Chance me for Wake Forest, University of Richmond, Occidental, Dickinson, and Syracuse please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hello! I will be applying to these 5 schools along with a couple state schools (UOregon and Oregon State) and reaches. Before I go on and narrow down my reaches more, I would like an opinion on my chances for these schools. I think that I will get into these schools, and at the very least 3 of them. I would like to get feedback if that is an accurate assumption. I feel that come April I will likely be choosing between these school and through my research I can see myself going to all of them.

My information-
GPA: 4.0uw, something really high weighted, I have taken the max amount of IB Classes I can. I am a Full IB student, there is Usually only 20/500 students who are each year.

SAT- Around 1400 New Sat, retaking in October and December if needed. Chem and Math 2 in November

Rank - 5/468. At my school, all people with an uw 4.0 GPA and met honor requirements are valedictorians. There are around 10 each year, I will probably be one of them. Honestly don’t know if my school reports unweighted or weighted ranks because of this. We have 2 official transcripts with either one. I think I get to choose which one to send in, if I do I will send the rank 1 unweighted transcript.

EC: (Most of these are volunteering related, I put the number of documented volunteering hours next to it, none of the hours overlap)

Sparrow Club -President- 100+ hours
This is a club that I am REALLY passionate about. It’s a club where we fundraise for a different sick child each year. Last year it was for a girl who had the same cancer my mom died of. We raised $15,000 and I am immensely proud of that. Benefit concerts, craft fairs, basketball games ect. I know I don’t have a fancy research position but I really take A LOT of pride in this because of the history with my mother. Before I became president we raised $3000 so there was a big difference when I took over. The club only had like 10 people and the old presidents just wanted to give up and disband, but I took over. There is around 100 members now.

Library Council -President- 50+ Hours

Japanese National Honor Society -Vice President- 60+ hours

Science National Honor Society -Co-founder, Secretary- (only this year)

Communications Intern- During my sophomore year for a company online

Key Club -Officer- -Divisional assistant- (Both roles are at separate levels of the club, so I have them simultaneously) 170+ hours

NHS: 70+ hours. Started an Oregon Humane Society fundraiser empty can drive that earned ~$500

Meals on Wheels: Volunteer for 3 years, 1-3 times each week in the summer and during the school year on some non-school days. I am also a volunteer coordinator there, I get people from my high school to volunteer- ~60 Hours

Food Pantry: Help out once a week for an hour for 3 years at a local food pantry (In a church but not one I go to)

Food Bank: 3-8 times a year for 4 years.

Some other Volunteer things like at a family homeless shelter, Library, Metal recycling, Beach Cleanup, PSO Childcare watching; but these things are not as consistent.

Busser at a Hotel summer before Junior year and during Junior year. Quit because it became too much of a commitment

Major: Neuroscience or Psychology with a Neuroscience concentration/minor. Also Pre-med

First Generation, Single parent house hold.

Also would like to add I was homeless Durring part of my freshmen year and will talk about in my essay

Applying to most of my reaches through Questbridge

Income: $12,000.
^So financial aid is an absolute necessity. I can take out up to $9,500 in federal loans (I know my dad will get denied Parent-Plus and no way will any Private loan company allow him to co-sign). I also can do Work-study and perhaps ~$3,000 in summer earnings. With this guideline, all of these schools Net price calculators make them doable. How much can I trust those though?

Because of the financial aid I need to make sure that I can get into more than 1 of them, I am pretty positive I will but I am worried. I need to be able to compare packages. Should I add more safety/matches? True safeties are so hard for me to find because of the finical aid aspect. My Current SAT is just a bit too low for most automatic full tuition (But we will see after October) and most of those schools are too big for my preferences. Syracuse is already pushing the size limit.

So please chance me! Also, I will be including reaches but that isn’t what I want to focus on for this post.

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Also I am a white Female

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Dickinson is a low match, BUT they care a lot about interest. If they think they are your safety or that you aren’t really interested, they may not accept you.

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@intparent that is interesting because I am more interested in Dickinson than the others. How should I show my intrest if I can not afford to visit?

Also I don’t know how it slipped my mind but I am on my school’s Tennis team

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Check their website to see if they have any admissions events in your area, and do your best to attend. If they have a rep at a local college fair, go and chat with them (and be sure to sign in). Sign up on their admissions website to get emails from them (and open the ones you get). When you apply, check your portal (assuming the have one) sometimes for updates. Dickinson has an EA round, so apply via the EA round (shows that you are interested and have your act together). If you have legitimate questions that aren’t answered on the website, email admissions (if you know who the rep is for your region you can email them, but sometimes they change and the website does not get updated). But don’t make up questions, they can tell…

The EA application is due Dec 1, so make sure all your materials are in on time. Also, do the supplemental essay (I think the question is something like “Why have you chosen to apply to Dickinson?”). Put a lot of effort into that, and you can explain that you can’t afford to visit, but are really interested. Use the web site to look at majors and classes, clubs, info on the community, etc. Ask questions out here if you need to (I had a kid attend Dickinson, and am happy to answer questions on threads or via PM!).

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@intparent Thank you! I am doing Questbridge Match so I can only apply to schools EA if that means I get priority Merit scholarships, is that true for Dickinson?

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I don’t think so, but check the website and email admissions if you are not sure.

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I think Richmond is a match. Make sure to show interest and apply by the Dec 1st Richmond scholars date- I think you have a good shot at the merit scholarships.

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@guineagirl96 Thank you! I appreciate the input. How competitive is their merit scholarships? How much better would I be if I went up a ~100 points? (1380-1480)

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Their large merit scholarships are very competitive. The school gets about 10k total freshman applications every year, and there are only 45 full tuition scholarships (a few of those also have room and board) award as part of the Richmond Scholars program spread across 4 designations (Boatwright, Oldham, Science, and Artist). You can find more about that program here http://scholars.richmond.edu/

An additional 100 or so students are selected as Presidential Scholars, which is 1/3 tuition. Of course, there are other smaller merit scholarships that are part of these large programs as well.

An increase in your SAT score can only help in admissions and with scholarships.

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Thank you for all the info @guineagirl96 I really appreciate it!

I have a general question to anyone, Is this a good list of matches? Do you think I would have enough acceptances to compare financial aid, or should I add more?

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Email Admissions (find the rep 's email for your region), explain that Dickinson is one of our top choices, you come from a very low income family (was homeless, lost mother to cancer, father dislocated worker) but have nevertheless managed to focus on learning (4.0 unweighted, full ib candidate, 1400 sat). You can’t afford to visit but do they have a fly in for first generation students at any point this year?

Include all of the above and see what they reply.

I believe merit aid priority consideration goes to EA applicants. (for Dickinson)

I think these are good matches and they have good financial aid so you should be fine. :slight_smile:

Don’t forget to apply to the honors college at your state schools.

Your profile is outstanding. You’re such a resilient, amazing child. I think all readers are humbled by what you went through, survived, and accomplished.

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Try to add 2-3 ‘meet full need’ colleges because getting the best possible financial aid is a necessity for you. Better safe than sorry. You must have fee waivers for both common app and coalition app, right?