<p>White female from New York
Junior in a small public high school</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 (unweighed)
Taken the hardest classes at my highschool, all honors. No AP's are offered.
PSAT:211 (commended)
SAT: 2140 (670M 730V 740W)
ACT:30
Rank: 1/125</p>
<p>Regents Scores: (Not sure if these really matter, but here they are any way)
Biology: 93
Math A: 100
Spanish 100
Earth Science: 92
English:100</p>
<p>EC's:
Student Council: 9+10 Secretary 11+12 Vice President
Student Government: 11 Secretary 12 Vice President
SADD: 9-11
Chorus: 9-11
Select Chorus: 9-11
Math League: 10-11
Key Club: 10 Vice President 11 President
National Honor Society: 11</p>
<p>Community Service:
Peer Tutoring (for middle school students): 9-11 2 days a week
Spanish tutoring:10-11
Help out in a kindergarten class 10-11 (going to write my essay about this)
Youth Court: 9-11 defense attorney (we sentence kids who've committed crimes to community service
M.S. Walk-raised $250 </p>
<p>Awards and Honors:
Highest average awards
-9th:Algebra, spanish, Eng., Bio.
-10th:global, earth science, eng, spanish, geometry, health
-11th:algebra II, chem, spanish, eng.
Top Six Dinner Award: 9-11
Honor Society: 9 alpha 10 omega 11 aristoi
NYSSMA singing competition award
Highschool Leadership award
Character Award
Wells College 21st Century Leadership Award
Highest Scorer for math league- 11th grade
100 point club awards for 100's on a regents (math, spanish, english)</p>
<p>Other stuff:
-1st generation college student
-write poetry and short stories-had a few published in literary journals</p>
<p>Planning on majoring in history
Chances at: (safeties, matches, or reaches?)
-Brown
-Colgate
-Haverford
-Bucknell
-Stonehill
-ithaca
-fairfield
-Sienna
-lycoming</p>
<p>where in NY are you from? i'm from syracuse.
brown- slight reach/match
colgate/bucknell- match
ithaca/fairfield/Sienna/lycoming- safety
i'd say you have a great shot at all these schools.</p>
<p>Brown'll be a difficult reach; you may have to go ED to increase your chances there but you'll probably get deferred into the RD pool. Haverford and Colgate are also reaches so you may opt to use your ED there instead (Colgate has an EDII option you might consider if you get deferred elsewhere). Bucknell is a match. The others look good. Also, you might also consider a couple of other schools in NY such as Union, Skidmore and Hamilton.</p>
<p>As a rule of thumb, applying for financial aid will diminish your chances of admission. It's sad, but true. As much as the top colleges say that they're need-blind, they're also businesses and only the truly exceptional student will be offered substantial financial aid. That is why your match and safety schools will take on greater importance since you may wind up there because of the packages they may offer you. With that in mind, you might concentrate your energies on Ithaca, Siena, Fairfield and possibly Bucknell. BTW, you can apply ED/EA and indicate your need for financial aid; that may in and of itself defer you to the RD pool at those schools.</p>
<p>College Parent - this may be true for some schools, but in general, that is not correct.
At msoty top schools, the admissions process is finished, then they go back & assign financial aid to acceptees. So, the aid apps are not even seen until after students have been accepted. Or, the adcoms & aid counselors are completely separate - different people, different offices, they never discuss which students to allow finanacial aid. Instead, the admcoms see only the college apps, and make their decisions, while the aid counsleors see only the aid apps, and make their decisions.
The fact is, most top colleges are need-blind, and aid is not merit-based.</p>
<p>That is true in the case of top student applications with the highest numbers. 2350+ boards, 4.0 GPA, Top 5% class rank, outstanding ECs and recs. However, for most other applicants, especially the ones who fall just under that radar, they go into "committee" which does indeed consider the financial aid part of the application. It's called "free" if not applying for the aid. And in most cases where there are two applicants with almost identical qualifications, the schools will pick the "free" over the other finaid candidate. That's why I said earlier, sad but true. Oftentimes, the top candidates will get aid from the financial aid office as an inducement to accept the college's acceptance offer. You're right about the two being separate decisions, but in the end, whether or not you apply for finaid may be a critical part of the decision to accept, WL or deny.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for the advice...I really love Brown, is there any other way for me to make it obvious to them that i would attend if accepted without applying ED because of Fin. Aid?</p>
<p>Collegejen, look at any book about the inside story of college admissions and you'll find it. </p>
<p>Shiningstar, apply ED to Brown and indicate financial aid on the application. That's the only way it'll happen. Based on the pool of candidates, a decision will be made. I wish you the very best of luck with your search. You've got some fine schools that you're considering; I think you need to discuss an admissions strategy with your high school guidance counselor.</p>
<p>My highschool guidance counselor knows less than me about college admissions...seriously, she is about the most useless person I have ever met, lol</p>
<p>I've read The Gatekeepers and A is for Admissions, and neither book has yet to mention that financial aid has a large impact on decisions. The only time that monetary sums will be taken into consideration is when borderline waitlists are reviewed and it might give them that one small boost. </p>
<p>If what you are saying is true, then all colleges are filled with rich kids from affluent areas, which is simply not true(this also goes against their theory of affirmative action).</p>
<p>The truth is that Brown has a larger endowment and will more likely provide a student with MORE financial aid than small LACs. And these smaller LACs are more likely to take into consideration of an applicant's ability to pay than Brown because these are the colleges who need the money...wouldn't you agree?</p>
<p>I know absolutely that at Need Blind schools financial aid has no weight on admissions. Absolutely zero. So dont worry about it at all. In fact Brown is likely to give MORE aid than lesser schools.</p>
<p>I think you are aiming too LOW!!!</p>
<p>-Brown - Reach
-Colgate - Match
-Haverford - Slight Reach
-Bucknell - Safe Match
-Stonehill - Safety
-ithaca - Safety
-fairfield - Safety
-Sienna - Safety
-lycoming - SUPER safe</p>
<p>Why so many safeties?? The top schools are likely to give you a lot of financial aid if you need it and whoever said fin aid will hurt you isnt right about the Ivies. My advice is to add more matches and reaches and dump some safeties. As of now you are in risk of not ending up where you want (imagine only getting into Colgate/ Bucknell/ Haverford but Colgate/ Hav give you bad aid...you might end up at Bucknell whereas had you applied to more schools you could have gotten a better package from a place like Vassar that you might like more after visiting. Options are everything.)</p>
<p>I would add (I am giving schools similar to the ones on your list): </p>
<p>Dartmouth: Reach (Its alot like a LACy Brown in a Colgate type location), you have a shot.<br>
Middlebury: Slight Reach
Vassar: Slight Reach (The true LAC like Brown)
Colby: Match</p>
<p>slipper: wow...thanks so much. I do tend to aim low, it's just w/ all the horror stories of people being rejected, i thought i needed a lot of safeties. But thanks for the reality check. And I'll definitely check out some of the colleges you suggested.</p>