I’m a junior right now and in a bit of a special circumstance. My family doesn’t have a lot of income and for most of my high school career, I’ve been working tutoring jobs to help out my mom. I’m also an immigrant to the U.S. and the first person in my family to go to college. Any advice on how to make my app stronger right now or any anecdotal experiences from people in a similar situation as well as just general chances for UC schools, Ivies, and other prestigious universities would be greatly appreciated.
My Stats:
-SAT: 1540 (790 Math and 750 Reading/Writing)
-GPA: 4.0 (UW)
-White female from a big city in the Northeast
-APs: a 4 on the AP Euro exam and will be taking the exams for AP Chem, AP Lang, AP Physics 1, AP USH this year as well as AP Psych, AP Lit, AP Gov and AP Calc (not sure if A/B or B/C yet)
ECs:
-Member of the Debate Team
-Member of the Blood Drive Committee(hoping to gain a leadership position)
-Member of my school’s theater community (Art/Set Design)
-Played piano for 6 years
-Tutor (paid employment from people in my neighborhood)
-Studied abroad w/ financial aid (summer 2019)
-hoping to gain a hospital volunteer position for this summer but I don’t know if this will happen because of the current situation with COVID-19
You live in the Northeast. Your parents are not wealthy. The Universities of California have almost no aid for out of state students. Either I am missing something, or the Universities of California as a group are not going to be affordable for you. They are not affordable for most out of state students.
Do you know what your budget is for university?
“an immigrant to the U.S.”
Do you have dual citizenship, or (just as good for this purpose) US permanent residence plus a citizenship somewhere else?
“Ivies, and other prestigious universities”
The 8 Ivy League universities are not all the same. If you add highly ranked schools such as MIT, Stanford, Caltech, and Chicago you have an even wider range of schools (there are of course other highly ranked schools also). If you want to maximize your chances of getting accepted to any of them, and if you want to maximize your chances of liking a school when you get there, then it is worth the effort to figure out which ones are going to be better fits for you and which ones are going to be not such good fits.
What are you thinking of studying in university? Would you prefer a smaller school or a larger school? Would you like to be in a big city, small city, town, or rural location?
You have strong standardized test scores and GPAs, but based on your activities and AP scores, I don’t see a specific subject of interest i.e medicine, STEM, music… I would say narrow down the extracurriculars you report to be focused on a particular interest that you would like to pursue in college.
Based on your financial situation and immigration status, you may qualify for aid, however if you are looking at the top schools in the country (UC schools, Ivies, and other prestigious universities) these schools give very little, if any, financial aid. In addition, you will really need to stand out in your essays since, based on your stats and extracurriculars, you seem like any other typical applicant. There are many state schools that are just as good as these “ivies” and “UCs” that provide much more aid.
UC’s currently cost around $65K/year with little to no financial aid to OOS/International applicants. They offer mainly need-based aid to in-state California students. Merit aid is available but you need to be in the top 1-2% of applicants and there is no guarantee.
I would run the Net Price calculator on each school’s website to get an estimate of your costs before applying.
HYPS have some of the most generous financial aid packages in this country and are 100% grant. The other Ivies are also fairly generous. The issue for those schools is the difficulty of getting in. If you need financial aid, strike the UC’s off your list as there is little if any money for out of state students.
Start looking at affordable match and safety schools, starting with your state flagship, perhaps its honor college(s)/programs. Besides starting with in- state pricing, merit aid may be available along with financial aid.
Apply for a bunch of 3rd party scholarships during coronacation
if you want a substantial amount of scholarship, you will need to beef up your extracurriculars, particularly those involving the community.
"special circumstance. My family doesn’t have a lot of income and for most of my high school career, I’ve been working tutoring jobs to help out my mom. I’m also an immigrant to the U.S. and the first person in my family to go to college. "
What exactly is your special circumstance, if you’re ok sharing, unless it’s you being an immigrant in a low income household? You have a good story to tell, being first-gen, working to support the family, and achieving what you have. As others have said, public colleges are not going to give good FA, so focus on private ones and have a good set of match and safety schools in addition to your reach colleges.