Help Narrow Down my College List!

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, thanks for taking the time to read this! As you can see y list is way too long! I appreciate any advice.

Academics:
4.826 Weighted,
3.7593 Unweighted GPA
32 ACT (34M/33S/30E/32R) Writing 10
1420 SAT (790 Math/630RW) (writing total 4/3/4) yea very unbalanced lol!
Math II 800, Chem 710
(Other Subject test : Spanish 700, physics 650)
6 AP tests – three 3’s (CS, WH, Lit), one 4 (Physic 1), three 5’s (Chem, Stats, Calc BC)
Rank: top 3% (34/896)
Junior course load: AP Calc BC, AP Lit, Spanish 4 H, AP Stats, AP Chem, AP Physics 1
Senior course load: AP Lang (will drop second semester), AP Spanish, Independent study Spanish (literature based), AP Bio, APES, AP Gov/Macro, Finite Math (basic discrete math)

Honors/Awards:
AP Scholar with Distinction
Spanish Honor Society
QB College Prep Scholar
QB Match Finalist
National Hispanic Recognition Program
National Spanish Exam - Level 3 Bilingual Gold
National Spanish Exam - Level 2 Bilingual Bronze
Most Improved in Calc 3 at MITES

Summer :
Before 9 and 10 : Summer school (getting ahead is always good!)
Before 11 : Nothing academic
Before 12 : MITES

Extracurriculars:
Science Olympiad (Captain)
Photography
Stage Crew/Technical Theater Club
Spanish Honor Society
Tutoring

-I do NOT want any religious schools.
-LGBTQ friendly
-Location: I’m not very sure. I prefer big cities, but I’m ok with smaller cities (I liked Amherst a lot)
-I don’t care about sports
-I prefer a open curriculum, but I’m open to the idea of a core curriculum.

Other:
Ethnicity – Hispanic
Sex – Male
First Gen, Low-income
Intended major – Math or Chem. with double major in Spanish
School – Public School
State – Indiana

Accepted Into : IU, IUPUI, Colorado School of Mines
Applied to : Bulter, Purdue, MIT (Through QB), Yale (QB)
My College List------
Matches :Northeastern, UMich, URochester, Bates, RIT, WPI
Reaches: Carnegie, Stanford, Amherst, Brown, Princeton, Grinnell, UChicago, Reed, Pomona, HarveyMudd, Dartmouth, Harvard, Claremont McKenna, Vassar, Colby (through QB), Wesleyan (through QB), WashU, Duke, Rice

2

Maybe eliminate Bates College, Dartmouth & Duke. Also, eliminate Claremont McKenna as it doesn’t seem to fit with your desired majors.

3

Have you run the NPC on UMich? Its aid is a lot worse than the rest of your schools as an OOS public

4

Definitely apply to University of Pittsburgh, and asap if you want to have a chance at merit.

It’s in a great city, right next to Carnegie Mellon.

5

You sound like a good fit for Rice. Did you list it as a QB Match? Rice had 51 QB match students last year.

6

Here’s what I would keep based on your criteria of preferring big cities or vibrant college town, plus your intentended major:

Northeastern, UMich (not a match for OOS so they would be a reach IMO), Carnegie Mellon, Amherst, U Chicago, Rice

7

I think you should definitely apply to Rice! Have you done any fly-ins?

8

1st gen, low income suggests to me that a student should keep the super selective with strongest financial aid schools on the list, so Princeton, Harvard, and Amherst. Grinnell is committed to diverse student body (and has open curriculum) so that should stay on the list. Vassar is also one of the more socio-economically diverse schools, and has a more flexible curriculum so should also stay one. I understand Colby has been committed to expanding socio-economic diversity on campus and has expanded its QP participation over the past several years, so that also is a good contender. Those are schools which will value the contributions of a student from your background.

If the NPC works at Rochester, WPI, keep on. I’d heard Michigan is expanding its financial aid for OOS, but have not heard how good it would be in reality. Depending on the field, Purdue or IU at instate rates with Honors and merit, would trump Michigan in our house (we are instate in Indiana ).

Wash U is not a school I associate with diversity or a willingness to be somewhat flexible on stats in order to expand diversity, but maybe that’s just the kids we know.

Congrats on your accomplishments! Does your school participate in the GROUPS program? Has the deadline for nominations and applications passed for that? We know a number of 1st gen kids who have gone through GROUPS and found it really helpful in launching successfully at Bloomington.

9

On the other hand, Grinnell’s small size and rural location make it the least attractive option for gay/lesbian students among OP’s reaches, IMO.

10

So My NPC says WPI and RIT would be over $25K, so I decided to takes those off my list :frowning: . @Midwestmomofboys
UMich’s NPC says it would be $8.5K which isn’t too bad
@Houston1021 And no, I didn’t rank Rice :(, I didn’t want to commit to a school that soon.

11

I would take off Wash U for the reasons given above in #7, and maybe take off Dartmouth and Duke. UChicago is the opposite of open curriculum - it requires more core classes than many schools. You might take it off your list. (If it’s only there because it’s a strong school in Chicago, consider adding Northwestern instead.)

I agree that Pitt would be a good safety for you if you apply ASAP - because they’re rolling, merit aid is used up earlier in the process, and if you apply now you might get merit aid that might not be available next month.

12

I would have to say that the reasons listed above for WashU are not true. The class of 2022 showed a continued trend towards more diversity.
https://admissions.wustl.edu/apply_site/Pages/profile.aspx

13

Grinnell is one of the most gay- (and trans-) friendly schools in the country. The president of the college is gay, by the way.

14

@MatzoBall Yes, as I recall, Grinnell President is African American male, married to his husband, and they have 2 kids.

15

Adding to my prior post: with your criteria, I would definitely keep Brown (in a nice small city, very open curriculum, very LGBTQ-friendly, and financial aid is all grants, not loans) and Wesleyan (unless Middletown’s small size makes you less interested in Wes).

16

A college can be very LGBT-friendly and still have an abysmal dating pool for LGB students, though. Posters often focus on the former and overlook the latter.

Grinnell has 744 male undergraduates. That’s about 75 gay/bi male students assuming a 10% figure. (A GLAAD survey in 2017 found that 3% of those aged 18-34 identify as gay/lesbian, and 6% identified as bisexual.) When you factor in that some of those may not be out, are already dating, are not interested in dating, etc., the dating pool is perhaps as small as a couple dozen people.

That’s not to say that a gay student can’t be happy at Grinnell – but it’s something to consider when much larger and equally accepting schools like Brown or liberal arts colleges in a consortium like Pomona and Mudd are on the table.

17

A lot of this depends on how important large city is, because you can eliminate a lot based on just that, Dartmouth, Grinnell, Vassar, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Colby, Reed, Bates, WPI. Brown checks of all your boxes, and Rice and Stanford could as well as they’re very good in your possible majors.

18

Indiana University has a near perfect score for LGBTQ friendliness. So, assuming that you like it and can afford it, that makes a great safety school (because you are already in). This takes lot of pressure off.

If you really liked the town of Amherst, then UMass Amherst also has a near perfect score.It offers some OOS merit aid, but I am guessing that it would be more expensive than Indiana in-state. Massachusetts has the top biotech hub in the world with lots of pharmaceutical companies (i.e.chemistry jobs) and UMass’s chem department has won lots of teaching awards.

Macalaster has a slightly lower score, but is in the top 25. I am not that familiar with the school or the city, but it is in a midsize city and based on IPEDS graduation data, it has robust math, chem and Spanish programs. It is also a Questbridge school. Maybe someone from the midwest could chime in, but it seems to be a better fit than most of the LACs on your list and may be a match rather than a reach.

Princeton has a similar score to Macalester, and is strong in all your target majors.

Harvey Mudd also has a similar score to Macalester, but no Spanish major (although you could take classes at one of the other schools).

If you like Boston/Cambridge then Tufts is two miles from Harvard (four miles from MIT) and has a near perfect LGBTQ friendliness score. It is strong in math, chem and Spanish. It does not have a core - it has a 6 semester language/culture requirement, but that is a subset of your Spanish major. Tufts has their own study abroad program in Madrid Spain, so you can study abroad for the same cost (i.e. leveraging all your financial aid). Tufts is also a Questbridge school. Cambridge is the center of the Massachusetts Biotech/Pharma cluster and is easily reached via public transportation. This seems like a better fit than most of your reaches.

https://www.campuspride.org/campus-prides-2017-best-of-the-best-top-25-lgbtq-friendly-colleges-universities/

Note that CSOM, RIT, WPI, MIT and UChicago do not offer a Spanish major.

According to IPEDS data, Brown, CMU, Dartmouth, Harvard and Rice did not graduate any Spanish majors last year.
CMU tends not to provide the same level of aid as your other reaches, so you might want to run their calculator to double check.

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Brown&s=all&pg=2&id=217156#programs

19

Wash U is also a Questbridge school and, as others pointed out, working very hard to broaden their economic diversity. They also offer several full four year scholarships to Hispanic students. Our senior student is a Chemistry Major and a Text and Traditions (think Great Books) minor who has take three Latin classes and is currently studying Spanish. Also managed to take International Relations, two Psych classes, etc. So great ability to take classes anywhere in the University - Olin Business, Fox Design, Engineering etc. Student has also had three solid years of research at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Support of LGBTQ is one of their top priorities. Definitely recommend you check it out. You have great options - best of luck!