Hello, I am a Californian Junior in need of some help. I am a white female, with a 35 ACT, 4.0 UW GPA, and computer-science related extracurriculars. I wouldn’t want to go to a tech-dominated school, though. What are some good safety schools for me? Here’s what I have so far.
Reaches: All Ivies, Stanford.
Other schools I’m interested in: Duke, Georgetown, John Hopkins, Pepperdine, Rice, U Chicago.
Any suggestions?
Note: I don’t like the UCs or the Claremont Colleges.
What is your financial situation? What priority do you have besides prestige? Right now you don’t even have any matches. Pepperdine might be a safety if you can afford it (and want a religious college).
What’s wrong with the uc’s? I’d advise to apply to one (not cal/UCLA) as a financial safety.
What are your stats?
@intparent @debate4ever @TomSrOfBoston My family has an EFC of 0 (very low income). I would want a more competitive college though, I wouldn’t want to be the smartest person in all of my classes, not to sound arrogant. I just don’t like the UCs, I know too many people who have gone to them.
Having an EFC of 0 does not mean you will get enough FA to attend.
What are your stats, no one can help you without that?
4.0 UW, 4.8 W
rank 1/700ish in large competitive public high school
Schedule: all Honors and AP classes, total of 16 AP classes including senior year
35 ACT(36 E, 35 M, 34 R, 33 S)
SAT II: 800 WH, 780 Math 2
AP World (5), AP Physics (4)
Awards: only a few from my high school, Questbridge College Prep Scholar
I want to keep my ECs private, but I’m president of 2 clubs at my school and treasurer of 1, have had 3 serious software internships, around 350 total volunteer hours in community things, and this year I’ll be attending a Stanford Summer Program on a full scholarship
Also, I’m a Protestant Christian but I don’t mind diversity.
@TomSrOfBoston I’m sorry about the lack of info, I’m new to CC so I don’t really know how this thing goes haha.
I forgot to say that I will be a first generation college student.
Are you a National Merit Semifinalist? Try looking at some Midwestern or southern state universities. With your stats you might be able to find some good merit aid. And there’s no need to be arrogant, I highly doubt that you are the singularly smartest student in CA. You are a good student, obviously, but smart people are everywhere. Try not to look down on others so much.
Do you have a probable major? CS? Engineering? (does the school need to have an engineering school?).
Your reach schools are mostly (all? I’m not sure)… medium-large universities. Is that kind of what you’d be looking at in a safety?
You should check the net price calculator at each school to see if it will actually offer reasonable financial aid. A net price of ~$5,000 can be self-funded with a federal direct loan or a reasonable expected amount of work earnings; a net price of around double that would be a stretch budget needing both a federal direct loan and work earnings.
That does sound arrogant.
It also means that no school could possibly be an admission safety that you like, since you have basically defined a safety as being automatically undesirable to you.
UCs are large enough that you need not encounter the people you know who also go there. Also, UCs and CSUs tend to have reasonable financial aid for those with FAFSA EFC = $0.
You wouldn’t be the smartest person in all or even most of your classes if you attend many of the UCs or any Tier 1 school. What do you mean by “not likely UCs because you’ve known too many people who went to them”??? Why is that a negative?
Choosing all the ivies to apply to just shows that you know nothing about them except that they belong to the same athletic league. They are each very different, and someone who loves A probably won’t like B.
In fact, you’ve essentially listed most of the elite schools, as if they’re all the same, just with different locations.
Do you have a non-custodial parent? If so, will he/she fill out the aid forms? NCP info will be required at those schools you have listed.
What is your major and career goal?
A safety MUST be affordable, and most safety-level schools do not give great aid…so in your case, they wouldn’t be safeties for you.
Are you a likely NMSF? What did you get on the PSAT
You need to apply to matches (universities with 30-45%admit rate - national LACs will have a stronger student body for that acceptance rate due to self selecting student bodies).
Don’t apply to random universities just because you’ve heard the name somewhere - a common mistake for first generation students. Get a Fiske guide and a Princeton review’s best colleges guide and start reading, putting post-it’s next to the universities you like. (then report back to your thread so we can help you make sense of them).
Also look into honors colleges at public universities (Regents or honors at UC’s, especially ccs at ucsb and chp at uci + Chico honors). See what full rides you may qualify for if you’re nmsf.
Not applying to Harvey Mudd and Olin seems too bad. Include cal poly slo and UC’s - look into CcS at ucsb. Even if you don’t intend to go, you don’t want to risk a shut out.
Peppermint is a odd one out. I wouldn’t include it unless you’re serious about growing in your faith and that’s a priority over tech for you.
Here’s a list of colleges that claim to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2015/09/14/colleges-that-report-meeting-full-financial-need
Stanford and all the Ivies are listed, but so are many others that are a bit less selective.
USC, Tufts, or some of the LACs might be appropriate high match choices. However, even these schools are liable to reject some students with very high stats (or else fail to offer quite enough aid). So you may need to compromise on something to find good, affordable admission+financial safeties. I suggest you re-consider some of the UCs or CSUs, or else look at schools that guarantee big merit scholarships for students with your stats.
California residents who get shut out do have a good low cost option of starting at a community college and then transferring to a UC or CSU as a junior.
However, the OP needs to get over the idea that any possible admission safety is undesirable because s/he “wouldn’t want to be the smartest person in all of my classes, not to sound arrogant.”
Apply to Mudd. I 100% guarantee you that you won’t be the smartest person in your class. Except that you don’t need another reach, which it is – but it is actually a far better CS school than probably any Ivy.