Chance me - California rising Senior looking to apply amid COVID-19

Chance Me / Match Me!
,
1

I am a rising Senior in California looking at a few schools for my applications, I am wondering if my reach, match, and safety schools are in order.

Reach - Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth, UCB, UCLA

Match - UCSB, UCSD, UC Davis, USC

Safety - SDSU, ASU

I have very little experience in what colleges are going to be difficult to get into and which are going to be easy, especially with my EC’s, as it seems that mine are average at best. I am looking for some guidance on what my reach, match, and safety schools should be based on my profile.

Demographics:
-Upper middle class
-White
-Large Public School

Planned Major: Economics (I haven’t completely decided on this though, I would like to commit to a school that would allow me to change my major if I so decided)

Stats:
GPA: 4.0 UW 4.54 W (COVID-19 could possibly change all of this)
ACT: 36
SAT II: 800 Math 2 (COVID-19 disallowed a second subject test so far)
AP’s: World History(4), American History(Likely 4-5), English Lang(Likely 4-5), Physics 1(3), Physics 2(Likely 4-5), Calc AB(No test), Calc BC(5), Stats(Likely 4-5), Chem(Likely 4-5)
AP’s senior year: Gov/Econ, Literature, Physics C(possible to not run), Calculus 3(would be taken at college, also possible to not run), Computer Science

Awards:
-Highly Probable National Merit Semi-Finalist, possibly finalist (Score of 222 or 1480 on PSAT)
-Cord for Wind Ensemble
-Cord for National Honor Society
-Cord for SWPPP
(I’m not sure if the cords will apply but I thought that it can’t hurt to include them)

ECs:
-4 Years of SWPPP Program, Storm water activism internship
-Presented in front of city, regional, and state boards of storm water officials for said program
-2 Years NHS
-Upwards of 250 Community service hours throughout high school, at least 40 a year from SWPPP
-Link Crew (leadership involvement in freshmen transition to high school)
-15-20 Hours a week working at a local grocery store
-10 years Club Soccer, School Soccer (3 years, most likely 4), School Tennis (3 years, most likely 4), 5 years private tennis
-Tutored students grades 6-12 in math for whole of high school (in INT Math A through AP Calc BC
-Volunteers for 4 years with Champions League, a soccer program that allows children and adults with intellectual disabilities to play soccer with the support of other players
-8 Years of band playing the flute, currently have spent 5 semesters of high school in a Wind Ensemble, planned to spend 7.

Again, I have no way of knowing if the schools that I am planning to apply to are put in the correct categories given my profile. Give me some feedback and let me know. Here is a list of the colleges that I am considering applying to if you want to sort them into categories for me yourself.

Stanford, Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Davis, USC, SDSU, ASU

Also, let me know if I would be a good fit for any other schools, I’m still considering my options and would love some feedback!

Thank you guys in advance!

2

To be honest, for any of the top 20 schools, everyone has good grades, test scores, and extensive extracurriculars (however, yours do look especially extensive!!). What your admission really comes down to is your essays, if you have shown a lot of interest, race/gender/socioeconomic status (obviously cannot control this) and plain luck.

Try to be extremely creative and out of the box with your common app essay/supplements. This is the main way to stand out and can be your “hook” even if you dont have a conventional one. Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, reach out to your admissions rep. you MUST show interest, especially if you cannot visit schools!!!

do you have the potential to get into one of these top 20 schools? of course. Your best bet is to ED to the school you like the best, otherwise there is really no way to predict. at all.

other schools to consider: UMich, Vanderbilt, Duke, Boston University, Boston College, Notre Dame, Rice

I honestly hate the terms of match, safety, reach, etc. because college admissions are truly very random. I know people who got into Cornell but not Tulane or UMiami or Boston University. Brown but not Cornell. you truly never know!!

3

@gummybear202

Thank you so much for this this thoughtful advice, I really appreciate the time that you took to reply.

I have heard from quite a few people that essays are really what make or break your admission, and that having strong stats and ECs are just enough to put you into the pool, and so my plan moving forward was to focus almost all of my time really committing to developing my essays and personal narratives.

I do plan on applying ED to maybe UC Berkeley or UCLA, and then one of the Ivy League or Ivy League equivalent t15 schools on my list, depending on whether or not they require a commitment if accepted ED.

It is interesting how you talk about reaching out to Admission Reps. You mentioned that you thought it was pretty critical, so do you think that I should reach out to the Reps from the most elite schools on my list, most of the more difficult schools on my list, or all of them? I would be more than willing to contact 12 or more reps if it improved my chances, I’m just wondering what the best use of my time would be (not that I have any shortage of time).

As for the college suggestions, I’m glad you suggested some, because I really don’t have many hard ideas about where exactly I want to do, so this list is definitely not a final list. I will look into them.

Finally, I have heard from many people that it can be truly random who gets accepted as almost everyone is exception in some way, and it really is just a subjective decision that gets made by an admissions officer, so obviously there is that to consider, and at this point, getting into one of the top schools on my list would be an amazing achievement for me, even if I don’t end up going there because of price considerations or what have you.

Overall I really appreciate your response and the time you took to write back. Thanks again for the response and your consideration!

4

UCLA or UCB do not offer ED only RD like the rest of the UC’s. ED is binding but EA is not. Make sure you check what type of admissions each school offers. There is also SCEA and REA.

Early Decision: this is a binding application—if a student is accepted, they’re committed to going to that school. The deadline most commonly occurs in the early fall of a student’s senior year.

Early Action: similar to early decision, with the major difference being that acceptance is not binding; a student can still decide whether or not they want to attend if accepted.

Single choice Restrictive or Restrictive Early Action: also like early action, REA is non-binding, but students may only apply to one private school REA. They can usually apply EA to public schools, however.

Regular Decision: the standard application deadline, typically occurring in January of a student’s senior year but UC’s it is November.

Rolling Admission: allows students to apply any time up to a certain date—the application will remain open and students are admitted until the institution fills its class.

5

Are you interested in a math/statistics-intensive economics program?

Stanford, MIT, and UCSD require more math than most colleges as prerequisites for intermediate economics courses. Harvard, UCB, UCI, and UCSC have optional more-math intermediate economics courses. UCLA has a math/economics major with more math courses (which you would take to prepare for PhD study in economics at any college you may attend).

Are all of the colleges on your list affordable?

6

I would say I am really interested in math/statistics intensive economics programs. I have always been interested in math and it has always been my best subject, going as far as to take a test in middle school to just skip 7th grade math and move straight to 8th grade math, which ended up allowing me to finish all of the calculus classes offered at my high school in sophomore year. As a result, I have always imagined that my future would involve math somewhere, and after taking statistics this year, I can say that it is definitely something that I could see myself pursuing.

About affordability: All of the UC schools and state schools on my list would be affordable and if I did become a NMSF, USC would also be affordable. However, for undergrad at some of the more expensive schools on my list, I would need to take out moderate sized student loans.

7

@Gumbymom

Oh really?! Thank you, I was very out of the loop on the different kinds of application
types that were avaliable. You said that the UC schools don’t have ED, but do they have EA? Also, would schools have ED and EA? If so, does one have a higher acceptance rate? Which schools on my list do you think would be best for each application type?

I really appreciate your time and thoughtfulness in answering my questions!

Thanks in advance!

8

UC’s only have RD and no EA. Most UC admission results are posted in March but few campuses may admit students in February (usually Regent scholars/Honors/High Stat applicants).

Stanford has RD or Restrictive Early Action.

USC only has RD but if you apply by December, you are eligible for Merit scholarship consideration.

You can look up the rest of the schools application deadlines and if they offer ED/EA/RD/SCEA or REA. All this information is on the college websites so you need to plan out which schools you want to apply ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD.

ED can give you a bump at many of the colleges that offer it. ED however is binding, so make sure if you ED to any school that it is your top choice and affordable. ED agreements can be broken due to insufficient financial aid but I would run the Net Price calculators on all schools before applying so you know if you can make the finances work.

You can apply to several EA schools as long as there are not restrictions. EA is not binding so having one or two acceptances under your belt prior to the RD applications can help you decide and limit those applications.

9

Define “moderate size”. Without a cosigner, you can take $5,500, $6,500, $7,500, $7,500 in federal direct loans per year of college.

10

I would be able to manage I think with federal student loan limits without cosigners. However, it would require working at least a part time job for my undergrad (unless I get financial aid). Obviously cost is a consideration, and it will be something that will impact my eventual choice of school should I get into any of the more expensive options.

11

@Gumbymom

Ok, I will look into it, thank you!

12

Great stats. Make sure you “package” yourself and have excellent LORs. If you can afford it, ED/SCEA is normally a boost in admissions especially with someone with your stats.

The University for Southern California (USC) is not a match, but reach. They have very unpredictable admission results at least per my D’s high school naviance.

The other issue is I’m not so sure being a NMF (50% off tuition) is helpful or hurtful to your chances. For instance, they take 252 NMFs which is great but they accept 7,600 students (only 3% are NMF). The big question is how many apply to USC that are NMF and what is the acceptance rate for this group? (There are 18,000 NMFs in the U.S.). USC can’t accept too many NMF because they need a large group of accepted students to pay full tuition, so for every NMF they accept, they get hit with lost tuition revenue for 4 years (-$112,000). I could be wrong but every year on CC I see tons of excellent students who are NMFs and USC didn’t accept them and they don’t know why…

13

If you’re interested in Econ and like math, look into UChicago. They have binding ED1, EA and ED2. Stanford, MIT and Harvard in the early rounds are unlikely in my honest opinion. Your stats are strong, but I think you might end up with a deferral.