Thanks for the reply. The description of my essay may have been misleading. I am in no way attempting to trauma-dump, and I certainly understand that childhood trauma is not an inherently unique concept (nor one to be competitive about). While I want to acknowledge the experiences that have significantly impacted who I am today, I am not trying to center the essay around my dad’s death and my cultural background themselves, but rather the results (values, the actions I’ve taken, etc.). I’m not married to prompt one, but either way, it would be remiss not to infuse my background and major life-altering experiences into the essay to fully answer the prompt (I am not who I am without having experienced the aforementioned things). I am trying to veer away as much as possible from the infamous “sob story” and instead explain how my background/dad’s death has inspired/influenced me. While I’m still considering a different prompt, I will have to acknowledge these experiences regardless (making it tactful and not melodramatic).
“I also truly value access to research opportunities, but having faculty who actually care about teaching their students is imperative, as well. I’m looking for a place that will provide more closeness between students and professors (which is why I have a bunch of LACs on my list). I’m okay with a larger university like NYU or BU or my state university, if I can still carve out my niche and seek out relationships with professors. Otherwise, I’m kind of wary about the microscopic fish humongous pond situation.”
OP- I know you won’t believe me (nobody on CC does although I’ve had more impact on the kids I speak to IRL) but this describes virtually every single university in America.
If someone graduates from college without having had a close relationship with a faculty member, it’s on the student, not the professor. NOBODY goes into academia looking to avoid their students. There are more lucrative ways to earn a living than becoming a college professor!!!
I’ve posted before about a family member’s graduation from a Big Ten U… absolutely ginormous university-- commencement is in one of the biggest football stadiums in the country. But then each department has its own ceremony, and we saw multiple faculty members (in full robes, funky hat, etc.) rush the stage to hug their students. Students crying as they said goodbyes later on during the departmental reception. And a few years later (which is now) professors still providing job recommendations, references, picking up the phone to call colleagues at other universities for fellowship opportunities, etc.
LAC’s are very special, but there is no need to “avoid” a large university out of fear of not making close relationships with your professors. Any student who shows up for office hours- huge plus. Any student who seeks out research, editing opportunities, part time work fact-checking or indexing a professor’s paper/book- huge plus. Any student who attends class and is not absorbed in watching tik-tok on their phone- HUGE PLUS. Ask any professor!!!
Based on your clarifications, I’d look carefully at Wesleyan, Tufts and Brandeis, if their financial aid would work.
Both are within reasonable access to metropolitan areas, especially Tufts – 10 minutes outside Boston, and Brandeis which is 25 minutes outside Boston.
Being full-fledged Universities, they have more research opportunities than purely undergraduate colleges. Being small, there are more chances for the undergrads to participate in the more advanced research. And you still get that close-knit small college feel. Smaller classes, more opportunities to interact with professors, etc.
As to your GPA, you should computer the unweighted yourself – A/A+ are both 4.0, A- is 3.7, B+ is 3.3, etc.
It’s not as simple as that. Yes, it is on the student. But it’s not equally easy to forge relationships with faculty at all universities. If all your classes are small 10-person seminars, it’s going to be much easier for forge those relationships than if all your classes are 200 person lectures. It will be easier to forge relationships when you get direct feedback from professors instead of most communication going through TAs. It’s much easier to just “get lost in the shuffle” in larger universities.
I’ve personally known professors who try to minimize anything to do with actual teaching. They are there for the research opportunities, sometimes for the publishing opportunities or prestige. (When a retired politician accepts a teaching job at a T10 University, it often has nothing to do with wanting to interact with students).
While I agree that MOST people in academia want to interact with their students, it’s not universal.
Thank you for the reply. Our school regards A minuses as 4.0s and always has. I am 100% sure of this.
Yes, I understand your school calculates it that way. But that’s not how it’s being calculated when you see the stats listed for college admissions all over the internet, etc. So if you want a score that is meaningful for comparison, then you need to compute your GPA yourself. How your school does it is meaningless.
Right, but what half of schools in the country would consider the starting point of an A might vary from 92 to 93 (conversely with A+s being 97 or 98). Our transcripts only indicate letter grades (all grades on a semester by semester basis), so I don’t think it could give me much more meaning considering my As might be A minuses and my As might be A pluses depending on a multitude of different conversion scales.
There isn’t a multitude of conversion factors – For unweighted, 4.0 for A/A+ is the standard, 3.7 is the standard for A-, etc. When looking at reported unweighted online, that’s the standard they are all using.
Now, each college admissions office does their own additional weighting for honors, ap, etc. And for that, they each use a different standard. But when you use reports of unweighted, that’s universal. So that’s what is helpful for comparison purposes.
Not universally true. My kids attended U’s with TA’s (as did I and my spouse) and TA’s were used in very specific situations… supervising labs, small breakout groups for language instruction, running review sessions. NO communication (except for “you are going to blow up the building, don’t add magnesium”) went through TA’s. Professors taught, graded papers, ran office hours for anyone interested (which was usually 5% of the class, sometimes less).
I know lots of kids who got “lost in the shuffle” at some of the “famous” small LAC’s. Why? Because they wanted to. Parents think that at a small college professors are going to take on the scaffolding/nagging role they played during HS- no. Nobody drags you out of bed to go to class. Nobody insists you show up at a review session (even when the professor BEGS the class to attend). Nobody suggests you apply for a job editing a professor’s paper (all my kids did that… there was literally zero competition) instead of running yet another beer pong party with your free time.
College is filled with choices, and I cannot imagine a kid whose priority it is getting to know their professors being unable to do that.
It’s much much harder for a true introvert. Definitely not “impossible” to interact with professors in large universities with mostly large classes sizes. Never said a student would be unable to do it.
But it’s much easier in a smaller class setting, especially for an introvert. Where the professor will initiate the interaction in a classroom discussion, then where the student has to take the initiative.
For an introvert, the smaller setting is much much easier to interact with professors. (Of course, there are some large universities that also mostly have small class size – I’m talking more about class size than university size). Speaking as an introvert through my life, there is a natural anxiety about ever having to walk up to stranger to initiate communications.
I can see how this would suggest more accuracy. However, how would a college know that my alleged A is a 92% and therefore worth an A- if my school does not report percentages (but rather letter grades)? This applies to 97s as well. This would merely deflate my GPA without taking every letter sign into consideration. I’ll give it a try, but deliberating over technicalities in various grading scales feels tedious.
I agree with @blossom and @Dadto2NY. It’s entirely possible to go to a big school and get to know faculty well. I went to a big midwestern flagship and remain in contact with several faculty and staff. It also helped that I majored in a not-very-popular major (no huge classes), was in the honors program, and participated in various programs where there was a more intimate atmosphere. But I also became close with a professor who I had in larger classes as well, so it’s not impossible. When I was in an introductory CS class the instructors emailed me personally if office hours were going to be cancelled (primarily because I attended every single one).
I think that it might be easier to form closer relationships at a school with small classes (whether a liberal arts college or honors programs or other opportunities for smaller classes) BUT it is entirely possible to do at a big school.
It might feel tedious, but it’s what’s most likely to happen when a university recalculates your GPA. Best do it now so that you can see how schools are likely to view you rather than to be disappointed with your admission results because you based your applications on your school-derived GPA rather than the one that most colleges will use.
Every school submits a “profile” to the colleges you apply to, explaining the grading system. So yes, the college does know. Then the college will apply their own weighting system, after correcting for how the school does the grading.
For all the various “chance” sites you see on the internet, they are using the unweighted system.
Note that none of these schools appears in this list from U.S. News pertaining to research opportunities, however: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs. Moreover, purely undergraduate-focused colleges may offer more of the type of classroom experience the OP seeks: https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings?rankings=great-classroom-experience.
Some schools count minuses. Some just whole grades. You can’t know without looking but it doesn’t matter. Your record is your record and it’s fine at that.
You’ve done a nice job. You need aid. You want access to society so in my opinion, don’t try to justify a …well if the school provides this this or that because after you leave campus and hit the tiny surround, where will you go the next 3.75 years ? Start to look at where schools are relative to society. It’s clear from your writing that is important. So anyway that would be my guidance in selecting. And look at schools you can afford. UVM is wonderful but unless I’m missing something way out of your price range. U of Arizona…likely in…but barely(just one example).
My daughter had a great list. As we visited, schools like Miami of Ohio came off. And Elon. Why ? Because they lacked immediate access to society. She’s at an urban school - college of Charleston. But originally she was excited for those two and others like them. So as you visit some, that will become more apparent. Prestige lacks relevancy if you don’t like where you are. So don’t minimize that. You’ll know after visits if you are able to make some. Even go local. You can find similar environments…if you don’t have a way to travel.
So look at questbridge. Also, Look at schools that meet full need. I’ve attached a list. Many will be the same as questbridge. Run the NPCs. And while the top schools are wonderful, you need to add some 1-2 rungs below (and some of those like Franklin and Marshall or U Miami meet 100% need). Macalester, other than not NE, could work. And then another 1-2 below those (safety). You said your budget may be $25k but triple check with mom because that’s a lot based on salary. And have her run some NPCs.
You will have other in state and even out of state publics where you can hit the #. And UNC / UVA meet need for OOS although that may include loans u don’t want.
Edit : College of Wooster. Small town but Cleveland accessible. Known for research - they always advertise they and Princeton are always the top two of something research related. Check it out. It’s likely a safety for you and if you like it run the NPC.
But your gpa is inflated compared to some other schools. I think my daughter’s gpa was around a 3.8 junior year, one B, maybe 4 A- (3.7), the rest A’s (no A+ at our school). This was before the weighted GPA with honors/AP’s.
You’re not alone in your assessment of Wesleyan, at least as far as the CC board is concerned. Wes has received a couple of shout-outs recently for the strength of its undergraduate research:
Barnard does NOT provide “single-sex education”. The classes, campus, libraries, dining halls, fellow-students, staff, professors are ALL co-ed.
The ONLY thing that is “single-sex” are the dorms - at least in the first year. Even at that, you can still invite male friends and they can sleep over, but your room-/suite mates will be female. So think of it more as a super-sized sorority at an Ivy League co-ed university, except that you don’t have to pledge and there is no hazing.
From sophomore year on, you might choose to live in one of several nearby apartment buildings that the college shares with regular neighborhood tenants. They are still considered “college housing”, even though geographically they are “off campus”.
Wouldn’t it depend on whether or not the “minus” sign appears on the transcript? If the OP’s transcript doesn’t display the minus, there is no way the university would be able to figure out if an A is actually an A-.
That said, it is worth your time to recalculate if indeed the A- is there, even if it is calculated as an A by your school. This is exactly what my D22’s school does, and we did not recalculate. I wish we had because she had a number of A-'s over the years. She was rejected by nearly all very highly selective schools (including Yale, UPenn, Columbia, Tufts, Middlebury, even BU and USC. Waitlisted at Wesleyan.) I don’t say this to scare you–who’s to say if any one element led to the results, but she had a very good overall application with tons of rigor, good SAT scores, essays and ECs. What it would have done is helped us to be more realistic about the odds. Perhaps we would have played the ED card differently.
As it stands, she was accepted at UCLA and is thrilled. And it’s worth noting that UCs do not calculate plusses or minuses either. 
Thanks for the reply. Our transcripts do indicate letter signs (minuses and pluses). However, there are no exact percentages for the grades themselves; it’s just an A, A-, or A+. It is impossible for a college to know whether I got a 92 (an A by our standards but an A minus by theirs).