Help me build my college list, rough idea of chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello!

As a rising senior, college is looming and the search for a list of colleges to apply to has been incredibly stressful and overwhelming. I would very much appreciate insight/suggestions.

Stats:
ACT composite: 29, will be taking again hoping for 30/3. English was 32, Reading 35, but science and math very low. How much do admissions consider each subscore?
SAT: haven’t received scores yet, I feel better about it than the ACT, but we’ll see…
GPA cumulative 3.8 Junior year I got a C in chemistry and a B in precalc which brought me down. This concerns me.
Took AP US History and AP Lang, awaiting Lang scores, anticipating at least a 4
Would be first generation to college, rural town in Colorado, white female.

ECs:
Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper for two years, assistant for one
Young Life junior leader
Frequent volunteer at a local environmental organization
Treasurer of National Honors Society
FBLA member
Treasurer of Interact Club
Varsity tennis three years
Internship with ceo and communications director of a no-nut food company, two years
Part time job

Will have strong letters of rec when the time comes. Writing is my strength so I am hoping to really excel at essays.

My rough list of colleges, aiming to narrow to about six to apply to. Is that a good amount? Should I apply ED at one?

In no particular order, though right now I especially like the looks of Whitman and Midd:

Whitman College
Santa Clara University
Washington and Lee
Bowdoin
Point Loma Nazarene University
Westmont College
Middlebury College
University of Colorado Boulder (I’m in state)
Haverford College
Wake Forest
Davidson
Lewis and Clark
Colorado College

I’m not yet sure what I would like to study, although definitely nothing STEM related. My preference is to attend a liberal arts college. Preferably in a beautiful place with outdoor opportunities, good academics and reputation, good overall feel/community. Good mix of students, not overly conservative. My parents want me to consider a Christian College like Westmont though I’m not sure. Any suggestions of other places to consider welcome!

Thank you so much. This process is new: scary and exhilarating all at once! Any other tips or nuggets of wisdom regarding college search, lists, application, etc also valued.

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@isabee Many of these (W&L, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Haverford, Wake Forest, Davidson, and Colorado College) are going to be real reaches. You’ll need to improve your scores in order to get in. That’s not to say you shouldn’t apply, but you should understand that you’re likely to be rejected from each of them. There’s no shame in that - most students are likely to be rejected from these schools. However, you have plenty of schools on your list that you’re likely to be accepted at too.

If you want to avoid a conservative school, W&L is probably not a great choice. It’s the most conservative of the schools I know on your list. While Haverford has a pretty campus, I’m not sure it has the same outdoor opportunities that Middlebury and Whitman have. If I were you I’d consider Sewanee in addition to the others on your list. Good luck.

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Hi Isabee, you sound like a very intelligent and level headed young woman. Congratulations on a great high school record so far, be sure to keep it up your senior year. Being a first generation college applicant from a rural area might mean that there is little practical help to be had from the adults around you. My son went to a rural high school and his school counselor had never heard of 90% of the schools he applied to. Luckily, he had 2 parents who had gone through the process themselves, but so long ago it seemed like we were living in another world back then, I had to learn everything anew.

Try to find someone in your immediate area (counselor, parent of friend, trusted teacher) who can give you sound advice and walk you, and maybe your parents, through the process. We can help here on CC, but we aren’t as helpful as someone who is accessible face to face when you need them.

Finances are tricky, there is need based aid and merit aid, your family must understand the process and your parents must be on board with a budget and the willingness to fill out a FAFSA and CSS profiles. Talk with them about the finances. Will you need to look for merit aid or do you qualify for need-based aid, some places give you both.

My son applied to 13 schools and had several very good affordable options to choose from in the end. He applied to reaches, matches and safeties. He chose Whitman and had a great experience, it meets most of your criteria and gives both need based aid and merit. If you have any specific questions about Whitman I’ll be happy to try to answer them.

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Thanks for your input, @urbanslaughter It breaks my heart a little to realize my dream schools are very unlikely. I’ll try my best to improve scores this fall and am confident senior year’s grades will be excellent, though I’m not sure how much stock they will hold. Also not sure if it is worth applying to one ED or not. I will probably still apply to a high reach or two like Midd, just for the heck of it to put my worries at ease a bit. I have glanced at Sewanee, just not sure about Tennessee. Would rather be on one of the coasts. Will consider it though. Thanks for the suggestion.

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Hi @bopambo! You’re definitely right: college counseling at my rural school is less than excellent. Our school is starting to send kids to great out of state places, (last year Swarthmore and Smith, one of my good friends to Whitman, another to RISD) but our counselor is still clueless and inaccessable and still only seems to know about CU and CSU. My parents are supportive, but also pretty clueless. It’s sort of the blind leading the blind. My mom does know about FAFSA and CSS and will be helping with all of that. I will be applying for need-based though I’m not sure how much we will qualify for, so merit would be extremely helpful. I will also be applying to several large local scholarships that are looking hopeful.

It’s great to hear that your son enjoyed his time at Whitman! It is certainly one of my top choices, it seems to fit everything I’m looking for and more, to sound very cliche. It seems like Whitman looks at applicants more holistically and places emphasis on essays. Is this true in your experience? I can see myself improving my scores by a few points, but getting much above a 32 on the ACT for me seems pushing it since math is such a struggle. And, of course, there’s not much I can do about my bad junior year except for demonstrate strength in next year’s classes. How was Whitman with aid? Both freshman and the following years? If you don’t mind my asking, what other schools was your son considering and what made him choose Whitman?

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As I understand it, applying ED will give you an edge in applying to a particular school if you are confident that you can pay full price or will receive adequate financial aid to allow you to attend. The idea is that you are committing to attend and will apply to no others. The only way to opt out of an ED acceptance is to not be able to afford to attend because of low financial aid. So really if you love a school A LOT there isn’t a down side to applying ED, except if you aren’t accepted outright, or are accepted without enough aid, then you have to go through the regular decision process with all the other schools anyway.

Yes, apply to Middlebury! Do it ED if you want. Just be ready to hit the regular decision applications full force if you are declined or deferred. Good luck!

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Depending on the results of your other standardized test scores, you might want to consider test optional schools. I believe that Bowdoin is test optional.

For more info, see fairtest.org

If your 3.8 is unweighted, that’s a respectable GPA. However, places like Bowdoin, Wake Forest, Colorado College, and Middlebury are very competitive.

I’m not familiar with all of the places on your list but I think that Lewis & Clark is a real option. You might want to check out U of Puget Sound and Willamette as well.

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“My preference is to attend a liberal arts college. Preferably in a beautiful place with outdoor opportunities, good academics and reputation, good overall feel/community. Good mix of students, not overly conservative.”

isabee, my son’s criteria was very similar to yours. His stats were a touch higher, 3.98 GPA, SAT 2210, He applied to 13 colleges and was accepted to 13 colleges. Bowdoin was his top choice, but they do not give merit aid, only need based aid, and their formula for calculating our need was different than the other need-based schools where he applied. We really never thought that he’d get into his top choice but we wouldn’t be able to afford it. I tell you all this so you know that this process can be unpredictable and has the potential for disappointment. Know that from the beginning, cover all your bases and make sure every school you apply to is one you’d be happy to attend. Aim high and then plan for all contingencies. Luckily he did that. It looks like you have also come up with a list of schools that have a broad range of acceptance rates and financial aid options.

My S eliminated the 6 larger schools he’d applied to because by then he knew that he wanted small, then he eliminated the safeties. The LAC matches he revisited were Colby, Macalester, St Lawrence University and Whitman, they all gave him good merit awards. He chose Whitman and it was his favorite by far: he loved the town, the campus and the energetic accomplished student body. The Outdoor program is awesome and the classes are rigorous.

The student body at Whitman are pretty liberal, but so are the students at a number of the other schools on your list. If your parents want you to go to Westmont College, will they be happy for you to go to less religious school?

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I agree with mamaedefamilia, check out the University of Puget Sound and Willamette. Both are great schools with outdoor programs and good academics. Also possible merit aid.

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@mamaedefamilia Thanks for bringing up test optional! I forgot that Bowdoin is test optional and several others, like Midd and Colorado College are test flexible. This may be a great option, although the transcript would be even more important. Not sure what affect would be. Thanks for the input and college suggestions as well.

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@bopambo Amazing he got into so many places! I also didn’t realize Bowdoin doesn’t offer merit…That is interesting to know. Whitman sounds incredible! Love the comment about the accomplished student body, definitely the sort of atmosphere I am looking for. I recently visited Westmont and Point Loma with a friend, so my parents want me to keep those schools in mind, though they realize there are great options elsewhere too. Those schools were lovely but felt maybe a little too religious and conservative. I think it may be interesting to go somewhere with more diversity.

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isabee, the most selective colleges do not give merit aid because the best students are already applying. They attract the ones they want who cannot attend otherwise by offering grants, and sometimes loans, to those who can’t pay full price. Bowdoin, Middlebury and Haverford don’t offer merit aid, only need-based aid and that is dictated by the financial forms your parents fill out and submit to them. Based on the income and assets your parents list on the FAFSA and the CSS forms and the tax returns the schools require, the school determines how much they think your parents can afford to pay. What they decide your family can afford is sometimes not at all what your parents think is feasible. Different schools have different criteria, for instance some count equity in homes as an available asset, some do not. Whitman does not. Middle class families who have small businesses are often subject to some rather bazaar formulas and penalized for having property or inventory that is not really liquid at all. Each school seems to have their own formulas. Go ahead and apply to these schools, it’s worth a shot. It may go in your favor. There may be more on your list that don’t offer merit aid, but I didn’t stop to look.

Merit aid however is golden, it’s based on YOUR achievements in high school, mostly in academics, but many schools also take into consideration your ECs. To get merit aid you need to step down the selectivity scale a bit, to schools who are trying to attract top students. In the data reported by each school they will show the GPAs and test scores of the middle 50% of accepted students, to receive merit aid a student usually must have a GPA and test scores that fall into the top 25% of accepted students. Low income students with good scores can often get a combination of merit and need-based aid.

Because need-based aid is determined each year by what your parents make and own, the amount of aid can change yearly, up or down, which can make it hard to plan what tuition will cost from year to year. Most merit aid is offered for all four years and stays the same each year, the drawback with that is that most college tuitions go up a bit each year so tuition will go up some each year, unless you are getting a combination of merit and need-based and the need is adjusted yearly.

I know this may be more financial information than you wanted to wrap your head around at this stage of your college search, but believe me, unless your parents can pay full tuition at a selective LAC, it is information you need to know. I’m not trying to scare you, just to encourage you to be practical. Pick some highly selective elite schools, some great schools you consider matches and some really good ones where you’ll have a good shot at merit aid. I personally think you should apply to more than 6, a dozen is a nice even number. Keep your grades up and try to bring up your test scores, you may find that you did better on the SATs, my son did.

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So I’m not sure I can help you that much but I do have one tip for you. My school used a program called Naviance. I think we got out log-ins start of senior year so check with your school and see if they provide it. If not they may be able to help you set one up I don’t know how much it would cost out of pocket. It was extremely helpful for me in my process. The school inputs your GPA, SAT, ACT scores and then you can go look at schools and it will tell you on a grid where you are in terms of getting in. To describe it it was like a big box with green for accepted red for declined and blue/yellow for waitlist and your gpa and sat/act score line up at a point and you see where you fall in all of that. It was very helpful, so check it out. Sorry I can’t help you more but I figured I should tell you about this because it is a great tool.

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@bopambo I appreciate the financial information! It is a bit overwhelming but will definitely play a large role in where I can go. I will also consider applying to more than six, it seems like many students apply to 10 or more. More options are always nice! Hopefully my scores will increase, either ACT or SAT. Thank you so much for all of your advice and input.

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@LCatherineG Thanks for the tip about Naviance! Sounds awesome and I will look into it!

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@isabee I found it super helpful. It certainly gave me an idea for where I would fall and mostly it was correct. I actually got into some schools it said I most likely wouldn’t, but for those that it said I would be accepted it was mostly correct and the same for denied. I’m not sure how they collect the data, but it is becoming very popular for schools so check with yours my guess is that they use it.

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Good luck isabee, it’s an exciting time, and sometimes a stressful one. There are quite a few colleges that meet your criteria, where you can meet wonderful people and get a great education. Naviance is a good tool, unfortunately my son’s school didn’t use it, however, there is something similar you can use for free on a college search site. I can’t supply a link because CC will block it, but enter the url colleges.niche and put a .com on the end. That will take you a terrific site with all sorts of data and reviews on hundreds of colleges. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for each school and they will have a Naviance-like graph showing the GPAs and test scores of the users of the site who applied to that particular school, the ones who were accepted, rejected, waitlisted and even those who decided to attend. The data is provided by the users, so it’s not tied to a particular high school or region, and only reflects those who felt like supplying the information, but it’s very interesting and potentially helpful.

I never answered your question about Whitman being holistic in their admissions. Yes, I do think that while Whitman is very selective, and has gotten more so in recent years, the admissions staff seeks out students who have something to personally bring to the school that will enhance the group. They do look closely at ECs and interviews.