1590 test score what would be good reach?

[Anonymous]

Such good ideas sprinkled throughout this thread. Hope OP comes back and updates.

[Anonymous]

Seen similar profiles(w/sat down to low 1500's) from our prep school get into Emory, WashU, Rice, USC last 3 yrs.

[Anonymous]

Harvard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a med Anthro perspective, talking about measles in refugee and immigrant populations is very of the moment.

If into enviro science though, I’d go the community gardens, medicinal plants and natural wilderness medicine route. Great easy & natural way to combine the two disparate interests into a compelling and memorable story.
Make sure kid took Enviro Sci and see if kid can take Anthro next year or this summer? Think Brown & Penn offer it.

OP here. "combine the two disparate interests into a compelling and memorable story". I didn't get it. How would you combine them easily? Could you elaborate a little bit more?

Enviro science and medicine intersect in a lot of ways. You would create a story/narrative/admissions hook/whatever you want to call it based around the intersection of the two as part of the kid's story (assuming this is his interest bc he co-founded the enviro club??)

How? Our environment directly impacts our health, and understanding these connections can help show a holistic approach to healthcare.

How to combine these 2 interests in a college application:

ACTIVITIES
- Study medicinal plants: Document local plants with medicinal properties, research their traditional uses, and connect this to modern pharmacology. This combines botany (environmental science) with medical applications.
- Community garden health initiatives: Help establish or work with gardens that grow nutritious food for underserved communities, connecting environmental sustainability with nutritional health and food-as-medicine concepts.
- Wilderness medicine: Take wilderness first aid courses and volunteer with outdoor organizations. This combines environmental knowledge with practical medical skills.
- Environmental health research: Study how environmental factors (air/water quality, climate change) affect human health in your community. Collect data, interview residents, and propose solutions.
- Conservation medicine: Focus on the intersection of ecosystem health and human health - for example, how habitat destruction leads to disease emergence.
[NOTE: google these for summer programs and other local ideas - in my community there's a BUNCH of stuff to volunteer for like this. Also EMTs and outdoor wilderness medicine courses this summer]

TRANSCRIPT
Taking Environmental Science is excellent groundwork
An Anthropology course (especially medical anthropology) would strengthen this narrative - I think Brown and Penn both offer summer anthropology programs for high schoolers.

ESSAYS
Might cover an EC experience or something learned in the class?

HOW OR WHY DOES THIS WORK?
It may not, but if its authentic (and your kid wants to do it and has passion for it) it can show the AdCom that the your kid doesn't just want to be a doctor, but someone who understands health through multiple lenses. This is a kid who can think critically about emerging challenges at the intersection of environment and medicine. Certain colleges (looking at you Northwestern and Brown) love kids who combine two totally different fields together.

I'm generally curious.
How many T20 private admits have academic and EC admissions narratives like this? Is this really that common? Meaning your kid wants to do x, so 1-2 ECs outside of school are "created" to show how or why the kid is interested in x and what the kid has accomplished?

Doesn't this seem too manufactured? I suppose wilderness EMT training isn't a fake non-profit, so it won't raise eyebrows. Or starting a medicinal plant study or exchange.
Just trying to determine if it's pretty common.

[Anonymous]

Reaches you'd love are easy to find. What's harder--and far more important--is finding safeties/likelies you'd love. Focus on that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a med Anthro perspective, talking about measles in refugee and immigrant populations is very of the moment.

If into enviro science though, I’d go the community gardens, medicinal plants and natural wilderness medicine route. Great easy & natural way to combine the two disparate interests into a compelling and memorable story.
Make sure kid took Enviro Sci and see if kid can take Anthro next year or this summer? Think Brown & Penn offer it.

OP here. "combine the two disparate interests into a compelling and memorable story". I didn't get it. How would you combine them easily? Could you elaborate a little bit more?

Enviro science and medicine intersect in a lot of ways. You would create a story/narrative/admissions hook/whatever you want to call it based around the intersection of the two as part of the kid's story (assuming this is his interest bc he co-founded the enviro club??)

How? Our environment directly impacts our health, and understanding these connections can help show a holistic approach to healthcare.

How to combine these 2 interests in a college application:

ACTIVITIES
- Study medicinal plants: Document local plants with medicinal properties, research their traditional uses, and connect this to modern pharmacology. This combines botany (environmental science) with medical applications.
- Community garden health initiatives: Help establish or work with gardens that grow nutritious food for underserved communities, connecting environmental sustainability with nutritional health and food-as-medicine concepts.
- Wilderness medicine: Take wilderness first aid courses and volunteer with outdoor organizations. This combines environmental knowledge with practical medical skills.
- Environmental health research: Study how environmental factors (air/water quality, climate change) affect human health in your community. Collect data, interview residents, and propose solutions.
- Conservation medicine: Focus on the intersection of ecosystem health and human health - for example, how habitat destruction leads to disease emergence.
[NOTE: google these for summer programs and other local ideas - in my community there's a BUNCH of stuff to volunteer for like this. Also EMTs and outdoor wilderness medicine courses this summer]

TRANSCRIPT
Taking Environmental Science is excellent groundwork
An Anthropology course (especially medical anthropology) would strengthen this narrative - I think Brown and Penn both offer summer anthropology programs for high schoolers.

ESSAYS
Might cover an EC experience or something learned in the class?

HOW OR WHY DOES THIS WORK?
It may not, but if its authentic (and your kid wants to do it and has passion for it) it can show the AdCom that the your kid doesn't just want to be a doctor, but someone who understands health through multiple lenses. This is a kid who can think critically about emerging challenges at the intersection of environment and medicine. Certain colleges (looking at you Northwestern and Brown) love kids who combine two totally different fields together.

Bumping this old thread up to show the other "high stats" poster how exactly to help frame a kids narrative and bring divergent fields together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:private no ranking no weight, highest rigor math/stem. UW gpa guessing in the top 20%, but definitely not tippy top if not weighted.
What would be good reach schools? DC does not like large universities in general, a medium/small size university or a LAC would work. Undecided major potentially premed. Unhooked full pay.

Every top school is a reach.

DS is white, unhooked and had a 1590 SAT in one seating and 98/100 UW GPA and didnt get in any of the Ivies or T15’s he applied. Math genius. NYU/Georgetown/BC were the ones that accepted him. He is going to the UK to “double” major in Math and Financial Economics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:private no ranking no weight, highest rigor math/stem. UW gpa guessing in the top 20%, but definitely not tippy top if not weighted.
What would be good reach schools? DC does not like large universities in general, a medium/small size university or a LAC would work. Undecided major potentially premed. Unhooked full pay.

Every top school is a reach.

DS is white, unhooked and had a 1590 SAT in one seating and 98/100 UW GPA and didnt get in any of the Ivies or T15’s he applied. Math genius. NYU/Georgetown/BC were the ones that accepted him. He is going to the UK to “double” major in Math and Financial Economics.

Wow. That’s crazy. Maybe it was the major?
Math is a high bar with all the expected ECs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a med Anthro perspective, talking about measles in refugee and immigrant populations is very of the moment.

If into enviro science though, I’d go the community gardens, medicinal plants and natural wilderness medicine route. Great easy & natural way to combine the two disparate interests into a compelling and memorable story.
Make sure kid took Enviro Sci and see if kid can take Anthro next year or this summer? Think Brown & Penn offer it.

OP here. "combine the two disparate interests into a compelling and memorable story". I didn't get it. How would you combine them easily? Could you elaborate a little bit more?

Enviro science and medicine intersect in a lot of ways. You would create a story/narrative/admissions hook/whatever you want to call it based around the intersection of the two as part of the kid's story (assuming this is his interest bc he co-founded the enviro club??)

How? Our environment directly impacts our health, and understanding these connections can help show a holistic approach to healthcare.

How to combine these 2 interests in a college application:

ACTIVITIES
- Study medicinal plants: Document local plants with medicinal properties, research their traditional uses, and connect this to modern pharmacology. This combines botany (environmental science) with medical applications.
- Community garden health initiatives: Help establish or work with gardens that grow nutritious food for underserved communities, connecting environmental sustainability with nutritional health and food-as-medicine concepts.
- Wilderness medicine: Take wilderness first aid courses and volunteer with outdoor organizations. This combines environmental knowledge with practical medical skills.
- Environmental health research: Study how environmental factors (air/water quality, climate change) affect human health in your community. Collect data, interview residents, and propose solutions.
- Conservation medicine: Focus on the intersection of ecosystem health and human health - for example, how habitat destruction leads to disease emergence.
[NOTE: google these for summer programs and other local ideas - in my community there's a BUNCH of stuff to volunteer for like this. Also EMTs and outdoor wilderness medicine courses this summer]

TRANSCRIPT
Taking Environmental Science is excellent groundwork
An Anthropology course (especially medical anthropology) would strengthen this narrative - I think Brown and Penn both offer summer anthropology programs for high schoolers.

ESSAYS
Might cover an EC experience or something learned in the class?

HOW OR WHY DOES THIS WORK?
It may not, but if its authentic (and your kid wants to do it and has passion for it) it can show the AdCom that the your kid doesn't just want to be a doctor, but someone who understands health through multiple lenses. This is a kid who can think critically about emerging challenges at the intersection of environment and medicine. Certain colleges (looking at you Northwestern and Brown) love kids who combine two totally different fields together.

The strategy in some of these older posts that I found today really makes sense to me in light of a few recent college admissions podcasts that I’ve been listening to. It’s about starting with the major at the front end rather than thinking about the major in October at the backend?

What other resources do people recommend? What other forums for this type of discussion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:private no ranking no weight, highest rigor math/stem. UW gpa guessing in the top 20%, but definitely not tippy top if not weighted.
What would be good reach schools? DC does not like large universities in general, a medium/small size university or a LAC would work. Undecided major potentially premed. Unhooked full pay.

Every top school is a reach.

DS is white, unhooked and had a 1590 SAT in one seating and 98/100 UW GPA and didnt get in any of the Ivies or T15’s he applied. Math genius. NYU/Georgetown/BC were the ones that accepted him. He is going to the UK to “double” major in Math and Financial Economics.

Was there a lack of coherence in the application? A lack of theme or something compelling?
Was the competition steep from the same HS, and perhaps other kids got in with stronger LOR?
What major did the kid apply for at the T15? All math or anything else?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:private no ranking no weight, highest rigor math/stem. UW gpa guessing in the top 20%, but definitely not tippy top if not weighted.
What would be good reach schools? DC does not like large universities in general, a medium/small size university or a LAC would work. Undecided major potentially premed. Unhooked full pay.

Dartmouth

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was an old thread on here - but was locked or deleted - on a TJ kid whose profile was reviewed on a podcast - former Yale AO I think.

Eye-opening how brutal the process is.

Where is this thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was an old thread on here - but was locked or deleted - on a TJ kid whose profile was reviewed on a podcast - former Yale AO I think.

Eye-opening how brutal the process is.

think it was this one. You can see why the TJ kid had a mediocre unconnected application, notwithstanding top stats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-9A4eyDoG8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an old thread on here - but was locked or deleted - on a TJ kid whose profile was reviewed on a podcast - former Yale AO I think.

Eye-opening how brutal the process is.

think it was this one. You can see why the TJ kid had a mediocre unconnected application, notwithstanding top stats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-9A4eyDoG8

Does anyone else think the entire process is a load of BS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There was an old thread on here - but was locked or deleted - on a TJ kid whose profile was reviewed on a podcast - former Yale AO I think.

Eye-opening how brutal the process is.

think it was this one. You can see why the TJ kid had a mediocre unconnected application, notwithstanding top stats:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-9A4eyDoG8

Does anyone else think the entire process is a load of BS?

In what way? The whole "tell us a story", make yourself compelling, tie everything together and be memorable?

Or something else?