Chance a rural, low-income student interested in bio research for T20 and make recommendations!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: rural southeast
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): small public (about 120 in class)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Caucasian
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): low-income, single-parent family, parent disabled

Intended Major(s): biology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores:

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0 (all As)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): not weighted
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank: 2/120
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1480 PSAT; 34 pre-ACT

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s)): 3 AP classes, all honors classes as available. 5 on both AP exams taken so far. School offers very few AP classes, but will take all offered. 1 DE class.

Awards: Top 10 National Beta in academic subject for two years. 1st and 2nd place at state Beta in academic subject. Qualified/participated in National Small School Quiz Bowl two years. 3rd place Individual Top Score in quiz bowl tournament. Silver Key from Scholastic Writing Competition.

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience):

attended competitive AI4All program after 9th grade;

selected for summer research program at top university. As part of program, conducted research and prepared poster and gave oral presentation. Paper was submitted for publication, and I will be a co-author.

volunteer at school’s tutoring center. Co-founded debate club.

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
  • Match
  • Reach
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What year in high school are you?

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Kara, congrats on your accomplishments.

What year are you? What’s a pre-ACT? A practice?

What’s a top 20 school? A top 20 US News? Forbes? Fortune? In Bio??

Let’s not focus on that - let’s focus on - what do you seek - from a size, location, geographic situation. Are you interested in Greek life or school spirit (sports)? Do you like warm or cold?

Is cost an issue? If so, do you know what your family can afford? A good way to find out is to have your parent fill out a net price calculator for a few schools - say an Emory and a Duke - since you’re in the south.

Congrats on what you’ve accomplished but tell us more - because top 20 - i’ll just tell you every one is going to be a reach and most of them will be different from one another - so that’s no way to choose a school - in my opinion.

And I’ll leave you with this - I’m from Williamson County TN - so Southern but not rural. My daughter’s valedictorian had a 4.0 with 10 or 11 APs (a 4.6), a 36 ACT and applied to 16 of the top 20 - and was 0 for 16.

What state are you from because some - like Florida - have awesome programs for kids like yourself.

So given you have to spend four years at a school, day after day, let’s find the right school for you rather than one you can brag to people about that you got into.

Thanks

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This is a shorter version of the ACT, commonly for 10th grade students, calibrated to predict results on the actual ACT.

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As @tsbna44 mentioned, we need more information to help generate recommendations for you. Unless your family is willing and able to pay $80,000/year for four years, you need to find out what your budget is. You also will need your family to run a Net Price Calculator at a school (perhaps Emory and Harvard, for example) to see whether the school estimates an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) that is within your family’s budget. If the EFC is within budget, then meet-needs schools are possibilities. If the EFC is not within budget (and for many, many families, it is not), then the focus would need to be on schools that offer merit aid to bring the cost into budget.

Letting us know more about the size of the institution, whether you prefer urban/suburban/rural, what areas of the country you’d like (or like to avoid), if you have any particular interests that you would like to start or continue in college, how you feel about sports, Greek life, etc, will all be very helpful.

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In our school it is also taken in 11th grade.

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I am in the 11th grade. I think a larger university would give me more opportunities to do research and have a large variety of biology courses. I care more about the opportunities a school offers than the location, though it would be nice to have a city near. I’m not very interested in sports or Greek life. I will need financial aid and hope to attend a school that meets financial needs.

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With respect to opportunities for undergraduate research, colleges from this list from U.S. News, such as — using examples of schools with strong biology departments — Amherst, Swarthmore, or Wellesley, may be of interest: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs.

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That’s perfect! I didn’t realize that ranking of research programs existed. Thank you!

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Which southeastern state are you in? Most larger colleges are publics, and if they meet need, they will frequently only due it for in-state students. There are a couple (UNC and UVA) that will meet need no matter where in the U.S. you are from, and others meet need for out-of-state students if their family income is below a certain amount (perhaps about $60 or $75k?).

You will be able to do research at any university, though at an institution that focuses more on undergrads, those undergrads are often able to get better research opportunities than at larger research institutions with a large grad school population. Would you be open to a smaller school with a larger number of bio majors (and hence, variety of bio courses)? Or do you prefer other aspects of a big university?

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With respect to costs, this site can be helpful for intitial estimates for dozens of colleges:

You can substantiate the results for schools of interest through individual Net Price Calculators.

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Thank you! I would prefer to attend a school in a different state. I didn’t realize that some state universities would give financial aid to out-of-state students, so I haven’t even considered them. I definitely will look at UNC and UVA and others.

I definitely would be open to a smaller school with a strong biology department!

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Will you qualify for Questbridge?

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So there are a lot of meets needs schools out there - some meet with grants, some with grants and loans, and some even make you work part time. I put a link here.

You didn’t mention your state - but it’s likely your state flagship or another school will have generous merit. With your statistics, that goes even outside the state.

While many of these have big greek and sports presence, you’ll still have tons of smart kids not interested - so you’d have your chance to find your own people.

For something like bio, you’ll have opportunities most anywhere. If you had a specific area of bio of interest, it might make things more difficult.

While you say you have need, please have your parents fill out a few net price calculators - because often times you don’t have the need that you believe (depends on the school).

If for some reason you find the net price calculators not meeting the #s you need, there are many fine schools, public and private, that offer significant merit aid.

Also, some schools like Washington & Lee, SMU, U of Seattle (and others) have full ride - not easy to get but in some cases not impossible - so that’s another avenue.

Give you have a disabled parent and are in a single parent family, do you know if the family income is $65K or less? If it is, then Quesbridge (also linked) might be an option for you.

Let us know - your state, family income, etc. - so we can provide further help.

QuestBridge

Here’s Every College That Offers 100% Financial Aid (prepscholar.com)

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Thank you so much! I am planning on applying to QuestBridge. Our family income is well below
$65,000. Thank you for the suggestions for schools and the links to schools that provide 100% financial aid. I definitely will look at them.

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I would also become very familiar with the net price of schools. It’s not always a matter of seeing whether they say they meet 100% of need or not. That’s because schools define what the need is. Some schools are more generous in terms of the cost of transportation, books, and living expenses, while others are not. This post can give you an idea of what I mean.

College Navigator is a site set up by the federal government, and it lists an array of information like the number of majors in a field from the most recent graduating class. It also includes the net price, so how much families at different income levels paid. It will show the typical price for a family with an income of $0-30k, $30-48k, and $48-75k (and there are categories going even higher). So this can also be a quick way to see whether the school’s Net Price Calculator (which is more detailed and going to be more accurate) is likely to be in the right ballpark or not.

Do you have an idea if your budget is less than $5k? $10k? $15k? $20k?

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Would you mind sharing your state of residence?

Questbridge will definitely be a great option of consideration - and it’s, I believe, a full ride at some outstanding schools.

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I’m in Tennessee.

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That’s extremely helpful info! Thank you. I wasn’t aware that schools estimated costs differently. (I’m new to my college search.) I think my budget would be equal to what I could earn working during school and the summer, so probably around $5,000 or so.

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That’s helpful to know. You will still want to run the Net Price Calculator with your family’s income because unless you meet some strict requirements, your family’s income will also be included when determining your need, not just what you can pay from your own employment.

I had already started looking up some colleges. So that you (or others) do not look these same schools up to find their prices, here is where I stopped in my research. I will now try and concentrate on $5k or below, or $10k with loans (which we will seek to avoid for you, but which may become necessary).

  • Brandeis (MA): $11,623 up to $30k; $12,733 up to $48k; $18,911 up to $75k

  • Boston C. (MA): $12,230 up to $30k; $14,368 up to $48k; $12,780 up to $75k

  • Boston U. (MA): $11,832 up to $30k; $8,835 up to $48k; $15,046 up to $75k’

  • U. of Richmond (VA): $13,27 up to $30k; $12,860 up to $48k; $13,389 up to $75k

  • Brown (RI): $4849 up to $30k; $5870 up to $48k; $8446 up to $75k

  • Columbia (NY): no cost up to $75k

  • Cornell (NY): $1,862 up to $30k; $1953 up to $48k; $4,035 up to $75k

  • Duke (NC): $2945 up to $30k; $4301 up to $48k; $10,304 up to $75k

  • Emory (GA): $9311 up to $30k; $11,416 up to $48k; $15,486 up to $75k

  • Rice (TX): $5578 up to $30k; $5959 up to $48k; $6320 up to $75k

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