Chances in far reaches like Ivies.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Here are my basic stats:

US Born but Indian Educated
South Asian female
Homeschooled junior and senior year, magnet school of sorts till then.
Cambridge A levels highest possible grades. (A* so far)
1540 SAT but may improve with ACT (may get 35/36)
4.0 gpa unw around 4.5 w.
Main ECs are only two: hiking and a community outreach program, for the past 5 and 7 years respectively, leadership position in the community outreach program: 10 hours/week during the school year, 3-4 entire weeks during holidays.
Passions are writing and hiking, and subjects such as Economics and English. Will be reflected in essays.

Please chance me for top schools such as Ivies, Stanford, UChicago etc though I know they’re very far reaches.

I have a few questions:
Will I be considered for financial aid like any other American?
Will my application be judged in comparison to Indian applicants? (For example, most Indian applicants have fewer ECs.)
Should I take SAT Subject tests?(many schools require them for home schoolers, but A Levels are formally recognized assessments so I really don’t need them IMO.)

All help is appreciated.

2

The reality is your situation is very far from unique.
TLDR indian educated US born kid looking for $$$ FA. You will be a citizen for the admission aspect but may be measured against your local peers. Yes you can fill in FAFSA and access direct loans. Look at auto merit schools where you might get a lot of merit. Needs met schools will be a bun fight. Make sure you have a uni spot in your home country.

3

I’m afraid I have a problem with word limits and see people say TLDR a lot.
Let me sum it up:

South Asian female
US Born but Indian Educated
Cambridge A levels highest possible grades.
1540 SAT but may improve with ACT
4.0 gpa unw around 4.5 w.
ECs are only two: hiking and a community outreach program, both from before high school, leadership position in one.
Passions are writing and hiking, and subjects such as Economics and English. Will be reflected in essays.

Please chance me for top schools such as Ivies, though I know they’re very far reaches.

4

As a US Citizen (you have a Social Security number, yes?) you should not be considered international vis-a-vis financial aid; you just aren’t eligible for in-state rates at any public universities because you aren’t a resident of any state.

Given your academic interests and your passion for hiking, you sound as if you would enjoy liberal arts colleges in more natural settings more than you would like most of the Ivies. Cornell and Dartmouth would be the two exceptions.

You also need colleges that meet full documented financial need. Look into Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby in Maine… Middlebury in Vermont… Williams (and maybe Amherst) in Massachusetts, Colgate in Upstate NY (possibly Hamilton, Vassar, and Skidmore as well)… and Colorado College in (obviously) Colorado.

These are all highly competitive, but you are highly qualified. The important thing is going to be to nail your essays, because your passion for hiking will need to be expressed in a fresh and relatable way that paints a vibrant picture of who you are. Since writing is a passion too, I trust you can pull that off!

You also have the stats for some of the full-ride automatic merit scholarships available at certain public U’s. But the only one of these that I can think of that’s in a serious hiking locale is Utah State: http://www.usu.edu/admissions/costs-and-aid/#index

Hopefully that gives you some schools to look into, for starters.

5

@aquapt first of all, thank you for taking the time to read that ridiculously long post and to respond. Your response is heartening.
Yes, I have a Social Security number, and therefore would be eligible for aid. That is what all my research has told me up until now.
I can see why you would think I would enjoy natural settings more, but the truth is, I’ve lived in cities all my life, and I tend to enjoy the urban life too. For me, one of the appeals of hiking is to leave behind my ‘normal’ and do something kinda crazy, it’s like up there, no one can drag me down.
So the point is that I’ve decided I’d like to go to a suburban/urban university, where a good sized city is not far off. In fact, I’m not so keen on Cornell and Dartmouth precisely because they’re a little too rural.
However my top priority is going to be how enjoyable and stimulating the school is academically, and therefore location is secondary. Tertiary, in fact, as financial aid is secondary. :slight_smile:
With regard to your scholarship suggestions, I will look into them. I do, however, want to say that receiving a full ride, or “looking for $$$ FA” as @Sybylla seems to think I am, is not what I’m after. Financially, although it will be a bit of a stretch, we will manage it with partial FA too, (given it’s a good school) but obviously, we’re going to apply for FA to the best of our resources.
Thank you

6

With respect to your academic interests, these resources could be a source for ideas:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.usecondept.html

http://flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america

Many of these generally well-funded colleges would be open to your application.

7

Applying as a US citizen living abroad and filling out the FAFSA could be a problem if your parents haven’t been filing US tax returns.

8

@tdy123 they have been filing US tax returns, so shouldn’t be a problem.

9

Okay, so perhaps what you are looking for is a top-notch school that’s in a vibrant urban area, but in easy proximity to natural settings with good hiking. So, for example, schools in the heart of NYC or LA, where a wide zone of urban/suburban sprawl stands between you and the real woods/mountains/etc., might not be ideal. Whereas cities on the edge of the sprawl, like Boston, would be better. Does that sound right?

If so, there are obviously lots of targets for you in the Boston area. Harvard, Tufts, Wellesley, BU, Brandeis. (Northeastern, but personally I wouldn’t go there for Econ/English.) Perhaps the 5 Colleges cluster - your call whether that’s too far from a city - Smith, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke. Obviously you have passed the first filter for all of these schools - your stats will get you a close reading - but from there, at the most competitive ones, it’s a matter of standing out in the large pool of equally-qualified applicants.

Portland is kind of the comparable city on the West Coast. Have you thought about Reed? It’s one of the most intellectual and rigorous colleges in the country, but it doesn’t have the appalling surplus of qualified applicants that the Ivies-et-al have. Could be a good low-match for you.

Stanford isn’t urban per se, but… it’s Stanford… and you can hike for days without even leaving the terrain that Stanford owns. The Claremont Colleges would be great academically, and could fit the bill if you can afford a car, but you would probably feel trapped-in-suburbia without one.

I’m a little foggy on the geography around the Philly-and-outskirts schools (UPenn, Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore) but even the suburban ones have good city access, and there’s plenty of non-urban territory nearby… just not sure it qualifies as “hiking” territory per se.

Charlottesville, on the other hand, isn’t a “destination” city, but it’s a city, and it’s known as the gateway to Shenandoah National Forest. (Appalachian trail, etc.) OOS COA wouldn’t be affordable, but becoming a Jefferson Scholar would solve that problem, and I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question. https://www.jeffersonscholars.org/scholarship

10

You have surely worked hard on your profile; however, so many people (regardless of race) nowadays are applying with your credentials. You need to harness your passions. If you say your passion is writing, be sure to have an EC reflecting this (like a publication or newspaper.) I am assuming that you want to pursue economics in college. If so, do an internship or other related EC. A diverse range of quality extracurriculars that strongly reflect a few passions is the most effective. If you do this, you will be competitive for highly selective colleges. All the best.

11

@chromium0818 Thank you very much. I have been thinking of ways that I can show my passions on my application, but I’m afraid anything I do at this point (I will be applying in 5-6 months) will seem staged for the application. (which in one sense it will be, as although they are truly my passions, how credible can it be 6 months before applying, right?) But I am still considering this.

@aquapt You got it about right, as far as the environment is concerned, but honestly I am not really thinking about whether hiking areas will be close by, a good education is my first priority. But yeah, cities on the edge of the sprawl sound about perfect.

Also, I have been in both non coed and coed education systems each for a number of years and found coed ones much better suited for me, women’s colleges simply will not beba good fit. So that rules out quite a few LACs.
I visited the Stanford campus last November, so I know what you mean. :slight_smile: Definitely a far, far reach for me though, but considering it for sure.

About everything else you suggested, I won’t really be considering how much I’ll be able to hike, but I visited UPenn last November too and didn’t really like it. Felt far too urban, so I’ll definitely consider all your comments. My dad is a Wharton alum though, so I’m not completely dismissing UPenn as a reach option.

As for Portland, it’s where I’m from. :slight_smile: I absolutely maintain, even 11 years after leaving it, that it is my favorite city ever, and I visited Reed several times last November, talked to students and faculty, and even got to attend a class. I actually really loved the whole experience and was very impressed. It’s one of my top top choices, personally. Also obviously way less competition to get in. Seems like a match school to me. Also, I’ve wanted to go back to live in Portland since… well since we moved out really lol. So yeah, definitely applying to Reed.

One general question, any opinions on UT Austin? My dad attended grad school there and had a great experience, but obviously things will be different for undergrad.

12

The Plan II program at UT could be a good fit for you. And they have the 40 Acres Scholars program https://scholarships.texasexes.org/scholarships/forty-acres-scholars/

(I don’t honestly know whether only students who have taken the “President of Absolutely Everything” leadership route get these scholarships, or whether students who have spent more time on individual pursuits and have “led” more sparingly can also be competitive.)

It’s great that you already know you like Reed. It can’t really be called a “safety” with a 35% acceptance rate, but it seems like a fairly sure bet for you, especially given your Portland roots, the fact that you’ve already shown interest and visited, and the fact that you can show in your supplement that you understand what Reed is about and would be genuinely happy to go there. Reed is in the top 3 producers of eventual PhD’s in both Economics and English; you’d in no way be shortchanged by going there as compared to one of the “lottery” schools.

If you like the intensity and intellectualism there, then UChicago is probably a good one to have among your reaches. And while you didn’t like Penn… did you get out to the suburban Quaker colleges? Swarthmore kind of completes the intense-intellectual triumvirate, with UChicago and Reed… and it combines easy access to urban Philadelphia with a beautiful non-urban campus. https://www.scottarboretum.org/ (Also top three doctoral-candidate producer in both of your areas of interest. tried to post link but CC’s filters don’t like it) There’s also Carleton and Macalester in Minnesota, way up on that list. Mac could be a great safety for you, with its urban Twin Cities setting. (Carleton may be more remote than you want, but it’s promising enough academically to be worth a look.)

Anyway, you have no shortage of good options - I look forward to seeing where you land!

13

@DodosAreDead Hi! I’ll be a freshman at Swarthmore in the fall, but I wanted to tell you that Swarthmore is situated in an arboretum, but also is bordered by the Crum Woods. There’s multiple hiking trails and opportunities to go outdoors. Swarthmore is also one of the most inellectually intense colleges. I hope you’ll apply!