Chance help? I'm so lost!!

Spare the long introduction of my crying and stress – I’ve picked out a couple of colleges I’m interested in and probably will apply to.

Hunter College
Barnard (reach school)
McGill
SVA
Pratt
Baruch
Berekley (not entirely sure about this one yet)

I am just finishing my junior year at HS. I have a unweighted 3.0 GPA, mostly As and Bs, and I’ve never failed a class. I’ve taken 4 AP classes and have gotten B+ in all; I plan to take more senior year. My strongest academic strength is English, I’ve always been an avid reader and a powerful writer. I took the ACT my freshman year just so see what it was like, and I scored a 26 with no prior studying. This year, obviously I’ve studied and I’m striving for at least a 30. Not taking the SAT until senior year, I thought it’d be best to focus on getting a good ACT score.

I’ve been in 4 clubs throughout HS, but am currently in 1. The longest club I’ve been a part of was a community service club I was a part of for freshmen and sophomore year.

My dream is to go to college in NYC and experience the city at it’s fullest. I have a passion for learning about different cultures and I love languages. I have self-taught myself Korean since I was 14, I’m at an advanced level. Throughout my HS life, I’ve had many different hobbies outside of school and aquired a multitude of skills, i.e music producing, coding, lots of various arts, video editing. Basically…I think my attitude is that I’d rather focus on things I genuinely enjoy doing for me and not things I hate (math and science lol) for a grade. That’s probably the worst attitude to have…haha.

My overall goal is to go to a good liberal arts college and earn an English degree, since I don’t know what I want to do when I graduate.

If anyone is familar with any of these schools, please leave me your thoughts! Do you think I have a chance? I’ve been stressing soooo much over college and chances and whatnot :(( What are some things I can do to better my chances? I hope I explained myself well enough.

You can’t apply to a UC from oos if you don’t have a 3.4.
Strictly speaking the best time for you to be in NYC is not as a student but as a fully employed graduate - without money the city isn’t as much fun.
If you’re a California resident, you may be competitive for UCM that’s about it I think (@gumbymom?) since GPA is a primary factor.
I’d look at CSu’s especially Sonoma and the Hutchins program.
McGill is out of reach with these stats but you may have a shot at Concordia.
Look at St Michael’s for a match college in a big city. LaSalle is another college in a big city for your stats. Hamline, St Catherine 's, Augsburg in the Twin cities. Elmhurst, DePaul, Loyola in Chicago. UScranton is border from NYC.
Eckerd has an excellent English program (Denis Lehane conducts workshops).
Baruch is for business, accounting, finance, definitely not liberal arts and English.
What’s your budget? Can your parents afford their EFC?
Run the NPC on the colleges listed above and bring the results to your parents.

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@MYOS1634 Thank you very much for the informative reply! I really appreciate the school suggestions from the Twin Cities, especially. My family has about a $25-30 budget, but they’ve expressed they don’t want money to prevent me from going to a good school. Do you have any opinions of HUnter? I think that will be my top choice. I know the average GPA is 3.1, I think if I get a 30 or above on my ACT and write a strong essay, i have a decent chance at being accepted

“they don’t want money to prevent me from going to a good school” means your parents would take loans for you, which is not a good idea.
So, consider your parents can afford 25-30K. Then add 5.5K loan. 30-35K is your budget.
tart working and setting money aside to add to your budget - if you start this summer with a full time job and about 8 hours during the school year, you should be able to have 5K.
What state are you a resident of?
Hunter has all kinds of problems: oversubscribed, overcrowded, budget problems and it’s 99% commuter. If you live in the city it’s a cheap alternative (no tuition, so you can just commute) but there are better CUNY’s.

@MYOS1634 I am a Vermont state resident, but I have relatives who live in NY, near NYC and I can list their address as my residency (that’s what they told me). I know the Hunter problems, the big one being the limited dorms of course. I appreciate your help, this whole college thing is very new to me:) I went to visit Hunter over winter break, and I really did like it. The other CUNY I was maybe considering was Brooklyn, but I don’t know very much about it, so I will research it more.

There is no financial aid for OOS students at Berkeley. The CUNY’s are primarily commuter schools as you know.

You might like SUNY Purchase- arts oriented college within an easy metro-north ride into Manhattan. Also be aware that listing an in-state address when you have an out-of-state high school transcript might be a red flag.

“I am a Vermont state resident, but I have relatives who live in NY, near NYC and I can list their address as my residency (that’s what they told me).” No, you can’t do that.

Also, is your parent’s budget $25-30K for all for years or for each year?

That’s not how residency works.
Residency is where your parents have their car registered + voter’s registration + pay taxes.
Honestly, being in NYC without money isn’t fun. It’s much better to go to a cheaper college outside of NYC, and go there occasionally for weekends or, even better, to find a paid internship there and spend the summer there. With no homework and a stipend to spend, you can really enjoy the city.

As a Vermont resident, there’s UVermont and St Michael’s, two very god universities. Make sure to apply there.

I don’t think CUNY’s are worth the OOS price tag, especially since you’d have to figure out housing which is outrageously expensive in NYC, pushing you out of budget.
At best, you could try for CSI (a CUNY on Staten Island with an actual dorm and you might be eligible for honors hence a scholarship - take the ferry and you’re in Manhattan).

Run the NPC on Manhattan College but I’m afraid it’ll be way too expensive and it’s certainly not worth getting into debt for.

SUNY Purchase and SUNY New Paltz may be affordable, you’d be about 1h from the city, as well as Marist (about 1h30 from the city). Students often spend the weekend in NYC since public transportation is near campus.