CHANCE ME- a tired first gen student

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Demographics: Middle-eastern, first-gen, middle class
US domestic, CA
Intended Major: Accounting or Economics

4.7 weighted, 4.0 unweighted, top 10% of 650, ACT: 33
9 APs, Learned Mandarin for 2 years at Community College
Awards/Certifications:

Global securities institute: Certified Value Investor, Alternative investment Analyst, etc

CYIA Analyst: certified by the Young investors society

ECs:

Amateur Herbarium Curator: Collected/preserved 50+ Museum grade plant specimens, representing entire flora of 50+ acre park. Was mentored/shadowed a head-of-herbarium university professor.

Author:
Semifinalist in national amateur poetry competition (published in their anthology), chosen among nationwide applicant pool to be published in another anthology (again), was paid 30$ and published in a literary magazine.

Speech and Debate:
Qualified for the state competition, 6+ league finalist trophies/awards, NSDA honor award, appointee for assistant captain

Youth advisory board:
Advised local businesses on how to better advertise to teens, passed motions

Intern for my Cities treasurer

Barakzai Charitable fund:
An investment fund with all returns being given to poverty-stricken individuals in Afghanistan, money used in fund was raised purely by recycling, (I’m obviously founder, head analyst, etc)

Volunteer mentor:
Curated unique curriculum for ukrainian students to better learn english, 40+ volunteering hours, mentored 5+ volunteers, recieved award for community service

Founder of school investment club:
Top 6% out of 1600 teams, president

Crossbred my own variety of canteloupe

LORS: Math teacher, Speech and Debate teacher, Counselor (should be good, I have friend-like relations with all of them)
Schools (all reach):
Upenn: ED
Yale, Harvard, Columbia, UChicago, Dartmouth UCSD (match), Stanford, Princeton

2

Excellent qualifications. I think you have a good shot at the reachy IVYs. Since you mentioned Accounting or Economics, can I ask what AP courses you’ve taken? That could help (or not) with your chances. I think Ivy’s like to see if you’ve taken rigor courses related to the major(s) you’re interested in. Good luck to you.

3

Stats: your ACT is below the 25th percentile of admitted students (class of 2026). Your GPA is competitive, but there are tens of thousands of applicants with stats like these.
Other than your investment related ECs, the others are all over the place to be honest so may not help much.
Applying ED, and being first gen will help.
Applying from California won’t (far too many applicants - 3rd most represented state at Penn)

So overall: very reachy list. Your best bet might be UChicago.

Hopefully, you have applied to other schools that are targets or likelies?

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Do IVYs still care a lot about standardized tests if other stats are exceptional? I think 33 is a great score and it’s in the mid-range for most of the IVYs. Also, I read that this year has a lower national average for ACTs, so that might help.

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Wharton?

6

You have a strong application, but this list is reachy, and I don’t think any of these schools offer an accounting major.

Have you applied to more schools, including more matches and at least one affordable safety?

For the schools that require two teacher LoRs, they generally want two academic teachers to write those so I would look carefully at each website and look to swap an academic teacher in for the speech and debate teacher where necessary.

Here’s what Harvard says:

Ask two teachers in different academic subjects who know you well to complete the Teacher Evaluation forms.

Have you run the net price calculators of all these schools and they look affordable?

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33 is a great score, but test optional has caused mid 50% ranges to increase. Penn’s mid 50% range for enrolled class of 2026 was 34-36.

I can’t make a recommendation for OP as to whether they should submit the 33 or not because I don’t know the app in detail. OP should ask their HS GC, and also ask themselves if the 33 adds anything to the application.

The ACT average is lower this year. I don’t think that helps OP because many, maybe most students with scores outside the mid-50% ranges just won’t submit scores to test optional schools.

8

Thank you. To your point, won’t schools prefer students who submit a 33 ACT score over someone who didn’t submit any score (provided other stats are similar)?

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9

No.

@White_Rose1 I’ll add, I agree you have accomplished a lot, but so have all the other applicants to these tippy top schools with acceptance rates ranging from single digits to maybe 20%.

UCSD seems like your best bet, but I’ll let @Gumbymom comment about your chances there.

Your list is, in my opinion, very top heavy…but you never know. So at this point, just wait and see.

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Congratulations on having a competitive profile but I agree with all the other posters that your list is very Reach heavy. You have no Likely/Safety schools listed and I would put UCSD as a High Match and not a solid Match.

For UCSD, you need to calculate your 3 UC GPA’s: GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
UCSD admits into the University first and then into the major so select an alternate major when applying.

Surprised you have no other UC’s on your list especially since UCB’s Econ major is highly rated along with their HAAS Business school.

UCSB has an Econ/Accounting major which could be of interest: Major Sheets | Department of Economics | UC Santa Barbara

Below are the admit rates for all the UC’s based on the capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific. Economics can be a selective major at several campuses so admit rates would be lower.

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 30% 11% 2% 1%
Davis 85% 55% 23% 10%
Irvine 60% 31% 14% 1%
Los Angeles 29% 6% 1% 0%
Merced 97% 98% 96% 89%
Riverside 97% 92% 62% 23%
San Diego 72% 25% 2% 0%
Santa Barbara 73% 28% 4% 1%
Santa Cruz 91% 81% 46% 9%

Best of luck and make sure you have more than UCSD as a possible Match on your list or you could end up being shut out in this admission cycle.

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11

Which is it - accounting or econ - because you can apply econ anywhere but accounting - you can’t.

If you want accounting, you need to change your list. And frankly, where you go matters less - there’s even kids getting big firm from schools like UNLV.

Academically, all of these are a reach - not including UCSD which I can’t offer an opinion but obviously your test won’t matter.

Chicago is your best bet but still a reach. UPENN ED could work - but Wharton or Arts & Sciences. Wharton - unlikely.

You neee more schools - and given your 4.0, if you choose to go accounting, you’d have lots of low cost options if you chose to go that route and you could still end up at a big firm.

I think first you have to decide - what do you want to study - because if accounting is even a possibility, your list needs a re-do. Your Ivies, UCSD (wrong UC, etc. unless you want to be in the continuing education school - you want UCI or UCR, etc.)

Good luck.

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First, it is important to understand that economics and accounting are very different majors. Economics is a liberal arts course of study and gets very theoretical at the upper levels. In contrast if you go to an undergraduate business school you will take a business core with introductory classes in subjects such as accounting, finance, IT, marketing etc. and then you will major in one of those disciplines. If you do major in accounting many aim to get a CPA (which FWIW requires 150 credit hours) and begin a career with a public accounting firm. I’m not saying that one path is better than the other, but they are quite different. I would take the time to look at the coursework (can be found online) for both an accounting and an economics major and see if one path is preferable to you.

I would also recommend that you curtail your reach schools (it is great to apply to some but reach schools should not be the bulk of your applications) and add more match as well as a couple of safety schools that appear affordable (run net price calculator) and that you would be happy to attend.

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If you would like to research colleges strong in economics, these analyses may be helpful:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html

14

OP, are you interested in accounting, or more of finance? Your interests in investing are generally more common with finance majors than accounting ones.

Have you thought about agricultural economics or agribusiness? With your interests in plants (breeding a new variety, preserving various types) that could segue into an area where you are an expert (either investment in agricultural based businesses or becoming involved in such a business).

Some of your in-state schools that you might want to look into for that are:

  • Cal Poly - San Luis Obispo
  • Cal Poly - Pomona
  • Cal State - Bakersfield
  • Cal State - Chico
  • Cal State - Fresno

Another reach that might interest you is Cornell. It’s a rarity among ivies insofar as it has good agricultural programs as well, including a major in agricultural economics. That major might also be an easier admit than some of the more popular colleges at Cornell.

Some other schools you may want to look at where there are strong opportunities in both agriculture & finance are:

  • U. of Minnesota - Twin Cities
  • U. of Nebraska - Lincoln
  • U. of Delaware
  • U. of Connecticut (has agriculture…but might be better for general finance, or at least that’s my sense)

Cargill is the world’s largest agricultural company and it’s based just outside of Minneapolis and is headquartered in Delaware (producing more than 25% of the US’ grain exports). DuPont is another big player in the agriculture business, and they’re based in Delaware, too. Nebraska and Delaware both have a lot of financial companies that base themselves there. Minneapolis is no slouch either. And there are a lot of finance/investment types in Connecticut. And these would all be likelies for you. Just some food for thought.

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Yeah thanks so much for the advice! UC Berkely, after doing some due diligence, the cost and unguaranteed housing just seemed to outweigh their academics.

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Yeah definetly something to consider! The agricultural side of my interests really stem as a hobby, rather than a career choice, investments is where I want to go. But, of course, I don’t just want to become an asset manager but someone good for humanity, so this is definetely useful (especially with breeding programs like with the American Chestnut).

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Your bigger issue is you need to decide if you want to study accounting or not.

If you do, your list is all wrong - and you should look at the two UCs that have a B School - Riverside and Irvine.

Econ is at most every school you’ll ever look at…accounting is not.

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In reading CC, it appears a major shortfall of some first-generation students relates to choosing colleges to which to apply. In your case, it seems reasonably likely you will receive one acceptance from your nine listed schools. With more research toward crafting your choices, you could create much better opportunities for yourself, in my opinion.

As a specific suggestion, partly because you appear to like cities, look into Trinity (CT).

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And thus why, I’ve included Econ to make up for the gap in which some colleges don’t provide accounting.

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I am fully aware of the risk related to my application, working extremely hard for 4 year I believe has granted me to apply only to the places I truly want to attend, despite risk level. Deep, intensive though has gone into my choices, and is not simply the result of being a first generation “short-fall”.