Chance a nervous junior from a tiny Bay Area city for some crazy reaches + tell me how to improve!

Hi! Basically my B+/A- was in the same class at the highest level math program at my school. It’s the only class where tests were more than 50% of my grade, and the teachers purposely try to get as many students out of the program as possible, and they basically end up by 11th grade with only kids who want to major in pure mathematics. Our district has literally had full school board meetings regarding this, as the result is a senior calc class of 10 wealthy east asian/white students, while other classes have 35+ kids and are majority black/brown/south asian students. It had me studying for 3+ hours on weekends and still having a hard time with college-level test problems as a sophomore, and I decided it wasn’t worth it and worked with my counselor to figure out dual enrollment. My CC calc class is online and open notes, and my other classes have tests worth less than 50% of our grade/no final tests at all because they’re prepping hardcore for AP exams. So if I do all my classwork, I’m projected to get As, but yes, I do know something could come up.

The value of the applicant’s residence home is not included in the assets calculation in Princeton’s FA estimator.

My school has both Calc AB and BC, and AP Physics/Bio/Chem/Comp Sci A, but the math classes are taught completely differently. As I’ve mentioned in a separate comment, BC is incredibly hard to take- 3+ hours studying a night every weekend for just the sophomore class (you need to do accl. math courses every year), so it ends up being 10-12 students by senior year. These are kids who only want to do math, and literally do very few other things because this program is a huge time commitment. We are told to not take it unless we want to study math in college or become a physicist. I did the accelerated class until junior year, at which point we can take calc AB. But as I’ve said above, the teachers do not teach, and it was an unnecessary use of my free time. I can’t take AP Calc AB as a junior by school policy, and so community college was my only option aside from dropping down into a 40 kid class where they ran out of chairs to use so kids sat on the extra desks with clipboards. Science/Comp Sci A is just not my forte and I’ve never done it beyond filling the prerequisites like basic Chem and Bio which are very simple- there’s a huge gap between them and the APs… I thought that taking classes which were aligned with my intended major would make the most sense. According to my counselor, all the APs at my school are considered equally rigorous, and the AP ES teacher is a strict grader and has no tolerance for late work, and my schedule would be “most rigorous” with no free periods and CC classes, which few students take. If my counselor says my schedule is one of the most rigorous ones possible and notes that I sought out CC classes, would that matter for anything? Or should I still do AP Bio or Chem next year?

My Comp Gov teacher did SFS at Georgetown and lived in DC for a bit before realizing that he wanted to teach, so he’s putting me in touch with friends at Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and one person at the State Dept. for summer internships- my grandparents live in Brooklyn and my godmother lives in a DC suburb so I would have a place to stay. I know of several legal human rights nonprofits through him that have MENA divisions, and according to him the pay isn’t too bad (although the person he knows at one of them said they only take law students, so no high school interns there).

You are an amazing applicant and should be proud of your accomplishments to date!! Keep up the good work and enjoy your activities this year.

While you have plenty of time, I agree with others that you should at least have a preliminary conversation with your parents about budget (for undergrad and potentially grad/law school) so you aren’t investing too much time on schools that aren’t affordable.

Should you decide to expand your list, you may want to consider schools that are part of the The Shepherd Higher Education Consortium on Poverty (SHECP).

SHECP encourages the study of poverty as a complex social problem, by expanding and improving educational opportunities for college students in a wide range of disciplines and career trajectories. Through its programs, SHECP and its member institutions prepare students for a lifetime of professional and civic efforts to diminish poverty and enhance human capability, while also supporting connections among students, faculty, staff, and alumni engaged in the study of poverty.

SHECP - Member Schools

My D attends one of the partner schools and was matched to her summer internship through SHECP. Through SHECP she will get a minor in Poverty and Human Capability Studies.

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Oh cool! I see Middlebury is on there, and it’s the second time I’ve seen something about Washington and Lee’s IR program, so I’ll be looking into it as well.

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My D interned this summer with kids from Middlebury and other SHECP institutions and appreciated getting to know kids from other schools.

She is at W&L so let me know if you have any questions about her experience, their programs and merit opportunities.

Best of luck!!

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Based on the quote above, it is very unlikely you will have a shot at the top10-20 schools unless you are one of those top kids you described who take the hard math courses despite the teachers, take the challenging APs in science, don’t have free periods, etc. There are kids who thrive and do very well with such dynamics, and still get plenty of sleep and free time. The type who are always getting in the top 1-3 scores on every test and would still get As if it were just based on a test average. Those are the types of students these super -reach schools like Princeton can get, and they have way more than enough to chose from. I don’t think it seems as though you would thrive among that type of student. Those schools are NOT good fits for most high school students, and that is fine because there are hundreds and hundreds of schools out there which will fit what you need. Based on your description of how math has gone for you, and science not being your forte, I do not think you should take AP bio or Chem(but ask your teachers), and I think you need a much more reasonable list.

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I mean, most of the students who went to those schools from my HS, even 1 of the 2 who go to MIT, take the AB Calc program or did what I’m doing and did the BC equivalent at CC and took the test senior year, just because the kids who do the school program don’t have time for other things or are just math-loving kids who don’t want to do ECs- we are not very competitive. Of the 10 kids who did BC in-school last year, 5 went to UCSC, UCD, or UCSB, and the other 5 went to UCLA, RIT, ASU, and Manoa. The two students who went to Pomona and Stanford did AP AB Calc.

But I also get that my list is pretty full of reaches- I will try to add more targets and safeties. I just thought that as someone who does not want to do anything STEM-related, it would be unnecessary to take all the hardest STEM courses. We’re only allowed 3 APs and no double sciences, so it’s impossible to do all of AP ES/AP Bio/AP Chem/AP Physics, and my course rigor will be marked equally difficult if I take all of the most difficult humanities courses and take the highest-level math course outside of school, and I thought additional Econ courses will help as that’s the kind of math involved in IR.

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You’re fine - your reaches are reaches for a reason. For IR, a Gtown or Tufts are difficult but you’re also worthy of applying anywhere in the country.

So add an Occidental, Macalester, Connecticut - these type schools or Brandeis and maybe American or GW (if you like urban) as a back up - and you’ll be ok.

UGA is an excellent IR OOS program…but obviously different than what you’ve looked at.

And W&L because the Johnson is just so worth it - same with the Frederick Douglas at AU.

You may want to thin your list at the top - these schools are not easy apps.

Best of luck.

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If you like the idea of an LAC, but also would like to pursue internships and experiences in New York City or D.C., look into Hamilton, which offers semester-length programs in these cities:

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I am much more optimistic. I think OP would thrive at Princeton. Even so, Princeton denies over 94% of its applicants, so every applicant (except mega-donors, recruited athletes etc) has to be realistic. The good news is that OP is making a balanced list of terrific schools, and she will thrive at any of them.

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Counts for Yale.

Definitely run the NPC. Depending on family assets, at the income level you posted, there might be relatively little difference in cost, net of FA, between a generous FA college like Princeton vs many of the UC’s.

This is a good list for your accomplishments. Definitely SCEA Princeton and see where the chips fall.

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Your near-4.0 U/W grade, and a possible mid-1500 SAT, and your diverse extracurriculars, means you are as good as a candidate for the schools as anyone.

Completely unrelated to your stats, with the rejection rate by half of these colleges on your list the likelihood for anyone of not being admitted is always >90%, because they only have spots for single-digit percentages of all their equally-excellent applicants.

I’m guessing that between Tufts, BU, Williams, Middlebury, Georgetown, there is a reasonable chance to see an admission offer.

So my advice is:

a) to identify may be 3 additional colleges that can act as safety, where you might possible fit into an honors program, possibly even offered merit aid because they want someone of your caliber.

b) to see if over the next few months you can identify ONE top choice, that you are certain you absolutely would love to attend IF admitted. (Not everyone will have that certainty!) If so, applying Early Decision to your top choice can sometimes drastically improve your chances. Some colleges, like Barnard, do fill a large percentage of their class during ED (thereby locking in their top applicants) - leaving the much larger pool of regular decision applicants with a miniscule acceptance rate.

PS: I remember my daughter returning from Girls’ State, enthralled about having been surrounded by all these bright young women. Congratulations for being chosen - and I think it’s a perfect fit for the current academic direction you are seeking!

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