Chance a teen who likes farming and finance for T20s!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics: A male First generation, Middle-eastern/south asian, Californian.

Intended Majors (Likely only a combination of some of these): Writing, Agriculture, and Economics/Accounting.

GPA: 4.0/4.65

Rank: Top 15% of 650 (competitive school) increased course rigor should level me up

Test Scores: Haven’t taken them yet, planning on ACT

Coursework: Set to take 8/9 AP classes (2/3 currently enrolled in), 10+ honors, probably 2/3 miscellaneous college courses, and set to learn Arabic in community college for 2 1/2 years.

Awards: Sorta irrelevant, see below

Extracurriculars (Majority I’m still finishing up):

Crossbred my own variety of cantaloupe, named ‘Babur’

Made a unique variety of Saccharomyces cerevisiae named ‘Mortuus’ -*unrelated note but developing this is one of the biggest headaches out of all of these ECs

Speech and Debate: Appointee for assistant captain, multiple league finalist awards in Speech, NSDA Honor award, potentially going to the State competition

Amateur Herbarium Curator: Collected 40+ specimens of a 52+ acre park, documenting its entire flora. Shadowed a Professor, who was head of the university’s herbarium… Might be published at a library or philanthropy club.

Investment Club: President and founder, entered regional competitions consistently scoring in the top 20% of hundreds of teams, represented the team in a national essay competition

Member of my local governments youth commission

Volunteer mentor: Volunteered to help teach Ukrainian students English, mentored volunteers and implemented self-made unique curriculums.

Durrani Development Fund: An initiative I founded that is essentially an investment fund, with returns donated to helping develop impoverished Afghan businesses. Featured on a Non-Profit’s youtube channel.

3x Published Author: Semi-finalist poet in 2 national competitions and published in both of their anthologies, published in a literary journal and paid 30$

Internship with my city treasurer

Multiple investor certifications from the Global Securities institute

**LORs: Friend-like relations with all of them, should be reasonably strong

Cost Constraints: Need HELLLA aid, more than 90%

Schools:

  • Safety: Community College

  • Match: UCSD, SDSU

  • Reach: UPenn, Harvard, Princeton, UChicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Yale, and Stanford

P.S: Any observations on potential weak-spots in my application and/or advice to level up any areas would be deeply appreciated, thanks!

1 Like
2

What was the basis for the ACT score (33) you reported in your earlier topic?

(http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/chance-me-a-tired-first-gen-student/3622207/1.)

2 Likes
3

Cornell is an obvious academic fit based on your interests, but I don’t see it on your list.

13 Likes
4

So you’re a 4.0 UW but you are only top 15%?

I take it your are a Junior?

I would say your list is a bit wrong for your interests.

Harvard doesn’t have accounting for example nor does Princeton - and well check your list because others don’t either. For example, I believe just UCI and UCR have of the UCs.

Your “top” ranked accounting schools I know are Illiniois and Texas but frankly there’s many great ones. My nephew got from UNLV. Accounting is a hot job market with tons of openings throughout.

For Ag, many public schools were set up for this so a Texas A&M, Illinois, Purdue, iowa State, UGA and more might be your better bets.
You might find schools that have strong programs in all your interests.

But your list is - schools you heard are great but are not necessarily schools that either can meet your academic interests or are strong in those interests.

So I suggest you dig deeper.

PS - for UCs and CSUs, your ACT won’t matter as they are test blind.

PS - since you need a lot of aid, look at schools that have merit - huge auto merit - such as and you’ll need to look at their academic offerings but an Alabama (check out Blount Scholars), Arizona, Mississippi State, Mizzou and there will be many more. Of course, look at your UCs - but different ones and Cal State schools.

Finally, while you need a lot of aid, I encourage your family to pick a school that meets need (any of your reaches although I might choose Cornell given your excitement of agriculture). What your family needs to do is to fill out the net price calculator. The reason is, these schools all meet 100% of need you have - but it’s need as they determine it, not that your family does.

So these schools are $85K a year or getting close. If they determine your family can pay $40K a year, then they’re only going to give you $45K a year. If they determine you have no need, you’d be on the hook for all. Many have far less need then they think - because the schools define it. And many have no need but their parents limit what they’re willing to spend.

A school like Alabama, your cost all in would be under $20K.

You can also look at the WUE - with your interests, you’d get a discount at schools like - and this is just a few - Colorado State, U of Idaho, Oregon State, Utah, Washington State, Wyoming and more. These scholarships aren’t automatic but would be within grasp.

I think you have a great base to build from but you really need to expand your list, especially given your academic interests which I don’t personally see fitting overall.

Best of luck.

6 Likes
5

Given an agriculture interest, why aren’t the following schools on your list?

  • CSU Chico
  • CSU Fresno
  • CSU Monterey Bay
  • CSU Stanislaus
  • Cal Poly Pomona
  • Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
  • UC Davis (CAES)
  • Cornell (CALS)
8 Likes
6

I especially think the OP should be interested in UC Davis and Cal Ploy SLO given the agriculture interest!

7 Likes
7

Well - not if they’re interested in majoring in accounting (UCD) - but OP would really need to define their interests better. They have a minor.

But agreed, they have a lot of options - but not necessarily those they listed.

They have in-state options and high merit OOS options.

1 Like
8

It’s great that you’re in California, with a ton of great public options. In fact, several would be at the top of any list of agroeconomics programs, even ignoring the in-state tuition benefits. Two UC programs I’ll point out:

As others have mentioned, UC Davis’s Agricultural and Resource Economics department, with their Managerial Economics major, would be good to investigate.

And it’s a reach for all, but Berkeley’s Environmental Economics and Policy major within their Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics would also be good to look into.

5 Likes
9

Seriously, why would you not be looking at UC Davis or Iowa State?

10

Perhaps three things immediately jump out to me.

What does a 4.0 GPA mean? Does this mean that you only have A’s? If so, then how does this only put you in the top 15% of your high school? Weighted GPA is computed very differently at different high schools in the US. Unweighted GPA is usually more helpful, using a scale of A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, and so on.

Writing is a valuable skill, is useful in many careers, but by itself is a tough way to make a living.

Agriculture to me is a sensible major. However, if you are seriously interested in agriculture, then you need to attend a university that is good for agriculture.

I have visited Harvard many times. I never noticed them having a farm. I have a degree from Stanford. While its campus sometimes has the nickname “the farm”, this is because it was allegedly a farm before it became a university campus. Stanford has a large campus and it does have a riding stable, but again I never saw a farm there. Chicago is in the middle of a city. I have not been there, but doubt that it is the place to study agriculture.

To me “top 15%” makes schools such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, U.Chicago, or any of your reaches very unlikely. “One of the top 2 or 3 students in your high school” would be more typical of applicants to these schools, and most applicants are rejected.

Some good news: You are a very strong student. There are lots of universities that are very good for agriculture and that also have accounting and English as potential majors. Most of these are easier to get accepted to compared to your reach list. Also, several of these are WUE schools which might help you with the cost.

Which leads to another question: Are you familiar with the WUE program? WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) is the undergraduate part of WICHE (Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education), and gives some price breaks for students from western states attending universities in other western states, with some restrictions. California is a WICHE state, but of course also has quite a few very good in-state public universities.

The ranking of schools for agriculture is frequently very different compared to the overall ranking. Perhaps the most extreme example that I am personally aware of is Colorado State University. US News has it ranked 3rd in North America for veterinary medicine, and 151 overall. It deserves its excellent ranking for veterinary medicine. It’s DVM program is superb and the veterinary facilities are superb. Its overall ranking is quite a bit lower. One issue is that there really are more than 150 very good universities in the US. Another issue is that strong programs for agriculture and veterinary medicine are frequently located at schools that are not in big cities, but many of the highest ranked schools are in cities. There are a few highly ranked schools such as Cornell that are very good for agriculture (and veterinary medicine). UC Davis is also very good for agriculture (and veterinary medicine, and also viticulture).

I guess that I am saying rather slowly is that you should look for schools that are a good fit for what you are interested in studying, and that are a good fit for you. This might not be the highest ranked universities based on overall ranking.

I might add: To me agriculture and finance are reasonable potential majors that should be possible to combine in a useful way. Also, being able to write well has the potential to also be valuable for someone who combines agriculture and finance. Thus at least to me it looks quite reasonable to be considering these areas, with the understanding that most university students in the US explore several areas before they settle on a major.

3 Likes
11

As mentioned, top colleges for the study of agriculture in California include UC Davis and CSU Stanislaus.

12

I’m not up on all the California schools, but would UC Santa Cruz be of interest? They have a plant sciences major: https://admissions.ucsc.edu/programs/plant-sciences as well as Economics and Writing programs.

13

Penn State has a strong At/Ag business school.

Your agriculture interest will stand out far more in an applicant pool than finance would.

14

UC Davis and Cal Poly SLO should be on your list. Good luck!

1 Like
15

Both Montana State and UMN would be great schools for someone interested in both farming and economics. MSU is a WUE school and you’d also qualify for a lot of merit money.

UMN is an amazing school for ag research and has an applied economics major within CFANS (College of food and natural science). There are great youtube videos if you search for CFANS that show their research. My son was offered merit from both UMN and CFANS which really bought the price down. (The only downside being if you switched majors to one of the other colleges within UMN, it wouldn’t go with you, but you could probably apply for something within the college of whatever major you switch to)

Not sure how either of these schools are with financial aid but MSU tends to give a lot of money to top students.

1 Like
16

That was going to be my comment as well. The list feels more like prestige than academic interest match. I read the post expecting to see Cornell at the very top of the list.

4 Likes
17

No permanant housing

18

Hello, and thank you for the detailed reply. I know my apply list may seem very strange when considering my interest, and the reason for this (strangely enough) is that I’m too interested in them.
I have dreams that require a lot of money, Drawing on my love of finance, it seems that investment banking is the best way to earn it. The schools mentioned are the absolute best to get into IB, giving me a direct link to the funding I critically need. All of my interests can and have been done independently, this can only grow after I drop IB in a few years.

No matter the education, If I don’t get into investment banking, I can’t achieve my dream. So no school can be even considered for me, if It isn’t a target school, explaining the strange list.

19

Not sure I get it -

Are you saying you need to make a boat load of money so you can finance your dreams ?

Or are you hoping that these folks will finance your dream?

Either way - I think that’s a huge long shot and I think there are other ways to secure investors, etc.

3 Likes
20

I ger it. This has been a prime motivating factor for getting into HYPMS for as long as anyone can remember. You’re just saying the quiet part out loud. I can definitely see one of them taking a chance on a quirky kid with a spikey interest in botany (just don’t refer to it as the biggest “headache” of your ECs). OTOH, I agree with @brantly that your application would have a whole lot more credibility if (in addition to Cornell), at least a few of your T20 choices had a working farm attached to them:

**Dartmouth - **Organic Farm (dartmouth.edu)

Amherst - About Us | Book & Plow Farm | Amherst College

Wesleyan - The Wesleyan Argus | Long Lane Farm Keeps on Growing

Hamilton College (NY) - Community Farm - Home - Hamilton College

Middlebury - Middlebury College Organic Farm » About the Farm

Haverford - Haverfarm | Haverford College

4 Likes