Thank you!!
I’ve seen people get declined over high assets, so I think that may have been the most likely reason I didn’t get in. That, or my essays.
Wellesley would make pay extremely little, about $4,000 dollars, a lot of which will be covered by my pell grant.
I do not know if I can afford to take out loans. The field I m going to has low income, and I may choose to go to graduate school.
My split is 720/680. My schools average SAT score is abysmally low, 940, but we have a lot of students with 1500-1600 scores too.
As long as you have an affordable safety that you’d be happy to attend and you can afford, then the rest of any list is fine.
But if you’re seeking full cost or close to it -then you have to apply to those schools.
So a Wellesley is need blind and Tufts isn’t. But if both NPCs show well for you, go for it. Same with Stanford and Brown.
But you might include easier admits - not easy but easier. The Bryn Mawr, Franklin & Marshall, Berea, etc. Again, check the NPCs first.
If you have fee waivers, take advantage of all 20 slots.
You’ve got this!!
I know that people will say you have no chance only at the schools that you do NOT apply to, but that’s really not true. You really have no chance at Brown, Stanford, and the likes. It’s a thrown out application, and you need to maximize your chances at the schools that you could get into, that offer massive fin aid. You can only submit 20 applications. Your favorite safety. Your favorite match. And then 18 schools that you have a maybe to possible chance at, that would give you full fin aid. The schools that accept fewer than 15% of applicants are unlikely to take you; the schools that accepts fewer than 10% of applicants are extremely unlikely to take you. Pick the 18 schools that you’d be willing to go to, that meet full need for you without loans, that are most likely to take you. BTW, realize that for you, most of the schools on these two lists would not require loans, since you’re low income with I presume low assets.
You need a full ride. You’re a first gen low income Hispanic immigrant B+/A- student coming from a public charter school that is not a highly selective magnet school, in the top 10%, who has taken a reasonably challenging humanities courseload, and has registered only this year for AP sciences. It’s a great record, but there are many people from backgrounds similar to yours who are applying with higher stats, more rigorous classwork, etc. And most of those people still won’t get into the Ivies.
Honestly, you might want to send that 1400 SAT score to certain schools, because it’s possibly higher than what the admissions committee might have expected. We see some people with similar grades from similar circumstances on here who are applying test optional because their SAT is <1200, so really, that 1400 might look pretty good to slightly less selective schools. They might assume that it was lower, if you don’t submit it.
Here is another list, that sorts out the schools based upon full need met, and full need met for low income. Here's Every College That Offers 100% Financial Aid I’d particularly point out to you Grinnell, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Lafayette, and Lehigh as schools that have great reputations, offer full fin aid that will likely be loan-free for you, and where you have a decent shot at being accepted.
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Would be great to know more about your charter school and whether past students in the top 10% get into top tier colleges. I like your list but am inclined to say that UCF would be pretty safe as well.
I do not think Wellesley is unrealistic, but without that information, I can’t know for certain.
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My school is amazing at getting the top 10% of their students to top colleges. Last year, we had around 10 students get into top schools such as Duke, Brown, Cornell, JHU, Case Western, UPenn, NYU, etc. The year before that, we had people go to MIT, Harvard, and some other Ivies that I don’t remember. And when I was a Sophomore, I remember two students entering in the same Columbia ED round. In 2016, my school sent 3 girls to Wellesley but I haven’t seen anyone go since.
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If that’s the case, then talk to your counselor at your school tomorrow, and ask for their guidance.
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i’ve been trying to reach out to her but she’s been avoiding and ghosting me ever since i got denied from Questbridge…. idk what to do
that’s true, i lack a lot of top things that many other applicants will have. in my defense, i haven’t taken high level math because my middle school did not have an accelerated math program which put me behind many students in my high school (i entered in sophomore year, which was way too late to be put in my school’s advanced math program). but now i’m taking dual math which will hopefully make up for it. also, you couldn’t take ap science without finishing algebra 2 in my school and i finished it last year. but i tried to make up for it by taking 2 ap sciences this year, on top of 2 dual sciences.
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These two things confirm to me that you’re not as strong an applicant as the people from your school who’ve gotten into T20 schools in the past, so my recommendations stand - apply to 2nd tier LACs and women’s colleges that meet fin need without loans for low income students.
Do make an appointment tomorrow in the guidance office to speak with your counselor about your new approach. It is an insanely busy time of year for guidance counselors, what with having to get the cover letters ready for all the seniors. Ask her if your recommendations are what they should be, if there’s anything more that she thinks that you need to do to “buff” your application, for her opinion on your application strategy.
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i don’t know because my counselor has flat out told me that i’m one of the strongest applicants in my year. the top 10% in my grade usually don’t aim higher than UM and UF, i don’t know anyone besides 3 or 4 people that are applying to tier one schools. we are in an immigrant, low income community where the culture of many demands people to stay close to home, or stay at home, for as long as possible to support their family. i feel as if my high school’s situation isn’t comparable to the typical american high school. my valedictorian isn’t even applying to t20s lol. if i was in a hyper competitive high school where everyone is aiming for an ivy id agree with you, but most people in my class are aiming for UF and UM maximum.
i can’t say i know what the stats of the kids who went to top 20s in my schools were, but many of them weren’t even top 5%, or valedictorian. i agree that a major weak point of my application is the lack of science and math ecs, but it was not fully my fault and that will be explained through additional info. most people in the accelerated math program in my school have been there since middle school, i was one of very little to switch into the school after freshman year and as such didn’t have the same opportunities. but i am trying to catch up now and i still get 4s and 5s on AP classes where the pass rate in my school is 20-30%.
obviously i will still apply to mostly non-reaches and targets, doing otherwise is really impulsive for me, but i still want to aim for Wellesley ED. i have a good feeling about it and i do not see myself EDing to any other school.
i will see if i can contact my counselor again, i have already emailed her twice but she has been sending out emails to other people and has not responded to me the whole week so i worry she’s avoiding me because she’s disappointed . i found a wellesley alumni teacher at my school so i may have to rely on her for guidance instead if my counselor stops helping me.
If you really love Wellesley you should just go for it. Don’t give too much credit to people here.
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If it’s your top choice, you should ED Wellesley. It’s a top 5 LAC in the country, and your type of EC profile fits well with what it is looking for. It has been working to increase its economic diversity, with zero loans for families with parental income under $100,0000 and one of the highest % Pell grant recipients among top LAC’s. In its last admission round, 23% of students were first gen and 52% spoke a language other than English at home. It is a reach, but you are supposed to have reaches in your list and applying to Wellesley ED greatly increases your chances (39% ED). Although some ED spots are for legacies and athletes, those numbers are fewer than for Ivies (6% of Wellesley students participate in varsity sports compared to 20% of Harvard students). Wth ED, Wellesley is looking to admit people who vibe with the vision of a women’s college experience.
I agree with the comment that your best bet in general are women’s colleges (including Smith and Bryn Mawr which have no loans for low-income). Since you asked for other possible schools in Florida or Massachusetts (according to your tags), I looked at the College of the Holy Cross because it says it covers “full demonstrated need” but the NPC for a family income of 50k comes back at 10k! For identical submitted info, I got Wellesley 2k (i.e. work on campus), Bryn Mawr 3.5k, Smith 5k (work on campus plus summer job) and Mt. Holyoke 8k(!)(work on campus+summer job+3.5k loan).
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hi! i got into wellesley ED last year, and i think you have a good shot! wellesley is need-blind, and if you do not get the financial aid awarded to meet your need, you can appeal based on financial concerns. if it gets truly disastrous you can withdraw your ED app entirely. i didn’t read through the entire thread, but feel free to ask me any questions! 1400 on the SAT is pretty good - where do you land percentile wise in your school and district? for the awards section - don’t stress at all, i didn’t have that many and look where i am 
also - wellesley is truly dedicated to its FGLI students, so no worry there.
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thank you so much!! idk abt my district but school wise i’m top percentile since most kids score a 980. i’m submitting my ed app today and i’m sooo nervous
I think Holyoke and Bryn Mawr are low matches or safeties, even.
Vassar is a high match to reach.
Smith is probably a reach (but a reasonable one).
Do you know what the average SAT score is at your school? I have heard mutliple AOs say that a very good (but not amazing) score from an underperforming school is still an asset, even if it looks below range for the whole student body.
Keep in mind a school like Wellesley or Smith will have so many super high test scores that they don’t have to worry that a few low scores will bring them down or affect their ranking. They are super focused on creating amazing success stories. So it is better for them if their average SAT drops a bit if it means in 5 years they can say “Wellesley first gen grad [saves the world/creates peace and prosperity/etc.].”
You could also ask the AOs whether there is a number under which they would prefer not to see. The AOs want to be able to advocate for impressive candidates. Sometimes you make their lives easier by not giving a low SAT. Sometimes the SAT can help (even if low) if you are coming from an underperforming school the college does not know well.
Good luck! You are going to do great things whereever you land!
Oop s didn’t see your post above–if you are 400 pts over the average for your district, Wellesley will like to see that!
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good luck!
I think and hope OP has a good shot at a number of schools including Wellesley, Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Mt. Holyoke, but based on our very recent experience, I would caution against thinking of some of these as safeties. It’s important to keep in mind that there may be need-aware admissions (and sometimes yield protection in admissions) at the schools that tend to be categorized as matches for certain applicants (Mt. Holyoke and Bryn Mawr for example). That is, on an academic and extracurricular basis they may seem more like match or maybe even somewhat likely schools, but other institutional priorities will likely factor into admissions decisions. Whereas Wellesley is need-blind in admissions, for example, Mt. Holyoke is not.
We categorized Wellesley as a reach (for all), Smith as a reasonable reach for my D23, Mt. Holyoke as a match veering into possibly more likely territory, and Bryn Mawr as a match. I believe we were mistaken due to not incorporating need aware admissions and possibly yield protection enough when looking at supposed match schools.
In my D23’s case, she was admitted to 3 of those 4 and the one she was not admitted to was Mt. Holyoke which on paper might have been the one we would have thought a strong candidate would be most likely to be admitted to. She demonstrated tons of interest including visiting campus from over 1000 miles away, interviewing, virtual sessions, etc. But her financial need was significant while not being significant enough to be in a low income category. Thus the college would be spending a lot of money on her but not addressing an institutional priority of serving a certain proportion of low income students. A mismatch for where they wanted to spend those dollars. We completely understand and support those priorities. We didn’t factor it in enough to our thinking about what schools were matches. For my D, she got into almost all of her reaches despite the fact most of them were reach-for-all schools (and need blind and not yield protecting as much as “match” schools), but she did not do nearly as well with the schools that were supposedly matches but that understandably are sensitive to institutional priorities around finances and yield. Her results were flipped from what one might predict if focusing on academics, extracurriculars, personal characteristics, etc.
In the OP’s case, this may not be an issue given the low income, and hopefully OP will get into Wellesley ED, but I wish for my D’s sake that we had thought more about some of those factors (D ended up with incredible options but some stress could have been minimized with fewer applications to “match” schools that were really, in hindsight, reaches for her due to those factors).
Best of luck to OP!
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Thank you for providing that valuable information! The need aware aspect was a blind spot I didn’t know I had!
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Here are a few questions and tips:
- are you getting fee waivers on the apps? if so apply to as many as you want/can so you have options
- You can list articles as EC or work freelance writer
- you can put a link to your best article in the more information part of the Common app
Also make sure you put all the household work you do on your application I think additional info will be your friend as to explaining articles and lack of awards due to time spent doing X