consider universities like Case Western or the University of Rochester? What about Marquette? Or if he would consider more of a STEM focus generally, WPI or RPI? For colleges that in some ways might be most similar to Dartmouth, how about Bucknell or Union?

I note without guaranteeing anything, some of these colleges might look at that high SAT and think it worth giving a merit offer, in addition to admissions. Or not, but that is another way of trying to benefit from such a score as opposed to just applying to the most selective colleges.

Anyway, just some possibilities to consider. If he is interested, you can explain more about what he is looking for in a four-year college experience, academically and non-academically, along with a budget, and we can provide more suggestions to check out.

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Your unweighted GPA is low for all three of the schools you listed. Was there an upward trend? Sometimes a lower GPA will be overlooked if the grades bringing it down are from freshman year. Otherwise I think the chances may be low, but if one of these is your absolute dream school, then go ahead and ED.

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I’m thinking the grades in STEM make you a no. I could be wrong - just my sense. The grades, of course, bring down the GPA too.

If he’s going to get recruited for soccer, that changes everything btw!! So I’m basing this on not. But soccer changes 100% your result I think.

In regards to RD, if any have EA then make sure you get those in EA. Some schools fill the bulk of their classes for EA and scraps are left for RD, especially some larger publics. You noted a lot - your list doesn’t have to be too big if you have affordable and assured safeties on it.

You didn’t note costs - and some of these schools are near $100K full pay. Is that an issue for you or have you run NPCs to see if you’ll get need?

Budget is the foremost important item in any college search.

Also, Dartmouth engineering is 4 years but if you want to specialize, it’s 5 I believe.

Or as they say - The BE degree generally takes one to three terms of additional study, depending on the courses taken during the first four years. (Advanced standing on entry to Dartmouth may shorten the time required.) Most add a fifth year to earn the BE (financial aid is available), but students may also plan ahead to finish a combined AB-BE in four years. And Dartmouth doesn’t appear to be accredited in the major but they do have a Biomedical Engineering Sciences Major.

By my count, there are 164 accredited schools in the BioEngineering and BioMedical Engineering category with Dartmouth not one of them.

Looking at your list and finding like schools with a better chance that are accredited, I’d say Bucknell, Case Western, Lehigh, Miami, Rochester, Syracuse would make reasonable stretch targets and reaches (more reasonable than you have).

And there’s tons of great schools accredited - large flagships, smaller, etc. that you might not love the name but likely deliver equally, etc.

Engineering is a lot of math and hard and the STEM grades give a little pause and they might to an AO.

The other thing though is budget as I noted earlier - unless you are good paying near $400K. Otherwise, your list needs to be built with it in mind. Let us know.

Best of luck.

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If fit means, to you, the one you might get into ED…

Cornell ILR, Hotel School or Agriculture. Still a reach, but possible.

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It is very hard to get into the hotel school right now without some actual experience in the hospitality industry. It used to be a popular “back door” because the stats were a skootch lower than Arts and Sciences but that’s no longer the case. Cleaner/janitorial/front desk at a hotel, server at a restaurant, running an attraction at an amusement park, tour guide at a historic site… etc. Doesn’t need to be a hotel. But without some hospitality (or real estate- that works also) experience it’s going to be a tough sell to admissions….

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Seems this is the desired major.

Why would one go to a hospitality program ?

Go where you can study what you want.

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assume so, and assume he has maybe done something. i missed the extras if they are included.

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Sorry to hear about the back injury. His HS gives one full year grade per course? If so, with 6 B’s I don’t see any of the reaches happening (Chicago, Cornell, Dartmouth, GaTech, Michigan). Why does he want to ED if he can’t decide between these 3 schools?

Does he have any engineering related ECs?

I don’t know if UMass (assuming Amherst) is a highly likely/safety…what does his HS counselor say? If it’s not highly likely, he needs at least one of those. Regarding the long list of RD schools, if any have EA make sure to apply then, not in RD.

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@DZBoston617 You haven’t given enough information for anyone to possibly guess which university would be the best “fit” for your student. Has he visited all of them? Does he have a favorite? Where does he want to spend the next four years of his life? The schools you listed are very different from one another. Surely he must have some preferences in terms of urban v. rural, size of the school, academic programs, presence of Greek life or big time sports etc. Is he a soccer recruit at any of them? If so, the coach and the team will most likely be a huge factor for him. If not, UChicago, Dartmouth, Cornell as well as Georgia Tech and Michigan for out of state engineering majors are reaches for even the most accomplished students. However, my kids have friends who were recruited athletes at both Cornell and Dartmouth who had academic profiles similar to your son.

Am I understanding correctly that your student is currently in a gap year? Did he apply to colleges during the last application cycle? If so, where did he apply and where was he accepted? What has he been doing with his gap year that has inspired him to pursue bio engineering? You also should clarify whether your son wants to major in bioengineering vs. biomedical engineering. Georgia Tech for example only offers bioengineering at the graduate level but has one of the top undergraduate BME programs.

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If you want an ABET accredited major, it is likely more than 4 academic years at Dartmouth.

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UMass Amherst has a great program for bioengineering.

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Thank you for your feedback, Really appreciate!

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Thank you for your feedback, Really appreciate! He got an offer from UMass Amherst/Bioengineering, though, he did not accept and committed a gap year. He interned at a lock biotech startup in 2024 summer and resume during gap year while taking college courses via ASU.