Hello, I have been searching for Colleges since my Freshman year and I Am now a senior.Even with all my searching I am still struggling with the concept of reach, target, and safety and my guidance counselor was of no help. Here are my Stats. 3.026 GPA (4.21 junior year & 4.42 Senior year because I had a really hard transition into high school which is reflected in my essays) 1340 New SAT but I will for sure get above 1400 on my Oct. SAT. Classes: A.P.U.S.H, AP Calc AB, AP Drawing/painting, AP studio art, AP 2D design, AP ENG LIT, AP ENG LANG AP World HIS. Community service: Leo club (youth lions) and very active in my church. E.C’s: Varsity Chess Team Captain, Varsity Cross Country, Wrestling. College career tour club, Drama Club (lead role 2x), Jazz + Metal Guitarist. Leadership: Student body president, Chess club President, youth ministry. Awards: Nationally recognized science fair project, Slam-poet champion, top 10 Chess player in the state, 3rd best chess team in the state, and a certain Hawaiian sport that I will not disclose due to privacy. I have good recs and essays. Hooks: 1st Gen College student, Native hawaiian,overcame poverty and a broken home. My dream school is Princeton but I know I need other options as Princeton is a really high reach. I want a small to mid sized prestigious university or LAC that is generous with financial aid. A bonus if they are very strong in poli-science or if they have a good law school prep program/honors program. Finally I wan an actual college campus with dorms and whatnot. I do not care about location but maybe an East Coast preference. Thank you so much in advance for your time.
–What is your Unweighted GPA for each school year?
–What does your financial picture look like in terms of affording college?
Trinity (CT)?
Wheaton (MA)?
-College of the Holy Cross (Female)
-Denison University
-Dickinson College
-Franklin & Marshall College
-Gettysburg College
-Lehigh University
-Mount Holyoke College (Female)
-Smith College (Female)
^Holy Cross is co-ed.
i am a male so some of those are out. I don’t have any money so I am going to need a lot of need based but I will take out as much loans as I have to. Freshman year: 2.2 Soph: 2.6 Junior: 4.21 Senior: 4.42
You can only borrow ~$5500/year. If you’re low income, you may qualify for a federal Pell grant of up to ~$5k/year. Schools that use only the FAFSA will use the income of your custodial parent to determine aid. Some colleges will use both parents’ income.
Seattle University
Gonzaga
University of Portland
Lewis & Clark
University of Puget Sound
Seattle Pacific University (safety)
Whitman
Chapman
Most of these would be matches, and are known to be generous with need aid, some are also generous with merit aid. Whitman may be a reach. If you do plan to go back for summers or holidays east coast travel will be brutal and very very pricey. It will also, quite frankly, be a cultural shock. You will find a few other Hawaiians at all of the schools above. There are others in the WUE that would be a stats fit and nice safety options but may be larger than you want.
Seattle U in particular for pre law is one I would look at.
While your junior and senior years are clearly quite good and your test scores solid, Princeton which is a reach for anyone, is really a huge reach. You do have hooks but I am not sure how much weight they will carry with east coast competitive LAC’s. Worth a go and there are many many lovely options but I’d definitely have some west coast ones in the mix. Others can weigh in with better suggestions for the east.
There is no such thing as a law school prep program, and if you want to go to law school, avoid any school that claims a “pre-law” curriculum. You can major in anything (truly, anything) and get into law school so long as your grades and LSAT score qualify you, and law schools actually frown on undergrad concentrations in law-related subjects such as criminal justice. Many law students will have majored in poli sci (I did), but the subject provides no more preparation for studying law than any other major, so only select it if you feel strongly about it independent of the idea of attending law school.
When I said law school prep it was a miscommunication on my part. I was referring to colleges that statistically have a very high turnover rate for lawyers. As for poli sci, I want to be a statesman so it seems like the natural choice for me. All of these suggestions have been great and I have learned some important things; I didn’t put Wheaton on my list previously because I thought it was still an all women’s school but I now have a great safety thanks to you guys. I am more interested in living on the East Coast but I am not opposed to schools on the West Coast.
Union (Albany Law)
Dickinson (Penn State)
These two schools, and I am sure there are others, offer an accelerated 3-3 program for law school. Three years of undergrad and then law school with the affiliated school.
–What is the maximum for Unweighted GPA at your school? 5.00?
–Have you run any Net Price Calculators (NPC) on college websites? The NPCs will indicate what your family is expected to pay per year, need-based aid, etc.
The maximum unweighted GPA at my High school is 4.0 and the maximum weighted is 5.0. all the NPC’s I have run have given me basically a full ride on need based aid.
So the 3.026 is an unweighted GPA? It makes a large difference if the score you’re quoting is out of 4.0 or 5.0.
unweighted is around 2.7
Unfortunately with an UW of 2.7 you are going to need to lower your sights a bit on the “prestige” factor. You have a great trend with your grades and nice test scores and will have nice options at meet full need schools that are in your stats range. Colleges will want to see that you have strong senior year grades but the reality is that most applications are in and evaluated using only grades through junior year or 1st semester senior year which is not enough to bump up the overall gpa much by that point.
For law, you really can major in anything and if Poly Sci is what you love, look for schools that offer that. I would highly recommend you start here for some ideas on colleges that are well regarded and not too large but you may be more within range. Be aware that there are varying degrees of selectivity with these schools. Run NPC’s everywhere to determine need based aid and look at their common data sets as well.
I think east coast schools (maybe not Princeton) might find you interesting and want you, but the big issue is the plane fares to and from Hawaii. You might be better off looking at schools that are cheaper to travel to
I would agree on the travel costs. If you plan well ahead of time and are going to a major west coast city, it can be relatively affordable especially at off peak season. However, you will be traveling at peak seasons which will be costly and from the east coast, add thousands to your bill (even if it’s only home at xmas and for the summer…those tickets often range $800-1200 each way from the east coast, $300-800 each way from the west depending on route/time/how far booked in advance) and none of that will be covered by financial aid. Aid will also not cover any summer housing expenses if you plan to stay and work over summers at wherever your college is.
It’s a one way trip and I’m staying there. I have a very strained relationship with my family so I have no reason to go back