Chance me for USC, UCLA, and more...

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey! I’d really like your advice for what y’all think my chances are, and how I can improve them. Thanks!

Colleges I’m looking at (Pretty much in the order that I would like to attend):

-University of Southern California (Reach)
-UCLA (Reach)
-Occidental College (Low Reach)
-UC Irvine (High Match)
-UC Santa Barbara (High Match)
-Cal State Northridge (Match)
-Cal Poly SLO (High Match)
-Vanderbilt (Reach)
-Cal State Long Beach (Match)
-University of Central Florida (Safety)

Money is a big part, and I would need a substantial scholarships to go to any of the private schools. I would also need a somewhat big scholarship to go to the UCs. My family could probably pay for the Cal States, and we definitely could pay for UCF.

Stats:

Junior
White male
Large, public high school in Florida
Class Rank: 1 (as of now)

GPA: 3.97 UW, 5.05 W (on 6.0 scale, 4 for regular, 5 for honors, 6 for DE/AP)
SAT: 1500 (760 R, 740 M, No Essay)
1490 (740 R, 750 M, 6,6,6, Essay)
Superscore: 1510 (760 R, 750 M)
ACT: 34 composite, 35 R, 35 Eng, 31 M, 33 Sci, 09 Writing

Classes: Mostly honors, AP, and DE.
APs: AP Human Geography (9th) - 5
AP Seminar (10) - 5
AP World (10) - 5
AP Environmental (10) - 5
AP Spanish Lang (10) - 5
AP English Lang (11)
AP Spanish Lit (11)
AP Physics 1 (11)
AP Statistics (11)
AP US History (11)

Senior Year Schedule: AP Biology, AP Psychology, AP Gov, AP English Lit, DE College Algebra/Pre-Calc, Band, Jazz Band
I took honors calculus this year (11th), but I’m not taking AP calc.

Extracurriculars:
-Marching Band (9-12)
Website Coordinator (11-12)
Asst. Section Leader (11)
Section Leader (12)
-National English Honor Society (10-12)
Treasurer (Sem. 2 of 11th-12th)
-National Honor Society (11-12)
-National Spanish Honor Society (10-12)

Job: I have a part time, minimum wage job that I work about 20 hours a week. (Jan. 2017-End of Senior Year)

Awards (Mostly band things):
-All County Honor Band (11th)
-Superior Solo at State Solo and Ensemble (11th), superior at district (10th), Superior at state on trio (11th)
-Most improved Sophomore & Junior Bandsman (10th and 11th)
-Outstanding excellence in classes awards: AP Human Geog (9th), Anatomy (10th), AP Spanish Lit (11th), AP Stats (11th)

Volunteer Work: I have about 160 hours now from miscellaneous things, but including volunteering at a middle school band camp. I plan on volunteering for a food drive for poor people this summer about 5-10 hours per week.

Essays: I was planning on making my essays about achievements in learning spanish, and things about band. Maybe also learning responsibility through my job.

2

University of Southern California (High Match)
The acceptance rate is low but the only care about stats which you have

-UCLA (Reach)
Unpredictable admissions and OOS

-Occidental College (Match)
Fairly high acceptance rate, your stats are way above avg

-UC Irvine ( Low Match/Match)
OOS

-UC Santa Barbara ( Match)
OOS

-Cal State Northridge (Low Match)
Might be rejected because of yield protection and OOS

-Cal Poly SLO (Low Match)
Stats way above avg but OOS

-Vanderbilt (High Reach)
SAT a little below accepted avg. very low admissions rate. They only care about stats EC’s and essays don’t matter to them

-Cal State Long Beach (Low Match)
OOS, fairly low acceptance rate

-University of Central Florida (Safety)
Agree, In state

Which one are you applying EA/ED to?

3

As an Out of State student, you will recieve no significant financial aid from the Cal States or UC’s, other than any federal aid you are eligible: Pell grant and subsidized/unsub Federal loans.
The price tags for the UC’s are around $60K/year and Cal states are $36K/year and both are increasing tution rates for next year. These schools are not affordable unless you can pay close to full fees.

USC and Occidental are both within reach academically but run the Net Price calculators on both schools to see if they will be affordable.
I would drop the UC’s if FA is an issue and add Univeristy of San Diego and Santa Clara since both are private with a higher chance for merit/need-based FA.

Best of luck.

4

@VANDEMORY1342 Thanks for the advice. I don’t know if I should apply ED/EA to any of them. I’m trying to go somewhere where I can pay a decent price, so I think my best bets as far as scholarships that I would really want to go to are USC (No EA or ED) and Occidental (has ED). I would be thrilled to be at either of those schools.

So if I do apply to any of them early, it would be Occidental. However, I’m not sure if it’s worth it to apply ED because I’m looking for merit aid. Would I be better off applying regular and just seeing where I can get the most? Thanks!

5

@Gumbymom how did you get $36k per year for cal states? From what I found, the cal states (specifically northridge) would be about $18000 for tuition, $8,000 for housing, and $1000 for books, for a total of about $27,000. For me to be able to afford that, I would need a bit of money for scholarships, but there is a chance I would be able to get enough from outside scholarships.

Thanks for your advice! I will probably drop one or two of the UCs

6

@Gumbymom how did you get $36k per year for cal states? From what I found, the cal states (specifically northridge) would be about $18000 for tuition, $8,000 for housing, and $1000 for books, for a total of about $27,000. For me to be able to afford that, I would need a bit of money for scholarships, but there is a chance I would be able to get enough from outside scholarships.

Thanks for your advice! I will probably drop one or two of the UCs