HELP - First generation college student rather confused

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi! I've never posted to this site before so forgive me if my forum etiquette is off. I'd really like some perspective on which schools I might actually get into. My guidance counselor doesn't even know my name and neither of my parents went to college so the only things I know about the application process come from the internet, and the only thing I know about my chances come from anonymous pie charts on College *******.</p>

<p>SAT I: 2230 superscore // 710 CR, 730 M, 790 W - taken twice, taking once more in October
SAT IIs: 800 Physics, 800 US History, 790 Math II</p>

<p>GPA: 94/3.9 - school does not weight
Rank: Top 10%</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: National Honor Society, SAGE (Creative director, national champions, world champion first runners-up), Foreign Language Club, Science Olympiad, Chemistry Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Varsity tennis all three years so far, championship level competitive Irish dance, Symphonic Band (vice-president), school newspaper (layout editor), school literary magazine, Ambassador Girl Scout with gold award, participant in an elite regional film project focusing on urban renaissance
Volunteer/Service: Teaching Irish dance - 300+ hours, Habitat for Humanity - 14 hours, 80 hours for gold award (focused on urban development particularly related to zoning and transportation)</p>

<p>School: Freshman and sophomore years at a small all-girls Catholic school, junior and senior years at a large public high school due to school closing</p>

<p>APs: World History (4), US History, Biology, Psychology, Physics B, Calculus AB (challenging BC exam), Statistics, Language & Composition, US Government & Politics
Honors: Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II/Trig, Precalculus, Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, English 9 through 11, Global I, French 1 through 5</p>

<p>Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Lower middle class
State residency: New York, but parents still own a house in Pennsylvania
Intended Major[s]: Physics, Civil/Environmental Engineering
Intended Minor[s]: Urban studies</p>

<p>I intend to attend graduate school for urban planning & development to build upon my civil engineering degree or specialized physics (probably cosmology) depending on which of my areas of study I gravitate towards.</p>

<p>I'm considering the following schools, though obviously I have more narrowing down to do.</p>

<p>University of Chicago (applying EA)
New York University
Columbia
Cooper Union
Wesleyan
Carnegie Mellon
UCLA
Illinois
University of Pittsburgh Honors College
Rochester Institute of Technology
SUNY Stonybrook
SUNY Buffalo Honors College</p>

<p>My scant knowledge of colleges also has me with little idea where else to look, so if you have any recommendations for my stats and interests that would be wonderful.</p>

<p>Thank you! I will try to chance you back.</p>

2

<p>You’ve got great grades/scores, really nice ECs and you’re a woman interested in field that is still heavily dominated by men…I think you have a great chance in getting into any of the schools you listed. How much of a factor will financial aid be for your family?</p>

3

<p>JB - Unfortunately I’m pretty sure I’m in the spot right between being economically sound enough to pay for school and challenged enough to receive a lot of need-based and government aid. Chicago is particularly attractive to me because of the Odyssey program, which replaces loans (which I’m sure to have a lot of) with grants.</p>

<p>And thank you for your reply!</p>

4

<p>grades/scores/classes seem well within most accepted students for all of the colleges you listed. I think it will go down to how effectively you present yourself in essays for the really competitive (chicago) and probably you are mostly good for the other ones :slight_smile: but your ECs are fantastic although not all focused on what you intend to do in college</p>

<p>Chicago - as much as a reach as it seems to be for everyone good :open_mouth:
NYU - low match
columbia - low reach
Cooper union - don’t know about it
wesleyan - high match
CMU - match
UCLA - high match
Illinois - safety
Pittsburgh - idk sorry!
Rochester - low match
SUNY stony brook - match
SUNY buffalo - idk a lot, but probably comparable to suny stony brook</p>

<p>thanks for chancing earlier!! :D</p>

5

<p>Hello,
Great stats and ECs – you sound like an interesting candidate for many top schools. If your income is around or under $60 K for a family of four you might want to look into Questbridge. It especially serves first generation students (almost three quarters of their finalists). I believe Chicago is one of their partners, not sure, but you will find Columbia and Wesleyan on their list.</p>

<p>Whether or not you are eligible for / decide to apply to / are accepted by QB, consider the following…</p>

<p>You might want to mix a strategy of 1) schools which offer need-based aid and 2) schools which offer merit aid. You should run net price calculators right away not only on Chicago but on ALL schools on your list! This will begin to give you an idea what your situation is. Have your parents’ taxes available for rference as well as an idea of savings and assets. This will also tell you if you should tilt your options more heavily on the need-based side or the merit-based side.</p>

<p>Your scores are really really great, great enough for some top schools, but your list shows that you already realize that you need some safeties. Columbia for example, S and I visited recently – loved it! However, acceptance rates currently run under 10% :(</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

6

<p>Also,
MIT, Purdue, and GTech are all great civil engineering schools, and MIT is also great for physics. Don’t know about the others. You’re stats are better than mine and I got into all of them this year. So look into those! </p>

<p>Purdue and MIT were also exceptional with financial aid. GTech was good but not amazing.</p>

7

<p>Thank you all for replying! Wow, I didn’t think I had the right stats for MIT, that’s really good to know.</p>

<p>Bump</p>

8

<p>It really never hurts to try! And even if you don’t get into MIT, I’m still sure you’ll get into some great schools with those stats! Just to make you feel a bit better:</p>

<p>SAT: 2170
GPA: 3.8
I’m a male, which makes it harder
You have many more ECs then me. I just had Mu Alpha Theta, a regional science fair type thing that I never one, and a computer science competition I went to once near my school</p>

<p>What I understand about MIT is that, after speaking to the admissions people, it’s not so much about stats. Yes, you do need to have fairly high stats to be deemed able to succeed at MIT (which I believe you do have). However, after that point they just want interesting people to add to their interesting school. So shine through those essays and that interview. Show them who you are and I think you’ve got as much a shot as anyone :)</p>

<p>Oh, and lastly, however good your stats are, in the end, college is a crap shoot. So, don’t let this post give you too much confidence. There are still great state schools or other schools that are much easier to get into and that should be applied to just in case! You really can’t/shouldn’t be lazy in this whole process!</p>