Chance me! 4.0/4.9, 1460 [Indiana Rising Senior, Psychology] Service-based ECs!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi! I posted a similar chance me/match me to this forum back in December, but since then, my career plans and stats have changed slightly. Thus, I thought it might be beneficial to do an updated version. I know it can be annoying for students to repeatedly post these types of things, so I do thank you for being willing to help me out :slight_smile:

I am heading into my senior year of high school, and my entire family has been very involved in the college search program for the past year or so. Up until a few months ago, I felt very conflicted regarding my career path (i.e. choosing between passion, salary, “fit,” etc within a career). I was certainly pushing myself down a path that I didn’t feel at all excited about; rather, I was attracted to the salary options and “ease.” Recently, I was very fortunate to meet with a college and career counselor, and she helped guide me towards a field I had already felt very passionate about (but perhaps wasn’t willing to admit)…psychology! I am now planning on majoring in this with field a strong desire to begin a PhD program post-undergrad.

Here are some of my priorities/considerations in my college search process: great opportunities for undergrad research, professors are easily accessible, smaller size (undergrad >10,000), good housing, campus feel—not a ton of roads or cars…and obviously, stellar academics!

Would like to highlight again that I want to pursue graduate school after college, so this means research experience, close relationships with professors, and experience in relevant organizations/volunteer groups are super important to me!

With all of that said (sorry for the lengthy paragraphs), thank you for taking some time out of your day to check out my HS/personal stats! Truly, it’s very much appreciated.

Upper middle class
US citizen; small city in Indiana
Large public HS (3700 total student population, ~900 per class)
Multiracial woman (Asian/white)
Legacy @ Dartmouth–dad '98, aunt '03
Sorta Legacy @ Northwestern–aunt PhD '19

Major: Psychology / Minors: French, maybe History or Urban Studies

4.1 UW GPA / 4.908 W GPA (APs are a 5.0 and Honors are a bit less)
6/911
PSAT - 1400
SAT - 1460
I didn’t study for the PSAT or the SAT; I am taking the SAT for a second time in August (and studying for it this time :wink:). The college and career counselor whom I met with thinks I can get a 1600, but my goal is a 1560.

Completed: IB/AP World (5), APUSH (5), CSP (4), Art History, Gov, English, Econ, Physics I, Math AA, Psych
This upcoming year: IB/AP English, Math AA, French (5th year), Psych, Chemistry

USSYP 1st Alternate Delegate
Le Grand Concours Silver Award
National Honor Society & National French Honor Society
National Merit Commended Scholar
AP Scholar Award

  • Key Club (state): Representing 350+ members from 6 clubs in a regional division; Daily mentorship for officers on how to boost membership and lead service projects.
  • Key Club (school): Doubled club membership to 65 members; Co-led monthly fundraisers; Connected with local organizations to determine how members could provide service.
  • Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS): Raised $25,686 to fight blood cancer; Led a 14-member, multi-generational team; Secured 1 corporate sponsorship; Organized 5 campaign events.
  • LLS: Leadership Team, Recruiting candidates for the 2024 campaign; Attending nomination meetings; Advising candidates; Presenting at workshops & campaign meetings.
  • LLS: Raised $3,426 towards the $53,000 team total; developed entrepreneurial skills through contacting local businesses to secure sponsorships.
  • Summer Internship: Conducting leads research in the Sales Department; Learning about sales and marketing psychology.
  • Summer Internship: Mentored by “serial entrepreneur” [ omitting name for privacy ] in the development of management software, UXUI design, market research, & end-user perspective tests.
  • Service Project: Raised $2,517 through self-directed/led service project “PJs for Riley;” opportunity to promote volunteerism and community among elementary students.
  • Education Foundation: Representing 3,800+ students attending [ Omitting name for privacy ]; Advocating for district excellence by selecting teacher grants & student scholarships.
  • Soccer: Competed for FHS on the Junior Varsity team; Played at IPSC at the 2nd and 3rd tier levels; Managed and grew through adversity as a non-starter.

Awesome relationships with physics and psych teachers. My psych teacher is also my advisor for the IB Extended Essay (long research essay), so he might be able to provide some insight about my interests within the field.

I am planning on writing my CommonApp about my Extended Essay since I’m super passionate about the topic. Please let me know if I should consider writing about something else, given that this might be too “academic” focused.

No cost constraints.

Safeties: IU, Purdue (GPA and SAT >75% percentile for both schools)
Matches: :face_with_diagonal_mouth: Assuming these would be schools in the 50%-70% admit range. I just feel like paying out-of-state or private tuition for schools at this tier isn’t “worth it” given that IU (in-state) is a T25 for undergrad psych.
Reaches: Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Princeton
(Choosing whether to ED to Dartmouth, NU, or Princeton…will definitely ED to one.)
Any other suggestion for me?

I’m very grateful to this amazing resource for students, so thank you again! I hope you’re having a fantastic day!

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I assume you get extra point for plus Or no way to have a 4.1.

What’s your unweighted out of 4. Remove the plus and minus and just 4 for A. 3 for B etc.

You changed your mind on career and guess what - you will again. You don’t need to have that path laid out. You might take a class and be mesmerized. Or get into psych or research and hate it.

Like doesn’t have to be laid out perfectly. Nor early.

So research and close relationships with profs will happen anywhere but that’s up to you, moreso than the school. You have to seek it.

Your safeties are safe.

There’s many iterations of psych but you might want to study curriculums but a Miami or Brandeis type or Florida, Ga, UMD, Wisconsin are likely a match but to your point, why pay if you don’t need to. But you can go to an Alabama for less than an IU.

I’d look at Vandy as it has a top rated psych program.

But if you’re going to grad school, maybe a Kalamazoo or Depauw at half or less would be better. You noted cost on the public. Or a Furman and so many LACs.

Or look at W&L and the Johnson.

Good luck and on raising your SAT. Bit if you don’t you’ll still have many options.

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Hi! Thank you for your response. Yep, we get a 4.3 for an A+. At the standard letter grade (A, B, etc), my GPA is a 4.0.

I totally understand what you mentioned about potentially changing my major. I think no matter what, I’d like to end up in graduate school, so great resources for undergrad research is important to me.

Thank you for your university suggestions!

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Your major, your career.

Lots of different kinds of grad schools. Some you pay for (so budget matters), some may pay for you.

If cost a factor and you wanted out of Indiana, an Alabama and Arizona would both be comparable and inexpensive. There are others but great Honors Colleges. There’s a ton of great Honors Colleges from an ASU to U of SC to KU - and those would all come affordable as large publics as would a Miami of Ohio, a bit smaller. Just thinking about cost.

Lots of LACs would come in at great cost vs. a Harvard/Dartmouth - but nothing wrong with applying to those but you mentioned cost as a factor for IU.

And I know Vandy is top rated when it comes to psych.

Best of luck to you.

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Dartmouth and NU have ED. Princeton has single choice EA which means you would have a non-binding, more flexible option with Princeton. Only apply ED to any school if that is your absolute #1 school and also affordable.

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Princeton EA restrictions are listed at Application Dates & Deadlines | Princeton Admission . Basically, the applicant agrees not to apply in the early round to other private schools, although non-binding early applications to public schools, international schools, or rolling admission schools are allowed.

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Based on the general academic environment you appear to be seeking, this site may offer you suggestions for colleges to research further:

If you will be including women’s colleges in your search, Mount Holyoke, for example, may be of interest.

For a suggestion not included in the above site, look into Vassar.

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Looking at the list you provided they rank Sarah Lawrence at #2 and West Point #3 in terms of “the best classroom experience”. Even if you assume this to be accurate, I can’t envision any student that is happy at one of these schools enjoying the other. These two institutions have virtually nothing in common beyond appearing on this list.

In fact there doesn’t appear to be any real common thread amongst the schools listed. How would you advise the OP to reconcile and decipher these massive cultural differences when using this link?

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OP I I will PM you

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IU and Purdue are both great schools, and if you’d be happy to attend either one, then your safeties are well-chosen.

Matches aren’t necessarily schools that have a 50-70% acceptance rate. I suspect that (if you got the info from your counselor), these may have been schools where there might be a 50-70% chance of you being accepted, with the difference being your academic profile and extracurriculars as opposed to what the general admit rate for a school might be.

Are you opposed to out-of-state schools and private schools because of their sticker prices? If so, would you consider schools that would be at or below the cost of an IU or Purdue for Indiana residents? Or at what point would you/your family consider it “worth it” to pay for a non-Indiana public college experience?

One resource you may want to look at is this site which allows you to select a field (such as psychology) and a time range and other factors to see which schools produced the most doctoral recipients (i.e. the undergrads of people who went on to earn their doctorate). This can help find schools that are providing their students with the preparation needed to go on and do well in grad school: Baccalaureate origins of doctoral recipients

When I hear about wanting great relationships with professors and opportunities for research, I personally think about liberal arts colleges. In reading your other thread, it seemed as though you were primarily interested in colleges in the eastern half of the U.S. Thus, I limited my searches to those states. Below are a variety of colleges that produced at least about 50 doctoral recipients in psychology in between 2000-2018. Some of these are names that you have doubtlessly heard of many times, while others may be unknown to you. There are some that do not offer any merit aid, and others that are very generous with it.

If you let us know more about what you want (an apolitical campus, or a very religious one, etc) then the board might be able to eliminate some of the schools on this list for you. For instance, I suspect that someone who would be happy at Calvin would not be happy at Oberlin (and vice versa). If you let us know more about the vibe you want (or don’t want) that would help.

AR

  • Harding
  • Hendrix - has a flagship match program that you would be likely to qualify for…which means you’d pay the same tuition as if you were going to IU

CT

  • Connecticut College
  • Fairfield
  • Wesleyan
  • Yale

GA

  • Emory
  • Spelman - HBCU women’s college

IA

  • Drake
  • Grinnell
  • Luther

IL

  • DePaul
  • Illinois Wesleyan
  • Loyola Chicago
  • Wheaton

IN

  • Butler
  • DePauw
  • Valparaiso

MA

  • Boston College
  • Brandeis
  • Clark
  • College of the Holy Cross
  • Mount Holyoke - women’s college
  • Smith - women’s college
  • Tufts

MD

  • Johns Hopkins
  • Loyola Maryland
  • St. Mary’s College of Maryland

ME

  • Bates
  • Colby

MI

  • Calvin
  • Hope
  • Kalamazoo

MN

  • Carleton
  • Macalester
  • St. Olaf
  • U. of St. Thomas

MO

  • Saint Louis U.
  • Washington U.

NC

  • Davidson
  • Wake Forest

NE

  • Creighton

NJ

  • College of New Jersey
  • Drew

NY

  • Binghamton
  • Colgate
  • Hamilton
  • Ithaca
  • Skidmore
  • Union
  • SUNY Geneseo
  • U. of Rochester
  • Vassar

OH

  • Baldwin Wallace
  • Case Western
  • Denison
  • John Caroll
  • Kenyon
  • Oberlin
  • Wittenberg

PA

  • Allegheny
  • Bucknell
  • Bryn Mawr - women’s college
  • Franklin & Marshall
  • Gettysburg
  • Haverford
  • Lafayette
  • Lehigh
  • Muhlenberg
  • Swarthmore
  • U. of Scranton
  • Villanova

RI

  • Brown
  • Providence

SC

  • Furman

TN

  • Rhodes
  • Vanderbilt

VA

  • Hampton - HBCU
  • U. of Mary Washington
  • U. of Richmond
  • William & Mary

VT

  • Middlebury

WI

  • Marquette

ETA: Forgot a couple key words (in psychology) to indicate that these schools all had at least 50 students receive PhDs…in psychology, not just PhDs generally.

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Looking at your reaches - do you have preferences as far as suburban/urban/metropolis settings?
Even though you are already projecting as far as grad school, it would be quite normal that your grad school would not be the same University where you attended college - so you don’t need to make graduate programs a major decision factor.

Instead, finding a college that does have a good psychology program, but also for your other areas of interest (just in case you are like many/most high schoolers who end up graduating with a completely different major than they thought), might be more important.

As far as Psychology specifically - do you see yourself as being more passionate about “research” (the science of it), or more in “clinical” (patient focused) work? You don’t have to worry about it until much later, but FYI there are different doctoral degrees for Psychology - only one being the PhD.

Years from now, if actually applying to graduate programs for Psychology (some are as competitive as Ivy Leage admissions), one’s résumé matters. So choosing a location where there are many institutions, practices, facilities in the immediate vicinity might increase your ability to land relevant full-year internships during freshman and senior year, which in turn improves your odds of being accepted into grad school directly after college.

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ED to either Dartmouth or Northwestern. Princeton doesn’t have ED, they have REA which doesn’t give you the same boost as ED. Do you have a preference between Dartmouth or Northwestern? As a student from Indiana I would think you would have a pretty decent chance with ED with your stats. I would apply test optional though if you can’t get your SAT above a 1500.

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