3.8 GPA, 31 ACT, Black/Afr. American

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Current HS junior
GPA: 3.80 (unweighted, slim but possible chance this will raise to a 3.87/3.9 by the time I apply)
ACT: first test-- 31 (33 Reading, 34 English, 28 Math, 29 Science, 7 Writing); second test -- 31 (36 Reading, 35 English, 25 Math, 28 Science, 8 Writing)
Ethnicity: Black/African-American</p>

<p>Honors/APs/notables taken or will take:
-Hon. English 9 & 10
-AP Language and Composition
-AP World History
-AP Microeconomics
-AP Macroeconomics
-Hon. Chemistry
-Hon. Physics
-Hon. Maths (Alg. 1, Geometry, Alg. 2/Trig., Pre-Calculus)
-AP Calculus AB
-Four years of French
-three years Dance 4/IB Dance
-volunteer three hours weekly to teach tap, jazz, and ballet to children ages 3-12</p>

<p>I realize that my GPA/ACT are not the best for the competitive schools I wish to apply to, but I am extremely active in fine arts in and out of school ("varsity" choir two years, dance company member three years). This takes up the majority of my time. On an average week, I dance 15 hours. On rehearsal/concert weeks this jumps to around 20+ hours. I also currently hold two jobs. This makes it extremely hard to maintain above a 3.8 GPA. Also, I am strongly considering dual majoring in business and dance at schools that offer it that are on my list. My worry is that schools will not realize/care the impact that my rigorous dance schedule has on my academics. My volunteer experience will improve this summer (participating in Summer in the City which tutors children, works on housing projects, and performs other general community service efforts in Detroit, MI).</p>

<p>Chance me for...
U of Michigan (in state, alumnus ties)
Columbia (notable alumnus & faculty ties)
NYU
UCLA
U of C - Berkeley
U of Pennsylvania
Northwestern University
Duke University
U of Chicago
U of Wisconsin
U of Minnesota
Emory University
Any of the outrageous Ivies? (Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Yale)</p>

<p>Sorry, I know it's a long list. Some are very far reaches, I'm just curious to hear your opinions. My essays will be strong and my letters of recommendation will be very strong.</p>

2

<p>Please consider point 1 in <a href=“Before you ask which colleges to apply to, please consider - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider.html&lt;/a&gt; .</p>

<p>Also, find your safety first. Possible candidates:
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<a href=“Updated list of schools with auto-admit (guaranteed admission) criteria - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1562918-updated-list-of-schools-with-auto-admit-guaranteed-admission-criteria-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You may want to consider taking the SAT, or at least trying a released old SAT for practice under test conditions. Some students do better on the SAT than the ACT, or vice-versa. This may help you get better scholarships (32 ACT or 1400 SAT CR+M picks up a number of the big scholarships in the scholarship thread).</p>

3

<p>@ucbalumnus‌ thanks! My parental contribution to my education will be slim to none. I have quite a few safety schools, but my parents do recommend as an option that if I don’t get into a highly competitive/rigorous school, to take a year after high school and do something meaningful/impressive with it.</p>

4

<p>csahu97, Taking a gap year to do something “impressive” may help you get into a different set of schools, but is unlikely to get you into schools that turned you down the first time around. It’s better to make a well balanced list going into the application process, and, yes, that includes a safety. I would think that MSU and Minnesota would be safeties for you, but I may be underestimating their selectivity.</p>

<p>If your family is low income you should contact QuestBridge right away. In addition, ask your parents to run a few net price calculators at some of your target schools to make sure that the schools agree that your estimated family contribution should be “slim to none.” If that’s the case, then many of the schools on your list will provide adequate need based aid.</p>

<p>Your GPA and scores put you in the ball park for all of the schools on your list. Your class rank will also figure in how the colleges view your GPA. Obviously, some are more selective than others, and at some your race and economic background will be more valuable than at others.</p>

<p>A commitment to dance is a good EC and colleges will take your participation into consideration. You might include a dance performance video as an arts supplement (and a vocal performance as well, if this is on the same level). </p>

<p>I would also suggest that you look at a few small liberal arts college that have a hard time matriculating high performing African Americans, usually because they are located in non-urban areas. Smith is one that comes to mind that has an excellent dance program. Some academically rigorous LACs that would fall into the “need URMs” category would be Williams, Vassar, Kenyon, Grinnell, Carleton, Hamilton. I know that Williams values both dance and music ECs. You’d have to look into the others. </p>

<p>Most small LACs and some other the universities on your list don’t offer business majors, but many of their graduates – in economics or other disciplines – do well in business.</p>

5

<p>If your parents cant contribute that do not bother with the UCs. The UCs expect you to pay your EFC plus 23k per year. you have no way to pay that</p>

<p>do you know what your efc would be? are you low income? middle income? high income?</p>

6

<p>@mom2collegekids‌ That’s actually a bit of my problem… We are in a pretty high income bracket. Above $350,000 for household income. But we have lots of debt, so our situation is more complicated than the income bracket seems to show. My parents have told me that for where we’re at right now I should expect no assistance from them. “Take out all your student loans and we may be able to help you out with them in the future, but right now we can’t.”</p>

7

<p>Well, YOU can only borrow $5500 for frosh year, so that’s not enough for the $53k per year that you’d have to pay for a UC. Your income is too high for aid, so you’d be full freight. so, take the UCs off because they’re not possible unless YOUR PARENTS take out those loans and THEY would be obligated to pay.</p>

<p>It would be crazy for you to borrow more than that 5500 because you should have more affordable choices with your stats…especially if your ACT goes up a bit.</p>

<p>Did you take the PSAT…are you a likely National Achievement Finalist?</p>

<p>Actually, you need to take off ALL of the OOS publics unless you’re very likely going to get HUGE, HUGE merit that will give you a very low amount to pay with that student loan. Also take off NYU because that wont be affordable.</p>

<p>you need a totally new list. Even UMich is unaffordable for you.</p>

8

<p>for some reason I can’t edit…</p>

<p>Others need to chime in here to help explain to this young lady that her list will not work with that income and parents who cant contribute anything.</p>

<p>None of those schools will work. What’s the point of getting into NYU when you don’t have the $65k to pay? Borrowing that much would be nuts, and you cant be sure that your parents would pay unless that debt was completely in their names only. Sounds like they may not qualify anyway if they have so much debt that they cant pay anything. </p>

<p>Hopefully others here can suggest schools for you that will give you huge huge huge merit (nearly a free ride).</p>

<p>I know this is disappointing because you would be competitive for many top schools, but you don’t qualify for any aid, and your parents can’t pay anything. </p>

<p>Get more clarification from your parents. They may not know that YOU can only borrow 5,500 for frosh year. They may think you can borrow the total amount because when they went to college, students could borrow more. Now, they cannot. </p>

<p>You need to ask them if THEY will borrow $220k so that you can go to one of these schools on your list. If they say, NO, then you know you need another list. If they say YES, then have them check to see if they qualify to borrow that much.</p>

9

<p>It will be crazy for your parents to borrow the full freight for any college listed there(total COA will be around $250K). With $350k/year income, they should easily afford your college education and if they are not willing, they may have already swimming in debts, but the schools do not look at that.</p>

<p>In addition, you are aiming too high on the school’s ranking, you need a lot more safety schools. There is absolutely no safeties in your list and with ACT 31, you may not get in any of them. Now if your ACT is 36 or some thing, yeah, your list is achievable.</p>

10

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<p>With no parent contribution, but with parent earnings that disqualify you from any financial aid grants, you can probably at most afford about $10,000 ($5,500 federal direct loan plus $4,500 work earnings) at the outer limit.</p>

<p>This means that you need to aim for large merit scholarships. This means that you need to remake your list with that goal.</p>

<p>Start by finding a safety that you like with an automatic full ride:
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p>Then you can add match/reach schools (if you like them better than your safety school(s)) with competitive full rides (make the match/reach assessment based on the scholarship, not admission):
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;

<p>If you have any status from National Merit, here are more scholarships to look at:
<a href=“NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;