Chance daughter for UCs, Northwestern, NYU, Barnard, Ivies?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Wanting to know the true odds of her getting into any of these colleges. Thanks.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.97 UW</p>

<p>APs/Honors: Honors English and Honors Math every year, AP USH (AP not offered until Junior year).
Next Year: AP Stats, AP Lit, AP US Gov, AP Psych</p>

<p>ACT:
Cumulative - 32
English - 35
Math - 29
Reading - 35
Science - 30
(Retaking Sept.)</p>

<p>Class Rank: top 9%</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/Service:</p>

<p>NHS 3 yr, officer 2 yr
DECA 2 yr, officer 2 yr (likely President next year)
Elections Committee 3 yr, President 1 yr
Youth City Council Member 1 yr (service committee)
Volunteer at local Children's Museum - many hours. Designed exhibits, brochures, painted and fixed building, VERY involved here (see work).
President of church group 1 year, counselor/secretary 3 years - hosted major activities, designed everything
Counseling Center's Advisory Board, 2 years
~200 hours general service
Utah Business Week Attendee
Helped open and run school store as a DECA fundraiser</p>

<p>Work Experience:</p>

<p>Social Media Manager of Children's Museum</p>

<p>Awards/Accomplishments:</p>

<p>Article published in state sports newspaper
Honorable Mention in statewide story contest
Elks Lodge Student of the Year for High School
DECA student of the year, 2 yrs
Regional, state, and International DECA awards
FBLA awards
"Silver" award from school - recognition for participating in school clubs/organizations, leadership, high grades, and rigorous course load</p>

<p>Possible Majors: Business/Marketing, Journalism</p>

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<p>We are from Utah, by the way so it would be out of state for all of these colleges. Thanks.</p>

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<p>Student government next year too sorry</p>

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<p>Does she have a hook?</p>

5

<p>You d’s stats are definitely competitive for NYU & Barnard; Utah is a slight tip for her (geographic diversity).</p>

<p>If she were in-state for California, admission to the UC’s would be no problem, but it’s a lot harder to predict for out-of-state. </p>

<p>If you can pay full cost for the UC’s – think twice, as a California resident I still think that the UC’s provide an excellent education at a reasonable price for we residents, but I don’t think it’s worth paying private-school rate for all of the typical big-school drawbacks (large classes, TA’s, campus bureaucracy, etc.). </p>

<p>On the other hand, if you need financial aid, I don’t think you can expect much from the UC’s as an out-of-stater and you are likely to be very disappointed in whatever you get from NYU as well. </p>

<p>Without more info it doesn’t look like your daughter is competitive for Ivies. I’m wondering about that top 9% rank - but that’s outside of my experience. My d. was accepted at Barnard & NYU, so those are the schools where I am more familiar with admission practices. </p>

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<p>No hook. What makes me think she stands out is her international awards and her involvement with our Children’s Museum. I don’t think that many teens have actually designed museum exhibits or ran major social media platforms for a 200,000 visitor p/y museum! Thanks for your opinions. Do you think these ECs are good?</p>

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<p>I think your daughter’s EC’s are excellent and she is sure to be admitted to many excellent colleges --it’s just that the Ivies are another story altogether. If you want a happy result for her in the end, focus on fit and not on the label. If there is an Ivy that has a special program or offering that she really loves – then go for it – but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that she needs to base her college search on rankings. You could go crazy doing that, collect a bunch of rejections, and then see some kid at her high school with lower GPA and test scores but a lot of talent with a football get accepted to her “dream” school over her. The fact that you posted a question about “Ivies” rather than a specific school (Yale? Brown?) suggests to me that there isn’t an Ivy out there right now that is calling to her. </p>

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<p>With the fierce competition from high stats kids, the Ivies can cherry pick based on the rest of the story and the strengths in the app itself. So, you have to really know what each is about, its own image and what it looks for- and pick the one or two that really ring for you and where you will, for them. Also, look into their majors- the closest is usually econ, not the usual “business/marketing” and I don’t think any are offering journalism undergrad, unless something recently changed. In any event, depending on what she wants to do with journ, some good advice is to become a subject specialist with solid writing and analysis experience. Best wishes.</p>

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<p>@VW1965‌ I fear that you are over estimating her chances. Let’s put this in perspective. These are very competitive schools who receive a ton of applications. I think there is a good shot that she can get in, but I don’t think one EC is going to be the straw that breaks the camels back. Maybe I am not a good example because I live by a lot of museums, but I am in NYS and a lot of kids curate museum exhibits and work at museums over here. There are tons of internship opportunities. Just saying. She lives in Utah and there are surely not a lot of Utah natives going to school in New York City, so that may help a bit.</p>

<p>Northwestern, UCLA, UC Berkeley, and every Ivy will be a reach. If you want to get into an ivy without a hook (legacy, URM, low income, recruited athlete) you have to have higher test scores. She is OOS for the UCs which make them a reach. And for Northwestern, her scores are just barely in the middle of the pack. The same thing applies with what I said for the Ivies. If she has no hook, she is gonna need higher test scores.</p>

<p>Have you ran NPC yet? Northwestern and the Ivies don’t offer merit aid, so it may not be completely affordable even though they meet full need.</p>

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<p>We are low income but how is that a hook?</p>

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<p>If she got into Columbia (her dream school) she’d get 100% aid because we are low income.</p>

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<p>You cannot say that until you run the NPCs. And then see the actual offer. Certain situations such as self-employment, remarriage, etc can also throw off calculations. Nearly every top tier school expects some family and student contribution.</p>

<p>Whether or not low income is a tip depends on student achievement- not just in stats, but in the challenges they took on, their impact- and the self-presentation in the app itself. In addition to researching the individual colleges and boning up on financial aid, see if you can find a sample of the Common App and the colleges’ supplemental apps, to see what sorts of info they ask for and questions they ask. </p>

<p>NYC sounds like a reasonable location, with her interests in business, journalism and the museum experience. But there is no substitute for doing the research. This is not all about stats.</p>

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<p>@VW1965 – your daughter is unlikely to be admitted to Columbia with the info that you’ve posted. But it will probably cost you $$ to send test scores and pay feeds for the CSS Profile (needed for financial aid apps) for every school, even if you qualify for waivers of school application fees. </p>

<p>That doesn’t mean it’s impossible – but if all Columbia applicants were on equal footing, she’s still have slim chances (they have something like an 8% admit rate). </p>

<p>Let me ask you this: how does your daughter’s museum work help Columbia? That is, what benefit is it to the school to admit a student with your kid’s profile over, say, a recruitable athlete? If your daughter wants an edge over other applicants, then she needs to figure out what she has to offer colleges, and which colleges will value (or need) whatever she has to offer. And if she doesn’t have that “edge” - then applying to an Ivy is like buying a lottery ticket. </p>

<p>If you are low income, I’d say forget NYU – your daughter will probably get in, but they leverage their aid so it works more like merit aid than need based–only the very top applicants (I think top 5%) will get generous aid-- most of the rest will be offered only token amounts, far less than what is needed for NYU"s very high costs.</p>

<p>Barnard is still a go – I think your D. would be a very attractive candidate – Barnard’s admissions are far more holistic than Columbia’s, and I think they would like your d’s strong level of community involvement. Still no guarantees – but definitely worth applying, and they do meet full need (but also do build loans into their financial aid packages).</p>

<p>From there, expand the search to LAC’s which offer full-need aid or which are generous with combined need/merit aid, but have somewhat higher admit rates. Look at Smith, Mt.Holyoke, Bryn Mawr – and look beyond the east coast, at schools like Grinnell or Beloit. </p>

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<p>Thanks guys. Lots to look into.</p>