Chance me (undergrad) - double majoring in literature & law

Chance Me / Match Me!
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schools: safety is Michigan State, primarily hoping for LSA UMich Ann Arbor (in-state applying EA), or George Washington if i get a good scholarship. reaches and extreme reaches are UCLA, Fordham, Notre Dame, Barnard, Boston University, Carnegie Mellon, maybe Georgetown just because i used my ap free score sends on it in 10th and 9th grade lmao

major: double-majoring in some sort of criminal justice and english/creative writing, maybe a philosophy minor

demographics: cishet female, asian (indian), second generation living in michigan, competitive-ish high school, 100-150k income bracket

ap classes/scores:

freshman year ; ap world history (5)

sophomore year ; ap psychology (5) / apush (5)

junior year ; ap us government (5) / ap literature (5) / ap language (4) / ap macro (4) / ap micro (4) / ap calc ab (4) / ap physics (2 – going to cancel this)

senior year ; dual enrolling in shakespearean literature, criminal investigation, russian literature, and international relations, also taking ap statistics

stats: 4.027/5.0 W (my school disregards +s and -s when calculating gpa), dunno my UW but i got a c in ap calculus both semesters junior year w/ mostly As and a couple Bs throughout hs, 1430 SAT superscore but i’m retaking it & expecting a 1500-20 based on recent practice tests. i think my UW was a 3.0 (yikes) specifically for the first semester of junior yr but it picked up a bit in sem 2, took a full year of APs junior year

extracurriculars: prez of model un (12th), vice prez (11th) & secretary (10th) , co-president of social justice club and co-founder (11th and 12th), admitted into the umich syd program (6% acceptance rate at my hs), debate team (9th), secretary of forensics team (9th), science olympiad (5-8, 11-12), won second in an essay competition w/ 3 high schools, ap scholar w honour, also nhs 11th and 12th

LORs i got a pretty good letter from my AP Macro-Micro teacher, and I’m expecting a very good letter from my AP English teacher (since I took AP Lang and AP Lit in the same year and had her for both classes). probably going to ask my model un advisor for a letter, maybe going to get one from my social justice club advisor

essays unfortunately in the process of rewriting all of them. i’m a pretty strong writer w/ good command of language, though, so i don’t think they’ll be an issue.

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Law is not an undergraduate major. Law school after you complete a bachelor’s degree is typically very expensive.

What are your cost constraints, especially in the context of future law school costs if you go to law school?

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So U of Arizona is the only school I believe to offer an undergrad law degree. Others like my daughter’s school may have a minor - in her case, Crime, Law and Society so perhaps more Criminal Justice.

@ucbalumnus is spot on - pre law is advising and works with any major.

So your math Cs don’t help - will hurt your UG GPA as will as will a 3.0 Junior year. Nothing to cancel on AP…you simply won’t report to schools any score they won’t take (some on your list won’t take 4s).

UCs are test blind and I’d assume they are out with a poor junior semester. They don’t count 9th grade.

Michigan State may be probable although need to learn more (uw gpa). GW, maybe if you ED or show a lot of interest and are full pay (they are need aware).

Maybe Fordham too.

If literature, look at Iowa….it’s one of the strongest in the nation. . Easy to get into although I don’t know about the major. Check out the Arizona legal degree if it’s of interest. It’s a safety and depending solely on UW gpa u can get merit. And maybe look at other Michigan publics….w, E, Central, UM branches, Oakland, GVSU, etc.

Hard to tell since you don’t give an UW GPA…you can calc…4 for A, 3 for B, etc.

As for essays - it’s fortunate, not unfortunate you are rewriting them. That’s a good thing, sign of maturity.

Good luck.

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Your list has a lot of reaches, and especially a lot of extreme reaches. It could use more matches and safeties (unless you are completely happy with the idea of Michigan State, in which case you are probably good.)

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hi! if it’s okay for me to ask, do you think umich ann arbor would be a reach?

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U didn’t address the last to me and it’s hard bcuz u did not provide an UW Gpa and that would help. Would take you 2 mins to calculate. …

But your entire list except maybe Mich State, GW, and Fordham is if I had to guess.

Iowa is top ranked for literature and the school is a safety….not sure about the major. You’ll find them on many rankings.

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Yes, a reach.

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If you need a good scholarship, you cannot afford UCLA as an out of state student, and they do not have much financial support for OOS students. So no point in applying.

Can your parents afford the other schools as well?

Would you be interested in a smaller college?

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Plus OP has taken 7 AP, if I count right. Has a 5 point scale so likely +1 for AP. So the UW is gonna be mid 3s if weighted is just at 4. This is fine but likely not for the list provided.

Then a 3.0 In a critical semester (1st in 11th) for UC, with all the extra work a UC and Gtown require to apply….it’s almost certainly a no shot. But one can always try.

And yep we don’t know cost constraints.

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UC GPA calculator and post all 3 UC GPA’s. Only AP classes taken 10-11th grades get the honors point bump in the calculation.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

As stated above, UC’s give good need based aid to California residents. Merit aid is highly competitive, offered to few students and still would not cover the majority of the $67K price tag.

UCLA GPA statistics for admitted freshman students 2021.
GPA Median Middle 25% - 75%
Weighted GPA 4.54 4.35-4.72
Unweighted GPA 4.00 3.94-4.00

A Capped weighted GPA 3.80-4.19 would make UCLA a High Reach at around 4%. At 4.20+ around a 29% admit rate.

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Probably, based on your listed family income, you will fall into what’s known as the “donut hole” financially. It means that your family makes “too much” to qualify for need-based aid, but not enough to easily afford the high prices that a lot of the schools on your list charge (unless your family has somehow saved up a ton of money.) This is why in-state tuition is great. If I were you, the first thing I would do would be to lock down some affordable safeties and matches. I would for sure apply to UMichigan (a reach) and Michigan State (could go either way, but probably will get in) but I would also research the other Michigan publics, and choose 1 other to apply to. (For example, my friend’s daughter, from NYC, is having an amazing time at Western Michigan.) Are you only interested in big schools, or are you willing to consider small liberal arts colleges? If so, then Beloit (90 min from Chicago) and Oglethorpe in Atlanta both have deals where you only pay the same tuition as you would at UMichigan.

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It looks as though you’re a very capable student who has been academically strong for a long time. Based on the trajectory of your AP scores, though, it seems as though you may have bitten off a bit more than you could chew your junior year with 7 APs, and your grades and AP scores reflect that. Assuming that your unweighted GPA is in the mid 3 point range (please provide an U-GPA to better assist), I would think that U. of Michigan is a reach, but not an impossible reach. Michigan State I think is probably a likely, but not a sure thing.

We don’t know your family’s budget (helpful if you share so we can make helpful recommendations and advise of schools that are unlikely to reach that budget number), but it’s far more important that you and your family know the budget. No use wasting your time and energy on an application that has no chance to come in within budget.

You haven’t asked for any school suggestions, but I’m going to make a few anyway. Based off your list of reach schools, it appears as though you prefer mid-sized schools in cities.

Some other schools you might want to consider include:

  • Brandeis (MA) – just outside of Boston, would likely be a more expensive option
  • Butler (IN) – Indianapolis, so also a state capital
  • Calvin (MI) – Grand Rapids
  • College of the Holy Cross (MI) – would likely be a more expensive option
  • Duquesne (PA ) – Pittsburgh
  • Marquette (WI) – Milwaukee
  • Saint Joseph’s (PA ) – Philadelphia
  • Saint Louis (MO) – St. Louis
  • Seton Hall (NJ) – not far from New York City
  • Suffolk (MA) – Boston
  • U. of Dayton (OH)
  • U. of St. Thomas (MN) – St. Paul
  • Xavier (OH) – Cincinnati

Most of these would be likely or extremely likely to provide an acceptance (Brandeis and College of the Holy Cross might be more of toss-ups).

Also, if you are interested in smaller schools, Hendrix (AR) is another school that has a flagship match type program. Hendrix is part of the Colleges That Change Lives association and is not far from Little Rock (the state capital).

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I’m really hoping for U Mich Ann Arbor for you. It’s the only place that matches your abilities and what your family can likely afford, since their income is too high for fin aid at most schools, but too low to afford 320K for college. You’ll get a great education at U Mich, for under 150K total.

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the only small college i’ve seriously considered is bennington—their english program is excellent and i really admire some of the alumnis/former faculty—sadly, it’s very much out of my budget haha

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thank you so much! i really like brandeis and suffolk, i’ll def be adding those to my list!

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i’m not sure how to edit posts D: but my parents are giving me 35k, and i’ll be taking out loans for the rest. they said they’ll help with law school as well on the condition that i don’t change my majors during my undergrad.

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thank you so much! iowa looks pretty good but i’m really hoping for a college that’s got both good law and good english programs : ( def planning on ED-ing GWU, though.

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thank you so much!

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You can only borrow $5500 yourself for freshman year. Any loans beyond that have to be taken by your parents or at least co-signed by them.

As explained by posters above, most colleges don’t have undergrad law programs. This doesn’t mean they aren’t good for people who are planning on law school. My understanding is that undergrad criminal justice programs are designed for people who want to be police not lawyers. Go ahead and major in English and then apply to law school.

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You can take out $27k in total for the 4 years of undergrad…(5.5k the first year, then 6.5k/$7.5k/$7.5k). If you want to go to law school I encourage you to not take any more loans than this $27k. Any loans greater than that will be on your parents either directly or as co-signers.

Have you run GWU’s NPC? Do that (for all your schools) and let us know the answer. If GWU doesn’t look affordable per the NPC then you should not ED there.

https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/gwu

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