Chances for Hispanic but Attending Affluent Private School on Full Scholarship?

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
1

<p>I'm new on CC and after browsing through some threads here I'm beginning to doubt my status as a URM (Puerto Rican) is going to help much when coupled in with some other factors. I go to a private school whose tutition is $15,000 a year, located in an affluent area of town, and am one of five hispanics taking APs in my school. Will college admissions officers see my school and immediately disreguard me as a "non-affluent" minority, even if my mother is disabled, my father makes minimum wage, and I'm only able to attend that school through a full academic scholarship? I talked to my admissions rep at my school (yeah we have those), and she said that some schools favor URMs from struggling schools, not those from prep schools.</p>

<p>What should I do? I'm planning on applying SCEA to Yale, & if that doesn't work applying RD to Brown, Georgetown,John Hopkins, Columbia, and College of the Holy Cross.</p>

<p>My stats:
GPA:3.85 unweighted, 3.95 weighted
Rank: top 10%
SAT: 2100; 780 CR, 720 W, 600 M
SATII: (will take) Bio,Chem,Lit
ACT: (will take) practice tests between 33-35
APs: AP World History, score 5
AP US History, score 5
AP English Language and Composition, score 5</p>

<p>Senior Schedual:
AP Chemistry
AP Biology
AP English Literature and Composition
AP US Government & Politics
AP Statistics
Theatre
AP European History (Independant Study)</p>

<p>Ecs:
•Four Star Debate: July 2010
o One of 24 students chosen from the United States to participate in a cultural exchange, leadership, and debate program at King’s Academy in Madaba-Manja Jordan under General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum, National Center for Policy Analysis, and Academy of Leadership and Liberty at Oklahoma Christian University.
•Nevada Film Office: June 2010-Present
o Screenwriting Competition- June 2010
•Broadcast Media Club: January 2010-Present<br>
o Head Writer- January 2010- Present
•High School Worship Choir: September 2009-Present<br>
•Church Worship Choir: September 2009-Present<br>
•Schoo lTheatre Guild: August 2009-Present
o Tony Award Best Entrance-May 2010
o Tony Award Best Set Construction/Deck Running Crew Member-May 2010
o Deck Running Crew/Vortek Operator-Spring Music Concert-May 2010
o Rosalind-Moon Over Buffalo-April 2010
o Patch Recipient of National Thespian Society-March 2010
o Lady Bracknell-The Importance of Being Earnest-March 2010
o Deck Running Crew-Winter Music Concert-January 2010
o Inducted Member of National Thespian Society-December 2009
o Set Construction/Deck Running Crew-Peter Pan-December 2009
•National Spanish Honor Society: October 2009-Present<br>
•National Honor Society: September 2009-Present<br>
•National Forensics League: August 2008-Present<br>
o National Forensic League Degree of Special Distinction Award-July 2010
o National Semifinalist Senate Congress- June 2010
o Presiding Officer Preliminary Session National Senate Congress- June 2010
o Vice President of School Chapter-May 2010-Present
o National Forensic League Degree of Distinction Award- May 2010
o National Forensic League Degree of Excellence Award- May 2010
o National Forensic League Degree of Honor Award- May 2010
o National Tournament Qualifier in Senate Congress-April 2010
o 1st Place Golden Desert District Senate Congress-April 2010
o Top Chair Golden Desert District Senate Congress-April 2010
o 4th Place Golden Desert District Domestic Extemporaneous-April 2010
o 1st Place State Senate Congress Team-March 2010
o 4th Place State Senate Congress-March 2010
o Top Chair State Senate Congress-March 2010
o 3rd Place Regional Senate Congress-January 2010
o 3rd Place Green Valley Tournament Domestic Extemporaneous-November 2009
o 1st Place Green Valley Tournament Senate Congress-November 2009
o National Semifinalist Senate Congress-June 2009
o National Forensic League Degree of Merit Award – May 2009
o National Tournament Qualifier in Senate Congress-April 2009
o 4th Place Golden Desert District Domestic Extemporaneous-April 2009
o 3rd Place Golden Desert District Senate Congress- April 2009
o 1st Place Foothill Invitational House Congress- September 2008
o 1st Place Foothill Invitational Novice Impromptu- September 2008
•Multicultural Club : September 2007-2009<br>
•Mock Trial : September 2007-2009<br>
o Best Advocate in District Competition-February 2009
o Best Witness in District Competition-February 2008<br>
•Academic Society : January 2007-2009<br>
•Varsity Quiz : September 2007-2009<br>
o Team Captain 2007-2009
•High School Swim Team: 2007-2008<br>
•Club Swim Team: 2005-2008 </p>

<p>Volunteering:
100 hours since 9th grade
started peer mentoring service in Speech and Debate</p>

<p>Other awards:
• AP Scholar- July 2010
• National Merit Qualifying Student- April 2010
• State Bar Essay Contest Winner- May 2009
• Certificate of Honor: Scholars English 2 – May 2009
• Certificate of Honor: Forensics – May 2009
• Certificate of Honor: Varsity Quiz – May 2008
• Certificate of Honor: Scholars English 1 – May 2008
• Certificate of Honor: Theatre 1 – May 2008</p>

<p>I also got info from the NHRP program so I guess I'm in for that? (PSAT score 211)</p>

<p>btw I'm from Nevada.</p>

2

<p>While your ad rep is the most experienced person as far as understanding college admissions for kids from your school, I won’t go so far as to say that you won’t be an attractive candidate just because you attend an expensive prep school. I have a friend who’s kids attend a very highly thought of and expensive HS and she says the URMs that attend do very well in their college admissions.</p>

<p>I would recommend that you talk to whoever does your GC form & LOR and make sure they mention that you are on a full scholarship. And if any of your ECs are supported by some organization outside of your family, you should be sure that is represented in your application.</p>

<p>Are you a first gen to college? If so, that may help some in indicating that you are non-affluent. </p>

<p>You can also write an essay that discusses some aspect of your non-affluent background.</p>

<p>You have several positives going for you: PR background, Nevada is a relatively unrepresented state and if you are first gen.</p>

<p>Finally, as I’m sure you’ve read in other posts, academically strong URM candidates are sought after no matter what their SES. Your gpa is within range, and colleges may give you a little break since you do attend a very competitive HS. Your AP scores show that while you don’t have a 4.0, you’ve learned the material. Your rank is a little low for the most selective colleges, but again the competitiveness of your HS may mitigate this some. Did you take a rigorous schedule of classes in relation to what is offered/what people take at your school? How about math, how far have you gone? It would really help if you could bring up your SAT Math to the 700s or score well on the ACT. </p>

<p>I’m not sure why you didn’t take the SAT IIs for USH and/or World last spring, since you took the APs and did very well. And why are you planning on taking SAT IIs this fall for subjects that you’re just taking the APs in as a sr? Have you taken pre-Calc? If so, why don’t you take the Math 2 test?</p>

<p>4 or 5 of the 6 schools on your list look like reaches, are you going to add more match & safeties?</p>

3

<p>My school only offers 13 APs and by the end I’ll only have not taken 4 (Calc AB, Calc BC, Physics, and Econ), & no one in my school’s taken more than 9 APs over the course of their career, so I think I’m safe as far as course rigor goes. I’m a year ahead of myself in math (I took precalc last year which was a senior-only class), so I can’t explain my horrific math score at all. The only non-academic classes I’ve ever taken are for theatre, and only 1 per year.</p>

<p>I couldn’t take SAT II’s end of last year because I was out of the country in early June, and taking regular SAT’s in May and March. I’ve taken the equivalent of pre-AP Biology and chemistry previously (my school doesn’t usually allow APs to be taken without pre-APs in the same area, which makes it difficult to take APs), and received A+'s in both classes, so I don’t feel I’m completely unprepared for subject tests. And Literature just comes naturally to me. I’ve scored between 750-800 on all the practice tests I’ve taken so I’m not worried. Right now I’m trying to boost my math score on the ACT because that’s always my weakness.</p>

<p>And yes, I am first gen to college.</p>

4

<p>In my limited experience, I have seen that the hispanic kids from our very highly ranked public high school do very well with admissions to selective colleges. The kids that do particularly well are the kids who have had to overcome some barriers to success–low income and/or first person in family to go to college for example. We have two kinds of minority kids at our very diverse high school …hispanic and black kids with parents with graduate degrees and working in well paid professions and then hispanic and black kids with working class parents with little education beyond high school. BOth sets of kids have access to the great education at the HS, but very few of the latter take full advantage of these opportunities…so …what do I see? …the upper income hispanic and black kids do very well in admissions but very similar to their white peers in admissions…in the second group, the small number of low income minority kids who do take a full or close to full AP/IB load do exceptionally well in admissions and merit aid. The reasoning of the ivies and the very exclusive schools is pretty clear…all these kids show that they can survive in their academic environment because they have done well and taken a rigorous curriculum in a top HS…the low income kids from new immigrant families seem to get a little extra credit for pulling this off …so being hispanic from a really good school (even a prep school) isn’t going to hurt…it will help because it shows top schools that you can survive and thrive in a competitive academic environment. I think you have great stats. Be proud of your heritage, your scholastic achievements and what your parents have achieved but you don’t need to make it the main focus of your application. As my son says…being hispanic is an important part of who he is but doesn’t define him. Take it easy on the ECs and only emphasize your most important/favorite ones (otherwise you look frenetic). Make sure your counselor puts in information about your scholarship at the prep school. Get good help on selecting colleges–particularly financial safeties-- which may be something that your counselors have less experience given that many of the kids at your prep school are not going to worry about financial safeties. YOur list only has a few that offer to meet need fully and some will weigh you down with debt. Make sure you reach out to some in state schools and good liberal art schools that may offer more financial support. </p>

<p>Look at the FA forums here…there are some excellent tips. Write your essays and enjoy your senior year! I look forward to seeing you have many great choices in the Spring.</p>

5

<p>^Thanks for your input famm. That’s along the lines of what I’ve seen on CC over the years too, but I was reluctant to state it strongly since I don’t have direct experience with top private/prep HSs. </p>

<p>I agree that you need to work on the presentation of your ECs, condense and prioritize them. And if applicable, use them to present a unified picture of who you are.</p>

6

<p>Thanks a lot guys for the imput. My school really doesn’t have a lot of college planning tools for low-income, but that’s offset by the great curriculum methinks. Thankfully just by browsing here on CC I came across the QuestBridge program and I think I’m going to apply to become a QuestBridge scholar and submit my apps through that. Again, being in Nevada, there are limited spots (only about 7 per year last I checked), but it can’t hurt to apply. I emailed my GC and he’d never even heard of the program, but said I’d probably have at least a shot.</p>

7

<p>

</p>

<p>This is very telling, as QuestBridge is an extremely well known program in the college admissions world. Despite the fact that you attend a top HS with an ad rep, I think you will need to be very proactive in college admissions. We are more than willing to help here, so please feel free to touch base and ask questions any time. Best of luck!</p>

8

<p>^ The only reason I can see for not knowing about QuestBridge is that it’s mostly for low-income, sometimes minority, sometimes first-gen students, and my HS, frankly, has very, very few of those. </p>

<p>I do have one question about QuestBridge though. Would it be better to apply SCEA to Yale (as Yale is commited to meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need) or apply through QuestBridge? The reason I ask this is because Yale only gave out about 20 QuestBridge matches last year and I don’t know if I’d stand a better chance just applying SCEA because (in theory at least), if accepted I’m elligible for tons of FA.</p>

9

<p>Unfortunately I don’t know anything about questbridge but try some searches on the Yale forums using questbridge as a search term. Try to find kids who applied last year through questbridge and PM them for some insights…better yet, try to find PARENTS of kids who applied through questbridge (they are rare but they stick around to help the next set of kids). Start working on questbridge app asap and don’t be shy about asking for help and asking questions (no questions are dumb). </p>

<p>It may be possible to contact your local zoned public high school to get information or even sit and browse their college info brochures (they may have a lot of info for alternatives for kids on a tight budget). Do not assume they won’t help you just because you go to a private school…your parents pay taxes that support the local schools and, if you go in asking for information from a guidance counselor there, you may be surprised. Be humble, explain the problem and I think if they have a little bit of time they can help…but do it before the terrible crush of applications in October/November. They may have a college night or fair you can attend that sends reps that know a lot about special programs and FA …they may know a lot about questbridge… I know our school helps kids from other school districts in terms of information sharing…of course the counselors can’t take you on as a " client" but they may be able to point you to some community resources. For example a local PTA in Montgomery county maryland started a program called college tracks to help kids who don’t have a parent with experience in higher education in US …Perhaps there is something in your area like that? do not be shy…ask adults for help. Many of us want to share the hard-earned knowledge that we gained with our kids. Good luck! You did great getting a start on this in the summer…</p>

10

<p>I too am not familiar with how QB works and how difficult it is to be accepted through the program vs. applying normally. I would suggest you ask on the QB forum if you haven’t already. If I get a chance, I will try to do some digging around on old threads and see what I can find.</p>