Intended Major(s)
Depends on the school but in general
Political Science
Business
Public Policy
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
4.0 GPA U/W
4th
ACT/SAT Scores: Test-optional
Coursework
My school only offers DE classes and I have taken the most rigorous courses possible. This includes 4 years of foreign language, english, math, and science of course.
Awards
First in my English class
2x FBLA State competitor
Will receive more later this year
Extracurriculars
4 years of varsity soccer
Student tutor throughout the summer and school year (paid)
Over 100 hours of volunteer work (getting more)
Active in over 5 clubs and have leadership roles in these
Active in student council
Essays/LORs/Other
Strong essays and LORs
Cost Constraints / Budget
No exact number but my family’s yearly salary is <$14,000
With respect to your potential interest in public policy, this site may offer you ideas for colleges to research:
Note that virtually all of these schools represent reaches for even highly qualified applicants, however. Note as well that many do not offer a business major.
It seems to me that applying to Questbridge QuestBridge | National College Match: How It Works is the clear way to go in your situation. You certainly meet both the financial and academic parameters. Columbia and UVA are both Questbridge schools, so you could rank those along with other top-tier schools. If you do match, your financial package will be even better than what you’d get outside of Questbridge. If you don’t match, you can still apply to partner schools via Questbridge RD.
Are you not interested in William & Mary? It’s also very strong in your areas of interest, in addition to UVA.
Also, you might want to check out U. of Richmond and/or Washington & Lee. Both might fit in well with your interests, and they may have special scholarships for Virginia residents, particularly from underrepresented areas of the state.Also, as @aquapt asked, have you thought about William & Mary?
It seems that I will certainly have to follow through with QuestBridge. I looked into it once and didn’t think I would have a very good chance of being selected so I didn’t give it much time. Since you all have brought it up, I did some more research on it and I definitely think it will be the way to go. Apart from that, I visited William & Mary one time and was not a huge fan of the people I met nor the location. It could’ve just been a bad day but sadly I wasn’t a fan.
Relevant for financial aid – is your mother alive? If so, some colleges like Columbia, University of Virginia, and George Washington University require both parents’ finances for financial aid.
GW doesn’t assure to meet need. I wouldn’t apply there.
I would apply QB as others have said. 40% of kids applied TO. what they don’t share is match rate vs test takers. Have you taken a test and don’t like your score ?
Also your rank is #4 but of how many ? 10? 40 ? 400?
Attached is a list of all schools that meet full need. I would apply QB but maybe it gives you other ideas as well. There are a few less competitive admission wise too.
I definitely plan on applying with QB. I didn’t like my score and my rank is 4/72, possibly could move up this year. Thank you for the article link and well wishes, I greatly appreciate it!
From the QB list, rank colleges that your family may or may not have heard of. Explore them (check out Princeton Review’s best colleges 2023 from the library) to find the best fits for you - how liberal/conservative, how big of a deal sports/environmental issues/gender issues/international experiences… are, etc. If unsure, ask here.
Do apply TO, your record speaks for itself with 4 years in all core subjects and straight As in DE classes that you sought out.
Check with your GC’s: does your school have a school profile (to establish how common or uncommon you are)?
Will your GC be able to establish you’re one of the best students in years?
Are you recruitable for soccer at the D3 level?
Apply to Honors colleges/programs at all universities, as those unlock extra scholarships.
You should have a fee waiver so you can apply to instate public universities for free and you’re lucky to be living in a state with superb public universities. Beside UVA&W&M, GMU Honors would be a good choice.
Outside of QB and instate publics:
GWU and American U don’t meet need but are a good bet academically.
Dickinson is excellent for political science and meets need.
My advice is to think seriously about your ED choice. You have an incredible in-state option with UVA, which accepted 31% of ED applicants from Virginia last year.
With an overall acceptance rate that’s probably 3%-4%, ED at Columbia might be 10%. That’s a big difference from your chances at UVA.
Have you visited Columbia and explored their common core curriculum? UVA and Columbia are quite different in terms of campus, enrollment, rah rah sports, and overall experience. If you were my daughter, I would encourage you to think really hard about whether you wanted to give up a far higher probability of acceptance at UVA ED for a lottery ticket for Columbia.
That’s the beauty of applying through Questbridge, if OP applies to Questbridge and is selected as a Finalist. She could rank Columbia above UVA if she wanted to, without losing the early-cycle opportunity with UVA… and she could rank as many as 13 additional excellent schools as well. Plus, the financial aid package would be equivalent across the board, which isn’t the case when applying to these schools separately outside of Questbridge. (Outside of QB, UVA’s package would include loans, and the student/family contribution might differ from the most generous privates as well.)
I agree that if she doesn’t become a Questbridge Finalist, her ED choice should be considered carefully. Even if she wants to choose a school with generous, no-loan aid over UVA, there are multiple possibilities, some of which have much higher odds than Columbia. But my fingers are crossed for Questbridge, which will mean a completely different decision process in which she considers all of the partner schools carefully and tries to get as close to ranking 15 schools as possible.
Could she still ED to UVA if she is doing QB match to Columbia?
QB is wonderful, but last year they only accepted 30% of applicants as finalists to even attempt to match, and obviously a much lower number is actually matched (though many get great non-match acceptances).
But applying to QB is not an insignificant task. She has under 2 months to do what a lot of QB applicants have been working on for months.
If she can still ED to UVA while trying to match through QB, I agree that it’s an easy decision.
I have worked as a website developer and graphic designer for a studio for the past 3 years. In addition to that, I was a student tutor for summer school and will continue doing that throughout this year.
I’ve began on my QB application already and have the majority of the writing prompts completed. I do have a question regarding the QB process though. Can I still apply ED to UVA even while doing QB or does QB replace the common app in that sense?
The percentage chosen as finalists isn’t really pertinent to this analysis, because that’s announced on Oct 15th, in plenty of time to regroup and submit an ED app by Nov 1st. (At that point, the question of whether to ED to UVA over even-reachier private U’s like Columbia would come back into play.)
The percentage who match is low, yes, but it’s hard to extrapolate based on that single number. A think a fair number of applicants just use Questbridge to shotgun the Ivy+ universities and don’t rank the less-rejective partner schools, because they don’t want to foreclose on converting their apps to ED2 at schools like UChicago that offer that option, and/or applying more broadly in RD. I don’t think the overall number tells us much about what OP’s chances of matching at UVA, as an in-state QB applicant, would be. I don’t know whether anybody outside of some inner sanctum at Questbridge has enough info to guess at this.
So yes, ranking UVA as a QB finalist does replace the common app; you can’t also apply there ED. But it also gives you a shot at a much better financial package if you do match at UVA or elsewhere, then you’d get with a regular ED or RD acceptance from UVA.
I’d defer on this point to people who know the VA schools better than I do, but I don’t feel as if OP needs to apply ED to UVA, to have a very strong chance of acceptance. If she were applying from Fairfax County I might feel differently; but top-performing applicants from under-represented parts of the state should be getting in - something would be wrong with the process if they weren’t. I think it makes sense to rank UVA along with other schools, through Questbridge, and take her shot at a debt-free education whether it’s at UVA or elsewhere.