Chance me: OH resident, National Hispanic Recognition, 3.94 UW, 32 ACT (33 super); creative writing, screen writing, game story development

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics

  • US domestic *(US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: *OHIO
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Private Independent Day School
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional):Female/Asian Indian/Brazilian Latina
    *Dad is Indian (Mechanical Engineer PhD Virginia Tech for Masters and PhD)Mom (RN) Community College (Brazilian and 1st Gen)

**Intended Major(s) Creative writing/English / Theatre (playwriting/screenwriting)/Game Design Concepts (Not programming , story development)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.91
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.39/4.66
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank:Does not Rank senior Class of 44 students V/S Too close to call right now
  • ACT/SAT Scores: ACT superscore 33. Math 29/Science 34/English 34/ Reading 36
    Taken 3 times with a score of 32 and Superscore of 33

Coursework
Had 1 B+ in AP Calc AB for 1 semester and B in Honors Algebra 2
*10 Honors Courses
5 AP Course
French through Honors French 4 (4.0)Topped out in 10th (French since 4th Grade)
Math Algebra/Honors Geometry/Honors Algebra2/Honors PreCalc AB/ AP Calc AB (AP Test 4)/AP Stats
World History/ Honors Modern World History/ Honors US History.
English/Honors Lit/AP English (AP Test 5)/ English Excursions
Honors Biology/Honors Chem/Animal Behavior / AP Environmental Science
Acting/Advanced Acting/Choir/Drawing/Tap Dancing
AP Classes only allowed in 11th and 12th Grade with max of 2, allowed 3 with permission
Honors on 4.33 scale/AP on 4.66 Scale
**** Intended to take Computer Science at beginning of the Junior Year, teacher resigned a week before class started. Only available options were Animal Behavior and Tap dancing) school still has no Comp Sci teacher.

Awards*
National Hispanic Recognition Scholar -College Board 2023

Yale Book Award For Character and Intellectual Promise (Junior)2023
(From Yale Alumni Association)

National Honor Society 2022, 2023, 2024

International Thespian Society Honor Thespian
Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Game Design
Cleveland Institute of Art 2022

School Awards at the end of Freshman ,Sophomore and Junior Year
The Zora Neale Hurston Award. -2021 (English)
For the eloquent demonstration of conceptual originality

The Pericles Award - 2021 (World History)
For thoughtful critiques and analysis in classroom discussions

The Marie Curie Award - 2021 (French)
for curiosity, enthusiasm, and consistent effort

The Chinua Achebe Award 2022 (Modern World History)
For displaying global perception in historical discourse

The Toni Morrison Award - 2022 (English)
For the eloquent demonstration of conceptual originality and intricacy

The Virginia Woolf Award - 2023 (English)
For Clarity and persuasiveness in analytical writing

The Niko Tinbergen Award - 2023 (Science)
For excellence in Animal Behavior

The Excellence in Drawing Award - 2023

The Choral Spirit Award -2023

Extracurriculars
*Theatre - Thespian Society Member - Student Director of 4 productions,
Supporting Actor Roles X 2. attends all the in state and out of state conferences.
Choir- Very Active and enthusiastic singer , participates in state and out of state
Competitions, performances and conferences.

Excellent Animation artist - has been drawing for last 10 years - has portfolio
Residential 2 week Intensive Summer Program at the Cleveland Institute of Art
Animation 2021 , Game Design 2022

Interlochen Center for the Arts
Admitted to Residential 3 week Intensive Creative Writing Program
With focus on and screenwriting

leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)*

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

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.)

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
  • Match
  • Reach
2

Submitted before finishing

Interlochen - selected to attend after writing portfolio review.
2 pieces were published in Interlochen Anthology.

Varsity Volleyball Freshman Year- Middle Hitter - switched to Theatre as an
Extracurricular for the rest of HS.

Started a Dungeons and Dragons Club 2021 - Founder and Game Master -
passionate about DND and creating narratives, worlds and developing characters and game strategy.

Applying ED to Brown

2.Yale 3. Northeastern 4. Kenyon, 5 Hamilton, 6. Swarthmore, 7 Williams, 8 Carnegie Mellon 9 Northwestrn 10 Miami at Oxford (full ride Honors program)

She is passionate about storytelling and creating narratives and theatre.
Her essays are great, LOR are stellar.
Extraordinary human of impeccable character and uncommon maturity.

All of them will financially work. Brown, Williams and Hamilton have best Need based numbers. Miami of Ohio is a total safety - she was recruited through their Diversity Program.
Which Honors should she include on Common App ? Only allowed 5.
This is THE MOM

3

I think there’s a chance but the list is overreach. But if Miami works (if you’d be happy there), then it’s fine.

Depending on budget needs, U of Arizona might be a safety to look at - it’s be about $25K a year. It would hit the mark on your desires.

Good luck.

4

Her top 2 are Brown and Yale. But not so fixated on them that she will be devasted.
Northwestern’s diversity office sent an invitation to visit and apply and she met with the regional rep when they visited our school this week (new to list)
Kenyon and Oberlin ( Oberlin is fairly local to us, most faculty’s kids attend our school) are matches and historically high acceptance to Hamilton and Vassar from our school. (Same or lower stats)
Between Kenyon, Hamilton and Vassar , which would be better and why?

I know her list has over reaches, thank you for your candor, I also believe they are over reaches, however, I can’t break her spirit. They probably will deny, but I need to let it play out. I will be the soft place to fall🙂 and regroup.
Through Hispanic recognition she gets full tuition at Fordham, Alabama and a host of other schools. Fordham IS on the list. Going south is not an option as she doesn’t tolerate or like hot weather.
At her current school she will be in the top 3 out of 49 students.
What Honors matter most when limited to 5 on common app?

Thank you in advance :pray:t3: and in retrospect.

5

As long as you have a safety that would be satisfactory, the reaches don’t matter. So if Miami Ohio works for you, then you’re good.

I would not want to say either of the three are “better”. Kenyon is more likely.

But you have unique interests - and you might talk to each schools - faculty, kids - and find out which is best. For game story development, maybe none or maybe one stands out - is my point.

Again, we don’t know your budget but two others to look at that might be better suited than all three you are looking at. But a rank or reputation doesn’t matter - you have to spend four years somewhere, day after day after day. Find the right school.

Sewanee

U of Iowa - yes, it’s big but it is top level in English/writing, etc. - how it translates to the screen, I don’t know.

2024 Best Playwriting & Screenwriting Schools (collegefactual.com)

6

Note that Fordham’s award is not automatic.

There is a recent thread questioning whether the award at UAlabama is still being offered.

2 Likes
7

I think your daughter has a shot at any of the schools on your list. Yes, you have a lot of reaches, but I feel this is reasonable since you have a solid safety and some matches (given that she attends a private day school that has a proven track record with these schools.) Also it sounds as if she would be disappointed, but not devastated, if she receives rejections. So your list is good, in my opinion.

In terms of which 5 awards to list, I WOULD list National Hispanic Recognition Scholar. I would NOT list National Honor Society or International Thespian Honor Society (too generic.) For the others, I’m not sure. I do think it is probably better to list more recent things, as well as ones that highlight the qualities she wants to highlight most given her interests. So, for example, since she doesn’t plan to be a French major and because it happened way back in 2021 I wouldn’t list the Marie Curie Award.

2 Likes
8

@evergreen5 as of this current school year, National Recognition is also not guaranteed at Texas A&M. Wonder if that’s the case at all schools now?

9

She has a bright future but those schools are hit or miss even for highly qualified students.

Just be aware, Miami of Ohio is not nearly as diverse as many of those programs.

Match - What about NYU? Very well regarded, a top game design program, and many other good programs to dual major. Gotta like NYC though. And it’s huge.

Safety - on the smaller end of the spectrum…likely to get great aid…Would she consider Clark? Another top 5 game design school, and Clark has the BA game design program for more art/design elements (not programming per se). Plus Clark would be a good place to pair humanities like creative writing and it’s very diverse and welcoming.

1 Like
10

Clark IS on the list and she would be happy there.
We’ve heard mixed opinions on game design as a major, hence the literary major.

Open curriculum is a big draw for her.

EFC ranges are 28k for Brown and small LACS to 39k for Carnegie and Clark and Kenyon.
We are working with a paid consultant to navigate the CSS and get realistic EFC so we are not blindsided.

And if Fordham why not NYU?
Her GC recommended looking at Macalester, Grinnell and Iowa…. So we are looking.
My husband is more brand conscious than I am,
He would pay 39k a year for Carnegie but not Clark🤷🏻‍♀️
I really appreciate the responses… it helps me stay grounded in this angst ridden period of life.
I will certainly give an update wherever we land
after it all plays out.

2 Likes
11

A student who intends to pursue creative writing may find the descriptions in this article to be of interest:

12

Is there an updated link? This appears to be 9 years old. Perhaps that’s the most recent and still a valid list. Just wanted to point out in case you meant to grab a more recent list. :smiley:

2 Likes
13

If wanting an open curriculum add Kalamazoo College.

14

You are correct as to the date of that article, thanks. I post it occasionally for its colorful descriptions and for its facts that remain accurate (such as the availability of a minor in Shakespeare studies at Sewanee). Here you will see suggestions from a different, but current, source:

As an opinion, I find this list perhaps too broad to be as useful as a more limited list. Nonetheless, I’d recommend that the OP look into these colleges too, especially since the site includes a few excellent suggestions overlooked in the site posted earlier, most notably, in my opinion, that of Kenyon.

1 Like
15

It does have one what would typically be called a general education requirement, which is foreign language to the college third semester level: Degree Requirements | Kalamazoo College – Academic Catalog . This can be a non-issue for many students, but a major barrier for others.

16

Perhaps but is often listed as a college for open curriculum via the K Plan and is a solid name that is a much easier admit than a Vassar, Grinnell or even Kenyon.

17

This site includes some prominent examples of colleges with open curricula (along with some borderline suggestions):

18

I would not list the National Honor Society or Thespian. I would list the most recent in every area.
Like 2023 in English, 2022 in World History, 2021 in French, maybe another 2022 in English and 2022 in Game Design. This shows excellence in a lot of areas.

19

Is she not interested in Case? She probably has a great chance there with excellent scholarships.

20

Has she considered applying to HTC at Ohio University?

https://www.ohio.edu/honors/tutorial-college