Junior from CA looking for help in putting together a college list

College Search & Selection
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i’m back guys and hopefully I can get some other opinions about expanding / changing my college list. here’s the original post: Junior looking for help in putting together a college list
here are my stats again just in case.

demographics: Asian (Chinese), first-generation American from LA area, closeted queer nonbinary person (will pass as cishet female on college apps for safety), low-income but not EFC 0 (realistically i don’t think my parents have the funds to contribute), not first gen college student (parents graduated from Chinese universities)
GPA: 4.33 W (UC GPA), overall GPA: 4.11 W w/ upwards trend, school doesn’t calculate UW
rigor: freshman - sophomore year: 1 class given honors weight according to UCs
junior year (now) - 3 APs (APUSH, AP Lang, AP Chinese) + 1 UC honors
senior year (presumpative) - 4 APs (AP Gov/Econ, AP Spanish, AP Lit, AP Stats)
scores: PSAT 1410 sophomore year (700 EBRW, 710 M)
SAT 1470 junior year (750 EBRW, 720 M), I’m going to retake this in August aiming for 1500+
potential majors: political science or international relations for undergrad, want to become a journalist in the future. considering grad school / masters degree for journalism
school does not rank.

extracurriculars:
freshman year: speech & debate (general member)
sophomore year: none. parents didn’t let me participate b/c I got into a relationship… yeah
junior year: speech & debate (general member), red cross (general member), key club (general member), FARMS (local student run organization to help w/ food drives + food distribution; English Outreach Coordinator), AP Ambassadors (Publicity/Communications Co-Chair)
presumptive senior year: speech & debate (event co-captain), red cross (art chair), key club (general member), FARMS (EOC), AP Ambassador (Publicity Co-Chair), link crew (interviews are this month so… still waiting on that), school newspaper

other important stuff:
gold key - Scholastic Art & Writing Contest 2019
honorable mention - Scholastic Art & Writing Contest 2020
going to represent my school / area at Girls’ State this summer.
applying to QuestBridge CPS, results out in ~2ish weeks, also applying to Pioneer Research
planning on applying for QB NCM
fluent in Mandarin and learning Spanish.

notes i am entertaining the ideas of starting JSA at my school (Junior State of America) and/or apply to become a World Literacy Foundation ambassador. Leaning towards no for both since I don’t want to pile too much on my plate.

my college list so far:
UCLA (my “realistic” dream school, reach)
UC Berkeley (reach)
UC Irvine (high match / low reach)
UC Riverside (target/match)
UC Davis (high match / low reach )
UC Santa Barbara (low - medium reach)
CSULB (safety, would like to avoid actually going here)
CSULA (safety, would like to avoid actually going here)
UC Merced (medium or low match / safety)
UC Santa Cruz (high match / low reach)
Stanford (my dream school, very high reach)
NYU (reach, probably unrealistic because of cost)
also going to apply to questbridge NCM as I’ve said (mostly looking at Stanford, Ivies, Swarthmore, Northwestern, Rice?)

anyways, I’m open to any suggestions. i’d prefer schools on either the West Coast or Northeast / East Coast, any setting is fine but would rather prefer urban / suburban. Thank you !

edits: possible activities, put in idea college setting

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Amherst College gives good aid, though it would be a reach. If you like Swarthmore Haverford might be worth looking at. Otherwise you seem to have a good mix a safeties, matches, and reaches!

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hi !! thank you for this response. Amherst and Haverford are both QB partners and I’ll do a little more digging on all 45 of those colleges during the summer. Thank you tho!

1 Like
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You look like a very qualified candidate for many great schools. I think you have a good list but I’d add some better safeties, schools that you like, can afford, and that you will definitely get into. Look at out of state public flagships (Arizona, Oregon, Washington etc.) perhaps a few west coats privates (Santa Clara). Your characterization of a few of the schools on your list is a bit odd. UC Santa Barbara for example, typically has more difficult admission than Davis or Riverside. Also your listed GPAs are a bit confusing. I’m not sure it’s possible to have a higher UC weighted GPA than a straight weighted GPA. Remember the UC will only weight 8 semesters of AP/UC Approved honors.

Either way, you’ve got a good head start there. Best of luck to you.

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np! I hope you love your final list!

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I would put UC Davis, Santa Barbara and Irvine in the High Match/Low Reach Category. UC Riverside as a Target/Match school. UC Merced would be a Safety especially if your ELC eligible. If you really do not want to attend either CSULB or CSULA, then find some other safeties. Which one is in your local service area? https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/Documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf

The UC’s and CSU’s are test blind for 2022 so factor that into your decision.

What about SDSU and the Webers Honors college where they offer Honors students some decent merit scholarships. ASU was mentioned and consider Barretts Honors college also.

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With a UC GPA of 4.33, UCLA and Berkeley are low reaches/high targets, Irvine is a low match, Riverside is a likely/safety, Davis and UCSB are likelies, UCSC is a likely/safety and Merced is a safety.

As others have said, look what your NPC is for most colleges.

For journalism, the reach that you want is Northwestern. Also look at USC as another reach.

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hi and thank you so much for your response !! i’ll definitely consider some OOS schools esp in the northwest. and i changed some of the rankings / categories.

hope this isn’t too confusing lol but basically, we have the option of taking a test in 8th grade to skip the first 3 levels of foreign languages if we’re fluent or have some proficiency. We have 4 levels of languages (the highest is AP) and I passed the first 3 but i passed the 3rd level with a B. this went on my transcript and brought my total GPA down.

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9

Did you try calculating your GPA here?

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

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hi Gumbymom! i do remember you replying to my original post lol :))

i changed my list to reflect this but the thing is our school doesn’t rank or give us percentages so it’s a little up in the air. im still pretty sure i’m not too bad in terms of ranking tho.

oh really ?? i thought they were test optional and then test blind for 2023 and 2024?

CSULA is the one in my local service area. I live around 15 minutes away from it. i guess what I mean is that I’d rather go to a “low” UC than CSUs… parents are a little obsessed with prestige but not too much that they push me to go to Ivies.

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the thing is, I’ve checked the stats on my school. 10 people were admitted to UCLA and 8 people were admitted to UCB in 2020. the chances are not looking great for me and i don’t really wanna call them targets or even low reaches. my extracurriculars are kind of lacking as well.

and thank you !! i will look at NW since it’s a QB partner. USC is not on my list for a reason, I’ve been there and I don’t think it’s for me. Thank you though!

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yes I have, it gives me a 4.33 W and 4.00 UW. if I’m not mistaken, UC GPA doesn’t look at freshman year, right?

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That’s right…sounds like you’ve got it

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aha thank you for your help and advice !! its really given me a lot of confidence since i’ve been feeling like my extracurriculars are lacking.

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Given what you’ve said about income and affordability, these suggestions are pretty useless. Only Arizona has the possibility of large enough scholarships to be comparable to the UCs.

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Yes the UC’s are test blind till 2024. CSU’s until 2022. ELC will be determined based on your input into the UC applicaiton as long as your school participates. It does not matter if you school does not rank.

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With your awesome stats, you could do well in getting merit at private schools. With your interest in political science and international relations, maybe look at University of Denver . And with a strong interest in writing, Lewis and Clark might be interesting for you to consider. Both have great study abroad opportunities, too! Wishing you the best on this exciting journey!

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If you are looking at colleges for journalism, look at Arizona State. They have a top-rated journalism school, and has some decent merit aid.

You may also want to look at U Missouri. Its journalism school is actually one of the top ranked journalism schools in the country - every list includes it in the top 10, and it is often #2 after NWU. It has decent merit aid as well.

Georgetown should be on your list, as well as George Washington (but run NPCs for GWU). I think that somebody already mentioned Emerson to you.

Does your high school send students to Posse? You’d have to be nominated by your counselor and then your school, though.

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I said that “you can afford” but your point about Arizona being generous with merit aide is true. Arizona State is even better and Oregon State is also in WUE. A few western state options will provide costs comparable or even lower than UC. Washington is more expensive and Oregon is also a little more.

Lots of kids apply to solid safety schools only to find out they can’t afford the tuition, that’s the important part to avoid.

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Will give you two different perspectives - one based on academics and one based on “fit”.

For your interests:
International relations: Georgetown School of Foreign Service
Jounalism: Northwestern University

For fit (this is coming as a parent of a non-binary child who has recently come out). Note these are still excellent schools and mentioning because fit is probably most important thing for my child:
Oberlin (not exactly urban or coastal though)
Vassar
NYU

Best of luck!