UW GPA: 3.86
W GPA: 4.26 (Honors classes are +.5 and AP/DE are +1)
SAT: 1520 for now (730/790)
APs
-AP Human Geo
-APUSH
-AP Chem
-AP Physics
-AP Lang
-AP Bio (Will be taking senior year)
-AP Lit (Will be taking senior year)
-AP Gov (Will be taking senior year)
-AP Russian (Will be taking senior year)
-AP Calc BC (Will be taking senior year)
ECS:
-Varsity Crew Freshman and Sophomore year. Placed #6 in states in both years.
-UVA Rowing Camp
-Worked on the Operations team at Swim and Tennis Club for a Summer
-National Honor Society 2 years
-National English Honor Society 2 years
-History honor society (Next year)
-National Slavic Honor Society 1.5 years
-Model UN for 2 years. Chaired a committee for a conference with about 1000 participates
-Founded Russian Club at my school
-Founding Book club next year at my school
-Volunteering at a Hospital (This summer)
-Volunteering at boathouse (This summer)
Awards:
-Gold Metal for National Russian Essay Contest
-Silver Metal for National Russian Essay Contest
-Russian Scholar Laureate (Awarded to 30 Russian students nationally each year)
-2 Outstanding delegations at model UN conferences (2nd place)
-Best delegation at a model UN Conference
-Honorable delegation at a model UN Conference (3rd place)
-Academic Scholar Award
-Novice Hammer Award (Crew award just school level)
-Rising Star Award (Crew Award just school level)
Extra:
-Going to be a TA for AP Chem senior year. Didn’t know where to put this.
-Sorry if I formatted this wrong haha.
Schools:
-Brown
-Williams College
-UVA (In-state)
-William & Mary (In-state)
-Virginia Tech (In-state)
-Wake Forest
-Boston College
-Northeastern
-Middlebury
-Upitt
-Penn State
-UC San Diego
-Amherst College
-Emory
-Colgate
-Boston University
How flexible? Some of these colleges cost $80,000 a year. UC San Diego will be full pay as the UCs don’t give need based aid to OOS students and very little merit aid. Penn State doesn’t guarantee to meet full need.
Apply to Pitt early for best chances for merit aid…and see.
Okay thanks so much! I’ll make sure to have that conversation with them. How do you think my chances are for some of these schools? Any recommendations for changes to my list?
I would very strongly suggest you run the Net price calculators on each of these colleges…and see what you get. This should give you an idea of the possible annual cost. See if this is something your parents can pay.
Are your parents divorced? Do they own a business or are they self employed? Do they own real estate other than your primary residence? If NO to these questions…the net price calculator will give you a good estimate. Estimate ONLY as currently they are set up for students entering college this fall. Plus there are some changes to the FAFSA calculations that will need to be reflected in the NPCs. But this will give you an estimate anyway.
I think you have a LOT of reach schools but your chances there are like any other applicant. They are reaches. You also have some colleges that seem likely for admission. I’m not sure I see a positive sure thing…
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about Georgetown recently. I visited once a while ago but didn’t love the campus. They have a really strong Slavic department though so I’m definitely reconsidering. Do you think it would be more in the target or reach range for me?
With an acceptance rate of 12%, Georgetown is a reach for everyone, but I am a huge fan of their Slavic Department and they might like someone focused on Russian. It’s not super common and it is strength of theirs.
If interested in Russian, check the Russian flagship programs - linked below. You can’t do better for language than these - and yes, Va Tech is on the list.
Any financial considerations - i.e are your parents able to spend $380,000 or - will you qualify for aid. Saying we like in state but can be flexible is not a budget. You need a specific #.
I don’t see a lot of tenure in your ECs - I see a lot of jumping and I think that works against you.
And many of your schools are rejective.
That said, I feel like Pitt, Penn State are safe and Va Tech is likely.
The rest - it’s a toss up but these are all highly rejective schools so not getting in does not mean you are deficient.
Not much tenure in my ECs for sure. I wasn’t very strategic about it and sort of just did what I was interested in. My family is flexible with cost, but we see cheaper tuition as a plus naturally.
Chicago would be a great choice for your interests. Make sure, because you already have a good start in Russian, that the school you pick has upper level courses. It’s easy to exhaust offerings at some schools.
I’m actually curious how you’re going to package it - it’s a bit of a touchy issue these days. And out of curiosity, what got your interested in Russian? (Full disclosure: My BA was Russian Studies, MA in Russian and East European Studies, MA and PhD in Slavic Lang and Lit.)