So, I am going to be a senior next year. Hoping to go to college. Only visited 1 college so far.
Please help me.
I am a male Cambodian-American (Asian), first generation
I live in Connecticut, and would parents would like me to stay in the northeast, BUT WOULD NOT MIND going to California or Flordia or a major urban area if the price is comparable.
Would be a biology major (pre-med) or International Affairs major.
Have a 3.7 UW GPA
Top 10 in class of small suburban high school
1400 SAT
Did a couple dual-enrollment classes at community college junior year, 1 AP class junior year, 3 more next year senior year.
Places with good aid would be nice
Extracurriculars are mostly multiple ensemble/band groups, robotics, and a cultural performer for Cambodian community.
Currently, I am looking at:
University of Connecticut
Boston College
Boston University
University of Southern California
Not exactly sure what your question is but this is how I’d start a college search.
–Talk to your parents about any limitations on your college search (ex. financial, geographic, anything else).
–Talk to your guidance counselor to develop a list. If your HS has Naviance that is a valuable tool.
–Get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) which can often be found in the guidance dept. or a library and start reading about schools in your academic range.
–Try to visit a some different types of schools.
–Consider what you want in a college. Anything you care about is fair game. A few ideas of questions to ask yourself are: What size school do you like? Do you want Greek Life? Do you care about big time sports? What type of location (not just geographic, but also rural/urban/suburban) do you prefer? What do you want to study?
USC is a reach imo, so you can improve your SAT score and/or participate in more ECs. The essays can increase your chance too, depending on your topics and writing skills
Run the NPC on universities that you are interested in. Make sure that your parents are okay with the result.
U.Conn is a very good choice. You look like a pretty solid match for it. I have no idea whether it has international affairs, but from the little that I have seen or heard premed looks solid there.
University of Hartford might be a safety, although I personally would go to U.Conn first and I suspect that you probably will get into U.Conn.
You might want to also look at UMass (either Amherst or Lowell).
UVM (Vermont) is another possibility with a very good premed program. You might have a good shot at a presidential scholarship there, which pays only part of the cost but at least helps a bit. Burlington is a great little city.
I think that the other three on your list are reaches (as is Tufts which is mentioned above).
Every college has a net price calculator (NPC) on their website that gives you an idea of what you might pay. Work with your parents to run those on each college you look at.
