Chance Me

Hey! I’d appreciate all of your advice. I’m a junior right now. Here is the list of colleges I want to apply to:

  1. University of Southern California (Reach)
  2. UCLA (Reach)
  3. Occidental College (Low Reach)
  4. Vanderbilt (Reach)
  5. UC Irvine (Low Reach)
  6. UC Santa Barbara (High Match)
  7. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (High Match)
  8. Cal State Northridge (Match
  9. Cal State Long Beach (Match)
  10. Cal State Los Angeles (Match)
  11. University of Central Florida (Safety)

If I go to any of the private schools, I would need a fairly significant amount of (mostly merit) aid. I would probably need to get outside scholarships to go to any of the UCs (since I probably can’t get any scholarships from the school as an OOS student, and I can’t pay full price tuition). My family could probably pay for any of the Cal States and UCF.

Ideally, I would really want to go to any of the colleges #1-3. I really love Southern California, have family there, and plan on living there even after college, which obviously played a role in my choices. I really love the programs of schools 1-3, especially occidental, but I think I prefer the larger size of USC and UCLA. However, in the end, I’m gonna go where I can pay for, so that’s why I’m giving myself a lot of options that i would still really like, but that I am more likely to be able to pay for. For USC, my PSAT score will likely give me national merit, so I am likely to get 1/2 tuition automatically if I get in. If that does happen, I might be able to make it work with that price, but I’ll have to be working in college (which I plan on doing either way, I just don’t want to put most of the money I make towards tuition).

Here’s My Stats:

-Public High School Junior in Florida
-White Male
-Class Rank: 1 (as of now)
-GPA: 3.97 UW, 5.028 W (on 6.0 scale)
-ACT: 34 (31 M, 35 E, 35 R, 33 Sci, 09 WR)
-SAT: 1st: 1490 (750 M, 740 R, Essay: 6,6,6)
2nd: 1500 (740 M, 760 R No Essay)
Superscore: 1510 (750 M, 760 R)
-SAT II: I took spanish, literature, and math 1 in May, still don’t have scores.

-Grades: I’ve had straight A’s in all my classes, except for a B and a B+ in precalculus sophomore year. I’ve taken 6 science classes (including chem, bio, and physics), 6 math (alg1/2, geom, pre-calc, statistics, honors calculus), all AP History, 3 english classes, band all years.

APs:
AP Human (9th): 5
AP Seminar (10th): 5
AP World (10): 5
AP Spanish Lang (10): 5
AP Enviro (10): 5
AP English Lang(11): No score yet
AP Spanish lit (11)
AP Physics 1 (11)
AP US History (11)
AP Statistics (11)

Senior Schedule: AP Eng Lit, AP Bio, AP Psych, AP Gov/Hon Econ, DE College Algebra/Pre-Calc, Band, Jazz Band

Extra Cirriculars:
-Marching Band (9th-12th)
Asst. Section Leader (11th)
Website Coordinator (11th-12th)
Section Leader (12th)

  • NEHS (10th-12th)
    Treasurer (11th-12th)
    -NHS (11-12)
    -Spanish Honor Society (10-12)

Work: I have a minimum wage job that I work about 20 hours per week (Jan 2017-present, will work through senior year)
Volunteer Experience:

  • Middle School Band Camp Volunteer (2 weeks summer 2016)
    -I plan on volunteering for Food for the poor 5-10 hours per week the whole next summer.
    -160 hours total as of now

Other: I learned to speak spanish in middle/high school.

Thanks for your input!