At a Loss of Words

Lehigh

@lostaccount , a great school, but this student will never be admitted to Lehigh without demonstrating interest.

But if you have no extra $$, how ever are you going to afford college in New York City?
Many, many people do not apply to NYC schools due to the cost of living in NYC.
And some of the schools require plane tickets - will you be able to fund that?

I suspect you are not very familiar with LACs, so I will give you a few reasons why you should consider them.

Good opportunities for undergrad research, which is often more difficult to get in a research U.
High acceptance rates to grad school.
Focus on undergrads.
Easy to get to know profs.
Almost all classes are taught by profs.
Often have very strong alumni connections and active career centers.
Collaborative atmosphere.
Lots of classroom interaction.
Generous FA, often.

Yes, many universities offer these things as well. The people who you will be trying to get research and jobs with will know about LACs. You may not think they are prestigious because you don’t know much about them, but some of them are easily on par with HYP and the like. You need to be open to exploring other options, because your options, frankly, are limited by your circumstances.

P.S. Having read your essays, you may want to consider Reed, Harvey Mudd, Williams, Amherst, Pomona, and Swarthmore. They are all extremely difficult to get into, with the exception of Reed, which would be a match for you.

Of some of colleges mentioned previously:

Carleton: gives FA to DACA students, requires NCP or waiver, NPC says $4,000
https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/dos/daca_support/FAQs/?faq_id=1641992

Case Western Reserve: cannot find web page regarding FA to DACA students, requires NCP or waiver, NPC says $10,500

Dickinson: gives FA to DACA students, requires NCP or waiver, NPC says $6,000
https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20081/financial_aid/1116/how_to_apply

Macalester: gives FA to DACA students, requires NCP or waiver, NPC says not applicable to DACA students
https://www.macalester.edu/admissions/apply/undocumented/

Oberlin: gives FA to DACA students, requires NCP or waiver, NPC says $6,387
https://www.oberlin.edu/admissions-and-aid/arts-and-sciences/first-year-applicants#app-step-4

NPC numbers may not be as reliable as the usual case, since they may not account for DACA circumstances. NPCs were run assuming $0 income.

Note that since all of the above require the non-custodial parent or waiver, that introduces more financial aid uncertainty.

UIC and UIUC are likely unaffordable. Since you missed most merit aid deadlines (including Alabama’s) leave that to next year if you’re denied everywhere, saving your excellent test scores to use as leverage for scholarship money.
Have you completed the Request info forms?

Borrow a Fiske Guide and a Princeton Review’s Best Colleges. Read about the colleges on your list and highlight differences.

I don’t think you “get it” wrt to fit/vibe. it’s an elusive concept for sure, especially since you don’t have parental guidance. When we speak of vibe, or fit, we don’t speak of Evanston v. Hyde Park. It’s like a person’s personality. What kind of person do you imagine if I say: a nerdy kid who despises football and loves to play with fonts, discuss Infinite Jest or Kierkegaard, had a fight over a math proof, and has a group of friends with whom to hate-watch teen shows? Imagine a person who is into coaching football, watching wrestling or basketball, plays rugby and waterpolo, loves to get drunk on cocktails they invent each weekend, and is super grade conscious? Those may not be ALL that these two kids are - but they’re probably not the same person.
Northwestern and UChicago are as different as these.

Macalester should be your priority this week (TODAY). Do everything you can to show interest. Don’t just fill out the Request Info Form (although that’s a first step I hope you’ve already achieved). Request an interview. Email admissions with relevant questions. Ask to be put in touch with a current student doing research in …

Brandeis gives need based scholarships to international students. And it has a great program for premeds.

Tufts is proud of how much research is done at their university, and they have a med school. Tufts is infamous for wanting kids to show interest, so you should contact your regional rep and start asking some questions that aren’t easily seen in their website, and ask if they are sending a rep to your area.

Also, are you working to help your family? Does that appear clearly on your list of EC’s?
If not, can you have a job and save the money (all students are expected to contribute about $3,000 from summer work full time + Spring semester work part time)?

I agree with the posters above: your best bets are LACs. If you’re not familiar with them, start with USNWR’s list for top 50 and read through the Fiske Guide and Princeton review’s Best colleges.

Great suggestions everyone. Thank you. I do have Fiske’s Guide to Colleges which I do look at extensively, but I find them to be more anecdotal and perhaps off from what it’s really like - but perhaps that’s all I can work with really with things online.

I do “work” but I am really helping out my aunt in exchange for her helping my father with the bills and occasional clothing for winter and such.

Helping your aunt in exchange for hlep with bills and clothing IS work. You should list it in your common app.

@MYOS1634 Northwestern and UChicago aren’t as different as you think. UChicago has gone out of its way to recruit less quirky kids and its obsession with high test scores (ranking) that started a decade ago means its student body now has a large percentage of great test takers who are as conscious about grades and ranking as anybody else. Go to UChicago forum and many threads are related to how it compares to HYP, yield, prestige, blah blah. It’s odd that you called Northwestern “jokey” but suggested OP to add Vanderbilt. You also suggested Penn when people often liken Penn to Northwestern the most among the Ivies. Northwestern has plenty of nerds who don’t go to any football game. Its football attendance is relatively low despite having a pretty good team.

OP, I’m sorry for the disappointment.

I don’t think it’s been said yet: posters are naming colleges that your stats fit. But getting into a top holistic college is more than stats and desire. You need to show your match in various ways, the attributes they want need to show in your essays and the supp, and more. The Why Us needs to show what they want to see. It takes some understanding of what a target looks for.

You need to know more about any new colleges before applying, so you can do your best. Fiske is good. But that starts with what the colleges themselves say and show. Pick a few and try to start learning more about them, asap.

Also, you listed 4 AP, two with 4 scores. Are there other scores, esp in stem, if that’s your intended area? And ECs in stem, in that hs?

Best wishes.

And Chicago is going test optional, so they’ve changed that attitude.

@iwannahelp:
I agree Vanderbilt and Penn wouldn’t be close to UChicago, except Vanderbilt doesn’t require the NCP waiver and loves high test scores; Penn doesn’t distinguish between DACA and residents wrt financial aid. Northwestern’s wording in that matter isn’t clear.
All in all, OP should apply to Northwestern since they’re doing research there but shouldn’t count on an admission there.
I’m also afraid OP likes both due to proximity but hasn’t dug into their differences, which he needs to do.

“It’s odd that you called Northwestern “jokey” but suggested OP to add Vanderbilt. You also suggested Penn when people often liken Penn to Northwestern the most among the Ivies. Northwestern has plenty of nerds who don’t go to any football game. Its football attendance is relatively low despite having a pretty good team.”

I don’t think it was called jokey, but MYOS is pretty accurate in describing the differences and I’d agree that if you really found a fit at Chicago, NU wouln’t make much sense if you were reducing the number of colleges to apply. I also think the Hyde Park and Evanston are pretty different, having visited both.

I’ve finalized my list. It, unfortunately, seems like it will be a “prestige or bust” ordeal. My parents have said if I cannot get into a university this spring, I would take a gap year, continuing my research at Northwestern and publishing more papers in addition to working.

Perhaps you should consider an affordable state school? Many cant afford these schools nor are they eligible for financial aid. Quite frankly its sort of troublesome that you are only considering astronomically expensive private schools you cant afford

Is your dad remarried?

Your parents are probably not very knowledgeable about US colleges. It would be a mistake to take a gap year with the expectation that you get into a school next year that rejects you this year. And working and publishing gets you nowhere without a degree.

“Now I’m just becoming all too toxic, thinking maybe it was my race (asian), or it was because I was too poor, or if UChicago doesn’t really want DACA students…I’m just not sure at all how I was flat-out rejected and not even considered a reevaluation.”

Looks like UChicago is need-sensitive (their words) for international applicants, which would mean that ability to pay is a factor in admission, so it’s possible that they thought your family couldn’t pay at all, so since you’d be rejected RD anyway, you were rejected ED. If UChicago is going to take international applicants that need a lot of FA, they probably wouldn’t take them from Korea. Most international applicants from Asia that get admitted to selective schools are wealthy. If you were DACA from Mexico or Guatemala, different story.

Yep. That’s what I’ve come to realize. I know someone who also had similar stats as mine, was DACA, but need a lot of financial. He was rejected ED UChicago too. Its funny how Chicago tries so hard to be a HYP with its stats, but miss on some things that HYPS do (need blind for DACA/Undocumented).

@Jym626 No he is not remarried.

@Center The schools on my list are 100% demonstrated need and will be basically going on a full ride scholarship.