Help a junior whittle down his college list? I'll chance back!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I have a pretty substantial list at the moment that needs to be cut down, but I can’t bring myself to take a couple off. Let’s ignore location and my own personal desires for now, just evaluate on stats. I’d like to keep all the Texas schools on the list. * connotes what I think is a reach. List reads as: Bucknell, GWU, Tulane, Occidental, Bates, Pepperdine, Union, American, Wisconsin-Madison, Gettysburg, St. Lawrence, Texas, Texas A&M*, Houston, Baylor

White male, Texas resident. I’ll be applying to as a Economics major, and I’ll put in my app as early as possible.

Academics
• GPA: UW- 3.53/4.0, W- 4.06/4.0 (upwards trend)
• SAT: 1880 (750 CR, 570 M, 560 W) (retaking because of funky disparity between section scores/low math)
• ACT: 29 (30 E, 27 M, 31 R, 28 S) (also retaking just because I can do better)
• Rank: 257/797, 32% (weak point of my app)
• APs:
Junior Year (awaiting scores, didn’t take Physics)
• Psychology *
• Physics I
• English III Lang/Comp
Senior Year (predicted)
• Calculus I AB
• Government
• Macroeconomics
• Statistics I
• Chemistry II
• English IV Lit/Comp

Activities
• (school name) Speech and Debate – Executive Council Member (2014-2016), Co-President (2015-2016), Lincoln Douglas Debate Captain (2015-2016); competitor, leader, researcher, fundraising, social events, banquets; 2013 – present
• (local middle school) Speech and Debate – Founder, President; writing curriculum, scheduling tournaments, scheduling and leading tutoring sessions, talking with administration, participating/heading debate club at elective fairs/club days, advising debaters on out-of-school resources like camps, tutors, boosters, etc.; 2015-present
• (school name) Beta Club Chapter – Founder, President; competitor, fundraising, social events, organizer; 2015 - present
• (local vet hospital) – Veterinary Technician/Assistant understudy; shadowing Dr. Y and Dr. X, as well as certified veterinary technicians/assistants; 2015 – present
• Peer Tutoring* – Independent volunteer peer tutor; tutor in Pre-Calculus, Engineering Design and Presentation, English II, Debate I, II, III, & IV, World History, and Creative Writing

Community Service
• (school name) Debate – Debate tournaments, judging debate rounds, Elective Fairs, tutored first-year students and monitored practice rounds after school; 2013 – present; Hours: 110 hrs
• (local middle school) Debate - lots of stuff, I’ll fluff up later; 2015 - present; Hours: 25
• Veterinary Hospital - mainly vet tech stuff; 2015 -present; Hours: 34
• (charity organization) – mentor to underprivileged and maltreated children; 2015-present; Hours: 6
• Organized a food drive program at my high school to relieve the victims of the floods in Houston; 2015 - present; Hours (so far): 12
• Peer Tutoring – Independent peer tutor, tutor in multiple subjects (see *); Hours: 51

Awards
• (school name) Novice Debater of the Year, 2014
• (school name) Novice Circuit King, an acknowledgement of profound success in novice debate, 2014
• Qualification for the Texas Forensic Association State Championship in Lincoln Douglas Debate, 2015, 2016
• Top-125 Ranked Debater of the 1,612 debaters in the Space City Debate District, 2015
• Elimination round competitor for Varsity Lincoln Douglas Debate:
o Magnolia High School’s Bulldog Bonanza (Semifinalist - 2015)
o Hendrickson High School Speech and Debate Tournament (Octafinalist - 2014)
o Cinco Ranch High School TFA Tournament (Octafinalist - 2015)
o Cypress Creek/Westfield Swing (Octafinalist - 2014)
o Klein High School Speech and Debate Tournament (Double Octafinalist – 2015)
• Competed in the Havard Speech and Debate Tournament, 2014, 2015
• Participated in UNT’s Mean Green LD Workshops, 2014
• Varsity Letter winner – Speech and Debate, 2015
• A/B Honor all throughout high school
• Nomination to the National Society of High School Scholars, 2015
• Working towards PVSA Bronze level

Employment
• (barbeque joint), (town name) – interacting with customers, managing cooking times and meat rotations on the smoking pits, training new employees (all positions taught), keeping inventory, general food service duties; August 2014 – present; 10-20 hrs per week, 20-30 hrs per week during the summer

2

Add U Rochester to the list

3

What about adding Trinity to your list? You could get offered Team Blinn so think about that as an option. If you apply early to A&M (In August) and your math scores come up a bit, I think you will have a decent shot at A&M.

One thing…your math scores are relatively lower on both the ACT and SAT. Economics is a math intensive major. Do you like math?

I think you are being realistic that your * are reaches. A slight uptick in your scores would help you. And I would encourage you to work mostly on your math scores. Is there one type of problem you are missing?

One other thing…how much can your parents afford to pay? Some of theses schools are very pricey. It is good to go into this with a clear understanding of the financial aspects.

4

I’m not a huge fan of math, it’s just never clicked for me, but almost any major with true applicability to the real world requires some kind of mathematical basis. I figured Econ would be a good choice because it’s a good entry major for law school, and a lot of it is game theory, which I can deal with. The math is mostly Statistics, which I’ve heard isn’t horrible. I’m confident I can raise the math scores, I just need the time to study.
Some are definitely expensive, but they’re on the list just because. I’d like to give myself some room for expenses along the way, especially if I do wish to pursue law (which I’m not quite sold on), but there’s always scholarships.

5

But how much can your parents pay? There are schools where you can probably qualify for merit scholarships but maybe not at the schools on your list. If you qualify for a lot of financial aid, then you would need a different list of schools that provide generous merit aid.

6

Bucknell- high match
GWU- high match
Tulane- reach (I’m applying there too!)
Occidental- low reach
Bates- reach
Pepperdine- high match
Union- safety
American- match
Wisconsin- high match
Gettysburg- match
St Lawrence- match
Texas- reach
Texas A&M- match
Houston- match, maybe a safety
Baylor- match
To narrow down your list, you can factor in how much each school will cost. Run net price calculators and compare them to each other. If there’s a reach school that’ll give you no need or merit aid and you can’t afford to pay the sticker price, is it really worth applying? Also, research which schools have the best programs for what you want to study, and think about what it is about these schools that makes you want to apply to them. Are there several of them that embody all the characteristics you like?
Good luck!
Chance me http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1781615-chances-for-some-oos-schools-and-private-schools.html#latest

7

Political Science and Philosophy are two other majors that place a good percentage of graduates into law schools without a large math component. Best of luck to you.

8

All in all, my mother, father, and step mother all combine to make about $300,000/year, which I’m very lucky for, but I have 3 other siblings. How much my father is willing to pay, I don’t know, he and I haven’t been on speaking terms for the past year and is incredibly conservative in his spending.

9

^ talk to you mother about college finances. There could be a college fund set aside for you. My suggestion is that you have 2 financial safeties on your list that are places you will be accepted. Theses can be schools like UH or UT Dallas or a private school that offers guaranteed merit for your stats. Run the NPC for Baylor.

Look on some of these links.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

10

Just jumping in to say that you probably shouldn’t include those random debate awards on your application. Anyone that pays the application fee can “compete” at Harvard’s tournament, it’s not an award unless you actually won something don’t mention it. That’s not something you put on an app. That just says your school is rich enough to afford the tournament fees.

Also, don’t mention those random invitationals. If they were at state championships, nationals, national qualifiers or TOC bids, they can be mentioned. And I guess you can mention the Mean Green Workshops as what you did over summer. So from your list I’d just mention the Workshops and the TFA qualifications.

Texas is probably the biggest reach because of the 7% rule.
Tulane and GWU can become matches if your SAT improves to be around the 2000+.
Houston looks good.