Honestly I went to catholic elementary school and I don’t mind going to a religiously affiliated school as long as the population is diverse.
These teachers wrote their LORs for me for some summer internships, but they were not program-specific internships so they work well for my college applications too. I was also advised by my counselors not to ask any senior-year teachers for recommendations and my junior-year teachers know me pretty well.
You bring up a great point about a STEM rec. Thank you, I’ll work on getting that in.
I might replace my Art History AP with Ap computer science or I might just drop the AP altogether thank you. Why do you think the self-studies won’t help? Just asking.
Thank you for your feedback on choosing colleges based only on the true reason I want to go there.
Thank you so much for all your feedback this is really helpful!
Honestly, law school is something my parents want me to do which is why it is on my list, but I am considering it somewhat seriously. Thank you for your feedback. So essentially you’re saying that if I want to go to law school I’m better off going to a less prestigious college for undergrad right?
My disability is not a huge part of my life honestly. It’s just something that schools ask for on an application which is why I included it. I have complete hearing loss in one of my ears but it is supplemented by a hearing aid so I am usually fine.
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Rutgers and pennstate are my top safeties as of now, but I might add a couple more by the end of this year. Thank you for your well wishes!
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Yeah, being a lawyer is not something I personally do but my dad thinks I would be a great corporate lawyer (I personally think it’s a dull job for me). I am only considering it because he wants me to. Why did you hate being a lawyer?
Sort of. I’m saying that, on average, a “less prestigious” undergraduate institution is 1) more likely to give you merit aid, and 2) possibly more likely to be a place where you could achieve top grades. So, you should have a lot of colleges on your list that are targets and safeties that award merit aid.
I saw that article and thought of @cinnamon1212’s comment, too. To provide some additional context for those who don’t read the article, the importance of a Harvard/Yale/Princeton undergrad was for a very limited niche…that of being a Supreme Court clerk. Additionally, for summa cum laude law grads at the Top Law Schools, undergrad institution didn’t make a difference.
They were three times more likely to get clerkships as those who had gone to the other 19 undergraduate institutions when graduating with cum laude honors and 50 percent more likely when graduating with magna cum laude honors. Both differences were statistically significant. (Summa cum laude honors were very rare and very often led to clerkships regardless of undergraduate institution.)
Additionally, we’re talking about a very small pool of available positions. Each Supreme Court justice typically has 4 clerks per term…so 36 positions total for the entire Supreme Court. Harvard College graduated 1505 students in 2022. Its law school took in 559 students this past year. When multiplying this by all other recently graduated classes (clerks didn’t all graduate from the same year) plus adding in the other “non-elite” schools like Yale 
, it would be an extremely risky (foolhardy?) proposition to pay substantially more for a HYP education for undergrad for the chance to go to a similar institution for law school in order to eventually line yourself up for a Supreme Court clerkship. And as people focus more on equity and access, I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t a concerted effort to be more open-minded about possible Supreme Court clerks’ undergrad institutions.
Now, if one wants to go to a HYP school for other reasons, and/or the money is not a factor, that is something else. But don’t go there thinking that you’re setting yourself up for a Supreme Court clerkship. But since it looks like OP’s not that interested in law school for herself, then it may well be a moot point for this student.
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Well - you’re in high school. Law may be a great thought or may not be. You’re many years away from it.
Hopefully you pursue something you love…as it’s YOUR life…not dads…although we always have the $$ switch we might use against you 
At 17 - you have a long way to go. You don’t know what your interests will be - keep an open mind and if it doesn’t equal law in 5 years, hopefully dad will come around.
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That part of the study focused on Harvard Law graduates with honors, and whether they had obtained their undergraduate degree from HYP or a different undergraduate school:
HYP CL: 3x boost over other undergraduate colleges,
HYP MCL: 1.5x boost over other undergraduate colleges,
HYP SCL: “very often” equivalent, if from other undergraduate colleges.
While this was specific to 1,426 former Supreme Court Clerks - it might still inform us about a general bias by those offering top positions, at least in this profession.
To be clear, I’m not lobbying anyone to make decisions based on the above study, I’m simply noting the findings.
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This is a long list of schools that don’t seem to have much in common. I’ll talk about journalism, since that’s what I know.
To start, the following schools don’t offer journalism for undergrads:
Yale
Princeton
Dartmouth
Stanford
UCLA (technically they have a “communication” major, but it’s more broad than journalism)
Barnard
Duke
UChicago
Vanderbilt
JHU
CMU
Georgetown (has a minor)
UMich
UVA (has media studies)
Emory (has film and media major)
Notre Dame
William and Mary
If you do choose to go with journalism, your list is already cut by more than half. Look into schools that have the majors you’re interested in, and that will let you jump between multiple without having to re-apply between schools since you’re undecided so far.
Apologies for the slow response- just saw it tonight.
Multiple AOs have told me directly, and I have seen AOs say to the audience at multiple college road shows that self-studying an AP does not help an application- even if it is a subject in which you have an actual interest. They want to see how you do in the class, not how well you can cram for a test- and they don’t like students seeing APs as ‘who has the most wins’.
The one caveat is that for students applying to university in some countries, APs related to the subject that you are applying to study are part of the application process (for example, as a substitute for A level exams).
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