What are my Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics:
Virgina high school senior (white female)

Major
something related to Astronomy/Astrophysics/Aerospace Engineering or Chemistry (with a focus in astronomy)

Stats
SAT/ACT: going test optional
GPA: 4.612 W, ~3.95 UW
Class Rank: School does not rank

Course Work

All dual enrollment/AP since junior/senior year, all honors since freshmen/sophomore year. I go to a regional Virginia Governor’s School where coursework is difficult and student research is emphasized (I take all my math and science classes there).

Stem classes since I’m majoring in STEM lol:
Junior Year:

  • AP Calc BC (4 BC, 5 AB Subscore)
  • College Bio (Dual enrollment)
  • College Geology (Dual enrollment + college credit from independent study)
  • Mentorship research elective in environmental research

Senior Year:

  • College Multivariable Calc (Dual Enrollment)
  • AP Chem
  • AP Environ
  • Mentorship research elective in astronomy

I’ve taken mostly all dual enrollment English/history since sophomore year. (My school mainly offers DE versus AP).

Extracircculars/Programs:

  • NASA Intern in Astronomy: STEM Enhancement in Earth Science (SEES)
  • NASA Virginia Earth Space Science Scholar (VESSS)-- Leadership position (Deputy Project Scientist)
  • NASA Virginia Space Coast Scholar (VSCS)
  • NHS: 2 years
  • Student Council Representative: 2 years
  • Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership Alumni
  • Scholastic Bowl (“Varisty” trivia): 3 years
  • Approximately ~140 hours of volunteer service (Local Science Museum and Refugee Partnership)
  • Three separate student-led research projects that received international/state/local awards (will list below)

Awards:
-2nd Place Biology State Science Fair
-1st Place Biology Regional Science Fair
-3rd Place Biology School Science Fair
-1st Place Materials Science/Chem School Science Fair
-2nd Place Materials Science Regional Science Fair
-State Award for Aspirations in Computing at National Center for Women & Information Technology
-Honorable Mention in Environmental Science at Virginia Junior Academy of Science Symposium (VJAS)
-INSPO Research & Innovation Competition Finalist (Continental Science Comp.)
-Governor’s School Determined Scholar Award

Essays/LORs/Other
LOR:
-I plan to ask for a LOR from my NASA mentor during my internship.
-I also feel as if my counselor knows me well (she often reaches out to me for volunteer opportunities and knows I enjoy helping out, etc.) so I might ask for a LOR from her as well.
-Plan to ask my mentor during my NASA VESSS academy for a LOR

Essays:
haven’t started lol, Ik they’re prettttyyy important but I always have a hard time as I don’t think I’ll be able to achieve the quality of some amazing ivy league essays I’ve read

Schools:
I plan to apply to these schools so far: (this isn’t the ENTIRE list, just a snapshot). The issue is that I have around 25-30 colleges on my list and will need to narrow down. What are my chances into getting into some of these schools?

Safety:
VT, RIT, VCU, GMU, VCU

Match:
UVA, URich, IIT, W&M

Reach: (this is where the list gets lengthy)
Stanford, UChicago, UPenn, MIT, USC, UC Berkeley, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard

I plan to apply EA to all schools if offered (unless it’s restricted EA). I have not chosen which school I want to apply ED too-- I’m just not sure honestly.

Are there any other schools that I might be a good match for? Or any schools that I should consider taking off my list? Thanks for any advice, all is appreciated!

Budget:
I’m not entirely sure about budget at the moment. Calculating financial aid is complicated atm due to my parents being divorced, possible NCP waivers, etc. I am applying to Questbridge so that is also a possibility-- everything is up in the air right now and it’s hard to get a good estimate. Ideally, I would like a school with good aid lol

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Budget??? It does make a difference.

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I edited the post! Thanks!

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For other match schools, look at University of Michigan, University of Texas-Austin, and Georgia Tech.

For your reach schools, I don’t think of Harvard, Penn, or Columbia as being particularly strong in your areas of interest (other than having the Ivy prestige). I might drop them and add Princeton, which I think is more highly ranked for aerospace.

I also would drop your least favorite 2-3 safeties. I don’t think you need that many. Keep at least one very budget-friendly safety where you could be happy.

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Wow - you are insanely impressive.

It sounds like you’ll qualify for need aid based on your QB comment but you will get merit aid galore if you apply to schools with merit aid.

Your reach schools are fine - I like you are going big time. But all those schools are not storng in Astrophysics.

IIT - Iliniois Institute? That’s a safety for sure.

Richmond - why? They don’t have an Astronomy or Astrophysics program.

I agree you have too many safeties - but I’d love to see you add an Arizona and Maryland as safeties. While it’s contradictory to what I just said, these are safeties that are very well respected in your area. You’ll get huge merit ($35K) at AZ and it’s much better in your fields of study vs VCU or RIT, etc.so unless you have a huge love for those schools there’s better options.

Another safety that may interest you is Florida Tech as they do well on the space coast of Florida - and UAH, which is in Huntsville, the 2nd NASA home and they place well. You’ll go for free or close to it.

For a reach, in addition to Princeton that someone mentioned, I’d look at Rice as well - as it’s in Houston and well connected to NASA.

Just curious - how did you pick your list meaning do you know about these schools? Or did you pick them because of rank - because you do need to love where you go.

Good luck to you. You are very very impressive !!

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some other schools to take a look at; Cal Tech, Michigan, Georgia Tech, Purdue

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As a student interested in astronomy, you may want to consider colleges with relatively dark and natural night skies and accessible astronomical observatories, such as Williams, Vassar, Haverford and Hamilton. These schools all participate in QuestBridge and also would provide you with a few potential choices in a selectivity zone largely missing from your current group.

https://www.questbridge.org/college-partners

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Thank you so much for the help! I’ll definitely look into adding the schools you mentioned to my list.

Just to be sure I’m looking at the right schools, do you mean The University of Arizona and the University of Maryland?

For most of my safeties, I chose them mostly because they’re either in-state or the school gave me a fee waiver for the application (I also got a scholarship to RIT from a science comp. a while back so I figured might as well apply lol).

For the match schools, I also mostly chose them because they’re in-state or free application (Illinois Institute).

For the safeties-- as you can tell, my list is all over the place lol. I’ll plan to narrow down on schools that have good programs in astronomy/astrophysics (like Rice and Princeton as you mentioned).

Also, in terms of financial aid, I’ve been trying to add a few non-CSS Profile schools, or CSS schools that don’t require NCP info (hence UChicago, VCU, W&M). (kinda makes everything more complicated haha).

I appreciate the advice, it really helped!

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I’ll definitely look into that, thank you!

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Thank you for the help! I’ll definitely consider adding Princeton

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Yes - those two. You should be able to get a fee waiver to any school via your counselor. Also, a ton of schools require no app fee.

2022 Best Colleges with No Application Fee - Niche

Then if you get on certain schools email lists - so i had my kid on 100 - they’ll send you fee waivers - from Wash U St. Louis to Wash & Lee to Chicago (if you submit a FAFSA) to lesser schools.

They all tell you - don’t let an app fee be the reason you don’t apply - so look at their websites and / or talk to your guidance counselor before eliminating a school due to an app fee.

And get on all the schools emai lists - i.e. request info - I think my daughter had 6 free apps of the 21 we applied too - all had app fees but by being on their list, they sent waivers. For Pitt, and Miami Ohio, they gave a waiver for attending an info session.

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As opinion, physics represents the best major for a student interested in astronomy/astrophysics, largely because its range and rigor will be greatest. On the undergraduate level, you can enhance this with electives in astronomy and geosciences and courses in supporting disciplines such as mathematics (especially multivariable calculus, linear algebra and differential equations), computer science and statistics. This would prepare you for graduate school in the field of your choice. Research experience as an undergraduate also may be important.

For additional college ideas, look into Amherst, Swarthmore and Wesleyan.

Depending on your circumstances, this site may be helpful for estimating costs:

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Have you taken any physics in high school?

Figure out which of the colleges on your list require both parents’ finances*. For those, run the net price calculators including both parents’ finances. If you do not know both of their finances, then your best guess may still be very inaccurate. For colleges that require just your custodial parent’s finances, you can use their net price calculators with just your custodial parent’s finances and get a reasonable estimate.

*This appears to include all of the private colleges in your reach list and Richmond.

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Wesleyan is extraordinarily strong in astronomy for such a small college:

Here’s a pocket-sized history of its historic observatory. It’s not used much for research purposes but it’s a wonderful teaching tool in a lovely setting:

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Take UC Berkeley off of the list.
As a non-resident, you will be full pay-$65K per year. California does not provide significant aid to non-residents.
Merit aid barely covers your medical insurance of ~$2-3K per year.
Need-based aid would be federal dollars and loans which wont pay the bills. It’s not a Questbridge school. Focus on the other schools which would provide aid.

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UNC has a great planetarium, but I don’t know much about their astronomy related programs. Might be worth looking into, though. Astronomy and Astrophysics - Department of Physics and Astronomy

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Another Questbridge partner that could be a good candidate is Carleton, if you like the idea of a smaller school. The Observatory is cool. Here is more info about the department there: https://www.carleton.edu/physics-astronomy/overview/highlights/

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Good luck on your college search. I’m not sure I can help with your chances but my D just graduated from Princeton with a Concentration(Major) in Astrophysics along with Certificates (Minors) in Computer Science and Russian. She’ll be attending grad school starting next week.

As a Freshman she completed the Integrated Science Curriculum which is an excellent preparation for research in any of the sciences and is heavy quantitative/Physics based curriculum. An Astro Concentrator is required to complete 2 Junior Papers (1 per semester) and then a Senior Thesis so you would get lots of research in with just those but there would be other opportunities to work in a lab as well. The UG department is very small as my D was in a cohort of 8 students. About 1/2 of the students continue on to Grad school whereas the others get jobs in IT or Finance due to the heavy Math and CS background you acquire if you decide you are done with school.

In addition Princeton generally has the best need-based Financial Aid in the country (YMMV - do the NPC)

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