Alternative Public School → independent study model (no APs or honors classes)
White, middle to high income
no hooks (except talent at creative writing, but no major awards or publications)
-Legacy at Yale
Intended Major: English or Poli Sci
Weighted GPA: 4.04 (I took a couple of honors classes in my sophomore year, but at my current school as a junior there are no advanced classes offered. I am taking a dual-enrollment class and plan to take several next year but our district doesn’t weight those.)
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.93
Class Rank: School doesn’t rank (there’s only like 30 people in my grad class lol)
ACT/SAT Scores: haven’t taken yet but based on PSAT expected 1400 or so
No APs, couple of honors classes, very advanced in Spanish, relatively advanced in math, lots of dual-enrollment expected. I am doing a program next year where I will do a legal internship for hs credit.
Awards:
No individual really → my mock trial team won county championship 2022, 2023, and expected 2024 and won state championship 2022
Extracurriculars:
Mock trial all four years, captain as a senior
20 hrs a week job
internship senior year
various political volunteering/organizing
Essays/LORs/Other
I expect essays to be very good → I am a good writer
LORs will be average to good → my teachers know me very well since they have so few students
Cost Constraints / Budget
I’m looking to pay no more than 40k per year all-in
don’t qualify for need-based aid
hoping for merit from private schools based on gpa
Schools
Safety - UC Riverside, SF State, Oregon State
Match - UCSC, SDSU
Reach - UCLA, Cal, Barnard, Yale
What I want in a school: I love a small, liberal-arts feel, but without the price tag. I would love some suggestions that match me!!
At the Ivy’s, everyone accepted would meet “merit” criteria, so that’s not a thing. Consequently Barnard and Yale would be outside your parameters, at about twice cost target.
There are plenty of other highly ranked schools that will extend merit offers to attract top students.
Yale costs more than $40k per year and does not have merit scholarships (only need-based financial aid).
SFSU would be a safety if you meet baseline CSU admission standards and your major is not impacted (English and political science are not impacted there). Sonoma State University markets itself as more LAC-like (part of COPLAC), and would also be a safety (it is also one of the more residential CSUs). Some of the other COPLAC schools like University of Minnesota - Morris or Truman State University may also be within your price limit even at out-of-state prices.
For UCs, here is some information on admission rates by recalculated GPA bands:
These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).
Note that the weighted-capped GPA is also used for CSU, but a semester college course counts as two courses and grades for CSU, versus one course and grade for UC.