Hi, I am back! I have a decent list of colleges and was wondering if you guys could give me some feedback or help narrow it down. I am looking for schools that are full need or that I can get significant amounts of aid from. I also want a school that will prepare me for a career, whether it be in academia, law, public service, startups, consulting, or IB. I honestly don’t really know what I want to do but I know that I want to be able to be financially viable after college. My mom has worked enough for me and I don’t want her paying my loans. Potential majors include Poli Sci, IR, Economics, and Sociology. I want to go out of state, but I can’t afford to fly anywhere, so schools that will pay for me to fly in are heavily favored.
Here is my list of schools so far:
Applied: EA University of Minnesota (My state and I love the campus), EA UW-Madison (Tuition reciprocity, amazing sociology department)
Match: Syracuse University (From what I read online, it has an cool campus, typical college experience, Social sciences department is strong, good job placement as well, not full need though), Occidental College (Might be a little small, like how its urban, full need !!, has a cool UN program)
Reach: This is where things get a little dicier. I don’t know what schools are worth applying to from this list. I want to apply to 10 schools max, maybe more, so that means around 4-6 reaches
Boston College (Love how its semi-urban but still a traditional campus, Boston !!, has been my dream school for a while, their full need isn’t exactly full need), Washington and Lee (Has a very low average cost of attendance in College Scorecard for my income level, I am liberal but it seems that WL is a bit conservative, don’t know much except that it is generous), Union College (Full need, a low cost of attendance in College Scorecard, don’t know much, like liberal arts, don’t mind the country), Colgate (Amazing economics program, low COA in College scorecard, full need, bigger liberal arts college, Wall street pipeline), University of Richmond (Great Poli sci department, full need, its preppy and im not that preppy),
Uber reach: Either Tufts or Georgetown. I want to apply to Tufts for ED2, but I don’t know if should do so), Franklin and Marshall, Lafayette College, Connecticut, Colby, Trinity, Bates, and Hamilton are all in the back of mind because they are full need, but I’m not sure if they are reasonable schools for a poor student with OK grades who wants to study Poli Sci.
Stats:
AP Tests: 3 - AP Stats; 5 - US History, Lang and Comp
ACT: 31 first try, 33 (35 R, 35 E, 29 M, 32 S) second try
GPA: 3.5, Top 20% of my class
Currently Dual-enrolled at a local private university, should have around 40ish credits done by the time I graduate HS
Main Extracurricular Activities:
Business Professionals of America- 2nd place nationals in Econ, 7th place at State in Banking, State officer candidate
Political Volunteer- Precinct Chair, Paid Canvasser for Political Campaign
School Newspaper- Sports Editor, Won a national award from company that does our school newspaper, 25K Views
Quizbowl- Team Captain
Soccer and Tennis- JV
50+ hours of tutoring
UMN Carlson SOM- First place case competition
About me:
Suburban Minnesotan
White son of refugees
On free lunch
first gen
0 EFC