Chance me- linguistics major

Chance Me / Match Me!
, ,
1

Demographics - US citizen, white, female. No hooks. Attend medium sized public school.

Intended Major(s) - linguistics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA- 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.62
  • Class Rank: school doesn’t calculate rank
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 780 reading, 740 math

Coursework
10 AP classes by end of hs
Spanish Language- 5
Spanish Literature- 5
English Language- 5
APUSH- 5
AP World- 5
1 dual enrollment course
all other courses are honors courses
senior year courseload: AP Stat, AP Chem, AP Lit, AP Euro, dual enrollment, honors Spanish V

Awards
Scholastic silver key, Serbian Seal of Biliteracy, Spanish Seal of Biliteracy, regional debate championship, NHD State honorable mention

Extracurriculars
Track (state qualifier, received several awards)
orchestra (first chair, in three orchestras, in regional audition-based groups)
debate (captain, national qualifier)
school newspaper (editor in chief)
volunteer translation (French, Serbian, and Spanish)
linguistics research
boxing
summer course + dual enrollment course in Maya
school diversity club (co founder, secretary)
lunch program co founder (providing lunch to people in the community who face food insecurity)

Essays/LORs/Other
Common App essay- writing about boxing as a love language, 8/10
LORS- Spanish teacher and English teacher from junior year, probably 7/10

Cost Constraints / Budget
hoping for good merit aid, as I plan to attend law school and need to save money for it

Schools

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
    Pitt
    UMass Amherst
    UW Madison
    University of Indiana Bloomington

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    Honors programs at all four safeties

  • Match
    Case Western Reserve University
    UNC Chapel Hill
    William and Mary
    Rutgers
    Purdue

  • Reach
    Columbia
    UChicago
    Harvard
    Yale
    Stanford
    UC Berkeley

2

UC Berkeley offers little to no merit nor financial aid to OOS applicants so unless you want to spend $65K/year to attend, I would consider removing it from your list.

5 Likes
3

None of your reaches offer merit aid.

3 Likes
4

What is your home state?

1 Like
5

Unless you are a North Carolina resident or a legacy to UNC, it will be a reach.

Similarly, unless you are a Virginia resident, W&M will be a reach.

CWRU will be a reach, albeit a low one

As a linguistics major, Purdue will be a likely, not a match, and I would guess that the same is true for Rutgers (Rutgers could also be a safety).

UW Madison OOS would be a likely, not a safety

As @blossom wrote, none of your reaches will provide merit aid. UNC and W&M will also likely not have much merit aid, especially for OOS students

In general, if you are looking for merit aid, you need to have a very different college list. You should start your search with colleges which provide merit aid, not with acceptance rates. As a rule (though exceptions exist), few colleges which have acceptance rates of below 30% provide merit scholarships.

1 Like
6

I like your list until I read - you want merit aid for law school You don’t mention where you are from.

UNC is not a match unless you are in state. I do agree W&M is a match -even though you are out of state. Neither is going to give you merit. Your list is strong - but not strong for merit chasing.

As this is a major that will be low paying or require grad school, you might look at Arizona, Florida State, Alabama, South Carolina, and Miami Ohio… All have wonderful Honors Colleges and /or special programs and you will get bank. For example, $35K at Az vs. $38K tuition. At FSU, you will get in -state and that’s only $7K a year. At College of Charleston, you could be a Charleston fellow and might get a huge tuition break. And Washington & Lee has the Johnson - you never know - a total freebie. They have ample full tuition scholarships as well. UTK would be another good one.

If you want small and private, Hendrix, for example, will match the tuition of your state flagship.

But you’ll get into many on your list for sure. But many on your list will not be inexpensive - even though such as CWRU that give merit. Your reaches will all be expensive - so unless you qualify for aid, you should eliminate them. If you want a top public, UF is the top public beyond the UCs/Michigan and it’s affordable without merit. For private, while merit is unlikely, schools like Rice, Emory, WUSTL, Vandy and USC do offer merit - so might be a better “hail mary” because at least you can potentialy get aid vs. your list of need based only schools where you have no chance.

Good luck.

1 Like
7

Massachusetts

8

U Mass is one of the top linguistics programs in the country, so if your instate fees are affordable- and you are a lock for admissions- I’d say you are done in the safety and match department. Going to be hard to beat U Mass!

4 Likes
9

UW- Madison isn’t a big merit aid school either.

1 Like
10

I’m curious about how you separated some of the large publics into safeties and matches. I’ll admit I haven’t looked up the data, but to me UMass, Pitt, Indiana, Wisconsin, Rutgers, and Purdue are all pretty similar admits for a non engineering major.

1 Like
11

I’d agree - Pitt and Purdue are definite safeties. Purdue is affordable and the student could possibly get $10K. Pitt - aid will be light and it’s more expensive. Both are easy admits.

I don’t know anything about UMASS - but based on @blossom obviously it’s worth a look. Add that, you can take classes at the consortium and UMASS is rated one of the top colleges for dining. I wish I could eat there instead of my local restaurants!!

Here’s a list of strong linguistics programs -like any “ranking” take it for what it’s worth - but when I look at it and think merit, Brandeis, Delaware, Macalester, and Ohio State might be your best bets.

You are going to law school - I’d find your flagship or a state school that’s going to throw money at you - and they will - the U of SC, Miami of Ohio, Arizona and Florida State, Alabama and more (especially) and save up. There are others too. All these schools are bringing lots of Northeast kids by the way - so you won’t feel left out.

Good luck.

1 Like
12

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.