Help finding safety schools? Please and thank you!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi! I am applying for universities in the fall, but I feel as if I am applying to too many Reach/Match schools. </p>

<p>I am a Korean female from Los Angeles, California.</p>

<p>Family background: My older sister is 19 years old and suffers from alternating hemiplegia. My mom stays home and spends most of her time taking care of my sister. My dad is the one who goes out and makes money, but he had to leave his job and remained unemployed for half a year until he got a new job about a month ago ^^</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2080 (660 CR, 650 M, 770 W) i WILL retake it in October so I hope I get 2250-2300
SAT 2: 710 USH, 710 Math II (might retake), 680 Chem, 680 Bio
ACT: Got 28 on a practice test, idk if that's good or not
APs: Bio (4), Chem (4), Calc AB (4), USH (5)
GPA: 3.81 unweighted, 4.1 weighted
I got straight A's first semester, 5 Bs and 1 A 1st semester 10th grade, 5As and 1 B (AP Bio) in 2nd semester 10th grade, 5 As and I B (AP Chem) 1st semester 11th grade, straight As in 2nd semester of 11th grade
I took as many honors and AP classes as I could, but because of the high school program I am in, I am limited in the number of AP classes I can take.</p>

<p>Expected Senior Fall schedule
AP Calc BC
AP Physics B
AP Spanish
AP Lit
Senior Board
Honors Art History
Honors Economics/Honors Principles of American Democracy</p>

<p>Volunteer:
-Leader/sidewalker at Ride On (28+ hours) (An organization to teach children and adults with mental and physical abilities how to ride horses and to provide therapy to improve medical conditions using the horse's movement)
-Volunteer at a hospital and shadowed doctors and nurses (150+ hours)
-Knitting teacher and arts and crafts teacher at PALS (sponsored by LAPD), which provides enrichment programs for young children and aims to prevent crime and stop gangs (50+ hours)
-volunteer at a cat shelter (8 hours)
-volunteered at a Buddhist temple once for a super important annual ceremony (it was on the news hehehe)
-volunteered at my old middle school to help teachers and staff members (10 hours)
-Heal the Bay (3 or 4 hours)
-Tree People (3 or 4 hours)</p>

<p>Leadership:
-Art Director of Sophomore Council, Junior Council, and Senior Board (acceptance into Senior Board required two intense interviews and an officer position required a resume/portfolio)
-Treasurer, main programmer, and co-founder of the Robotics Club</p>

<p>ECs/Clubs:
-Robotics Club (2 yrs)
-Give and Take Book Club (3 yrs, provides supplementary studying books to students who do not have access to them otherwise)
-Red Cross Club (2 yrs)
-Nerdfighter/DFTBA Club (2 yrs)
-Knights and Ladies (a really prestigious service organization at my high school that requires an intense interview)
-CSUN Youth Orchestra (8 yrs)
-Church Youth Group (4 yrs)
-California Scholarship Federation member (4 years)</p>

<p>Awards:
-Certificate of Merit for Violin (Adv. Level)
-Certificate of Merit for Piano (Level 6)
-AP Scholar with Honor
-Certificate of Recognition for scoring Adv. Level in Eng./Lang Arts for Two Consecutive Years on the CST
-Certificate of Recognition for scoring Adv Level in Math for Two Consecutive Years on CST
-2nd Place in League Finals for Varsity Golf
-MIDDLE SCHOOL Awards: Highest Honor Award for World Vision Korean School 2010, 3rd Place in Violin Competition at Southwestern Youth Music Festival</p>

<p>Other: Adept at programming in HTML, CSS, and RobotC++, can speak Korean, Spanish, and English</p>

<p>A list of schools I'm thinking of applying to
I think most of these are reach schools, but I have no idea :/ Could you guys help me out? </p>

<p>Brown BA/MD
Johns Hopkins University
Williams College
Amherst College
Swarthmore College
Vassar College
Haverford College (?)
UCLA
Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>I want to go to a really good, preferable small college with amazing financial aid. I'm leaning more towards liberal arts colleges. I want to go to medical school after college, so I would like to go to a school that would prepare me well and allow me to have better chances of getting into med school.</p>

2

<p>If UCs are affordable on need-based aid (check their net price calculators), then you may want to add some of the less selective ones as safeties.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-19.html#post16145676&lt;/a&gt; for safety ideas.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships-4.html#post16224918&lt;/a&gt; for more non-safety ideas.</p>

<p>Have you run the net price calculators on your list of schools to see if they are affordable on need-based aid?</p>

<p>Truman State is a public LAC in Missouri. Out of state list price is about $26,000 per year, but it will have an automatic $8,000 per year scholarship for your stats, leaving a net price of $18,000 per year. Since you do not mention what your actual price limit is, it may or may not be affordable.</p>

3

<p>My counselor said that I should only apply to one UC (I’m thinking about UCLA) because I don’t really want to go to a big school. :P</p>

4

<p>UCLA is the biggest UC at over 27,000 undergraduates, so why UCLA if you do not want a big school?</p>

<p>Of the UCs, Merced is the smallest at about 5,000 undergraduates, and Santa Cruz is the next smallest at about 16,000 undergraduates. Santa Barbara and Riverside are the two others that have under 20,000 undergraduates.</p>

<p>If large size is a deal breaker, I don’t see why you want to apply to UCLA at all. If large size is merely less desirable but still acceptable, reconsider adding less selective UCs as safeties.</p>

5

<p>You have a lot of reaches on your list, especially with your current SAT score. You probably need more matches. Also, be sure you attend a college where you can keep your grades high enough for med school admission – grades and MCAT scores are very important. You also want to minimize your debt, as you likely would take on a lot more debt in medical school. </p>

<p>Your dad’s period of unemployment could complicate your financial aid picture, too. His income will likely be pretty low this year, since he didn’t work for half the year. And this year (2013) will be the year your FA for next year is based on. But next year his income should be about double, and your need based FA will likely go down. You might want to run the net price calculators on the school websites with both scenarios just to have an idea of what might happen for years 2 through 4 to your FA.</p>

6

<p>You’ve got some good reaches, but you need some low matches/safeties. You should consider some of the CSU’s - Cal Poly, San Diego State, Fresno State. Cal Poly more of match, but the others will be safeties, and more affordable than UC’s.</p>

7

<p>Does this mean that none of these schools would be my matches? I’ve been told that Vassar, UCLA, and Carnegie Mellon are my matches, but now I’m starting to feel as if those schools are my reaches too :frowning:
how many safety, match, and reach schools should I apply to?</p>

8

<p>You should have at least one safety that you know you will get into, you know you can afford, and you will like. Many recommend more than one in case you mis-estimate how safe the safety is, or so that you have some choice later if your preferences chance and you only get into your safeties.</p>

<p>Beyond that, you can have any number of other schools in any of the categories.</p>

9

<p>First of all, what California guidance counselor would encourage someone to only apply to one UC which accepts around 20% of applicants? That’s totally irresponsible on her part and she should know better, particularly if she’s advising low income students. Apply to a few more UCs that are not as competitive to get into. </p>

<p>As a low income female interested in medical school, you should check out Oxford College of Emory which gives very good financial aid for lower income students. It’s a small school affiliated with the much larger Emory University, a research powerhouse, particularly in the biological sciences. It’s also one of the most diverse LACs in the country, and has an extremely active Korean/Korean American association. If you can get your scores up to your targets, I’d encourage you to apply to its merit scholarship program [Oxford</a> College - Oxford Scholars](<a href=“http://oxford.emory.edu/admission/application-requirements/oxford-scholars.dot]Oxford”>http://oxford.emory.edu/admission/application-requirements/oxford-scholars.dot)</p>

<p>Other schools you might be interested in include Rhodes College, Grinell, Occidental, Bryn Mawr (less competitive than Haverford), Smith, and Carleton. None of them are safeties although Rhodes, Bryn Mawr, and Smith are at least matches.</p>

10

<p>out of curiosity, is there a reason why you’re not considering the claremont colleges (Pomona, Pitzer, CMC, Scripps, Mudd)? </p>

<p>And if you need financial aid, you’re probably low income, so why not look into a process like QuestBridge? (Of which 6 schools on your list are partner colleges)</p>

<p>I’d second the CalStates as safeties. I’d also recommend Thomas Aquinas College (known for being a good value) and Mills College. Mills has a NPC calculator: <a href=“Net Price Calculator”>Net Price Calculator;

11

<p>TAC is not a good school for someone who’s not intensely Catholic or premed.</p>

12

<p>My counselor told me that claremont colleges aren’t good with financial aid or something along those lines ._.</p>

13

<p>What? If that’s true, then you shouldn’t listen to your counselor’s advice about colleges. Pomona is among the most generous schools in the country in terms of financial aid and most of the other Claremonts are also excellent in that regard.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, that is definitely not true at all…</p>

<p>Pomona is one of the few colleges in the country that meets full demonstrated need, is need-blind, and also does not package loans for all admitted students [including internationals]. It has annually made the list of Princeton Review’s Top 10 Best Value Private Values, has been named best or 2nd best value liberal arts by Kiplinger nearly every year (competing with Swarthmore), and made the list of 20 schools in the country whose graduates have the least debt (the other elites on that list were Williams, Yale, and Princeton; most were non-flagship state schools).</p>

<p>All of the other Claremonts meet 100% of need for admitted students. CMC and Mudd are also need blind. Loans tend to be capped at 3-3.5K each year for these schools. </p>

<p>Here are the Financial Aid Scores from the Princeton Review:</p>

<p>Pitzer- 98
Scripps- 98
Mudd- 96
CMC- 99
Pomona- 99</p>

15

<p>All the Claremonts are unfortunately reachy (though Scripps may be more of a match)…I don’t know what’s so bad about adding more reaches though. They are all excellent schools, and their unique system gives them the paradoxical nature of both an intimate liberal arts experience and mid-sized university. Your app fees will be covered most likely as you are low income. Pomona doesn’t require css from those making below 40K, and if sending testing poses a problem just contact the FA office; they tend to be good about that stuff. </p>

<p>Pomona and Scripps are also QuestBridge schools, so if that process interests you [free apps to some of the nation’s top 35 universities and LACs], they might be worth looking at. The testing standards are lower for QuestBridge, and around 50% of students who become finalists [with your credentials it is very likely] get into a partner school with excellent financial aid. There are 14 other liberal art colleges beside Pomona and Scripps; all among the best of the best. The income cutoff tends to be 60,000$ or less. The application is free.</p>

16

<p>Your counselor isn’t giving you the best advice…no surprise, many GC’s do a horrible job at advising.</p>

<p>Since you need a lot of aid and it sounds like you’d qualify, you need to apply to MORE UCs…even if they’re large, altho Merced is small.</p>

<p>You have a lot of high reaches on your list based on your current stats. You need to be practical and include more schools that will more likely accept you - just in case…like the lower tier UCs. </p>

<p>The claremont schools are good with aid…another example that your GC is clueless. ignore that person.</p>

<p>Your dad’s income will be lower this year, but what will it be when he works a full calendar year?</p>

<p>Maybe some here can recommend some midwest LACs that would want more Asian students. Try Depauw…it gives good aid.</p>

17

<p>Korean from LA - are you a permanent resident or would you be considered an international student. </p>

<p>I think your GC is doing ok. I think Vassar and CMU are matches. You could add Brandeis and Rochester as matches too. </p>

<p>Boston College has EA, it’s a safety if you get in. If you don’t you can find another safety. </p>

<p>Scripps is very very likely so is Mills.</p>

18

<p>The Claremont schools tend to give very good financial aid–I know that CMC and Pomona guarantee to meet full need. However, Pomona gives zero merit and CMC very little and only to the very top picks. Some of the others might have some hefty scholarships. My friend sent two daughter to Pritzer on very nice scholarships–they did not qualify for financial aid, so merit was the only way they were going to get any money for college. </p>

<p>What’s important is how much the schools are going to expect your family to pay, both in an off year and when your parents are up to speed in earnings. Be aware that you can get a nice aid package when your parents are unemployed and just not making the money, but when they start earning more income, the schools are going to want a big hunk fo that. You have to apply for fin aid each year, and you get the same/similar aid package only if the financial situation is the same. The package is not guaranteed for 4 years.</p>

19

<p>Right now you don’t have any matches on your list. I agree with other posters re: UCLA; if you don’t want a big school, it is absolutely the wrong place for you to go.</p>

<p>Definitely apply to some CSUs as safeties. (And by the way, Cal Poly is no longer a safety, but I think it is a match for your stats). </p>

<p>Do you want to confine your search to California? There are many excellent, smaller schools out there that are generous with financial aid. As others suggested, Pomona is a gem. You might check out the pre med program at Chapman University, too.</p>