Chance Me- Help needed for finding good reach/target schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

U.S citizen

State/Location of residency: California

Type of high school: Large, public high school

Gender/Race/Ethnicity: Female, white

Intended Major(s)

Anthropology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA:

-3.9 Overall Weighted
-3.81 UC capped and unweighted

  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):

-4.2 Overall Weighted
-4.31 UC capped and weighted

  • College GPA *: I’ve taken three college courses so far and have a 4.0, I plan on taking two more over the course of senior year

  • Class Rank: 25 out of 601 (top 5%)

  • ACT/SAT Scores:
    -SAT: 1530
    -ACT: 35

Coursework

9th grade:
Honors Biology: A/A

10th grade:
AP World- A/Credit, 5 on AP test
Math II Honors- B/Credit

11th grade:
APUSH- A/A
AP Biology- A/B (If I did well on the AP test my second semester grade may raise to an A)
Math III Honors- A/B
AP Lang- A/A
AP Seminar- A/A

12th grade:
AP Chem
AP Gov
AP Lit
AP French
AP Research
AP Stats

Awards

-Finalist at local speaking competition
-2 silver keys from west region-at-large scholastic competition
-Finalist for Impromptu
-GATE program
-Honor Roll

Extracurriculars

Speech and Debate: President

Anthropology Club: President/Founder

French Honor Society: President

Gender-sexuality-alliance: Club Officer

NHS: Member

MUN: Member

Intern w/ State Senator: Researcher

Art Commissions: I founded my own website where I sell commissions of my artwork. I typically get around 15 commissions per year

Instagram: I run an Instagram account for my artwork which has about 20K followers

Cost Constraints / Budget

(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

I’m still figuring out pricing with my parents, I more just want a general idea of which colleges I have a chance of getting accepted into.

Schools

Safety/Likely:
-University of Washington
-UC Davis
-UC Santa Cruz
-University of Wisconsin

Target:
-UC San Diego
-UC Santa Barbara
-UC Irvine

Reach:
-Boston University
-Boston College
-University of Notre Dame
-UC Berkeley
-UCLA

I was thinking of applying to some of the ivies, however, considering that I have three B’s on my transcript and pretty mediocre ec’s I feel like it wouldn’t be very likely for me to get in.

I’m still trying to come up with more target schools, so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! Also let me know if anything about my list seems off, like if I put something as a target school that should be a reach school or vice versa :slight_smile: I would also appreciate feedback on my reach list, such as how likely I am to get into those schools or if I should aim a bit lower. Thank you for the advice!

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Based on your interest in anthropology, look into Pitzer, Vassar and Hamilton, which generally represent reaches because of their low acceptance rates. In your case they would appear to be high targets though. If you might be interested in a women’s college, look into Bryn Mawr, which, based on its acceptance rate, would be somewhat more accessible.

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This resource can be especially helpful for estimating costs, especially for selective private colleges:

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Consider a few large state university honors colleges which offer merit scholarships.

ASU Barrett Honors College might be attractive to you & almost certainly would offer you a significant merit based scholarship.

Rice University in Houston, Texas

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In terms of general comments, anthropology comprises four prominent subfields: cultural and social, linguistic and biological anthropology and archaeology. Depending on your areas of interest, you may want to seek a college that offers instruction in all of these subfields. Also, colleges with distinct anthropology departments tend to be stronger for this field than schools at which sociology and anthropology appear in the same department. Colleges with strong supporting sciences may offer an esoteric geoarchaeology major.

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Your list seems about right but as others have said some may be more well know for anthropology than others but that does not mean you cannot get a great education anywhere.

If you want or need merit money, I would apply to Arizona Honors over ASU although both are great. AZ is more aggressive merit wise. Both have Honors. ASU higher rated. AZ and brand new gorgeous Honors Dorm, eatery and fitness/mental health center.

Nice job on your list.

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I think you have estimated your chances well thus far. I believe that you have a good chance at BU, BC, and ND. If you were to add in Ivies, I’d recommend considering Cornell and Dartmouth. You could also look into Penn, Columbia, and Brown. I don’t think you have a chance at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton.

Have you considered Barnard? I’d also recommend looking at Rice, Wash U, Vanderbilt, Tufts (but remember to show HUGE interest in Tufts if you apply there - otherwise, they may reject you, because they want high yield).

Are you willing to consider LACs? Some of them have good anthro dep’ts.

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Although this site can be a bit uneven in its suggestions, it nonetheless manages to identify some of the stronger undergraduate-focused anthropology departments:

Schools such as Wesleyan, Bowdoin and Barnard, as well as the LACs mentioned up-topic, for example, could make good additions to the OP’s list.

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I would add UTK.

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I am not sure a bunch of APs in the senior year has as much weight as the APs that you actually took. What is the uncapped weighted UC GPA. That should tell you a lot about chances with Berkeley and UCLA. Your SAT is great but they wont count for the UCs. That said, I know nothing about Anthropology and would love to hear what others think about loading a bunch of APs in the senior year and whether that helps.

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You have great state universities available to you at in-state tuition.

You are looking at a field that will require graduate work, and that famously does not pay particularly well, especially at the beginning.

But: you are also a high achieving HS student who wants to fly high.

So your teenage self is asking “how high can I fly?” (which is fair). Notably, though, you aren’t asking “Are these the strongest places for my subject” and you are actively avoiding the “Which of the places that are strong for my field are a good match for my budget”.

20-something you will be very, very grateful if you figure out what you and your family can afford, and then find the best programs from which you can graduate with no / minimal debt.

Btw, if you are thinking “but PhD’s are funded, so I can afford to have some debt from college” be aware that un- or low-paid internships are a big part of getting into PhD programs (typically 10 weeks over the summer) and stipends for PhD students are live-able, but only just (and in Anthro, you typically you have to find extra funding to cover the costs of your field work). You can usually defer your student loan payments while you are in grad school, but the interest keeps accruing.

tl:dr- making a list of schools w/o considering pricing is like making any shopping list w/o a budget- you run the risk of falling in love with the one you can’t afford- and then the others are a let down.

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My uncapped weighted UC gpa is a 4.35. Could you tell me what that says about my chances at UC Berkeley and UCLA? I’m not really sure. I also don’t know if adding AP’s in my senior year would help, you just aren’t really able to take a lot of AP’s at my High school until junior and senior year, and I honestly just like the vibes of AP classes more- I feel like there’s more people in those classes who actually care about school lol. Thank you for the help!

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Thank you so much for all of the help! I’ll definitely be doing more research into LAC’s, and I think I should also be looking more into colleges by major as a lot of people have suggested.

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I agree with the others’ comments that you need to be careful about how much you spend on undergrad for anthropology. I noticed from your ECs that you really like art, and wonder whether your silver key awards are in art. If the EFC works for your family, Brown and RISD have a joint program that could be interesting to you.

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For UCB and UCLA admitted students 2020, below is the uncapped GPA ranges 25th-75th percentile

UCB: 4.27-4.62
UCLA: 4.34-4.68

2021 Data should be available by end of Summer or Early Fall.

With the UC’s being test blind, GPA and HS course rigor are Very Important in their application review but you will be reviewed in the context of your HS. This means you want to show a rigorous schedule in comparison to your fellow classmates. You should definitely take AP classes Senior year, how many should be discussed with your GC but I agree all AP’s will be tough with college applications also in the mix.

I would move UC Davis into the Target category and UCSD into the Low Reach category for your UC list. UCSC is not a safety, so consider UCR or some of the Cal states for a Likely/Safety.

UW as an OOS would probably more Target than Likely.

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I’ve hesitated in asking, in that you may have an interest in the school for unmentioned reasons, but are you aware that Boston College doesn’t offer an anthropology program?

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You’re putting the cart before the horse here. An acceptance letter won’t do you any good if you can’t afford the school. The CA schools are a safe bet. You’ll want to run the net price calculator for the other schools. If you can’t afford them, now is the time to scratch them off your list. I would recommend putting a few Cal-States to be safe.

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For an opinion on your posted list with respect to anthropology, UCLA, UCB, UCSB, UCI, UWash and UCSC represent some of your stronger choices.

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