That definitely helps, but it will help everyone else at your school, too. And the top schools are not going to accept everyone at your school. It might put you in better stead with slightly lower tier schools, though. Another factor will be your ECs. Based on what you described, they’re not on level with those students who are getting into the tippy-top schools. And the Naviance scattergram doesn’t account for ECs. CollegeVine does (again, not perfect) – but CollegeVine will not account for a highly respected, nationally known HS. So, once again, use a variety of tools at your disposal to get the most complete picture you can. No tool on its own will give you all the answers.
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Have my chances perhaps gone up by a percent perhaps ?
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Would you say Niche has an accurate graph?
In my experience, Niche is the worst one. It really overestimates your chances at the most selective schools. Naviance and CollegeVine are both better.
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Most of my hope cane from Niche, which claims I have a 70% chance at Brown and Cornell (Business/Management major).
Thought you are pre med. you can do pre med and business but you never hear of it.
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That’s totally unrealistic. No one – absolutely no one – has a 70% chance of admission at these schools, unless maybe they’re the very well-accomplished children of celebrities or international leaders, or multi-millionaires.
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Pre-med is my main target, but my backup plan is business/management, in case I am unable to keep up with the pre med curriculum.
Can you make an appointment to talk with your school college counselor? They would be the best equipped to tell you how you compare to other applicants coming out of your highschool. My guess is that as a first gen/low income student you may be very competitive for admission to schools that are a tier below the Ivies. Anything any of us here are saying in terms of your chances is purely a guess.
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Sorry, I believe I worded it wrong. Rather than a “chance” it’s more so it claims I have better stats than 70% of the students accepted into that major. Since niche said 70, I thought maybe the actual number was around 30-40.
We only get one meeting with college counselors since each one has to meet and discuss with about 200-250 students. My meeting was really far back, before I took the SAT.
OP, it’s good that you have come here because I am sure you are better informed now, at the very least. You can get a lot of great information all over this site.
It would be great if your parents were more aware of the world of holistic admissions at highly rejective schools.
This might give you more insight. It’s from 2019, so the info about test scores isn’t as accurate, but it’s still a relevant thread.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/why-its-so-hard-to-get-into-an-under-15-acceptance-rate-school
A competitive high school with a known name is helpful, but I’m not sure it makes up for a lower GPA and a relative lack of rigor. Especially not when there will be dozens of others in your cohort who might well have a higher level of rigor and will also be applying to those same schools. Remember that there are many excellent high schools, including privates, all over the country. There are simply not enough seats at the very top schools for everyone who wants to go there.
I would really try to solidify your safeties. If your school has Scoir or Naviance, utilize it.
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You do not have 30-40% chance at these schools. Perhaps your high SAT score is elevating your placement on that scattergram, but SATs are probably the least important piece of your application in a school that uses holistic admissions practices. Any calculator that just uses stats and nothing else is not going to help you very much. Naviance is helpful because it compares you against other applicants from your school, even if it doesn’t take into account all of the other kind of information – ECs, etc. Don’t use Niche.
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Thank you, the explanation was very thorough and helpful, and I will try to link this to my parents.
I have definitely learned new things from this post, which will help me reconsider my options and choices for when it comes to applying for colleges next month.
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You need to talk to your GC, first and foremost, to get accurate chances. With what you have said, being around average or close to average with a 90.6/3.6UW, then the only way you would have a good chance at ivies is if these schools admit unhooked kids from your gpa range on a regular basis. If green(accepted) dots on Naviance near your gpa look like outliers (ie lower gpa) compared to the rest of the green dots, then the kids were hooked and your chances are slim. Look at schools a couple steps down from ivies then look at your state flagship: how does naviance look for those? Are there lots more acceptances near your gpa? Then those are all more reasonable. If your gpa still looks lower than the bulk of accetances for your state school then Ivies/T10 are highly likely to be way out of reach, and your flagship may be a struggle to gain acceptance. Naviance is good for trends; your GC will have the ability to give you more individualized chances. I think you need to ask for an honest assessment of your chances then focus on finding likelies and matches.
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Reposting my earlier note which I thought was self explanatory
Posting links from the school website to identify the school or in any way posting identifying information is doxxing. That’s not appropriate
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That is also BS. First off, you won’t be earning enough money as a resident to make substantial payments on medical school loans that could very well be over $400,000.
Second…you say your parents have an income of $40,000 a year. How in the world would they be able to help you pay off loans in 3-4 years. It’s.Not.Possible.
Residencies range from 3-7 years or so. And then many docs do fellowships which are also not exactly high paying. In the meantime, your medical school loans will continue to accrue interest. They just will.
By the time you are earning the “big bucks” your debt could easily be $600,000. Even on a doctor salary, those payments would be a huge chunk of change. To do this in 3-4 years, you would need to make $150,000 a year in loan payments. That could be a large chunk of your take home pay as a doctor. Remember, from your salary, you will have things like taxes, Fica, various insurances, and hopefully retirement contributions. You should get your own disability insurance too.
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This
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I have a doctor in the family who attended a SHYMP. That person was at least in their late 40s before they finally paid off their med school debt. Taking on big debt, especially more than needed, is extremely inadvisable.
It sounds as though you will need a full ride or close to it, if your family’s income is around $40k. If there are other significant assets, that can decrease how much financial aid you will receive from schools.
You mentioned a liberal arts college because of wanting to be able to explore various interests. As a first generation college student, you would be eligible to compete for the Grissom Scholars Program at Centre College which covers full tuition, a $5k enrichment stipend, and leaves you eligible for need-based financial aid to help cover room and board.
Centre College is part of the Colleges That Change Lives association, a group of smaller schools that provide solid academics but often have less competitive admissions. You can read more about Centre on this page (though it does need to be updated, but the body of the information remains the same).
At a school like Centre, if it felt like a good fit, you might have an easier time standing out, have a bunch of resources at the ready for you, and you’d be able to explore your interests. Obviously, there is no guarantee that you would get one of these scholarships, but I’d say your odds of getting one are at least as good as you getting into an Ivy, if not better.
I would make sure you have at least one CUNY that you could commute to and apply to some additional SUNY schools. Several have been mentioned, and I’d consider adding New Paltz to that list.
Skidmore (NY) is a school where you might want to run the Net Price Calculator. It tends to be more financially generous than some other schools, based on net prices by incomes on College Navigator, and it might have enough cachet to satisfy your family while still being a more attainable (though not necessarily a likely) option for you.
Another liberal arts college that has pretty reasonable net prices is St. Lawrence in northern New York. They are not need-blind, but I do think it would be a likely admit for you. Make sure to run the NPC.
I know you haven’t asked for help with college suggestions, and your comment about liberal arts schools may have just been an off-the-cuff remark that you didn’t really mean.
I just want to reassure you that you ARE a good student and there are good colleges out there that will want you, and have a chance of being affordable (again, depending on what the NPCs say and what your family indicates they will contribute). The best way I knew of doing that was giving some things that could work, rather than focusing on the things that are highly unlikely to.
If you do decide you want help in developing your college list in preparation for your visit with your high school guidance counselor, let us know more about what it is you’re looking for in a college.
Wishing you the best.
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Once people have high SAT/ACT scores, the deciding factor is not a few percentage points; and more than 9 out of 10 will be rejected, no matter what. At that point the overall application will decide which students make up a geographically, socially and otherwise diverse class. Many factors are being looked at - and a high SAT/ACT score will not automatically compensate for a less-than-stellar GPA, or the mix of honors vs. AP rigor, per example. But even if all numbers are high and someone is in the top 10% of their class - there aren’t enough spots for 90% of applicants!
So - it’s okay to aim for the stars, so that you (and your parents) don’t forever wonder “what if”. But as far as the importance of an Ivy-League college to your potential medical career (which very possibly will happen at a completely different University than your college), your parents are completely misinformed.
If anything it will be your medical school (grad school) that people would take note of once you are a doctor, NOT where you went to college 6 or more years prior.
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