College search

College Search & Selection
1

Hi All,

I am white female who attends a competitive highly ranked public school in MA. I have an idea of schools, but I am worried I am thinking either too lowly or too highly of myself… Please give your input/suggest more schools.
Some facts:
Money is not a big constraint (my parents are willing and expect to be pay around $60k a year)
Stats:
Unweighted: 3.9 (sophomore year) school does not calculate freshman grades into this
Classes: All honor, except math. Not taking any AP this year only 2 were offered. Plan to take 2-3 next year. Will be taking the AP lang test in may though.
SAT: Took them in december did not do as well as I wanted 1280/1600… I barely studied and was very lazy about the Kaplan course I was taking. I am taking them again in March and hoping to do much better, getting a math tutor.
ACT: taking it in april.

Hook: I have a hemangioma birthmark on my face that I am planning to write about in my essay.

Extracurriculars:
Journalism (editor and staff writer for school newspaper)
Social justice leadership program
Tutoring low income students (3X a week)
Costa rica community service (3 weeks over the summer)
Founder and president of Current events club
Racial Awareness
Will be inducted into national honors society

Schools I have so far: if you could write whether you think these are the right range!
Yale- I KNOW this is a huge reach. Yet, i am told I have to apply in order to honor my grandfather who is a big time legacy (yale undergrad, yale law school, previous yale law professor, served for short time on the admissions committee). My grandfather just died, so my mom says I have to apply in his honor. Let me know if this is a complete unrealistic–I don’t want to waste time.
Umich- reach is what I am thinking
Emory- would most likely do ed for this, aware it is a reach. Legacy:2 aunts, cousin currently attends, uncle attended
Tulane- EA
Wisconsin- madison
Syracuse- sister currently attends. would be a senior when I was a freshman.
GWU- touring in FEB.
Indiana- safety

2

Are you currently a junior or a sophomore? If a junior - what are your grades junior yr?
What were your grades freshmen yr? Even if they are not factored into your gpa, colleges will want to see them on your transcript.
It is very hard to chance you without scores, but with your current SAT of 1280, all the schools on your list with the exception of Syracuse and Indiana are reaches.
For Emory - aunts and cousins will not make you a legacy
For Yale - what do you mean by ‘big-time’ legacy? Big-time as in big donor/buildings named after him? Did grandfather serve in admissions undergrad or law school?
Hook - a birthmark is not a hook, but can make for a good essay

3

That’s not a hook. A hook is what the school feels is an institutional need like athletes or hi income legacies.

Unless your SATs go up I think Indiana is a match at this point. https://www.iu.edu/~uirr/reports/compliance/cds/2016/IUBLA/C Fortunately you have lots of time to work on that.

4

What are you looking for in a college? What size and location, or type of location? What do you want to major in? What else is important to you?

Unfortunately a lot of the reach/match/safety stuff comes down to your standardized test scores. Did you take the PSAT or a pre-ACT? They are very different tests and most people are stronger in one than the other, so it might be helpful to figure out which one you prefer so you can focus your studying on one of them. If you have trouble bringing your scores up for whatever reason, check out test optional schools–there are many good ones.

If you can get your ACT above 32 or your SAT above 1400, these would all be solid matches: Boston College, Lehigh, Northeastern, William and Mary, U Rochester, American, Case Western, U Miami.