Okay so I’m a senior and I’m working on my college list and this is what I’ve got (in no particular order):
Harvey Mudd College (top choice; I know it’s a reach for everyone and their applicant pool is self-selecting and whatnot)
Caltech
Smith
Reed
Hamilton
Rutgers (it’s close to home & my dad went there but I would only be interested in the honors college honestly)
Fordham
Swarthmore
Ursinus
University of Puget Sound
I think I want to major in comp sci with a minor in creative writing but I’m also looking at engineering. If you have any other suggestions for schools after reading this post then I’m open to suggestions! (I’m also open to dual degree engineering/comp sci programs) I need both schools that offer financial and merit aid because while we’re hoping I get some need-based aid idk.
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Female
Hispanic
3.9 UW GPA
4.4 W GPA
Class rank hasn’t been released yet but I don’t think it will be very high bc I go to the county tech school and it’s pretty competitive. My school is ranked somewhere around 100 in the country but idk if that will help.
New SAT: EBRW 740 M 770
National Hispanic Scholar
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Senior Courses:
All courses will be taken at my county college this year so second semester classes are tentative
-English Composition 1
-Lifetime Wellness
-Computer Science 1
-Calculus 1
-Early Modern Europe
-English Composition 2
-Personal fitness
-Calculus 2
-Microbiology
-Advanced Spanish composition
I’ve also participated in something called WISTEM (Women’s Intro to STEM). It’s a program run by Harvey Mudd (this is the first year they’ve done it) and in addition to a 3-day residential program, we’ve participated in an online program where we have attended webinars by graduates from HMC (all women in minorities) and taken an online introductory comp sci class by HMC.
Another bit of information is that I’m in the Healthcare Sciences academy at my school and through that I have earned 22 credits from Rutgers University over the past 3 years.
Extracurriculars:
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School chorus (2014-2015 Secretary; 2015-2016 Webmaster; 2016-2017 President)
Marching band and jazz band
Gay-Straight Alliance
National Honors Society
HOSA-Future Health Professionals (occupation-based club with competitions. I have place 2nd and 3rd on the state level in medical reading and have participated in two international conferences)
Church-related activities (Antioch Leadership Team (we lead a retreat for other teens); choir; catechist (religious ed teacher); Mystery Play (we perform the Passion during Lent))
Swim team
Lifeguarding during the summer (at a large pool and at a special needs summer camp)
Writing stories (mostly for fun, but I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month twice)
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For my essay, I’m thinking about writing about how I got into writing stories and my experiences with NaNoWriMo because writing has always been a hobby that stuck with me even when my interests changed. Another idea I had was to write about working at a camp for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and how it’s impacted me and my career goals. I’ll probably go with whichever comes out more naturally, and I have to say I’m a pretty strong writer.
I know my ECs and interests are a bit all over the place but I was mostly wondering how I’m doing in terms of finding a balance of safeties, matches, and reaches and if you guys have any other suggestions of schools to look into.
I’m not sure about how much of a factor your ethnicity will play into your admission, but I think you’d be fine for Rutgers (I have no idea about Puget Sound), Reed and Ursinus will probably be reach and match, respectively. Caltech and Harvey Mudd would definitely be high high reaches, if only because your extracurricular are great, but average in those pools (esp. because you’re a little short on leadership positions, though you may have just not written them in.)
Swarthmore is probably a mid to high reach, depending on how your essay goes, because I know they like to really look at your essays. However, it has one of the better financial aid packets here (that I know of, so take this with a grain of salt).
The other colleges I am not very familiar with.
Have you taken any subjects tests yet? Or maybe the ACT?
@penumbra7 I realized once I posted that I left out that I helped found the Religious Studies club at my school and am currently the VP. I also did this thing called Peer Leaders where we (as juniors) were mentors for the incoming freshmen transitioning to high school (in actuality it was mostly BS and us telling them not to do stupid things and them venting to us about their teachers but on paper it looks pretty good I guess). Do you think those will help?
I haven’t taken any subject tests yet but I’ll probably take Math 2, Bio, and Chem in October. Do you think I should take the ACT? Would that probably help my stats more than the SAT? I guess I could probably take a practice test to see if I would do better on that. What scores do you think I should aim for?
I’d put Ursinus at likely rather than match. They were still taking applicants late this summer. (And, specifically, hitting up my kid, whose stats they knew, and which were somewhat lower than yours.)
Yeah, Ursinus is a match - even a safety like Rutgers. I hope you get into Harvey Mudd, it’s a great school with happy students (wish my D17 would apply but she’s getting out of SoCal). Puget Sound is also basically a safety. You have a lot to offer! Hamilton would love you. Swarthmore is pretty reach-y for most people these days…and Smith is the only all-girls school on your list, it feels out of place culturally.
Sorry for the late reply! I just was asking because I was worried that you hadn’t done those yet- most colleges require either the ACT or the SAT+2 Subject tests. I think you’ll do fine. Don’t stress out too much!
@Fangirl1999 If I were you, I would even shoot for higher. HYPS and the Ivies are need-blind, so you would get financial aid. But that is only if you’re interested in those colleges. Do you have any other hooks or special situations?
^ I’m not sure that there is a higher for this OP, who seems to prefer the opportunities that might be available at purely undergraduate focused colleges. Beyond that, Caltech students arrive with the highest average SAT scores in country – and Harvey Mudd’s scores are higher than Stanford’s – so any “higher” for this student would have to be subjectively based.