What schools can I get into with my stats?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I’m a high school senior. I just read a post where a girl was asking whether she would be able to get into Yale with her application. I read through the responses and found them very helpful. Since I am struggling making a realistic college list based off of where I would actually get into I thought I would ask the public.

The weakest point of my application is that I have a 3.5 weighted GPA. I had a 3.3 for the first two years and most of junior year but for the last quarter of my junior year I got a 4.3. Assuming I got at least a 4.3 for the first quarter of my senior year, My GPA could move up to a 3.6-3.7. My school does not have class rank.

For my PSAT score I got a 1270, and later taking the SAT I got a 1550. I was hoping that this would make up for my low GPA.

I am doing the International Baccalaureate program, which means that I am taking all AP level classes for junior and senior year. These could be equivalent to around 10 AP credits. In freshman and sophomore year I was in the highest level class possible(Honors/level 1).

My extracurricular, work experience, and sports are probably the strongest part of my application.

I am the captain of my varsity high school fencing team and we happen to be the Connecticut state champions for almost 10 years in a row now. I fence women’s Saber during the school season and individually all year round. Assuming that they have a season this winter I will be participating in individual states and leading team states. In January of 2020 I compete in the Junior Olympics help in Columbus, Ohio. I was going to compete in 2020 nationals but they were cancelled.

I have a black belt in Kenpo Karate which I gained in my sophomore year after 9 years of training.

My sophomore year I did a capstone at a neuroscience lab, where I was able to learn to culture cells in order to study a rare eye disease. muring this process I became cleared for bio level one(meaning I can work with growing human tissue and anything below that) and learn many technical procedures on creating, gathering, and analyzing data.

This Capstone later lead to a paid position at this same Yale lab. The entire summer after my sophomore year I was a paid research assistant. I handled the medius jobs that I had learned how to complete during my capstone such as, culturing cells needed for experiments, doing western blots, and slicing mice brains and putting them on slides for inspection.

During my sophomore year I also was paid to create the website for a new Anesthesiology Practice. This also later lead to a paid position. This past summer, summer after junior year I worked almost 60 hours a week as an assistant. I handled paperwork, menial jobs, and ran errands for the Anesthesiology department. As well as completing monotonous pre operative charts/forms.

During my junior year I started a non-profit organization called, The James Luc Foundation which helps to support Nurse anesthetists through their training in Haiti. I speak French(I am a first generation immigrant and French citizen), Spanish, and English(obviously) and I needed to translate since our partner in Haiti only speaks French. The organization is still in its beginning stages but has legal existence and is starting to fully support a student in fall of 2021.

I have been a part of the Women in STEM club my entire high school career and have done various volunteering activities.

My college essay is about my first car and the journey Ive had with it and my hobby of auto repair.

If you’ve read all this, first of all thanks :slight_smile: and second of all, where do you think I can get in?

2

I would say you have an excellent chance at top schools. Your grades and ECP’s are excellent. Aim high !!

3

In order to help advise you on your list, the folks at CC will want to know additional considerations. What academic programs are you interested in, are you thinking engineering or sciences more generally? What are your financial parameters? Do you want to be in a particular geographic region? Do you prefer a large research university or a smaller academic community? Do you want to continue to fence in college? Do you come from an under-represented minority group?

Your ECs and SAT score are strong, though the weighted 3.5 is going to impact your list. Does your school adjust gpas based on quarter grades? Many schools give quarter grades but only the semester-end grades are used to generate the cumulative gpa. Check with your Guidance Counselor about how your school calculates cumulative gpas.

For many students, the in-state public flagship is an important application to submit, as many public flagships schools have rolling admissions and it is a huge relief to get that first acceptance. Some flagships may require applications by a fall date (often Nov 1, but varies) to be considered for merit awards or other “perks.” If you worked at Yale lab during the year, I’m guessing you are in CT. If you are in-state for U Conn, work on getting that application submitted – unless your gpa is low for U Conn and your guidance counselor has advised you to wait until you pull up your cumulative gpa. More specific advice beyond that will probably depend on additional information about interests/finances etc.

4

Congratulations on your impressive accomplishments.
It seems that in the topsy-turvy world of college admissions sometimes seemingly smaller, and certainly less academic achievement matter more than one would expect - you know, the apocryphic story of a French horn player accepted to Yale/Harvard/Princeton, one of these, because the previous French horn player happened to be graduating that year.
You have so much to offer these colleges, and yet, who knows, maybe your fencing will be the decisive factor? At any rate, I recommend going through “The Only College Fencing Recruiting Thread You Need to Read” here on CC. It’s over 75 pages of posts so not a small task but I’m sure you’ll find some inspiration there.

5

Thanks for your feedback! I am looking for a medium sized college or university not too far from home. So staying in New England I have a lot of options of really good schools. Im planning on majoring in mechanical engineering but that may slightly change with time. Im not part of a minority group. I haven’t decided whether I want to fence in college. I would be fine either way considering that not many schools have varsity fencing. But if I was offered a position on the team I would gladly take it. Im not completely sure if the most recent quarter will affect my overall GPA but I was planning on highlighting the improvement over time. Im definitely planning on applying to UCONN and although my GPA is a little below the average my SAT scores are significantly above so they may balance out. I was planning on applying to a majority of my school by the November 1st deadline just to get them out of the way but I need to finalize my list first.

6

guessing Slippery Rock would be a winner