Chance me for 22 Schools!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Chance me for 22 schools !

Schools: Brown, Carleton, UChicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Harvard, University of Minnesota, Northwestern, UPenn, Princeton, Rice, URochester, USC, Stanford, Vanderbilt, UVA, William and Mary, and Yale

Academic:
ACT - 34 composite. Superscore - 36E, 33M, 34R, 33S (still a 34 lol)
GPA - 3.82 UW. School does not weigh.
School does not rank students
AP Courses - AP Bio (4), APUSH (5), AP Psych (5), AP Lang and Comp (5), APES (5), AP World (4), AP Chem (3), AP Human Geo (4), AP Stats (4).
AP Courses senior year - AP Lit, AP Calc AB, AP Macro, AP Comp Gov, AP Physics
Dual Enrollment (college level courses): Anatomy and Physiology, German 5, Personal Finance

ECs:

  • Founded a schoolwide campaign to promote awareness on sexual harassment. Impacted thousands of students by hosting guest speakers, creating PSAs, posters, etc…
  • Volunteering at a hospital gift shoppe and discharge desk, 4 hours a week for all of junior and senior year
    -DECA Vice President. 2-time International level competitor (Sophomore and Junior year)
  • Chamber orchestra viola player. Currently 1st chair
  • Private viola lessons since 8th grade
  • Work, 12 hours a week, retail sales at a small local business
    -Club swimming in 9th/10th grade

Essays: Good!
Recs: ?? Okay

Additional information: I had a lot of mental health issues in junior year. Mainly anxiety and depression. I did not go too in depth with this in my app other than saying they were there. Struggling with mental illness caused me to earn mediocre grades in my second half of junior year, particularly a C- in AP World which I later dropped. I did get into counseling which helped me immensely and I no longer struggle with some of those issues, so I noted how I grew from it and how struggling helped fuel my desire to make a positive impact for others.

Educational/career goals: Intended major is Business or Sociology business is not available. I intend to get my MBA and pursue a career in Nonprofit Management working in cities to help provide opportunities to disadvantaged peoples.

Hooks: Parents are immigrants from Russia. Russian is my first language. Legacy at Columbia by virtue of my sister. Questbridge finalist, low income.

Please let me know what you think! I’m most concerned about the additional information bit… I’m afraid elite schools will see me as too much of a risk.

Thanks!

2

I highly suggest trimming down your list of schools. Apply to them if you wish, but 22 schools seems a bit excessive. Typically five to ten schools is recommended, including a safety.

3

You stand a decent chance at getting accepted to half or better, but the number of acceptances is less important than getting in somewhere that is going to be a supportive community with a good program. My ACT was the same as yours, and I got in everywhere I applied. I had a lower GPA, but way more ECs and honors. I ended up choosing a small school that is nationally known for my program, but otherwise no one knows it exists.

Honestly, no one cares where you went to undergrad when it comes to applying to grad school, the one exception being if you’re trying to get into a grad program at the same school. I know a Northwestern grad who is trained as an actuary and he is a cashier at a hardware store. The name got him nowhere. Grad school is where the name matters. Know that you’ll also have more opportunities at a smaller school. It sounds counter-intuitive, but at smaller schools you’re more likely to get to do grad research or get good internships sooner. My relatively tiny school’s top business majors got to manage an international micro-finance fund and intern at a Fortune 500 company. Brown is pretty cool, and U of Minnesota has a good business program. I have a friend who went to Minnesota as a double business and marketing major and he loved it. A school that focuses on competency rather than competition is going to be a better fit for you.

Give extra consideration to schools with honors programs/colleges. The perks can be nice. I went to one and got 24-hour library access, faculty-level check-out privileges, early registration with bumping rights, my gen. eds. virtually all waived, some super cool honors seminars, and got to do two years of grad.-level research. If I had been able to safely live in that dorm, I could have had a single room on a floor with all honors students too. It pays to be one of the school’s prize poodles.

If I were you, I’d throw U of Illinois into the mix. They have an honors program and honors house, a lot of international students, and you’d have an advantage into their MBA program. They have enough of a reputation to be useful if you wanted to go ivy for grad. school.

4

Should’ve mentioned this in my original post, but the number of schools is so large because of FA stuff. My family and I have identified that “no loans” is one of our top considerations when selecting a college, and unfortunately this will not be possible at most schools, even my state flagship unless I lived at home (prior to merit aid). It would only be possible at the most prestigious/selective universities with large endowments. And, well… going to a U with a name would make me happy. Always been a dream of mine.

I have considered that LACs have good grant aid, but it is not the environment I am looking for.

I ran the NPC for all of these schools and only 13 came out to not including loans. Unsurprisingly, those were the 13 most selective.

I have applied to the Scholars program at Emory and the Simon Scholars Case Competition at URochester. I’ve been on the look for similar programs at other schools on my list as well.

5

You do realize that 22 schools is a LOT of paperwork for your guidance counselor? I know that our GC’s, at my campus, put a limit on the numbers (10) unless they really knew the student had excellent chances and even then they had limits. Don’t be surprised if your GC has to hurriedly put through your packages. If you have a large senior class applying, he/she won’t have time to “perfect” your package. It’s not just about making copies of the same LOR’s.

You do realize that the paperwork for FA will be very time consuming given all of the supplemental financial aid forms each school will require? The supplementals are in-depth and if anything is out of whack, you won’t be granted funding. Your previous post indicates that your father is a prof. You should consider his school and some safeties because you don’t appear to have any.

FWIW: Hooks are not something you make up. Hooks are something that the university needs and the standard is basically the same:
Underrepresented minority: African American, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander
Recruited Athlete
Legacy
Donor
Celebrity status
and a specific want by the university: (e.g. a tuba player, a mural artist, etc.)

I think you need to cut out USC, Harvard, and Stanford. Your EC’s don’t have the impact that those schools want and need. Going to those schools won’t help your goal of:

How will you pay for grad school if you are low income? Once you graduate, FA for grad school is very limited.

BTW: You won’t make a lot of money working for city programs. They are usually underfunded and understaffed. Whatever makes you happy. Be realistic.

6

For my school almost everything is done online, so my counselor has expressed to me that he thinks my list is great and that applying to this many schools is not going to be a strain on his office.

As for my father, well, you have dug up a post I made when I was a sophomore. That situation is different now in several ways.

Do you think that universities do not need students that come from immigrant and low income backgrounds? Interesting.

You think going to USC, Harvard, and Stanford, all of which are located in large cities with many opportunities for internships and career development, as well as the country’s best business programs and access to their faculty and research, won’t help me? Also interesting.

Paying for grad school is a top reason I want to go to a school where I will have no loans which is precisely why I am shotgunning so many schools with generous grant aid.

And, finally, thank you for disparaging my career goals in a chance me thread… I don’t think you said anything related to chancing me other than “not USC Harvard or Stanford” haha

7

You asked about 22 schools and gave additional information which I responded to.

If opinions don’t coincide with your needs, why ask?

FWIW: I’m from a very low income background, a URM, who, many years ago, got into these schools but couldn’t afford to go, because it is not just about being funded for tuition and r/b; this is why I am giving you my input.

I also have worked for city non-profits that were funded from every resource available. But since that information didn’t help you, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

My children also have gotten into good schools/grad schools and top 10’s. (Husband is also Stanford alum, youngest sis is a USC alum). I know what they did that got them admitted.

I don’t see Harvard, Stanford, nor USC admitting you.

8

@1650mile
Brown- Low Reach/ Reach
Carleton- Match
UChicago- Reach/ High Reach
Columbia- Low Reach
Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke- Low Reach/ Reach
Emory, Georgetown- High Match/ Low Reach
Harvard- Reach/ High Reach
University of Minnesota- Safety
Northwestern, UPenn- Low Reach/ Reach
Princeton- Reach/High Reach
Rice- Low Reach
URochester- Low Match
USC- High Match
Stanford- Reach/ High Reach
Vanderbilt- Low reach
UVA- High Match
William and Mary- low Match
Yale- Reach/ High Reach

Your aiming fairly High, You could use a few more Matches and Safeties and less reaches. I also would cut this down to 15.

9

Out of curiosity- are these all through the Commonapp (which will limit the number of schools to 20)?

10

No, I am only doing the Common App for 14. 7 are through Questbridge only, and Georgetown has its own app.

11

Even for a low income student (assume you got a tuition waiver at these schools?) and Questbridge applicant, 22 is a ridiculously high number of applications. Very hard to really show “why…” in your essays. And btw, legacy status at Cornell is only for children of grads, not siblings. http://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/ask/faq/question/2412

Do you have any match or safety schools, or are you applying to all reaches?

12

“Do you think that universities do not need students that come from immigrant and low income backgrounds? Interesting.” Do you not realize how many kids are from immigrant families? And that includes many with Russian born parents.

This list is too many because the size diminishes the chance you know what all look for. It seems that, other than checking FA, you’re throwing your own darts. The 3.82 gpa and wealth of 4 scores on AP, especially World and HG put you at risk for humanities at a tippy top. Adcoms will look at your transcript for which classes were less than an A grade. No Euro? What about foreign lang?

And you’ll need to answer a Why Us? sort of question for many of those (whether or not it’s phrased as such, they expect to see this. It’s part of assessing your match.)

Then, the ECs. Lots of kids aimig at the reaches are doing school campaigns for awareness. DECA, chamber and job are good but what do you think pulls your app together? * pursue a career in Nonprofit Management working in cities to help provide opportunities to disadvantaged peoples.* What have you done in this direction, so far? How do you show this is a real interest you pursue?

13

I have already done the majority of my essay writing. There is a reason I put it as good. My essays put together a composite of myself that explains my background and how it plays into my goals and aspirations. A couple of my essays are humorous too and show my personality. I tried to tailor my Why X essays specifically to the schools with details and the type of communities and activities I would want to participate in on their campus, etc… again, there is a reason I put essays as “good”.

14

The solution isn’t to apply to 14+ highly- or most-competitive colleges. It’s to carefully pare down to a few you truly match (where you offer what they want- and yes, you have to figure out what that is. It’s much more than stats.) And then focus on less expensive safety options, build your fall back position.

And if you’re QB, nothing wrong with taking the student Direct Loans. A hassle, of course. My own kids are laboring under their repayments. But you don’t want such a top heavy list, just because of a loan policy, only to learn later that your options are limited, anyway, because you didn’t balance the list in a savvy way.

15

Too many reach schools. GPA is below average for almost all of them. Even the match schools have a 15% chance of admittance, at best. Minnesota is an out of state college, and therefore far more competitive unless you live there. That puts it in a reach category. I can name at least 3 schools that’ll offer a full scholarship. Alabama, Auburn, and SMU. Those are solid safety schools.

16

Others can chance you, OP, so I’ll just ask one question: why Carleton?

Don’t get me wrong. As an LAC grad, I’m a big supporter of LACs. I would choose Carleton or Bowdoin or Haverford over the rest of the colleges on your list, but that’s just me. I freely admit that I’m biased! :slight_smile:

But why is there one LAC in a list that is otherwise universities? You listed U of MN, so I’m going out on a limb and saying you are from The North Star State and that MN is your in-state safety. So do you have Carleton because it has a great rep in your state? Is this to appease your parents? An LAC is much different than a university, and even the most elite of LACs are pretty anonymous among the general public (few people’s jaws will drop when you say that you attend Carleton; instead, they’ll say, “What’s Carleton?” Those of us who chose LACs know this and accept this).

Yes, your list is elite-heavy (including Carleton, of course), which is perfectly fine; some students see anything “less” as unacceptable, but the list tells me that you’re not really crafting a list of schools that fit; you’ve essentially jotted down the 1-20 schools from the US News rankings. Again, that’s fine, but you have some wildly different schools there. For instance, Dartmouth is heavily greek, much more politically mixed, and, believe it or not, something of a party school. U of Chicago is nothing like that! I often thought that the “U of Chicago is the place where you lose your soul to round-the-clock study” was a stereotype, but I just recently read an anecdote in a book where a woman ruled out Chicago for that very reason!

Regardless, your profile looks impressive. GPA might be low (in the world of elite college admissions; not in the real world), but your weighted GPA, your class rank (if your school ranks), and the quality of your secondary school could make up for that.

17

Almost all the colleges on your list are very difficult to get into and thus a reach for you. Minnesota should be a safety and Rochester a match. I agree with what @coolguy40 and @hapworth have said. The colleges on your list are so different in geography, size, rural/urban, vibe. What type of college do you really want?

I also noticed that you would like to major in business. Very few of these colleges have undergraduate business schools. Sociology is a very different major. If a business major is important, limit your list to colleges with a business major. Also, while these colleges have good financial aid, I like the suggestion from @coolguy40 to consider colleges where you could get a large, hopefully full, merit scholarship. Arizona St Barrett Honors College might be another to consider.