D20 will be applying to college this fall and was looking for suggestions and/or confirmations about her potential college choices as an “average excellent” student.
Intended Major: Business (Marketing) or Public Policy/Government; looking for great academics with big school spirit, medium to large student body.
CA resident, caucasian female, no hooks
Income: full pay
Stats:
UGPA 4.0 (on 4.0 scale) straight A’s fr-jr in HS
UC Capped Weighted 4.44
Fully Weighted 4.60+
9 APs, 3 honors classes
AP Exams (APUSH 5, APES 5, AP Lang 4, AP Bio 4, AP Seminar 3)
4 years each of Math, Science w/ labs, English, History, 3 years FL, 1 year visual art
DE classes: Physics (UCLA); Media/Marketing (UCSD)
ACT 32 C (will take one more time in Sept. for possible 33+?)
Activities/Leaderships/Awards:
2 years student government with leaderships position
3 years Varsity athlete
Academic Decathlon team member
Public Policy advocacy last 3 years in Washington D.C.
Volunteer at advertising agency
AP Scholar with Distinction
H.S. STEM Award
Scholar Athlete (3 years)
100 hours community service
Part-time job
Initial College List:
High Reach:
Duke (ED)
Vanderbilt (EA)
UCLA
UCB
USC
UNC-CH
Reach:
Tulane (EA)
UCD
UCSB
UCSD
UCI
Match:
UW Seattle - Possible Direct Admit to Foster School of Business?
Cal Poly SLO
Low Match/Safety
Indiana (Bloomington) - Direct Admit to Kelley School of Business?
SDSU
CSULB
Your DD looking good , IMO. I’m no expert, in fact quite the novice on California state schools , but you have a good range covered. I can tell you that I dislike using any California state school as a safety for the simple reason that you don’t hear from them till the process is ended. I like to nail down the safeties early and then feel like anyone can reach for the stars once that is secured.
I don’t look at Kelley as a safety, but it can become one as any school can become with a rolling or early accept. If you feel sure enough of it in this regard, as well as the two Cal States, then fine.
My D19 was attracted to University of Georgia’s College of Public Policy. She was admitted OOS (not attending) with lower ACT score than your D, but similar GPA and ECs. https://spia.uga.edu/
UGA certainly meets the “school spirit” criteria! Athens is a great college town, and I believe their business school is respected.
I suppose it would be a match/low match. She has a great list already.
@Gumbymom will know the California schools much better than I (we live in the opposite corner of the country). However, I think that some of the UC’s that you have listed under “reaches” are really “matches”. This is good, because California has a really good in-state public system and your D’s stats are very good.
Duke saw a 19% spike in ED applications last year making it the most competitive year ever for ED. Not sure if spending you ED on Duke is best use without some kind of hook. They did fill 51% of their class w ED though. So if it’s her “dream” school go for it. UNC-CH only takes about 18% OOS making it very competitive. You do have a range of CA schools on your list which is good. I do think you need a couple true safeties though. With her stats there are schools where she’d be an auto-admit. If she can bump her ACT to a 33 or 34 that should help with high reach schools.
I understand your point about Kelley but when I look at D20’s stats and our Naviance, no one has been rejected at her high school in her range:
Per IU College Website:
"Admissions Criteria
If you are admitted to IU, you will become a Direct Admit to the Bloomington Kelley School of Business for fall 2020 if you met all criteria below and have a completed IU application (with all application materials submitted) by November 1:
Indicated one of Kelley’s business majors as your intended major.
Earned the required test score*:
a composite ACT score of 30, or
an SAT score of 1370 (Evidence-Based Reading & Writing and Math).
Earned a cumulative GPA of 3.8 on a 4.0 scale in high school. We will use the highest GPA that is sent to IU Admissions from your official high school transcript. In most cases this is the weighted GPA."
Will look into Lehigh, just my general feel is that it’s more conservative than most of the colleges on the above list and has a party culture?
Good luck your daughter. I don’t think USC is a high reach, and UCD may be more of a match depending on what program she’s trying to get direct admit to. Actually, program direct-admit can greatly change any of the UCs placement on your list. I would not consider UWA a match coming from OOS, especially trying direct-admit to an impacted program (if Foster is impacted?) CalPoly doesn’t seem like a good fit for her interests. My DD21 has similar “average excellent” stats and we sure have heard stories of UC rejections from friends over the past two years. Good your daughter is considering out of state options and not relying on UC.
She will get admitted to more than one UC so to label them all as reaches is ridiculous. I mean isn’t she guaranteed a UC being in the top 9%? We’re making this seem impossible for a student to get in anywhere.
I think general acceptance to UW is a Match as her ACT and GPA is 75th percentile. Direct admit to Foster might be Reach with her 32 ACT is Meidan for direct admit but 4.0 GPA is above average admit (3.91 which might be weighted?). UW also considers freshman grades and she has 4.0 that year as well.
If she gets direct admit to Foster we would be ok with full pay and she could possibly get some $$ for the Purple & Gold OOS scholarship of 6-8k a year to make it a little more affordable? If she isn’t direct admit for business we will likely pass on this college if she has better options?
Thanks and I agree some of the UCs might be Matches but it’s getting more and more difficult every year especially since she is only applying to 6 UC’s and has no interest in UCM, UCR, or UCSC.
Socaldad2002: Guaranteed general admission to a UC. For many students this means Merced. Direct admit to impacted programs at a “choice” UC is getting ridiculously difficult. That said she has a good chance at one of her five.
We know many kids from our private high school who have gone to Vanderbilt. That school would seem to tick off the boxes for your daughter and is a more realistic admit than Duke.
Standardized testing and APs frankly look a little weak compared to what we have seen, but full pay is definitely favored at Vanderbilt. I don’t think they offer an EA program, but they do have ED2, so perhaps if her heart is really set on Duke, use ED at Duke and ED2 at Vanderbilt if she is rejected.
Indiana resident here – Kelley School should be safety, as long as any essays are credible. It’s possible that IU has changed its procedures in the past few years, but in our area, kids try to complete their IU app in September to get a decision within a month so they can sit back and decide where else to apply.
Vanderbilt strongly asserts they are need blind in admissions. Though there may be, and likely are exceptions for international, possibly transfer and wait listed students, I think straight up Undergrad applicants will be assessed on a need blind basis.
I’ve heard the party reputation about Lehigh but we found the students to be down to earth and focused. My D really liked it. They have a strong business and entrepreneurship program. Not sure about its conservative leanings. We didn’t feel it during our visits but they were only visits.
If you are willing to pay for them, some of the other Big Ten schools have really good B Schools they certainly have the big school spirit. Examples would be Ohio State (match), Wisconsin ( high match) and Michigan (reach). Miami University could be an interesting safety. She would likely get some good merit.
I can cite UC admit data and average stats which can give you an idea of the chances but it can be very major dependent. Her GPA is very competitive but the maximum UC capped weighted is 4.40 (assuming 4.44 is a typo and I am just being picky here). ACT is within range for the top schools and above the averages for the Mid-tier UC’s.
Many of the UC’s do not have Business schools especially Marketing. I would probably add UC Riverside as a Low Match/Safety which has an accredited Business school if she leaning more towards that area of interest.
How I would rank the CA schools:
UCLA/UCB/USC- Reach but not High Reach
UCSD- Low Reach/High Match
UCI/UCD/SLO/UCSB: Match
SDSU/CSULB- Safety
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 37%
UCLA: 41%
UCSD: 70%
UCSB: 80%
UCD: 89%
UCI: 75%
25th - 75th percentiles for ACT composite + language arts
UCB: 28-35
UCLA: 29-35
UCSD: 26-34
UCSB: 26-34
UCD: 24-33
UCI: 24-34