Chance me and suggestions for my school list. Also looking for safeties/ targets that offer generous aid

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hi,

I’m currently living in Taiwan and will apply for fall 2022 as a domestic applicant. My family’s financial condition wasn’t really good( middle class in Taiwan, kinda low income in the US), so I’m looking for schools that offer generous (100% need meet) fin aid. Most of the schools on my list now are pretty competitive, I feel like I might get rejected by all of them. But I really have no idea about safties. Most public schools that have high acceptance rates are just too expensive for me since I will be charged for OOS tuition no matter where I apply to.

I’m also considering some LACs recently, but I’m worried about the diversity there. I think it might be a bit hard for me to fit in.

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • Location: Taipei, Taiwan
  • Top 5, competitive public high school in Taipei
  • Gender: Female (Trans)
  • Race/Ethnicity: Asian(Taiwanese)
  • Parents Income: <45k
  • Hooks/Uniqueness: Background(I was born and first raised in New Mexico, moved to Taiwan then spent most of my life here since I was 6/7), LGBTQ+ (That’s a hook, maybe?), Legacy

Intended Major(s): Cognitive Science, Psychology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0 I think ( Here in Taiwan we don’t have GPA on the Chinese version of the transcript, and I haven’t applied for an English one yet, so I don’t have a precise number now.)
  • Weighted HS GPA: N/A
  • Class Rank: top 10%
  • Class Size: around 300
  • SAT: 1450 (M:800/EBRW:650) reading is kinda low so definitely gonna retake if available (Covid)
  • ACT: N/A

Coursework

  • We don’t have APs or IBs in Taiwanese local schools, but I believe the courses I take are pretty demanding.

Awards

  • Mid-term, Final exam class rank top 3, at least 4 times as for now.
  • School Science Fair Finalist
  • Geography Olympiad Semi-finalist (Domestic)
  • Taipei City High School English Writing Competition Finalist
  • Taipei City High School Essay Competiton Finalist

Extracurriculars

  • Represented my school to attend Geography Olympiad( I spent around half year)
  • School Astronomy Club ( leadership position, 1 year)
  • School Ambassador Team (Host international or domestic guests visiting my school, non-leadership position, 1 year)
  • Piano (10 more years)
  • Member of a newly founded local NGO which helps aboriginal, low-income women. And I’m currently making a website for this organization.
  • 200+ hrs volunteering in city astronomy museum, city animal shelter, and local library (since grade 9)
  • Local Orchestra: Second Violinist (grade 7-10)

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Just started working on my essay.

Current School List

  • BU, CMU, CWRU, Columbia, Claremont Mckenna, Emory, Northwestern, Pitzer, Pomona, Rice, UNC, USC, UVA, WUSTL
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If you might be interested in women’s colleges, then, based on your criteria (academic, social, financial), an LAC such as Mount Holyoke would seem to represent a better choice for you than most of the schools on your current list.

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Since you don’t have AP, etc. it’s hard to know but looks good otherwise. It could be all your schools are reaches though.

So you might add schools such as San Diego State, Oregon, Oberlin, Elon, Vermont or other schools deemed LGBTQ friendly.

You’d have to check tuition, run NPCs, and see, etc. but I’m unsure given your lack of rigor on your list.

good luck

Top 50 LGBTQ Friendly Schools | CollegeChoice

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@tsbna44 how will this student pay for San Diego State (no aid to OOS students), Elon, Oregon and Vermont (not cheap and don’t meet full need for all…with a family income of less than $45,000 a year?

To the OP…what about Vassar?

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Why I said you’d have to check NPCs and I attached a list of 50 schools. SDSU is cheap full pay…not for their income but you never know. They may look at Arizona given the GPA. Tucson is liberal.

Vassar, like the others, may not be possible. My original thought was given no APs or perceived rigor those may be out. They may not. I don’t know.

I didn’t say what I provided was a solution. I said these are schools easier to get into and you may need that and you should run NPCs.

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Agreed re: women’s colleges, which tend to be particularly LGBTQ-friendly and also tend to make full-need-met acceptances somewhat more accessible to qualified applicants, simply because the potential applicant pool is smaller (between eliminating male-identified students and those who aren’t willing to apply to single-gender colleges). In particular, since you’re interested in the Claremonts, consider applying to Scripps. It’s definitely accepting of trans students - both those who apply as trans women, and those who apply as cis women but end up graduating as nonbinary or trans men. As a Scripps student, you can study CogSci as an off-campus major at Pomona, if that meets your needs better than the Scripps psych department. Campus life is highly blended among all five colleges, both socially and academically. (All gender identities well represented in daily life, no matter which college you attend.) CMC is the most conservative and traditional (party/frat culture) of the five, but a small number of gender nonconforming students find their place there as well.

Vassar has a very long-established and well-regarded CogSci department, meets full need, and is very LGBTQ-friendly. URochester could be a good fit and would be worth a serious look. (“BCS” - Brain & Cognitive Sciences). Occidental College in Los Angeles meets full need and has a CogSci major, and is an unusually diverse LAC. Not a safety, but a less steep admit than others on your list.

Rice is a terrific university - very diverse and inclusive, and a great undergraduate quality of life - and the aid is particularly generous. It has gotten very tough to get in - would be a high reach for you. Also, there is a CogSci major but not a CogSci department - the major is just assembled from courses from other departments, and students in the major have at times felt like “stepchildren” in terms of advising and mentorship, since they don’t firmly belong to any one department. It’s not the strongest program at Rice, even though the individual classes are very good.

Reed College in Portland may also be worth a look. They don’t have a CogSci major, but they have psych and neuroscience, and they’re very interdisciplinary-oriented. It’s not as racially diverse as Oxy but it’s very liberal and accepting/inclusive, and Portland is a very LGBTQ-friendly city. (My daughter worked at a women’s clothing store in the city for a while, and it was common and unremarkable for gender-nonconforming people to shop there.) Reed is an intellectually intense school - not for everyone, but much loved by those for whom it’s a fit.

How computer science oriented are you? Some CogSci majors are more psych-heavy (like at Occidental) whereas others have a heavier computation emphasis (very much the case at Carnegie Mellon).

Have you run Net Price Calculators for the schools you’re looking at? Given your lack of financial safeties, it could be worth identifying the best-fit schools that aren’t super-reaches but would still give enough aid, and target one with an Early Decision app, with another lined up for ED2 if you’re not accepted in the ED1 round. I wouldn’t use the ED round for a low-odds school like Rice unless better-odds schools were unaffordable. Your chances at a full-need-met school like Occidental, where the ED acceptance rate is almost 50% and your stats are above median, could be quite good. (Keep in mind that most schools in this tier are need-aware, so your high financial need will have to be balanced by above-average qualifications.)

(Of the Claremonts, CMC and Pomona are need-blind, and CMC’s ED acceptance rate is much higher than RD, although that number is inflated by a relatively high number of recruited athletes. Pitzer and Scripps are need-aware.)

In addition to UVA and UNC, I believe your family income is low enough for UMichigan to meet need, so run the NPC there and consider whether it would interest you; apply Early Action if so.

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One thing on your 100% need met. You need to run NPCs because what you think is your need is not necessarily what the college thinks is need. The CC is littered with stories of stunned students. There are now schools that promise x % of tuition based on income but again they look at assets as well. They always have a disclaimer. You can reach out to a 100% need school like U of Miami and get a zoom appointment for review, just to see. Washington & Lee will do this as well. This way you can measure your assumptions as you look at other schools.

I suggest applying to high merit schools whether Arizona, Alabama, MS State, Miami Ohio, etc They are good fallbacks in case your offer falls short of expectation. That is unless you are 100% certain up front.

As for the LGBTQ portion I’d look at each school. My son goes to Bama. Most say it’s an issue, very conservative. He says the students are accepting of everyone and the stereotypes are way overdone.

Good luck.

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Younger people (like typical college students) tend to be more LGBTQ…-accepting. However, acceptance of T is generally less than acceptance of LGB.

But note that college students may interact with others in the community besides those associated with the college. This may be more common at a college where many students live off campus.

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The T Is less understood so acceptance is probably less so most places

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Agree with @thumper1
Her family income is $45K and SDSU is $42K per year. How are they supposed to give the majority of their income and live on $3K per year?

This student will not receive a penny from SDSU-it’s a public school funded by the taxpaying residents of California and she indicated that she couldn’t pay non-resident tuition:

She is not a California resident and her parents do not reside in California as taxpayers. California does not have the extra funding to pay for non-residents. NPC’s will show full pay.

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Again, why, in my note, I gave a list of 50 schools and simply gave examples off that list. I pointed out to check NPCs, etc.

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Hi Thanks, I’ll check Vassar, It seems like a nice fit for me.

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Skidmore?

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Thanks for ur reply and suggestions.
Actually, I’ve checked Scripps before, just not sure do they accept trans then.
I just checked Vassar. I like that school!! the campus looks nice and they offer me good aid according to the NPC. So I think I’ll apply to Vassar.
I’ll definitely check Occidental. (I love LA!)
I’ll also consider Rochester, though it’s pretty cold there. I’ve run the NCP and my net price was like 7-8k which is pretty much affordable.

Yup, Rice is like my dream school. It’s kinda hard to get in with my SAT score I think. Due to the pandemic, I only took the test once. It really sucks…
Well, as to Reed college. I’ve heard of their drug scenes, so I don’t really like that school. Maybe it’s just my stereotype.

Yup, I basically ran NPC for every school I’m interested in.

And thanks for the advice on applying.

Can u suggest me o some reach/target schools for me?

As for now, I think BU might be a good target. (maybe?)

Wow, that’s really surprising to hear UMich may meet the needs. I’ve run the NPC like few months ago and it was like 40k. Since I don’t have a precise number of my parent’s income…etc then, I think I’ll run it again.

Lastly, Many thanks!!

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Yes, Scripps has been accepting trans applicants since 2014 Scripps Approves Trans-Inclusive Admissions Policy - The Student Life
The Queer Resource Center serves the whole consortium and is good source of information on the nuances of housing, etc. Scripps College - Queer Resource Center at The Claremont Colleges

I’m not an expert on UMich, but my understanding was that they met documented need for family incomes under 60K. Probably someone on the UMich forum could help clarify why your NPC isn’t looking favorable.

Rochester is a great school. It’s true that it’s pretty cold there, but it’s a terrific place for students who are also musicians, and excellent academically for your interests. I’d think it could be worth applying if the NPC looks good, even if it’s not at the top of your list at the moment. URoch has a large international student population (more than 25% of undergrads), so it’s actually a bit more diverse than the domestic-student demographics would suggest, and even those numbers aren’t bad.

If you’re interested in the urban Boston schools, both BU and Northeastern could be worth considering. NEU doesn’t have CogSci per se, but they have blended majors that can be customized in that direction, especially if you’re interested in the computer science piece (CS+Behavioral Neuroscience, CS+Cognitive Psych, CS+Linguistics) or a design focus (Behavioral Neuroscience + Design). Tufts would be another reach but less so than Rice, and it could be a good fit. (They have both Cognitive & Brain Science, and an interesting Engineering Psychology major.) Nice balance of a self-contained campus with great access to the city, and definitely good in terms of LGBTQ-friendliness.

If you like Vassar, you may also like Skidmore and Connecticut College. They don’t have the robust CogSci department that Vassar has, which is unusual, but they have similar vibes and meet full need, and you could probably find a combination of coursework that you would like.

Consider other women’s colleges too. Mt. Holyoke could be a great target, and is part of the MA 5-college consortium. Mount Holyoke will now accept applications from transgender women MoHo has a Neuroscience & Behavior major, and the Consortium has a Cognitive Neuroscience certificate program that’s open to all five colleges.

Test scores have become less important generally, but they might be a little more important for you than the average applicant, because rigor is harder to prove on your transcript. The 800 is impressive, and a 650 isn’t bad at all, especially considering that most of your formal education hasn’t been in English (unless I’m misunderstanding). What level of math will you be in next year? You’re a strong applicant, but a little atypical which makes results even harder to predict than normal - you’ll do best at schools that take a close look at your individual situation and don’t just filter for a high weighted GPA. Strong teacher recommendations will be important, as well as a strong counselor recommendation that puts your transcript in context and gives more information about the rigor of your HS program.

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This was my point in sending you the list of 50 lgbtq friendly schools. Because you are not sure how your transcript will convert, schools like BU and Rochester may be out of reach. Until you know how your transcript really looks you don’t know. Oxy is to a lesser level. That’s why I sent the list of 50 LGBTQ friendly schools for you to research and suggested Arizona where if you truly have a 4.0, tuition will be near free. BU is very tough to get into. If you can’t truly translate your transcript (grades and rigor), how can you be assured it’s a target. I would urge you to find a true safety.

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About that SAT score. You’re no longer a native speaker of English (if you ever were). I would imagine that you spoke Mandarin at home, and if you moved back at age 6/7, at most you went to kindergarten and first grade in the US. Unless they kept you in an English speaking school, you would have forgotten your English, then re-learned it in school as a foreign language. As long as schools understand that, they may cut you a little slack on the lower English score.

Have you considered taking the ACT? The English comprehension section on the ACT is considered to be easier than the SAT’s English. Having seen SAT English comprehension vs ACT English comprehension recently, I would agree that ACT English is easier. You could prep for the ACT over the summer, take it in late August, and possibly get a very high score on it. That would solve the standardized test score part of your application.

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Where?

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What curriculum are you following, national Singapore, O levels, GCSEs-GCE…?
What’s your budget?
Is your school open access (ie., any 5 year old who starts in kindergarten can attend our school provided they live nearby) or selective (students need to do well in primary or middle school, perhaps in specific subjects, or take an exam or have an interview to enter the school)? Can students be “cut”, or sent to another school if their results aren’t “good enough”?
What type of colleges do students typically atrtend? Is going to college after your school a given?