Clueless about how high I should aim for colleges?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone! Due to my horrendous inconsistency throughout high school, but strong upward trend in terms on academic performance during junior year, I honestly have no clue what type of schools I should be applying to. I’m definitely thinking about applying to University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign and University of Wisconsin - Madison. Perhaps my reach schools would be schools like Northwestern and University of Michigan? I’m honestly not quite sure, so it’d be better to look at my stats…

GPA: 3.61UW/4.72W (I took essentially all honors and AP’s at my school)
ACT: 35 Composite, 10 on Essay (English 35/Math 36/Reading 34/Science 36)
Ranking: Not released at our school, and I honestly have no idea as we have over 3000 students.

Now for a detailed look at my grades…

Freshman Year: (1st Semester / 2nd Semester)

Honors English 1: (B+/A-)
Algebra 2:(B-/A-)
Gifted (Honors program at our school): (A/A)
Honors Biology: (A-/A-)
AP World History: (B+/B+)
Spanish 2: (A/A-)

Sophomore Year: (1st Semester / 2nd Semester)

Honors English 2: (B+/B+)
Trig/Calc A: (B+/B-)
AP Statistics: (B/B)
Honors Chemistry:(B/B-)
APUSH: (A/A-)
Spanish 3: (B/B-)

Junior Year: (1st Semester / 2nd Semester)

AP Language & Composition: (A-/A-)
AP Calculus BC: (A/A-)
AP Computer Science: (A-/A-)
AP Physics B or 1&2: (A-/A-)
AP US Government and Politics (1st Semester only): (A-)
AP Macroeconomics (2nd Semester only): (A-)
Spanish 4: (A-/B+)

So as you can see, my freshman year was mediocre at best, my sophomore year I took an absolute nosedive, and I really pulled myself up during my junior year. I don’t really want to exploit this an excuse for my poor academic performance, but my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer during my sophomore year and we had a lot of subsequent family issues. I’m not sure how much I should talk about this on my college apps, but I know it definitely had a major negative impact on my academic performance that year.

AP Scores:

AP World History: 4
AP Statistics: 5
AP US History: 4
AP Language & Composition: 5
AP Calculus BC: 5
AP Computer Science: 5 (AB subscore 5)
AP Physics 1: 5
AP Physics 2: 5
AP US Government and Politics: 5
AP Macroeconomics: 5

SAT Subject Tests:

Math II: 800
Physics: 760
Will be taking Lit and perhaps retaking Physics

EC:

AP National Scholar Award
Debate - Varsity PF Debater going on 4 years. Won plenty of regional awards, attend national level tournaments. Won state quarter finalist my novice year. Plenty of speaker awards.
Cross Country - Freshman Year
Chess - Freshman and Sophomore Year
Published multiple times in scholastic writing contests
NHS member - Just joined this year
Volunteering - I have been volunteering at a local hospital of mine since early freshman year and have almost 350 hours total at this point

Reffed youth soccer for a job through freshman and sophomore year
Summer before senior year I have a job at a local fast food restaurant.

Thanks for any advice or feedback! Chance back if you want!

2

Let your GC talk about your family issues. Your essays should focus on you. How much can your family afford? You would be out of state for most of your list so far with the associated high cost.

3

All I can say is, if you can, apply to all the reach/dream schools you want, because afterwards you might regret not doing so.

4

I live in Illinois, and I would consider our family to be upper middle class. I’ve talked to my family about college before, and they never seemed to regard money as an issue, they just wanted me to go to the best school I could go to. Of course, I have never explicitly asked my parents, so perhaps their is another side to this that I’m too naive to see.

5

Also, my current aspirations are to eventually get into med school, and I know that going to the best undergrad school isn’t necessarily the most important thing if that is my future goal. Should I consider saving money as my top priority for undergrad? I honestly do not know.

6

Your AP scores are impressive, from the number of courses, that the courses include some that most students who take the course do so in senior year and that the grades are mostly 5s. They show you off as someone who would do very well at college. Your ACT and SAT 2 scores are very strong. And your courses look like they are the most challenging at your school.

My sense is that your application would interest admissions at the very top colleges, despite your less than perfect GPA freshman and sophomore year.I encourage you to look at Naviance for your high school and review the stats of students accepted at very selective colleges (e.g. Northwestern and one of the Ivies). Perhaps with help from your high school college counselor identify 4-5 very top colleges (per US News ranking) and view these as reach colleges. Northwestern can be one of these. Decide if one of these resonates with you more than the others and consider (if the college so offers) Early Decision. Add to this list of top (reach) colleges, 3 (or so) match colleges. While these can be the public universities you’ve listed, often a better value are private universities. To get an idea of some possibilies look at colleges in the 30-50 range on the US News list. University of Illinois UC is your likely safety. Just to be sure apply also to a “lesser” campus in the University of Illinois system.

That you’re thinking of Medical School, in my opinion, while a factor in college selection doesn’t really change the approach I’ve suggested.

7

Ask your parents explicitly how much they will contribute to your college costs. Show them the cost of attendance of some of the colleges you are interested in. They may not know how high the prices are… better to have the conversation now than in April when they are surprised by the prices. If cost is a limitation, they also need to provide information to put into the colleges’ net price calculators to get financial aid estimates.

Also, ask them whether they will contribute any excess to your medical school costs if you choose a college that is less expensive than the amount they are willing to contribute. Medical school is expensive and can involve a lot of debt that can be a big load to carry even on a physician’s pay.
https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data/debtfactcard.pdf
https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/

8

I very much doubt UIUC is a safety for this student. GPA and class rigor are most important in admission. http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/stuenr/#CDS Class rigor is certainly good but the GPA seems to be low. And to be a safety the school would have to be affordable which we don’t know yet.

9

UIUC may indeed not be a safety, as the post above points out. The University of Alabama would give you free tuition with your ACT score, and there are lots of Illinois families there, since UIUC is so expensive and offers not much in the way of scholarships for high-stats kids. If you took the PSAT and might make NMF, that would open up a bunch of other good OOS scholarships.

As for the reaches, I think that you can try anywhere. To narrow it down, you need to think about rural vs urban, LAC or university, region of the country, etc. And once you’ve got a few schools in mind, as someone said above, you and your parents need to run Net Price Calculators. You need to find out if you’re pursuing need-based aid, merit aid, or none at all, if your parents are truly comfortable with full pay at $60k+ a year. Knowing that really does shape the whole search, or should.

10

These are excellent stats – feel free to aim for the stars. I’d actually advise against applying to all those out of state state schools, as the aid is often pretty dismal. Privates like Northwestern will be willing to offer you much more in the way of aid.

11

Even by college confidential’s inflated standards this is definitely a curriculum with rigor. 11 APs with solid scores by junior year is very uncommon. Do you have some idea what you want to study? We live in Illinois as well. You need some idea of how much your family can afford to pay and how much financial aid you will receive. If they can afford $65k/year you can apply to anywhere where your stats make you a viable applicant. If they can afford only $20k and you don’t qualify for financial aid, then your going to need to apply to schools where you will get merit aid

12

Absolutely have the GC address the issue of your mother’s illness sophomore year. That is a very acceptable reason for your grades to falter. It’s always a little hard to tell how ECs will come out and of course we have no idea what your teachers will say about you or what your essays will sound like, but based on what you’ve given us I’d say you have as good a chance as anyone at the reach schools you mentioned.

OOS publics aren’t always a good deal, but you can check the Net Price Calculators and talk now to your parents about what they can afford and what they are willing to pay for. (Some parents will dig deeper for Harvard, others will say you can’t turn down a free ride.) Good luck.

13

[QUOTE=""]
I live in Illinois, and I would consider our family to be upper middle class. I've talked to my family about college before, and they never seemed to regard money as an issue, they just wanted me to go to the best school I could go to. Of course, I have never explicitly asked my parents, so perhaps their is another side to this that I'm too naive to see.

[/QUOTE]

…med school…


[QUOTE=""]

[/QUOTE]

Just ask them how much they’ll spend. They may think that your stats would qualify you for lots of merit at UIUC or other schools. Who knows. Ask them.

If you truly want to go to med school, then going where you’ll be a top student and shine is a good idea.
There are schools that would give you free tuition.

After you ask your parents how much they’ll spend, let us know.