I’m an upcoming junior in high school and b/c it’s summer, I want to begin searching for colleges to apply to and hopefully compile a list of desired schools in order to begin the applications early. However, I’ve been having such a hard time finding schools I like. I live in California and am trying to go out of state and b/c of that, no college tours for me. i know what I want but it seems like even then there are so many options & i don’t know which to pick. any tips on good schools since I can’t tour any of them? Any state is fine.
Merged two identical threads. Hopefully posters can track
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You can’t begin the applications before the summer of your senior year. You can look around the internet and see what is reasonable for your stats, your budget and your desired major(s). Start with the SuperMatch function. It’s on the left of your screen.
Thank you! For the application, I haven’t done meaningful extracurriculars & was wondering if you have any tips for me. I dont wanna sign up last minute and add a million ec’s that only lasted 2 months. is it an important factor that can throw off my other potentially good factors?
Unweighted is 3.85 gpa and SAT is 1770 but will be retaken (might switch to ACT) :-<
wait are you going to be a junior or a senior?
With your scores, if you want to go the best school possible, you should stay in state and apply to UCs- not only will you be able to get into a better school than you would if you applied out of state, your cost of attendance would also be a lot less.
For EC’s, do 1 or 2 things that you are really passionate about. I would also start a conversation with your parents about what you can realistically afford. If your family is poor, look for schools with good financial aid. If it is wealthy, , it doesn’t matter. For middle class people, the decision is more difficult. Consider the cost of graduate or professional (law, medicine, business) school too, as your graduate school is far more important in terms of opportunity and employment. Also find out what it takes to be admitted to those schools. You still have 1-1.5 yrs to correct any deficiencies you may have for your desired set of schools.
Do you know what subject you might want to study? If you are thinking about engineering your choice of schools becomes much more limited and easier. For liberal arts, it’s daunting.
I would start college tours in CA, even if you do not want to stay in state, so you have a standard of comparison. You have some of the best schools in the world in CA and you might find one or more of them suit you well. You have Cal, Stanford, Pomona, Caltech, USC , UCLA and UC system just to name a few. No other state has so many superb schools. You also have the advantage of cheap in-state tuition for the UC and State schools. If you live in LA or the Bay area you can reach the local ones by public transit.
We took our S on college tours at the end of sophomore year and over the summer because junior year in HS is very busy. The more you see, the better you will be able hone your choices.
Your grades and ACT/SAT scores are most likely what will get you into college, but where you can attend will depend entirely on what you and your family can afford. So find out about the money now. Each college and university has a Net Price Calculator on its website. Run several of those with your parents.
What extracurricular activities do you have? Are they meaningful to you? That is what matters. You don’t need a million ECs, and you don’t need to be the president of the club or the captain of the team.
Supermatch is a start. Read the college guides. Develop a list of criteria for what matters to you in an educational experience over the next 4 years: size, location, majors, culture, weather, ECs, part of the country, cost (big one), and selectivity. Once you know what you care about - either love or hate - you can start to find schools that fit that profile at an appropriate level of selectivity and price. We can help - but you have to do the heavy lifting first.
The other option is to simply apply to your in-State U(s), because they have something for everyone and a price tag that is generally reasonable. But that’s only if you decide that you will thrive where planted and don’t have a lot of strong likes/dislikes, wants and needs.
Thank you so much! Such a big help! Did your S go out of state for school? I’ve always wanted to go out of state for the opportunity to explore and see new areas, but now I’m not sure if just applying to a UC is for me. I’m shy and awkward and I fear having too much people will interfere with my social anxiety. CA is also not where I plan to live in.
How much will your parents pay each year?
Unless your scores go up a lot or your parents will pay a lot, you may not be able to afford to go OOS.
The UCs are GPA-focused, so you could get into some of them.