Clueless junior - help needed!

Applying to College
1

Hi CC!

I’m a junior starting the dreaded college search, and of course I have tons of questions. I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here we go (I guess haha.)
So before I ask and probably sound very dumb, here are some of my stats.
I am a white female from a medium-sized, competitive, private school in lower, slower Delaware.
My PSAT was a 1280 and my Pre-ACT (taken last year) was a 27 and I have started prep on KhanAcademy for SAT.

My extracurriculars: (All 9/10/11 unless indicated)
JV Basketball (Freshman team captain, 9th Grade + JV 10/11)

  • Varsity Soccer
  • School Girls Large/Full Choir
  • School Advanced Choir
  • School Select Choir (16 people, have been in since 8th grade)
  • Winter Musical
  • Fall Dramatic Play
  • Yearbook (9, Editor-In-Chief 10+11)
  • Jefferson Awards
  • Model UN (9, 10, President 11)
  • Blue-Gold Club (11)
  • Spring Showcase
  • Project Unify (9, school did not offer 10/11)
  • Mock Trial
    Awards:
  • State Ranked in Spanish
  • All-State Choir (9th)
  • History Award (8th)
  • Several “Outstanding Delegate” and Model UN Gavels
    Rank: School does not rank, but probably top 15%
    GPA: (on transcript, not sure if weighted or unweighted)
    Freshman Year: 3.97
    Sophomore Year (cumulative): 3.8
    Junior year 1st sem: 4.0

Work experience:
Have held job since soph-junior summer at a local restaurant; 6+ hours per week + 20 h/w in summer
Graphic design + Photography for:

  • Local golf tournament
  • Dad’s business
  • School play poster
  • School sports
    Freshman/Soph Courseload:
  • School does not offer APs for Frosh/sophs
  • 4 honors courses (1 fresh (max) 3 soph (max))
    Junior Courseload + Current Grades:
  • APUSH (A-)
  • AP Lang (B+)
  • Honors Spanish lvl 4 (A)
  • Honors Trigonometry (B+)
  • Physics (A)
  • Several art+tech electives (all A’s)

If all goes well, I hope to apply to schools (plus/in the same range as)

UD (Legacy), BC, UF, FSU, Nova, UNC, USC (Carolina), CofC, UVA, etc. As you can see, not Ivies, but also not 90% ar colleges.

So, here’s my stream of consciousness:

  1. Will it hurt/help me that my mom enlisted in the Army instead of college?
  2. Is my current courseload of 2 APs/2 honors/1 advanced class too light? I see so many posts on here about "I took 7 AP classes in 8th grade, have a 7.97 gpa, have won the nobel peace prize twice, and Barack Obama is my godfather" and other stuff like that, bla bla bla + my school limits how many APs you can take a year.
  3. How much do colleges weigh state residency? The only "big" 4-year colleges in DE are UD and DSU, but I don't think I would be a good fit for DSU. I'm planning to apply to mostly out-of-state schools. I know that UVA especially has a very low OOS admissions rate.
  4. I do plan to get community service hours this summer, but I also have a job that I am heavily involved in. Will that hurt me in any way? Could colleges see it as me neglecting academic programs to support my family?
  5. On that note, do colleges ask about income on applications? I am part of the middle class, and I know many colleges are need-blind, but do they judge on finance?
  6. I don't exactly have a 'hook.' Do I need one to be considered? I do have immigrant grandparents, have held a few jobs, have a unique name, am from Delaware, and a few other things.
  7. I plan to apply for either Business/Management and hopefully minor in Communications. Will this be a drawback?
  8. What do you suggest for someone like me?

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! And also, if this is in the wrong place, feel free to move it/tell me! (I wrote this at 11pm so… sorry if any typos n stuff!)

Thank you,

Anxious Junior

2

Christ…lmao. You seem well set to me. Perhaps you could even apply for Harvard. The only, and I mean ONLY, thing you might want to focus on is your SAT score. If you can get it to a 1400, then it’ll be hard for any college not to accept you.

3

Aww thank you! I’ve been stressing myself out these past few weeks watching admissions videos haha

4

I am curious about “State Ranked in Spanish”. I would have thought that enough students get pretty close to being bilingual that I don’t understand what a state ranking would do.

We are not from Delaware (and I had to look at your post to learn how to spell it), but I think that you should be very solid for U.Delaware. From what I have heard it is very good. Having a very good solid safety to me makes the entire process less stressful. Strictly speaking you don’t need to get in anywhere else (although with your stats you should).

You have a lot of out of state public schools on your list. I would expect you to get into several of them.

Have you discussed finances with your parents and do you know what your budget is? Have you run the NPC on the schools on your list to see whether they are likely to be in-budget?

Regarding your questions, here are my best guesses at the ones that I can answer:

  1. I don't think that this will make any difference.
  2. I think that you current course load is quite good. We see students that take too many APs and end up badly stressed out. We see students who take too many APs and end up with poor grades. It is better to take a course load that is comfortable for you.
  3. How important state residency is will depend upon the state. I have seen a complaint for example that for U.Mass Amherst the average GPA and SAT for accepted in-state students is higher than for out of state. This might be an unfair complaint however because many very high stats in-state students apply to U.Mass Amherst as their safety and pull the average up. My impression is that the main issue with being out of state is that the school is likely to be more expensive. Some top state schools such as UVA are likely to be more difficult for out of state students.
  4. A job is an extracurricular activity. If you do well at your job, then you are doing well at an extracurricular activity. Universities understand that some students need to work for financial reasons, and do not hold this against you. Also, working in some ways gives you a view of reality that is valuable. I don't think that this will hurt you, and working may be better than many school clubs that you could participate in as an alternative.
  5. Only a relatively small number of schools are need blind. If you apply for financial aid, then schools will ask about your income as well as your parent's.
  6. Most students do not have a hook. Your stats are quite good and you have a reasonable list of schools to apply to. Most students get into good schools without any hook. Having an immigrant grandparent is not a hook (my kids have an immigrant parent, which is also not a hook). Good grades are very important. Being from Delaware is probably an advantage in-state, but your grades are also going to help you in-state.

I don’t have an answer to your last two questions. However, I do think that you are on track to do well. Good luck with this!

5

You need to focus and slow down. Approach this like the major project it is, in reality. Start thinking in terms of how you currrently look statistically. Start a spreadsheet or notebook. Use online resources and YouTube.

Basic evaluation imho using your post.

Overall UW gpa. Excellent
Class rank ? Top 15 percent is great but not off the charts.
act and sat scores.? Solid and above national averages. But I would strongly suggest you really buckle down in this area. You need to be much higher for the schools you mentioned for the most part and others like them. But there is time and prep wisely and diligently . It’s really important.

If you don’t test well on these types of standardized exams then start to look online for test optional schools. There are many great ones. U Chicago Bowdoin come to mind.

If you have Naviance available at your school, take a look at how your school has fared over the last several years at various schools.

Talk to your guidance counselor. Try to develop a nice relationship without becoming a stalker.

Think about your teachers. Who have you connected with and in a subject you had high achievement and demonstrated strong character in the classroom. This starts to identify who can write a strong letter of recommendation for you. Perhaps approach the ones you identify and ask what parameters they use in the fall.

Your ecs are excellent but start thinking about which ones represent your passion and best examples of leadership etc. this starts to frame the supplemental essay questions. More is not always better. You being crazy busy is great but being a meaningful contributor and leader in a focused manner is better.

The admissions people are trying to get a read on you as a student and a person.

Take a thorough and honest evaluation of schools you may like - into realistic buckets.

Safety Match and Reach.

Visit schools if you can. Go online and register for info at each. Go to any college fairs and meet the reps. Show interest. Take the virtual tours and read their website materials. Read the cc threads here regarding these schools around admissions themes and chance to see some of the competiton. But don’t believe everything you read.

Then start making that list.

Then you have to have a honest conversation with your parents about money. This is hard for some . They are responsible to help for college in the eyes of the colleges whether they want to or not.

Once you have a sense of basic economics.

Go to each school on your list and see what they feel will be your “ efc”. Effective family contribution. This is the amount the school will expect you to pay. Make sure that this number is doable for you. If not take them off the list for the moment.

Out of your current list

Unlikely but possible = very hard and probably a real long shot. Reach.
Less likely = average to below average chance Match.
Likely = nearly assured of admission. Safety.

BC and UVA/UNC out of state high reach. You’ll need much better test scores imho. Almost impossible at this point.

Villanova and UF our of state Low reach. Really hard.

South Carolina and FSU - both out of state - high match. Pretty tough.

Charleston. Match.

UDel. Safety.

You need more safeties to consider unless UDel is perfect for you if nothing works out.

You need more match’s.

Finally. No it won’t have any impact on your application that your mom was in the Army- on the contrary if neither of you parents went to college it helps. If your mom’s service yo our country had great impact on your life - it may manifest itself and inform your oerrodnsl esssy and supplements in a positive manner.