Help a junior build a realistic college list-low scores and ecs

College Search & Selection
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Hi everyone, I a current junior and i’m kind of freaking out about whether i’ll get into college considering my scores and ecs.

About me: black low income immigrant female
I go to a smaller magnet type school(supposed to be more rigorous but my school district is not good so the rigorous label really doesn’t mean much)

  • gpa: 4.1 weighted (idk my unweighted)
  • almost all my classes have been honors
    -A/ A- student, top 7% of my class
  • took 1 ap (ap world history) sophomore year- got a 3
  • currently taking ap bio, ap lang, ap-ush and i plan on taking 3 more aps next year plus community college classes
  • got a 1250 on the psat which i’m really bummed about, i’m taking the sat in june and in a perfect world i’d score at least 1320s but I’ve always been bad at timed tests so i don’t know if that’s too realistic

ECs: very basic and I slacked here + I don’t have any awards or anything to boost me up

  • battle of the books
    -key club
    -yearbook for a 2 semesters at different schools
  • pottery(classes outside of school)
    -volunteer at local animal shelter
    -doing girls who code this summer
  • doing an online internship/intensive at a student led environmental ngo this summer
  • applied for a teen council position at a museum still waiting on that

-I switched schools 3 times so far in hs and moved to a new state in the middle of 10th grade and I also was taking care of younger siblings after school in my freshman year+ sophomore year, mental health difficulties also made participating in school kinda hard(don’t want so sound full of excuses though so I don’t at all plan on dumping all my problems in my applications)

I’m interested in schools in the Northeast/ New England so i’ve been looking into:

  • drexel university, rutgers university-Newark, Temple university, Suffolk university, and Fordham
  • I’d like a school in a large city or very close to a city and i’m interested in public health and policy, global health, social work, bioethics.

I’d really appreciate any advice on whether i have a shot at these schools or any recommendations of other schools to consider or what I can do to improve my chances.

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Suffolk University is a match school for you. I also recommend checking out American University in Washington DC, it seems it would be a really good match for you and it’s been test optional for around 10 years now if I’m not mistaken.

Khan Academy was a really good resource for me when practicing for my SAT and the score I got on the practice tests were pretty accurate to what I got when I took the real thing. I suggest you look into it.

Good luck with everything!

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I think Temple is a match school for you. They are also test optional if you don’t feel confident with your scores.

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Reading posts on CC can give you a false sense of what it take to be accepted to college as many posters here are among the most accomplished students out there. That is not representative of the universe of students overall. Your gpa and course rigor will make you an attractive candidate at many colleges. You just need to do some research to find some good matches (and I’d include a few reaches as well).

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First, taking care of siblings or grandparents is a strong EC and will appear on your list on the common app.
Mental health however is best kept to yourself (except if you mean during covid - there’ll be a section about that, too).
Also, your level if rigor will be compared to others in your district and school itself, and your schedule looks respectable*.
Also, most colleges will be test optional so don’t worry about the sat too much, except where required (send the scores to your state’ s flagship+2 or 3 public universities nearby – For instance, Rutgers, TCNJ, Rowan, Montclair – Because large public universities are the most likely to require them.)
There will be lots of colleges interested in a resilient, smart, hard working, compassionate student.

What state do you live in?

Next, to make a good list, the most important thing is to run the net price calculator, or npc.
The names you listed don’t meet need and are in many different states meaning some must be out of state publics. Those give the worst aid, generally speaking.

Google the name of the following colleges +“npc”, then run the npc (fill it out) for each of these colleges to see which ones return the best results- each college calculates differently:
Public universities in your state
Fordham
Muhlenberg
St Mary’s Maryland
Goucher
LaSalle
St John’s (Philly)
Ursinus
Susquehanna
Lafayette
Dickinson
Skidmore
(The last three are reaches)
Which ones have the best net prices for you?

  • you need to take one class in each core subject each year: English, Math, Foreign Language, science, social science.
    For math, either calculus or ap stats.
    For science, bio, chem, physics + one other science, either an AP in those if you’re aiming for a stem major or APES.
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I think that you will get some good acceptances. The issue might be affordability.

What is your budget? What is your budget without taking on any debt?

What is your home state?

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It sounds like you might be under estimating your chances a bit.

A 1250 PSAT projects to a 1350 SAT . . . which is 90th percentile . . . which seems a mild stretch to call ‘low’. :slight_smile:

Your ECs also seem better than average to me . . . or, at the very least, lend themselves to a compelling story.

I think you are going about this well . . . find the schools that you can expect to get into (or have a good shot at) and that appeal to you first; but if you do decide during your research that you would really like to apply to, for example, Barnard don’t sell yourself short.

Good luck.

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Check out college simply. Just slap your stats in, then you can get reach, target and safety school. You should read the book, A is for Admission. It provides tips, and an insight through the whole college proccess.

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I set up a study plan in Khan academy at soon as I saw my test score lol, and i’ll definitely do some research on American. Thank you!

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Will you have financial concerns? What can your family reasonably pay for you to attend college each year?

Does your home state have any grant programs for low income students? For example, NY has TAP and CA has Calgrants.

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Thank you so much you’ve given a lot to think about. From your response and some of the others I think i’ve been spending too much time worried whether i’ll get accepted that I haven’t been thinking about affordability. I’ll have to sit with my parents and run the net price calculator and talk about that. I currently live in nc but that could potentially change and It sounds silly but i’ve lived the longest in the northeast which is why i want to go back. I’ll for sure apply to state schools just to be safe but staying in nc isn’t something I really want to do. I think it’ll come down to finding the most affordable out of state option for me but again I’ll have to talk to my parents about all that.

About my coursework, i’ve had a core subject each year and the aps i want to take are ap calc, ap lit, ap psych, and ap environmental, my school only requires 2 years of a language and i have 3 years of french.

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thank you, I’ll check it out!

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I think I’ve been watching too many harvard acceptance videos and reading too many posts from people with 1600 sats it may have skewed my perception of normal a little bit lol, thank you this was really encouraging

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You have some good matches on that list, but make sure that you apply to UNC Chapel Hill as a low reach (for your GPA, scores, and URM status) and to another North Carolina public school that you would be happy to attend. You might get into some good schools, but you might not get enough fin aid.

Your GPA is good. You will get a boost as an URM. Are you first gen to college, too?

You can spin your childcare responsibilities into a great essay topic, too, I bet, that shows, rather than tells, that you were busy with important work for your family.

Try a practice ACT off the ACT website. Some people do better on the ACT than SAT, and if this is true for you, you could prep for the ACT and get a high score. Either way, a decent standardized test score will assure colleges that you can handle the work there. From your grades, it’s clear you have good work habits.

I think that you are selling yourself short on your qualifications and chances. For you, the standardized test score is a chance to show the colleges that you can handle the work. You will get better fin aid at some of the top level schools, if you can get in. If I were you, I’d try very hard to prep for the SAT or ACT. Write an essay about caring for your sibs so your parents could work, the struggling immigrant experience, where the whole family pitches in together to make it. And think about who you’re going to ask for letters - which teachers will write the best ones for you. If you can get a high standardized test score, I think you have a chance of getting into better schools than the ones on your list.

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Thank you for the advice. I just recently took the ACT and I’m waiting for results on that. I’m not technically first gen, my father has a degree from my country but I will first to go to school in the US. I have a couple teachers who’ve told me they’d be glad to give me rec letters. I’ll definitely continue to study and prep for my june test. Thanks again for the encouragement.

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I think you’re a bit too hard on yourself. All schools are fine so if you’re happy with that list, that’s fine. Assuming you want the NE, I’d add Pitt, Penn State - even if you had to start at a branch, Delaware, Miami Ohio, Cincinnati, WVU, URI, UNH.

You will get into decent schools. Pick a stretch too - a UMD, Ohio State, etc.

Good luck.

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OP is looking for “a school in a large city or very close to a city”. That would knock out half of your suggestions. And I wouldn’t call Dickinson a reach by any measure.

I don’t know if they have the major of interest (public health and policy, global health, social work, bioethics), but I would keep from your list and add:
American
George Washington
Catholic
Temple
LaSalle
Drexel
St. Joes (Philly)
St. John’s (NY)
Fordham
Manhattan
Rutgers
Seton Hall
Trinity
Northeastern
Emerson
BU
Providence

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Sorry - I missed the city part. A BU will be a reach - but it’s good to have reaches. Emerson - I believe more journalism.

Don’t forget schools like Clark, Bryant, Quinnipiac, New Haven, Fairifield, Brandeis (stretch)…depending on the size you seek. Rochester (stretch), Canisius, Niagra, St. Bonaventure…the list can go on and on.

You need to get a Barrons book (at the library) or you can do this online. - go through any states that interest you. Take a state a day and go through all the schools - so you can see the different sizes, average test scores, where the schools are, etc. When you are done you’ll have a decent list that you can them move down.

For example, a school like Marist - it’s in Poughkeepsie - so it’s not in the sticks and it’s close to a city. Does that fit the bill or too far? You go and get your list down to 30 or 40 and then over time narrow from there and get down to 12 - 14 schools. Many are free apps if you don’t qualify so I personally believe going to more than less. There’s plenty of they thought Ivy types on the board so they applied only to top 30s - and got in no where.

So you want some safeties (most you named are), some target (like a Pitt, Temple, UMBC), and a stretch - like UMD or SUNY B or Rochester.

Best wishes.

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The reason I listed those schools for OP to run the NPC on is that their respective NPCs should provide different results.
Some meet full need whereas others offer merit.
Typically, colleges located in cities are less generous with aid, since for the past 10-15 years HS students have greatly favored urban colleges and thus removed many financial incentives. The meteoric rise of NYU and Northeastern illustrates this trend. (BTW, of those two, only Northeastern meets need, and they’re need aware.)
The list was designed to show how widely NPCs run, without regard for other factors, because affordability often is the #1 criterion.
For instance, typically, Catholic universities have little aid because their endowment is lower than similarly ranked medium sized universities.
Hence, Fordham and St Joe’s. Both have different levels of merit (Fordham’s merit is especially good for NMFs but that’s not Op and it’s just full tuition anyway, with very high R/B costs due to location) so Op can figure out what price point works and if either one would be affordable.
Muhlenberg meets full need, as do Lafayette, Dickinson, and Skidmore. Their way of calculating full need varies though. (Lafayette and Dickinson factor equity differently - this way, OP can see how owning a house+assets v. Renting impacts their aid.) So, OP would have another criteria for her list.

“urban” is a common criterion for kids who don’t know much about college life or college towns. They think they’ll be bored if they attend college away from a big city and don’t know what a college town is.
It’s too early to eliminate most meet-need colleges from consideration, just because they’re not in big cities. It’s as if the student cut out UNC CH, UNC A, and App State, and favored UNCC just because of location.

Here, my concern is affordability. Until this student knows what is affordable, whether she’ll need full meet need, merit, a combination of the two, she cannot make a college list.

If OP has significant need (is lower/middle middle class and qualifies for Pell) her list will be different from a family with EFC 60,000 whose parents “can only afford 35k”. For a student with significant need, making the wrong list can mean having no choice for college, or no college at all.

St Mary’s is as rural as can get - if OP can’t see herself there or if it’s unaffordable, that’s 100% fine. But looking at the most rural, isolated college on the Eastern seaboard may open windows:why do people go there? What do they do? Is this type of college off limits or northern? Her final list of colleges doesn’t have to (likely won’t) include colleges that are that isolated – but it helps in seeing what colleges are out there and that kids aren’t bored.

Most Northeastern public flagships, except for UMaine’ match programs, will be completely unaffordable: they will just be full cost minus the 5.5k federal loans. Some (UDel, WVU…) may offer some merit but most would do so for high scorers only and we don’t know if OP can reach 1450. Pitt’s merit now requires a 1500.
Temple used to offer good merit, including full tuition scholarships, but has seriously cut back.
UMichigan meets need for OOS students whose parents make 95k and under. TOSU has scholarships for OOS URMs who meet certain criterion. And no one can complain of boredom in AA or Columbus. Both would be huge universities, not in the Northeast, and not in big cities.
It could certainly be debated whether they’re worth attending when OP could get into UNC-CH (potentially with Carolina Covenant, OP will need to run the NPC for that.).

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I think your stats are still very competitive and you will have some good options. Consider these:
University of Maryland
University of Delaware
Villanova (reach)
Drexel
Temple
Muhlenberg
Rutgers
Seton Hall
SUNYs (really any of them)
Syracuse
Fordham
CUNY Baruch
Marist
UConn
Qunnipiac
Boston College/Boston University/Northeastern (choose one as a reach)
UMass Amherst
Bentley

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