Biology Major, Massachusetts School, Academic, Not great Extras [NY resident, 4.0, 34, < $50k/year]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
US domestic : US citizen
State: New York (Westchester)
Type of high school: Public High School (l
Gender/Race/Ethnicity : African American & White Female
Other special factors *(first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): None

**Intended Major(s): Biology or Health Sciences and Political Science

**GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Class Rank: School does not rank
ACT/SAT Scores: ACT 34 (35 science, 36 reading, 30 math, 33 english)

Coursework

9th Grade- Honors biology, honors geometry, honors english
10th Grade: Honors Chemistry, Honors Trig, Honors Global, Honors English, Science Research
11th Grade: IB US History, AP Lang (waiting for score), Honors Pre Calc, Honors Physics, Science Research
12th (planned) AP Stat, AP Biology, IB US History, AP Calc ,

Awards

Awards

2021- Distinguished Freshman- Biology

2022- Distinguished Sophomore- Writing in Social Studies

2022- Science Research- 3rd Place Behavioral Science

2023- Distinguished Junior- PreCalculus and US History

Honor Society

Extracurriculars

Honor Society

Science Research

Clubs

Human Rights Club -9th grade to 12

Leos- 10th grade to 12

Fashion Club- 10th grade to 12

Peer Leadership- 11th grade - 12

Extracurricular

Work-

Local restaurant- Summer before 19th grade to present. Weekdays and weekends during summer, weekends during school year. First as a busser then as front of house hostess. Great experience!

Extensive babysitting for local families, one in particular with 3 young boys

Other activities:9th grade to 12th

National Social Services Organization - Teen Conference Committee

National Social Services Organization - Chapter Corresponding Secretary

National Social Services Organization - Regional Conference Volunteer Committee

Local NAACP Youth Group- Social Media Manager

Essays/LORs/Other
LoR: From Honors Physics and IB US history teacher
Essays: I expect these to be around 9 out of 10

Cost Constraints / Budget
• Really hoping for Merit Based aid
• Will not qualify for need based aid

• With two younger siblings, I’m expecting (hoping) for up to $50k per year from parents

School Preferences

Massachusetts or Rhode Island

Want to be within driving distance of NYC metro

Safety: SUNY Albany - Hoping for Honors College

Match: SUNY Binghamton

Reach: Brandeis, Northeastern, Boston College, Tufts, Harvard

Please recommend other safeties and matches in New England area

Thank you!

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Binghamton is a safety. Brandeis a likely. NEU and BC are - target if ED or reach if not.

When you say hoping for merit aid and won’t qualify for need based, then why Harvard and Tufts?

So - you can go to school for dirt cheap - maybe free - but not within the metro area. You’d have to travel.

Others to look at - Delaware and some LACs that have aid -such as Union or PA ones like Juniata, Susquehana. Also, look at GW.

But if you went further - you’d go for free or near free. Staying near home does have costs.

Great student - good luck.

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I think when you say MA ,you might really mean Boston. Clark would be a likely with good merit, however, it’s in Worcester and not Boston.

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I believe you will get accepted to Binghamton. You might want to add Buffalo to your list (might make honors).

If you will not qualify for need based aid, then I would remove Harvard and Tufts.

You can add URI - you might get some merit to bring it down to your desired cost. Look into UConn, U of Vermont, and Skidmore as well.

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Skidmore won’t make budget either (sounds like $50k). Their scholarships are few and small if I’m not mistaken. COA = $85k.

URI will make costs. Bryant could be another to look at.

While the student wants to go to RI or MA and Clark was a great thought, if they went west to PA LACs I believe they’d have more options and still access to NYC.

They want location and cost. So even NEU, Brandeis, and BC - while possible - are unlikely to work whereas a Clark can from a $$ pov.

As the student wants SUNY Albany Honors, I’d say that’s very realistic.

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Thanks, I wasn’t entirely sure but I figured I would mention it.

I think SUNY is a good option given costs and desired location.

Clark would work. I wonder if Pitt would work? Not sure if this student would get merit, but a little might make it affordable. I would add Delaware.

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The College of NJ (TCNJ) is an excellent school that will come in under $50,000 for OOS students. You can ask about merit.

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If this is a hard criteria, then BC is very unlikely to come through with merit aid. It offers around 15-16 merit scholarships total (the Gabelli Scholarship). That’s it. It’s a very nice full-ride scholarship, but with over 30,000 applicants and over 8000 accepted students, the chances of being one of the 16 offered this are incredibly slim. The school is pretty frank that it’s focus is pretty solely on offering need-based aid.

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Agree with adding a couple more SUNY schools to your application list.

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Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely look into Clark. I’m okay with the location.

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Bryant wasn’t on my radar. Thank you for that recommendation!

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I honestly don’t know how hard of a criteria it is. But I know with two other siblings coming right after me I have to be reasonable and realistic with what my parent are willing and able to give me. I would consider loans for the right school.

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One thing for the OP to think about is whether she would want/need to go to graduate school; if so, then conserving financial assets on the undergraduate level should be a goal. Which in turn will affect the choice of undergraduate college.

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Thanks for your safety and match recommendations. I would love to get a few more. Thank you!

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Mount Holyoke College seems like it could be a great fit for you.

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Agreed. D23 will be attending in the fall with a nice merit award. She also received a nice merit award from Clark.

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If you could expand beyond those two states - you could go to many others, even within range of NYC, and save. Schools in DE, NJ, PA - if interested in LACs.

If you went further (not in range of nyc), you could go dirt cheap.

But if NY is your state you have lots of low cost SUNY options. With a low paying major like bio or one that requires further schooling, that’s not a bad idea.

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Boston is 4h5m from NYC, at least at the time that I was using Google Maps. Thus, I decided to consider that the radius for any colleges that I suggest. I’ve sorted them by my very fallible sense of what I think your chances might be at these colleges for admission. They all offer sufficient merit aid to get within budget, but depending on the school, that can be much harder to get. The more competitive the school for admission, the harder it will likely be to get sufficient merit. There are so many schools where you are extremely likely to be admitted because you are such a strong candidate.

If you let us know more about your desires (for instance, do you only want urban schools) then we can provide more targeted suggestions (or eliminate a bunch from this list below). If you have feelings about Greek life, the importance of intercollegiate athletics, class sizes, the importance of being on a train route to NYC, religion, or anything else, just let us know.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • Drew (NJ): About 1600 undergrads, 48m from NYC

  • Emmanuel (MA): About 1900 undergrads, 4h5m from NYC. Part of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium where classes and extracurriculars are combined with Mass Coll. Of Art & Design, MCPHS, Simmons, and Wentworth)

  • Lincoln (PA ): HBCU of about 1800 undergrads, 2h43m from NYC

  • Muhlenberg (PA ): About 2100 undergrads, 1h48m from NYC

  • Saint Joseph’s (PA ): About 4200 undergrads, 1h41m from NYC

  • Seton Hall (NJ): About 6100 undergrads, 40m from NYC

  • Siena (NY): About 3500 undergrads, 2h46m from NYC

  • Stonehill (MA): About 2400 undergrads, 3h58m from NYC

  • Suffolk (MA): About 4200 undergrads, 4h5m from NYC

  • SUNY New Paltz: About 6300 undergrads, 1h48m from NYC

  • Susquehanna (PA ): About 2200 undergrads, 3h37m from NYC

  • U. of Delaware: About 19k undergrads, 2h16m from NYC

  • U. of Scranton (PA ): About 3500 undergrads, 2h33m from NYC

  • Ursinus (PA ): About 1600 undergrads, 2h1m from NYC

  • West Chester (PA ): About 14k undergrads, 2h5m from NYC

  • Wheaton (MA): About 1700 undergrads, 4h7m from NYC

Likely (60-79%)

  • Clark (MA): About 2300 undergrads, 3h23m from NYC

  • College of New Jersey: About 7k undergrads, 1h23m from NYC

  • Gettysburg (PA ): About 2400 undergrads, 3h37m from NYC

  • Howard (D.C.): HBCU of about 9k undergrads, 4h16m from NYC (I made a little exception as this one is about 10m further than the equivalent drive to Boston…but it definitely seemed worth mentioning.)

  • Marist (NY): About 5500 undergrads, 1h56m from NYC

  • Providence (RI): About 4200 undergrads, 3h28m from NYC

  • Union (NY): About 2100 undergrads, 2h56 from NYC

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Bryn Mawr (PA ): Women’s college of about 1400 undergrads in a consortium with Haverford and Swarthmore; 1h51m from NYC

  • Connecticut College: About 1800 undergrads, 2h35m from NYC

  • Lafayette (PA ): About 2700 undergrads, 1h30m from NYC

  • Mount Holyoke (MA): Women’s college of about 2200 undergrads in a consortium with Smith, Amherst, Hampshire, and U. Mass, 3h8m from NYC

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Smith (MA): Women’s college of about 2600 undergrads in a consortium with Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, Hampshire, and U. Mass, 3h11m from NYC

Low Probability (less than 20%)

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Talk to your family and figure out what the budget is. If there are three siblings, $50k/year for each one is a total of $600k for the three of you, and inflation’s only going up. Whatever the figure is, the board can help you find schools that are likely to be within that budget, and you won’t waste time on schools that are unlikely to hit it. The schools I mentioned in my previous post all have the potential to hit $50k or below, but not all will be able to go to various price points below that.

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Umass amherst will prob be low 40s per yr after merit, and give you honors college.

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