Chance Me For Occidental College Please!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Occidental College
1

Hello my College Confidential friends,

Can someone please chance me for Occidental College? I know most of you saw these kind of posts probably a million times already, but please do it one more time, I will really appreciate it!!

Academics
*SAT: 1280 (I know this is on the lower side but I am just bad at standardized testing. I am taking one last one soon, hoping to get at least a 1350)
*ACT: N/A (I will maybe take one if my next SAT comes out trashy)
*SAT II: Chinese-790 (Taking the U.S. History and Math II one soon, hoping to get 700+ for both)
*Unweighted GPA: around 3.65 - 3.70
*Weighted GPA: around 4.45
*Rank: 23 out of 850 (top 3%?)
*AP: AP Euro-4, APUSH-4, AP Calc BC-3, AP Chem-2
*IB: my school doesn’t offer this
*Senior: AP Lit, AP Bio, AP physics 1, AP Stats, AP Computer Principles, regular government/economy

Extracurricular
*Key Club: started freshman year, elected as treasurer last year and current president
*Hospital Volunteering: 1 year, currently have 180 hours
*Hospital Internship: past summer, 2 months
*Link Crew: a program at my school that helps Freshmen success
*Science Olympiad: 2 years, but haven’t gotten any awards
*CSF: 2 years
Awards: got Honorable Mention in one science competition, school vocabulary top 100, that’s it ;( I really don’t do that much)
Essays: working on them, my writing is okay, nothing exceptional

Others
*State: California (inland Southern California, 45 miles from Occidental)
*Country: United States (but I was born in China, immigrated in elementary school)
*School Type: suburban (average high school, around 3600 students)
*Ethnicity: Chinese
*Gender: Female
*Family Income: around $50,000k (single mother)
*Parent(s) Education: My mom went to a vocational school in China

→ As you can see, I am not that perfect. But please chance me! (I am planning to major in Biology, pre-med path)
→ If anyone is nice enough, can you please estimate my tuition cost?
→ Are there any other liberal arts colleges I should apply to? (I really don’t like the UCs, because they are overcrowded with pre-med kids who are Asian = competition)
→ I am from the class of 2019 (so applying really soon, too soon)

p.s. Some other colleges I am applying to are the UCs, Cal States, and near by out-of-state publics.

THANK YOU!!!

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BTW I am NOT applying through Early Decision

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Hi there - Hope all is well with you. Our D is a freshman at Occidental this fall. For the little it may be worth, here are my thoughts.

In my highly fallible opinion, I would put Oxy as a low reach. You are Californian and female, two things Oxy has in relative abundance. Your current SAT composite is at the low end of their middle 50% band for 2017-18 per their common data set. Oxy said at family orientation last week that this fall’s class was more selective than 2017-18, so although '18-'19 not out yet, chances are your SAT composite would have been below the 25% line for this year’s class. Oxy’s admit rate dropped to 27% in 2017-2018 cycle, and again I imagine it was lower for the class that is starting this fall. I congratulate you and admire your ECs, which are far more than I did at your age, but not sure they will offer an admissions advantage at Oxy. Finally, Oxy admitted a little larger classes (either by design or by unexpected yield) the last two years after two smaller classes and are now about where they want to be overall, so they may tighten admissions a little for next fall to prevent growing total enrollment above their target.

I can’t speak to likely aid. Oxy is need aware in admissions I believe, but I am of course not sure how much that would a factor in their eval of your app and not sure of they meet 100% demonstrated need (I would guess they do, but you can find that info pretty easily) and, if so, what the mix of grants and loans might be.

Anyway, that’s just one outsider’s opinion. Maybe it will get you some other replies. All the very, very best in your process!!!

4

Check out Cal Lutheran (in Thousand Oaks), University of Puget Sound (Washington State), and Willamette (Oregon) - all are a bit less selective than Oxy.

5

Cal Lutheran offers a matching scholarship (equal to full $ cost of attendance to UC) to anyone who gets admitted to UCSD, UCSB, UCD, UCI or UCB. So it would be worth applying to one or more of these UCs if you are interested in going there. They also have full tuition scholarships. Usually if you e-mail interest to the school, they send you information on how to apply for free.
University of Redlands and Chapman also have good merit scholarships and may be within your reach. But still apply to Oxy regardless if this is your first choice!

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@JMS111
Update: I just received my last SAT score. My highest one setting score is 1310 but I have a super score of 1340. Do I have a higher chance?? Even if it’s a little higher??

7

Yes, you have a bit more chance.
What’s your budget for college?
If your family’s income is 50k in California that probably means they can’t contribute much if at all?

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Yea, my family’s income is around $50k and my mom is expecting to pay around the same amount as an UC. Although Oxy is my #1 choice, if UCs come out to be a lot cheaper, I think I will just go to a UC, considering the limited financial resources I have.

That brings me to my next question, how is Oxy in terms of financial aid or towards low income families?? Are room and board included in financial aids considering I have to dorm for 3 years?

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Yes, for UCs and Oxy, room and board are taken into account for financial aid.
Have you run the Net Price calculator on Oxy? Does it look affordable?