Recently I’ve been becoming more and more disheartened at my chances of being accepted into some of the schools on my list. I’d really appreciate it if someone could let me know if I’d at least have a chance of getting into the schools I’m applying to for class of 2025.
I have a couple Ivy’s, and the other out-of-state schools have about a 20-25% acceptance rate.
I know my hardest competition may be within my school, but that seems more scary to me than if not. My school performs very well, and I don’t know if I compare well to a lot of my peers.
Applying as a humanities major. (Most of my school is STEM heavy if that makes a difference)
GPA: ~3.7-8 unweighted/4.1 weighted
Rank: top 20%
No SAT/ACT scores
7 APs. Out of the tests taken: 3/4 were 4s, one was a 5
Marching Band/Wind Ensemble all 4 years. A few other volunteering/leadership clubs.
Race/Ethnicity- Latinx
1st gen college student, immigrant parents
Bilingual
Lower upper middle class
What is your budget? “lower upper middle class” to me sounds like the “doughnut hole” where need based aid might not happen but full pay is too much. Have you run the NPCs.
What is your home state?
I like the fact that you have stuck to a moderate sized set of ECs for many years, showing a strong commitment to ECs that you care about.
Being Hispanic is likely to make a big difference to your chances.
I would put “Ivy’s and out of state public flagships” as worth an application, but definitely not safeties and probably not matches.
Safeties/Targets are all in-state (which I’m totally fine with). Hopefully a UC.
I’m only applying to schools that give me the financial aid I need (A LOT lol). The Net Price Calculators are the first thing I look at before even considering applying. (Cheaper to go to an Ivy than state school)
CA
They’re definitely all reaches, but I’m just really worried it might not even be worth applying.
“I’m just really worried it might not even be worth applying.”
Just make sure that you really want to attend the schools. Visiting is not practical right now due to the pandemic, and the Ivy League is a long way from California (although you do have a few really good private schools out there also – I loved my time at one of them). This makes it harder to be sure but do the best that you can to check out what the top schools are about.
Also, be sure that you want to be working hard for four years in an environment where all of the students are strong. In my experience top schools provide a great environment if you want to do it and if you know why you are doing it. However, you need to want to do it.
