<p>Hey CC, I was wondering how you decide a school is a fit? Like i understand about going to a college which you like and can afford. But how do you determine if a college will accept you? </p>
<p>Ultimately there is no way to know if you will be accepted until they release their decision. However, you can get a good sense of your chances in a variety of ways.</p>
<p>Try looking up the college’s “incoming class profile” and see if your test scores, demographic, gpa etc. match.</p>
<p>Try evaluating students that you know were accepted/denied from certain colleges and see how you compare.</p>
<p>You can also use various “chance me” tools, parchment is ok.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply, but how would i know if i’m a candidate for admissions? Since every college i have seen says that they want a student with extracurricular activities, which i only have one of. I work 20 hrs/week, but colleges on the College-data site list work under considered category, as compared to extracurricular which are listed as important. I have used the college navigator on CC and it lists colleges which i feel i have no change at admission at. Can someone on here help me?</p>
<p>First of all, a lot of colleges have very high acceptance rates. Some have open admissions. Have you taken the SAT and/or ACT? Are you a senior already, or are you an underclassman with an eye to the future?</p>
<p>Yes, I’m a senior and i have taken the ACT (twice) and SAT (once). I’m also gonna take the sat again in November. My first ACT composite score was 30. I haven’t gotten the scores from the second one yet. </p>
<p>That’s a respectable score. Breathe. You will get into a four-year college. Breathe. Where do you live? Will your family need financial assistance? Breathe. Are your parents fully behind you (ie. will they pay whatever they can possibly afford for your education)? Breathe. Where do you live? Breathe. Are you comfortable with in-state public options, or do you want to get away? Breathe. What are your academic and personal interests? You are young, and it is perfectly fine if you aren’t sure about what you want to study. It is also fine to consider non-academic factors. They can include activities like skiing, windsurfing, hiking, shopping, museum-hopping, or rooting for a football team with bowl prospects. Breathe. How does your GPA correspond with your test scores? Breathe. Obviously, your options are better if you can afford to pay tuition anywhere, and you have a strong GPA, but I can assure you that you can get into college somewhere. Breathe. Now, if you can provide a little more information, we can provide some suggestions. </p>
<p>If you want to know how a college weights ECs in their decision process, Google “<college name=”"> Common Data Set". There is a grid in the admissions section of the document where they check off how important various components are. That might help you.</college></p>
<p>And, of course, you can’t know if they will accept you or not. Which is why students should apply to multiple colleges, and include a range of colleges that include matches (where your test scores fall at the 50% mark or higher), and safeties (where you are almost sure to get in AND know you can afford the school). That is assuming your GPA is okay and you don’t have an unusual situation with something like disciplinary issues.</p>
<p>The phrase “fit” out here isn’t usually referring to whether you will get in or not. It is whether you will be comfortable and reasonably happy there, and (realistically) if you can afford the school.</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for the replies. I live in a suburb of Philadelphia and i will need a lot of financial aid since my parents income is only around $42,500. I work as a tutor 20 hr/week at Kumon. As for extra curricular activities i am part of the Multi-Cultural Club and that’s it, which i know looks really bad. </p>
<p>My GPA is kinda low its a 3.5 and weighted its a 3.7. I do have reasons for this since my mom goes on a religious trip for 3 months every year, which in-turn increases my responsibilities at home. But i don’t know i should include that as an excuse on my application as its not really that big. It just looks like I’m complaining.</p>
<p>My parents want me to stay in the philadelphia area so my choice of colleges are limited. My dream college is UPenn but that’s out of the picture as i’m not competitive enough for a chance of admissions. Next up was Drexel, but its a financial reach. Haverford and Swarthmore, while affordable are also very competitive. As for my academic interests, I hope to major in Economics and persue a pdh in economics with a focus on monetary policy and macroeconomics. </p>
<p>Do your parents want you to stay in Philly so you can commute? Or do they just want you close to home? </p>
<p>The location thing will definitely limit you. The good news is that your options should be pretty obvious. Temple and La Salle should give you merit money, and they won’t care about ECs. Have you run NPCs on Drexel, Swarthmore and Haverford? I agree that UPenn is probably out of reach, and I think that Swarthmore may also be out of reach, but it doesn’t hurt to throw an app out. Have you looked at SJU?</p>
<p>Haverford is a lot easier to get into than Swarthmore, which is going to be out of reach. I would have your guidance counselor mention your mom’s absence in their recommendation if you can.</p>
<p>@butterfreesnd My parents don’t want me to commute, but they do want me to stay close by.I have ran NPCs on Drexel, Swarthmore, and Haverford. The estimated contribution for drexel was 38,750, for Swarthmore was 1850 an for Haverford it was 3550. As you can see Drexel is kind of a reach financially. I have avoided Saint Joe’s for the religious purpose, while i myself am not religious my parents want me to avoid other religious influences.</p>
<p>@intparent My counselor has no knowledge of my mom’s absence. so would she write that in her recommendation letter and wouldn’t it be considered dishonest to ask her to do so? I have a lot of trouble asking for recommendation letter and have yet to do so. I just don’t know what to do… I get very anxious when i was favors of others. </p>
<p>You should go talk to your GC. Tell them you are concerned about your lack of ECs on your applications, and this is the reason for it. Ask if it would make sense for the GC to mention it in the school report. The worst that can happen is that they say no… but it could help you out in admissions, and it seems like a really valid reason to have a short EC list. What about schools within a couple of hours of Philadelphia? Dickinson? One of my kids went there and loved it.</p>
<p>I looked at small liberal arts schools like Dickinson, but i was looking for a more a college that is more quirky and more focused on academics. I visited Franklin & Marshall College, but wasn’t in love with it.</p>
<p>The CommonApp now has two categories for “Activities”: Family responsibilities (which you check then go on to detail) and Work (you check then indicate how much/how long, what the job entails etc).
Those “count”.</p>
<p>Can you explain to your parents that by limiting you geographically, they may decrease your odds of getting good financial aid packages?
Would they be willing to consider schools within a 4 -to-5 hour radius, for instance? There are LOTS of them in Pennsylvania, and if you push a little over the borders, you’d find possible schools too. Applying to more schools would definitely increase your odds of a better financial aid package, and at least you’d be able to compare offers.
Temple is a given, I suppose?
Drexel does not meet need and is a horrible choice for a lower-income student because a lot of their financial aid is loans. They pretty much say “we’ll admit you, how you pay is not our problem”. Keep your debt level to the federal loans - $5,500 as a freshman, total $27,000 over 4 years, that’s the maximum you can hope to reasonably pay back on a graduate’s salary.
Look into Muhlenberg, Ursinus, Lafayette… those are less selective than Haverford. Do include Haverford because their financial aid package does not include loans.
Type the name of the college and “collegedata” + “admissions”. You’ll have the stats for everyone, and you’ll see whether you rank in the top 10%, top25%, are average, below average…
Are you first gen -ie., neither parent got a 4-year degree? -</p>
<p>Have you considered St. Joe’s? Their Haub business school is very well regarded, particularly in Philadelphia. . I know you want economics and that is a liberal arts major but if you want to go on for grad work Haub is very well connected in philadelphia and will give you a better resume than a SJU A&S major. You may even be able to intern at the Philadelphia fed during your undergrad. </p>
<p>The tippy top students out of Haub can usually write their own tickets in the Philadelphia area. Theres a very strong alumni network. If St Joe’s wants you they will be generous. You’re well above their typical student so you’ve got a great shot. </p>
<p>Look at Bryn Mawr–it’s part of the Tri-Co consortium–you can take courses at Haverford (it’s a mile away) or at Swarthmore (there’s a bus that takes students to all three schools). You can even take some courses at Penn, if there is a course offering that isn’t available through the Tri-Co.</p>
<p>There’s a Bryn Mawr merit scholarship and all first-year, first-time students are eligible for it–you don’t even need to apply. Bryn Mawr’s financial aid is need-based. It’s easy to get into Philadelphia–commuter train is right near the campus. Also, if you look at which colleges or universities send their graduates on to doctoral programs, you’ll find that Bryn Mawr is in the top 20. In other words, if you do well at Bryn Mawr, you’ll have a good shot at graduate programs.</p>
<p>First I had my daughter visit our flagship state university (huge!) and then a smaller “honors” state university. Which did she like better? The opportunities/school spirt of the large one? The smaller “community” of the other?</p>
<p>She also made it clear that she didn’t want to go to school in a big city and didn’t want to be more than 2 hours from home.</p>
<p>She didn’t want to be stressed at a “reach” school nor the tippy top of a low match school.</p>
<p>Then we used a tool like Supermatch here on CC, or the search tool on Naviance or Collegeboard to find options.</p>
<p>So we looked at schools with 10,000 or less students, 2 hours away, rural/suburban/small city, where she was at about the 75% of the SAT scores that offered merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, working is an “EC”. You are not sitting home playing video games.</p>
<p>Hey guys, So I looked at your feed back and talked to my parents about letting me go further than the hour radius they have set. They refused claiming that they couldn’t get to me during an emergency situation if the college was any further. As I mentioned before my parents want me to avoid Saint Joe’s or Villanova as they are both catholic institutions. </p>
<p>Lol I don’t think I can gain admissions at Bryn Mawr due to the fact that I’m not a girl. Lol</p>
<p>Lastly, do you guys really believe that I have a chance at Haverford? Even though it only accepts 20% of the kids that apply.</p>
<p>if it’s an emergency, the college services will take care of it. Your parents want to think they’ll protect you, but think about it - one hour makes no difference wrt to 3 hours. They can just as easily come see you or bring you back. They won’t be the emergency responders. Someone else will. If they worry about emergencies, they need to help you pick colleges that have strong teams for campus safety, nurse/doctor/clinic/health center, etc.
Your parents are having trouble grasping the idea they won’t be there if “something happens” and that they’ll have to trust your good sense and complete strangers to help you - similar to when they left you for your first day of Kindergarten. It takes a tremendous leap of faith for parents to let you go and trust that everything they’ve told you will help you make the right choices when you’re on your own for the first time.
The issue is that the non-religious college located in Philadelphia and where you’re likely to get in and get merit money, ie., Temple, is not the safest. You’d be much “safer” at Muhlenberg or Dickinson or even Pitt or Penn State (especially if you avoid fraternities at either of these two).
The fact you’re further restricting colleges to non-religious ones brings down your odds of admission to a good fit and your odds at a good financial aid package further. 
Fortunately, there are quite a few colleges within one hour of Philadelphia but I’m not sure your parents realize that they may be losing on thousands of dollars just on the off chance they’ll need to come and see you if you need something (unless you have a serious illness, in which case their main concern should be that there’s a reputable hospital and a specialist to whom your current doctor can recommend you.)
Strictly speaking, those are universities within your parents’ distance requirement:
Arcadia
Lafayette
Lehigh
TCNJ* (public, OOS)
Haverford
Temple
Drexel
Penn State Abington
Moravian
Princeton
Rider
Ursinus
West Chester
Muhlenberg
Widener</p>
<p>If you can get them to 1h30-2hours you’d have more choices.</p>
<p>Im not sure I convince then to let me go further. I really wanted to attend Boston College or NYU, but they said no and NYU would be even harder to afford than Drexel. Even if somehow I could convince them what other colleges are possible for me to attend considering my scores, low GPA (3.5 unweighted), weak ECs, and financial need.</p>
<p>Also how would you determine a college’s department’s strength. I really want to attend a college, which has strong economics program that will allow me to go to the best graduate school possible.</p>