Help a rising senior finalize their college list!

College Search & Selection
1

Hello everyone! I just finished my junior year of high school and while I’ve dug a little into schools I would like to apply to next year, my list is by no means complete.

this is not a chance-me so I’m not going to go in depth about myself. if you really want to know everything, you can look in my post history. for basic references, here are basic things you may need to know. do let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know.

basics
Asian female from CA public HS, large, not very competitive
GPA: 3.95 UW, 4.1 W, 4.33 UC W (junior semester 2 has not been finalized yet)
SAT: 750 EBRW, 720 M (1470, retaking in August)
AP scores are not out yet, I took 3 this year (Chinese, US History, Lang). school only allows 3 AP/Honors per year, and you get only get more by requesting (which i did)
no class rank but definitely within top 15% per UC ELC.

ECs:
QuestBridge College Prep Scholar
Los Condecorados - highest honor for juniors at my school
Gold Key - Scholastic Art and Essay Contest
Honorable Mention - Scholastic Art and Essay Contest
volunteered as a student worker during this past election cycle
will be delegate at CA Girls’ State this summer
Speech and Debate, probably will get event captain and JV chair next year. our team is within the top 50 in the nation if that counts for anything.
Red Cross - Art Chair
Key Club - running for Art Chair, probably will get it
Link Crew
Newspaper - will be News Editor next year
AP Ambassadors - tutoring basically, Publicity Co-Chair
FARMS - student run org to help local families with food, English Outreach Coordinator
applied for Pioneer Academics, results should be out soon
applied for LA Times HS insider summer internship. long shot but hoping for the best.

if it helps, I am a strong writer.

what i want in a college/stuff about my list

  • i’m aware my list is VERY reachy but most of it is hopefully through QuestBridge NCM.
  • I am low income (hence QB). i don’t know my family’s exact finances but last I checked, my EFC was around 2k? it’s very low regardless, and I just need major aid. I’d love to be loan free but that’s unrealistic.
  • I plan to be a poli sci / international relations major and I also plan to pursue a career in journalism but I am NOT looking for a journalism major.
  • i like medium to larger schools in a suburban / urban environment, college towns are nice too, overall preferably a short commute to a city.
  • mainly looking to get away from socal with some exceptions, NorCal or the East Coast would be ideal.
  • i don’t like too dominant Greek life.
  • a little undecided about core curriculums. i’m not quite sure if I like open curriculums but tbh i’d rather have a larger core rather than no core at all, it’d be a chance to expand my horizons while having structure which I think i need.
  • in a school, my most important factors are location + setting, accepting environment, and places where I can get aid, either need based or merit it welcome. FGLI / POC / LGBTQ support would also be preferable, study abroad programs and also things to do in/out of campus, i don’t want to be bored.
  • not quite sure about LACs because of “prestige brainrot” but i’m willing to consider them especially because of QB.
  • i don’t particularly like religiously affiliated colleges, even if it is barely noticeable.

hopefully this is detailed enough lol, do ask if there’s anything that needs clarification.

my list
through QB match
Stanford
Columbia
iffy on ranking them, but may be ranked if i do more research. definitely applying QB RD if i don’t get matched
UPenn
Swarthmore
Boston University
Princeton
Northwestern
Brown
Rice
UChicago (?? big maybe)
others
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC San Diego (??)
ASU (safety)
UC Riverside (low match, safety maybe with my stats?)

i welcome any and all suggestions, thank you so much everyone !! :]

2

The first schools that came to mind to me for you based on your description was Brown (already on your list) and Reed College in Portland.

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QB-wise, if you’re trying to stick to universities vs. LAC’s, definitely check out Tufts and Wesleyan, which are both terrific for your interests and very liberal and LGBTQ+ friendly. This program at Wesleyan might appeal: College of Social Studies - Wesleyan University The QB Match deal is unbeatable financially, so try to find 12 schools you’re comfortable ranking, to maximize your chances.

UMichigan meets need for low-income students; it might be worth running the NPC to see how your out-of-pocket would compare with the UC’s.

Have you considered the ILR school at Cornell? It’s a little easier admit than A&S, and they are particularly interested in recruiting a diverse class, economically and in other ways. The interdisciplinary program can be focused according to your interests, with an IR minor and study abroad as options.

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Tufts financial aid isn’t as good as some of the other schools on the list. Brown’s aid isn’t the same as some of the other Ivies either.

I would consider Amherst, which has an open curriculum and good financial aid. It is in the same area as UMass, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and Hampshire and the “Five College Consortium” allows for cross-registration. Smith might be a possibility too.

5

Gradations in financial aid generosity aren’t important when choosing and ranking schools for Questbridge - if you Match, the aid will be determined by Questbridge and not by the school’s formula.

In terms of deciding where to apply outside of QB (or though QB in the post-match cycle), OP should run the NPC’s for all schools, with their specific financial info, and proceed accordingly.

I agree that consortium schools are a good best-of-both-worlds solution to the perceived downsides of LAC’s. In OP’s case, we’ve discussed on another thread, and parents are strongly anti-LAC, so that is a barrier. (Although, a QB full ride is a pretty powerful incentive, which is why I suggested making sure to rank 12 schools even if that means including a few carefully-chosen LAC’s.)

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i actually haven’t heard much about Reed College, what is it like?

7

hello there ! just looked into the CSS program at Wesleyan and it seems very interesting. still a little iffy on the core and it seems very econ heavy which i’m not sure i’m into. but i’ve yet to take econ in high school so we shall see.

as for tufts, ive heard that tufts aid is not the best in RD but i’m willing to consider it because i like the location and i’ve heard great things about it.

i am a little iffy on UMich location and i’m OOS so idk how that makes my chances.

i actually have not considered the ILR school at Cornell! i got a promo email a few days ago and looked at it briefly. however the program seems to be more focused on labor relations which I am not sure about, I may have to do more research.

[edited for privacy]

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i am looking into amherst but the open curriculum is a big question mark for me. the location seems to be a bit isolated from what I’ve heard aside from the five college consortium? i’d definitely consider it though.

9

The senior year “econ” class at most high schools isn’t really very much like taking econ in college - probably not a good way to gauge whether you’ll like the subject at a college level. Wesleyan also has a Government (a.k.a poli sci) major and in IR minor, so the CSS program isn’t the only way to study those things, but it’s a nice option. And really, to have a strong grasp of the driving forces behind international relations, it’s important to have a grasp of economic theory.

I didn’t mean that the aid money comes from Questbridge, just that the QB Match aid packages are standardized by agreement with QB and are more generous than the normal aid outside of QB. (I remember in particular, a student applied through QB, did not match, and subsequently got into USC as a regular decision QB applicant. The aid was a lot worse than the QB Match package and he could not afford to consider it.)

You can see what the QB Match aid package for each school looks like on the website. For example, this is Tufts’: QuestBridge | College Partners | Tufts University | Financial Aid

Reed is often compared to Swarthmore in terms of intellectual intensity. It is very liberal and known for having a “quirky” vibe. It also tops many lists of schools that produce future PhD’s, in an impressive variety of fields. It’s a wonderful school if it’s a fit, but it’s important to get a sense of whether it’s for you or not.

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oh, I understand. regardless, right now I still don’t quite like econ even though it is very closely related to poli sci/gov. i think it will take more exploration on my part.

yeah, this is what I meant lol. i don’t like USC anyways – the vibe doesn’t fit me and I heard fin aid is not good for FGLI students.

i think it’d be a great school, I love swarthmore but not quite sure on Reed’s location – pacific northwest if i’m not mistaken. that’d also be a great option and looks like a match? in terms of stats

11

You may want to get your parents together in front of the net price calculators to the colleges on your list and run them to get an idea of what financial aid may look like.

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yes, of course. hopefully you understand that with LI families esp Asian families, income and money in general is a taboo-ish topic. I’ve gotten my mom to cite some numbers but she doesn’t know all that much about it. i will definitely ask my dad about more specific numbers, I know the AGI but not asset numbers so a more accurate number will probably change things.

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If it is too taboo to talk about, perhaps you can ask them to run the net price calculators on each college and give you a yes or no answer about affordability (without loans other than the $5,500 direct loan you can take).

Lots of parents do not like to talk about money with their kids, but the result is sometimes a nasty surprise in April when all admission offers are too expensive. It can be even worse when the parents are divorced and the kid is interested in a college that wants both parents’ finances.

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i think with college apps rolling around, my parents will eventually have no choice but to let me know these numbers so the taboo should be loosening a bit on multiple fronts. luckily my parents are not divorced so at least that makes finances a lot more manageable. by the end of the summer i will definitely have the results of the NPCs.

15

@Gumbymom wanted to ask you about the UCs. are there any things that I should keep in mind? is my classification of UCR as a low match/safety accurate?

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Recalculate your HS GPA with GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . Use the weighted capped version for the table below.

Fall 2020 admission rates by campus and HS GPA range from Freshman fall admissions summary | University of California :

Campus 4.20+ 3.80-4.19 3.40-3.79 3.00-3.39
Berkeley 37% 14% 2% 1%
Davis 86% 55% 16% 7%
Irvine 60% 38% 9% 1%
Los Angeles 38% 8% 1% 1%
Merced 98% 97% 95% 88%
Riverside 97% 90% 65% 30%
San Diego 78% 39% 8% 1%
Santa Barbara 81% 40% 9% 2%
Santa Cruz 92% 82% 59% 26%

These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).

17

my UC GPA is 4.33 as I’ve indicated in my original post. i have run the RogerHub calculator, and it says 4.33 (yes it is also capped). poli sci, while not a super hot STEM major like engineering or CS, seems to be a popular major so i’m a bit worried. overall i think Davis is a solid target for me, and UCSD has piqued my interest recently and it might also be a good target for me.

18

Reed is a liberal, quirky place — very “Portland” in that sense. There is a huge emphasis on inclusion — no Honors College, no NCAA sports, no Greek system, nothing that separates students into hierarchies. Any student can participate in any club or activity, no experience necessary. There seems to be lots of focus on wellness, mental health resources, and conflict resolution. Clubs include lots of “Reedie” kinds of options, like aerial acrobatics.

Also, although students receive grades that are given to the registrar, grades are not regularly reported to students themselves unless they ask.

Every student completes a thesis their senior year as part of a one-on-one course with each student meeting individually with a faculty member. My sense is that Reed attracts students who are cerebral and often activist-oriented, but not intense or competitive.

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19

I would urge you to put a bit more time and consideration into safeties and matches. Your stats are good, but not incredible. Would you be happy at the safety or low match? You need a safety and a match or two that you’d be perfectly happy to attend.

20

I think you have gauged your chances for the UC’s pretty accurately with UCR as a Highly Likely, UCD as a Target and UCSD as a Low Reach with UCLA/UCB as Reaches but since going test blind, the UC’s have become even more unpredictable so I might add in a few Cal states which includes your local CSU as a safety.

Some of the UC admit information should be out this Fall prior to the application due date but the data quoted by @ucbalumnus (admit % by GPA range) is usually posted in January/February 2022.

Apply widely and best of luck.