I apologize, I accidently hit a few buttons and don’t know what happened and my draft posted blank…
Anyway, I’m a first generation Cuban girl with no idea on where to start looking for colleges. I’ll briefly post my numbers since I don’t have much time.
Academic +Personal:
GPA: 3.97 UW, 4.7 W
ACT: 34 Composite, 34 Reading, 35 Writing, 34 math, 33 writing
Rank: 10/437
Classes: most rigorous course available, with 1 AP freshman year, 3 APs sophomore, 5 APs junior, and 7 senior. Upward trend.
School: Medium, suburban, vocational
N. Texas
Married parents w/ combined incomes of ~80K
Extracurricular:
Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA): regional + state officer {10th - present}
Teen Court: worked my way from juror -->bailiff–>attorney
Salsa Dancing: Picked this up last year, absolutely in love with {11th - present}
NHS: secretary {11th - present}
200+ volunteer hours, mostly in feeding the needy
Letters of Rec will be from teachers that think very very highly of me and I’ve only gotten the common school awards.
I’ll for sure be applying to UT Austin, mainly because of the large campus in the urban center w/ a good study abroad program and strong ranking all on top of the fact I get automatic acceptance. I’m really just looking for merit right now and not focusing on finances just yet. Thank you!!!
Definitely keep UT Austin on the list but also the sky is the limit – dream big and apply to some other places in metro areas that you like, including Ivies and top public and private universities. There are too many that you potentially qualify for to list them all. Why don’t you come up with a “dream list” of universities, and then submit those on CC for specific feedback on your chances and things to consider. You’re a top candidate for so many places!
As for paying for college, options will include universities that meet full need, academic merit scholarships, and scholarships for Hispanic/URM students. Different universities will offer different combinations of these possibilities, so it is something to look for when narrowing your list.
Since you seem to want to get away from N. Texas and you are attracted to large universities in big cities, you can start your list by looking at universities on the larger side and/or in major metro areas. Choose some from the top 50 in rankings, and then choose some from the 50-150 range as safeties.
I was actually curious as to whether or not Cubans were URMs (bc Puerto Ricans are, but I haven’t gotten many answers for us), though I feel as if it’s a safe bet to go with no.
As for dream schools, I’ve considered a few Ivies and am especially attracted to Brown because of its liberal approach to education and Yale due to its environment. Though they’re not my perfect location, I’m willing to compromise more on location and size so long it’s not a rural college and/or a small school.
Other schools I’ve looked into are Duke, Vanderbilt, USC, and Northeastern.
If NE is ok, and you are ok with a smaller LAC, add Vassar to your list- need blind / meets 100% of need, open curriculum similar to Brown. Could see Yale/Brown as live possibilities.
I think it is a safe bet to say that Yes, you do qualify as Hispanic/URM. I would certainly check it off on the applications and mention your Cuban heritage. Colleges may decide for themselves how to handle it, but they won’t know to even consider you for their URM programs if you don’t click the right box.
The 2010 U.S. Census included Cubans as Hispanic, and a College Board report on college admissions included Cubans as Hispanic. It is not a matter of race, but rather that your heritage is from a Spanish-speaking country.
Even if a college didn’t consider you URM, they might certainly consider you an asset to diversify their student body with yet another perspective, since most universities probably don’t have a lot of students of Cuban heritage. It therefore seems like something to point out on your applications.
Regarding your list, those look like great universities. Since you’re including Northeastern in Boston, I would add Harvard to the list. Also consider some colleges in Philadelphia, NYC and DC as well. If you think you’ll like more of a football/sports school like UT Austin, look at some of the Big Ten universities. A good starting point for some of the best universities are members of AAU: https://www.aau.edu/about/article.aspx?id=5474
In all honesty, I am a bit shocked that you guys are saying I’m possible Ivy material, especially considering the type of people that get in those schools are well as in comparison the the people on this site.
@mommyrocks You’re right on the diversification part, I’ll be sure to mention it when I’m filling out applications.
You should keep Yale and Brown in play, but of course keep expectations low - and work those essays.
Vassar is a low reach, as are Tufts and Bryn Mawr or Barnard or Scripps (in/by big cities). Middlebury and Georgetown for more reachable-than-Ivy reaches, American (check out Douglass scholarship program).
Due to your parents’ income and Hispanic status, you should look into colleges that cover 100% need.
Next: for decent matches, look into Occidental, Macalester, Emory, Dickinson.
It’s going to be hard to beat Austin as a safety.
@MYOS1634 I’m going to sit down with my parents this weekend and determine for sure how we are financially and what that will mean for college. If it works out well with UT, it could very well be the perfect safety. Sure, I’ll try for higher ranked colleges and check out the financial aid that they offer me, see the school and its enviornment, but I wouldn’t be too bummed if I get rejected or they don’t give me enough aid since I really like UT.
Step 1 – find schools on the list that you like (no more than 10-15 or so)
Step 2 – Run the Net Price calculators for those schools to make sure their loans are not too high and the numbers look good. For example, UNC and Notre Dame have pretty high loans.
Step 3 – Pick 8 of your favorites, making sure you are near the 75 percentile on at least 2-3 of them for test scores (which should be easy with a 34 ACT).
Step 4 – Make sure UT Austin is a financial and fit safety for you (run its calculator also). I think you will be surprised to find that it costs MORE than some of your other schools.
Step 5 – Apply and see what happens.
I will add that you could consider trying to apply for a few full rides at some other schools (Villanova has one that includes room and board and a stipend), but I know you will find that at some of these schools, your financial aid will cover your entire tuition AND some of your other expenses so it will be better than a full ride). For example, my guess without running numbers is that Yale will be less than $10k per year.
One more hint on the net price calculator – save your income and other information in the college board account for the first one that uses the college board. Then it will use the same exact tax data for all the others. For the non-college board ones, make sure your data matches.
Private schools will almost certainly be cheaper than OOS publics. I’d also look into the elite scholarship programs like McDermott at UT-Dallas, UA, Kansas, Clemson, Michigan etc… plus OOS publics that provide large merit aid. The deadline for most is Nov 1.
