What's my chance to get into the following universities

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • international student
  • CA
  • Public high school

Cost Constraints / Budget
Consider that I have unlimited

Intended Major:

Bioengineer, biomedical engineer or chemical engineer

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: the one that shown on my transcript is 4.5, if add two other AP I took outside of school maybe around 4.6
  • Class Rank: no class rank but likely the top 1-2%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1510 super score, max score 1500

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:regular English courses
  • Math: AP-precal–AP statistics and AP calc bc–calc III as dual enrollment
  • Science: honor chem–AP bio+AP chem+AP physics C+AP csA–APES+AP psyc
  • History and social studies:AP macro econ and AP gov
  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed)
  • Visual or performing arts:
  • Other academic courses: Anatomy and physiology, computer programming,

Awards

AMC 10 qualification(~2.5%)

ACSL finalist(~12%)

Irvine science fair honorable mention

National recognition program school award

AP scholar

Extracurriculars
1. UCI Computational Biology Research

Designed YAP-binding proteins using BindCraft; screened candidates, analyzed structural stability and binding interfaces

2. Human Hair Recycling Research

Researched human hair recycling; designed experiments, assigned team tasks, and worked with an advisor to develop a community proposal.

3.Global Research Challenge

Wrote a research essay for the Global Research Challenge, synthesizing findings and presenting a scientific argument; placed in the Top 40

4. Math & Computer Science tutor

Tutored 10+ children in math and computer science; assisted with group lessons, addressed individual questions, and communicated progress to parents.

5. ULP Molecular Biology Summer Program

Joined ULP molecular biology summer program; contributed to group research, designed our scientific poster, and presented at the closing ceremony.

6. Building Materials Research

Investigated building-material markets and evaluated research methods; assigned team tasks, presented findings, and earned an influential award.

7. Cyberpunk Creative Writing

Studied cyberpunk storytelling and wrote an original novel combining cyberpunk and history; published it on Royal Road and reached hundreds of views.

8. J-pop Club Founder

Co-founded a J-pop club; planned meetings and cultural activities, promoted the club to classmates, recruited 15 new members, and led discussions

9. SAT Math Teaching Assistant

Assisted teachers with SAT Math instruction; explained challenging problems, checked students’ daily work, and supported classroom learning.

10. Rocketry Club Vice President

Served as vice president of a DIY rocketry club; helped connect engineering clubs across Irvine

Unified School District through collaboration.

my plan is ED to vanderbilt, EA to USC, UIUC, GT and Umich. RD to Tufts, Purdue, BU, UC(berkeley, LA and SD) and Washinton Seattle, might apply to cornell and CMU if possible.

If I couldn’t get into these colleges, I might just go to community college for 2 years and transfer to one of the better UC. But still, I really don’t want to go to community college with 4.5 GPA 1510 SAT and a bunch of activities.

I actually have posted this before but this is after I finished with all my application materials.

2

See if you can rephrase this to make it sound less like a project and more like something you did because you love cyberpunk and wanted to share your story.

CWRU is excellent for biomedical engineering (and quantitative biology more generally, e.g. courses like math 342, 376, 478, 419, 449). I suggest you check it out.

Maybe also take a look at Northwestern and UChicago’s molecular engineering degree (it has a bioengineering and a chemical engineering track)

As a full pay student, I think you have extremely high chances of getting in somewhere on your list.

Can you explain what made Vanderbilt stand out to you enough to ED to it over places like CMU, Cornell, Georgia Tech, etc?

What is your plan after graduating - a PhD/master’s, or straight into the job market ASAP?

3

Just for some clarity here - no foreign language? Do you speak a home language that isn’t English?
And VPA? I assume you have as it’s a graduation requirement in CA, as well as required for entry into the CA publics?

It looks like a competitive profile for those schools - your biggest issue is probably the low admit rates for internationals at some of these schools. By contrast, UIUC’s admit rate for internationals is about the same as the out of state rate so you may have somewhat better odds there in relative terms. Some of the other publics may also be less penal to international applicants, suggest you check the data on their CDS or sometimes they have it on the main school admissions info page.

Is there any chance your family would get green cards and if so, could it happen before you turn 21?

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4

I don’t see a language?

And your English is light - you didn’t have APs, etc.

If you have the required classes, I can see Purdue and U Wash as likely and UIUC potentially although the lack of English concern me. If there’s no foreign language, I’m not sure how that would be handled (i.e. if you spoke a native language).

You could add others - perhaps less selective but not lesser schools. U Del or UMN are strong for ChemE. Rose Hulman is very strong in most disciplines. UMN and Ohio State would be good complements to Purdue and U of Arizona and ASU are both strong. For the Vandy/USC types, how about a Syracuse and/or Miami as a complement. RPI would be another that’s very well thought of that you’d get into. It’s the type of school that those who don’t get into the MIT types go to.

I’m interested to see how you answer the language topic.

5

I wasn’t required to have another language, coming from China they consider chinese as my first language so I don’t need another one.

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6

Yes, I also recognize English as my weakest part, as I almost got a B in American literature which is a regular course. I just didn’t have enough confidence to actually take an AP level English course.

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7

Thank you for the advices. So the thing is, my high school activities are mostly biology related, yet according to many of my seniors including the one I met in my internship lab, they all recommended me to take another major if possible. So, I must apply to bio major as a first year student because of my record and background, but I also need to make sure that the school I’m going to will give me chance to transfer to other majors like EE.

I chose vanderbilt because of the following reasons: I’m not seeking for top 10 as they are too competitive, and in top 10-20, cornell is too remote, CMU is too hard on academic, JHU and Rice doesn’t have much Cristian life(I’m a Cristian so I also consider that), brown’s engineering is not so appealing to me, after these consideration I found vanderbilt to be a better choice.(Also because UC doesn’t have ed)

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8

Who is they ? The question will be what do the colleges require.

I don’t know - it’s likely college by college.

If they are ok with that, you’ll be ok but I would add schools. I would not go to community college unless you want to.

You might reach out to AOs at each to see if a foreign language would be waived in their eyes.

9

You should apply for the major you want. If you want to be an EE, then apply for EE. At most schools, they don’t care what your activities are as long as you enjoyed them.

I would not apply for majors that don’t interest you.

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10

So is your goal EE specifically, or are other degrees like applied math (with bio courses on the side), CS (with bio courses on the side), statistics (with bio courses on the side) also in consideration? At places where the engineering school is separate, it’s usually easier to get into the school of arts and sciences and from there switch majors within the school of arts and science (e.g. from biology to applied math, CS, statistics) but not to engineering degrees as those are in engineering school. Cornell is one example of this. WUSTL is a counterexample (and very strong in bio research): once you’re in the university, you can declare and change majors across engineering or science very easily.

Purdue university has a FYE program: everyone applying to any engineering degree takes the same first year classes and based on their grades, they apply to their major once in the university. So that seems like it would appeal to your current strategy.

If you want a school with a strong Christian life, look at Notre Dame university.

What is your goal after graduation? Graduate study within the biological field, and then academia? Or graduate school then the job market? Medical school? Undergrad then immediately going into the job market (with/without) a preference for bio-related industry? Or completely undecided?

11

If the goal is graduate study, then I would recommend looking at large universities with strong research programs. These aren’t necessarily the most selective: UMich is very selective, but schools like Wisconsin and OSU are not nearly as selective while still being research powerhouses.

12

Well the problem is that I still want to stick to engineering major, and I thought that the major change within the engineering college is easier than transferring from art & science to engineering college.

I’m not so sure about my future plan though, I might look for jobs in my junior or senior year, if I failed I think I would go with graduate.

13

Keep in mind that finding a job as a sponsor-requiring applicant is near impossible due to the $100,000 H1-B fee, though that might change if a democrat wins the 2028 election.

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14

Apply to Purdue in EA. They fill the bulk of the class, especially for engineering, in EA making RD much much more competitive. The EA deadline in 11/1

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15

It’s not just about the new fees. Finding an employer willing to sponsor was difficult even before that (except perhaps in Big Tech). And getting sponsorship as a biology major will be particularly difficult — there are already plenty of domestic graduates in the field. Not trying to discourage OP, but he needs to be aware of the ground reality.

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16

OP doesn’t seem to plan on majoring in biology or even bioengineering

17

Definitely. And adding that many universities have paused CPT, so it’s quite difficult to get work experience via off campus work like internships and non-degree required coops while in college in the US. To be clear, if one’s college pauses CPT, there is no way to get off campus work related experience. There are multiple sites with a list of the schools that have paused CPT since August. Intended major doesn’t matter.

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