Hello,
I am writing on behalf of my daughter. We are struggling to come up with a realistic list of colleges for her due to the following mix of strengths and weaknesses:
- High-ish SATs (2260 with SAT 2s all above 750 in Chem, Math 1 and US History)
- URM (Hispanic)
- Decent rank (top 8% at an above-average high school), but slightly more Bs than As. Worse, though, she will have 3 semester grade Cs on her transcript (one in freshmen bio honors, one in junior AP Chemistry and one in junior Pre-Cal). The C in pre-cal is so frustrating as it was due to her forgetting an assignment, so I don't forsee that carrying into Calc next year. Overall her unweighted GPA is a 3.32 (will likely be around a 3.4 by application) and her weighted GPA is a 4.6.
- Most rigorous course load available except for math as she is one year ahead instead of two years ahead (will complete Calc AB not BC) with 12 APs and 7 dual enrollment courses and all other courses being honors. Did not/will not take physics, though, in favor of taking AP Bio and Chem (I know that some schools will look down on this decision).
- Very focused, somewhat interesting extracurriculars (here's where she's asked that I not be too specific), but no national-level awards or recognition or anything. Most of her extracurriculars have to do with education and she tutors and works with children, has done summer research in the field, is president of a related club, is a church youth counselor, has done summer missions work at orphanages overseas, and she is a teacher assistant. She also is a VP of a fashion-related club which raises money for charity and appeals to her artsy side.
- Very good writer and communicator; will likely do well in essays/interviews.
Due to the fact that my daughter is something of a “splitter” with high scores, and decent, but not great grades, we are having difficulty coming up with target schools for her. It doesn’t help the confusion that she has a pretty good class rank despite the spotty grades. One thing that I must say about my daughter is that she is truly motivated by learning and not by grades and I do feel that she puts a good deal of time and effort into her studies but often barely misses that A mark. Her SATs demonstrate that she is capable – I hope she does not appear lazy.
She is interested in maybe going pre-med but she doesn’t want to mention this on any applications due to the C in AP Chem. She is very interested in Cognitive Science or Psych or Educational Studies, but intends to complete pre-med requirements en route to whatever major she chooses. She likes a lot of LACs and smaller Universities with an undergrad focus. Here is what we believe to be reach/target/safety list, though we are worried that all but the safeties may be reaches.
High Reach: Vanderbilt (Peabody) / Washington University in Saint Louis / Haverford College / UVA (out-of-state)
Lower Reach (the two schools she is considering applying ED to***): Emory (especially as she is interested in Oxford) / Davidson College
Match: University of Florida (in-state), Wake Forest (?), NYU (don’t know if it is a match/I think that it is very disimilar to the others, but she really likes it)
Safety: New College of Florida (we think it is a safety?) and Florida State
***Don’t know if she should apply Early Decision anywhere as she probably would benefit from first semester senior grades being factored in (she is confident as it will be her second time with several teachers and generally all the classes are “easier” than her junior ones with the exception of Calc).
Thanks for any insight. Again, I know the list is top heavy, so if you could rearrange these and/or suggest other schools, I’d appreciate it! She will also need some financial aid.