Public School with about half south asian population, pretty competitive
Income Bracket: 150-200k
School Year: Freshman in college for Fall 2023
Intended Major: Finance
HS GPA: UW: 3.9; W: 4.36
AP Classes:
AP CLASSES I’VE ALREADY TAKEN
APUSH: 4
AP Microeconomics: 5
AP Psychology: 5
AP Computer Science Principles: 4
AP CLASSES I PLAN TO TAKE SENIOR YEAR
AP Macroeconomics
AP Human Geography
AP Calc AB
AP Statistics
NOTABLE OTHER COURSES TAKEN
Accounting 1, Honors Finance (Plan to Take Senior Year)
Extracurriculars/Activities:
Teen Business Podcast
Co-founder/Oversees business operations for a top 5 teen business podcast in the world; Have created 50+ quality episodes featuring influential guest speakers discussing topics ranging from personal finance, motivation, business, investing, and lifestyle
Statistics about the podcast:
Grown to over 4000 followers in the last 1.5 years on Instagram
Ranked in the top 2.5% of podcasts globally
#1 Education for Kids podcast in Argentina, #3 Family and Kids podcast in Argentina, #82 Education for Kids podcast in America, Top 150 podcaster in Saudi Arabia
Ranked as a 5-star podcast on Apple Podcast (47 reviews)
Varsity Golf (Captain)
I obviously don’t have anyone to vouch for me here, but I take my captain’s duties pretty seriously and am always trying to help out younger players on our squad and be a good leader
Tutoring/ Working at a Non-Profit
Worked on their marketing side to get new tutors as well as expand the service to more parents which we were successful at
Have 15+ tutoring hours
Interning at a Digital Marketing Agency
Head of Content
Leads a team of talented, academically gifted, and business-oriented high school content writers, writing articles about business, tech, and current events
Written 50+ Articles
Sales Associate
Reaches out to local businesses, and with sales training is responsible for getting local businesses to book meetings to discuss their digital marketing presence and the importance of it in their business
Latin Competitions
Didn’t take Honors Latin 3 in High School because I wanted to take other courses but within this I plan to compete locally and gain some kind of achievement or award within latin
Economics and Finance Team
Competed in Wharton Investing Challenge, Economics and Finance Challenge which takes place at the state level
Currently an officer (VP of Membership), and working to design apparel for the club and increase our membership heavily
DECA Club
Competed since freshman year, and competed at state level in 2022
Chance me for:
Do you have SAT or ACT scores?
Do you have a class rank or an estimate of approximately where you stand relative to the rest of the class?
Have your parents explicitly told you how much they can comfortably afford to pay for your college?
Your parents’ income bracket does not equate to what they are willing and able to pay. That is a discussion you need to have with your family as soon as possible. YOU are only able to take out a total of about $27k total over the course of 4 years, starting with around $5500 your first year. Most of the schools on your list cost between $60-80k/year. If your family is not willing and able to pay that without taking out additional loans, then you should forget these schools.
Find out what your budget is and then start looking for schools that will fit that budget. There are many good schools schools at a variety of price points, and you can also receive merit aid to help lower the sticker price. But looking at schools that won’t fit the budget is a waste of your time.
It may be your wording that is confusing some of us. Would you please confirm your parents can afford and are willing to pay $80k per year? Or that they’ve run the NPC for these schools and are comfortable with that result?
When you say “okay with contributing” that leads to concerns that they may not be able to contribute enough to make these schools possible.
I’m not trying to nitpick but just want to make sure we understand the full picture so we offer the best advice.
ETA: I missed @AustenNut ‘s last post saying essentially the same thing. Oops.
How much are they contributing? Let’s take NYU as an example:
This past year tuition, room & board was $76k. Let’s say that you’re super fortunate to be among the 7% of freshmen who get merit aid. That average merit award is about $6200. That leaves you owing $70,000. Then, you can have a federal loan for $5500, leaving you with debt and $64,500 left to pay to NYU. Is your family willing and able to pay $65k/year for 4 years for you to go NYU? If they decide they’ll contribute $30k, that is very thoughtful and generous of them, as they aren’t required to contribute anything to college (despite the fact that most colleges don’t think that way). But that would still leave you unable to pay the $35k balance to NYU, which means you would not be attending NYU.
So yes, your family is willing to “help” pay, but how much help are they willing to provide? Whatever that amount is, consider it your budget.
Your list is very reach heavy. I would call NYU Stern, Georgetown, Duke, Vanderbilt, Boston College, UVA, UMich UNC, and Boston College all definite reaches. For the more extreme reaches, like Georgetown and Duke, I suspect your admissions chances would be quite low. For someplace like Boston College, you’d have a chance but under 20%. I don’t think you’d have better than a 20% chance at any of those reaches.
IU Kelley would be a match.
The only “likely” on your list would be Rutgers.
Slightly off topic and a vent: The OP asked for feedback and “chance me” for certain schools. Yet in the very first response plus several others (four out of the ten responses), there’s been a discussion of affordability. It’s fine to remind the OP to discuss that with his parents. But that’s not what he’s asking. He’s asking for feedback on his chances.
The pinned post on how to post a Chance Me/Match me says (relevant bolding added),
OP included an income bracket, not cost constraints/budget. When OP was asked to clarify the budget, OP has said that the parents are willing to help/contribute toward costs. That does not equate to a budget, and subsequent posts were trying to clarify that.
Many schools are need-aware, and so a student’s financial need can also influence admissions chances. And if a student and his family cannot afford a school, then the chance of attending is 0, and thus a critical aspect of chancing.
It’s a fair point and I understand why you posted it. For kids/families going through this the first time, the posts jumping straight to budget can seem off topic or unwanted advice.
It’s also fair to ask for clarification on budget so a student isn’t blindsided with no affordable options next April. The OP did not clearly answer that question when first asked so it was asked again. With an annual income of $150-$200k they most likely will not receive any need-based aid but their budget could vary wildly based on individual circumstances.
I realize you probably know all this. I just want to make sure the OP knows the questions were well intentioned. Perhaps we should ignore budget and simply give advice with the caveat “assuming your budget can cover $80k/year”?? I don’t think that’s helpful either.
Exactly! I know someone - pretty wealthy family, 7-figure household income, who could easily write checks for $80k+ each year. But they didn’t want to pay more than $50k. Why? In their view it wasn’t worth paying more than that ($200k total) for an undergraduate education. So yes, there can be a gap between what parents can pay and what they want to pay.
I also know families that aren’t in tune with today’s costs and tell their kid “cost isn’t a constraint” but then get sticker shock when they realize how much they’re going to have to pay.
It also depends on a student’s academic goals. Grad school? Law school? Med/Vet/PA school? Etc. If the family wants to contribute toward post-grad they may limit the undergrad budget. (That was our scenario, for what it’s worth.)
Thanks and to be clear my comment was not meant to be directed at you but an overall comment. I think this board is quick to jump to the “can you afford it / how much of a burden will this be to you / your family.” Some people have given this the appropriate thought and attention and don’t really want to discuss it.
BTW, I do love the spirit and helpfulness on this board - everyone is well intentioned for sure!
To the OP - I don’t have much insight into your chances, but good luck to you!
It’s been my observation that once an OP clearly states they can afford $xx/year, people move on from that point and use that number to guide their recommendations.
Back to OP: Rutgers will be likely but you need to add a couple of safeties to your list.
Agreed. Cost constraints are a definite part of the chance/match process.
But where a poster isn’t asking about costs, I don’t think that they need to be loudly reminded to speak with their parents, with lots of emphasis of “are you SURE your family can pay?”
If someone has questions about costs as part of the process… the community should provide guidance.
If someone clearly isn’t asking about the costs (either because they already know they can afford it, because they are confident they will get the aid they need, or simply because they aren’t currently looking at that part of the equation), I don’t think it’s up to the community to become their financial advisor.
It’s not exactly a secret that college is expensive and that private schools are particularly expensive. I don’t think we need to remind every chance-poster to triple-check with their parents on affordability.
