HELP!! Trying to find colleges :(

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi guys~! so... I'm kind of new to college confidential. Well anyways, I'm a junior (11th grade) at a fairly good public high school. (Our cst scores r supposed to be pretty high or something <-- I don't know if that means anything though.) </p>

<p>ANYWAYS, senior year is coming up and I'm all stressed about colleges. I don't know which colleges to even look at. So I was wondering if anyone can suggest colleges that are suitable for me. </p>

<p>Here's a little background information about me: </p>

<p>I live in California, born and raised! :) I'm full Korean male. My parents have never gone to college, so I'm a first year college bound. My family income is extremely low.. :/ BUT my parents raised me right! I think.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I wrote that because I heard that some of those things, like income and ethnicity matter to some/most colleges. </p>

<p>OK. Here is pretty much everything that I did in High School:</p>

<p>3.7 overall GPA. (3.8 if you only count 10-12)
4.2 weighted GPA
This semester and last semester, my weighted GPA is 4.66666667
(I calculated my weighted. It's around 4.5 by next year.)
<em>Honor Roll for every year since freshmen year</em></p>

<p>Sat I - 1920 (1st try) 1950 (2nd try)
Sat II: Biology E/M - 670<br>
Korean - 750 </p>

<p>Extracurricular:</p>

<p>Wrestling team for 2 years so far (Freshman and Sophomore)
-Frosh/Soph
-Junior Varsity
Korean Club for 4 years
CSF for 1 year
Pacific American Volunteer Association for 2 years
-10+ hours
Leo (a volunteer club) for 2 years
-I'm now treasurer of the club
-100+ hours
Academic Letter of Achievement Award + Honor Roll certificates
Audubon Award for volunteer work</p>

<p>*I plan on getting another award by 1st semester of senior year and getting a job/internship. </p>

<p>OK. This is pretty much it.
So please, if you have any colleges that you know I can apply to and get into, please reply!</p>

<p>I'm looking for schools that I can without a doubt get into, schools that I can apply to and probably get into, and schools that I can apply to and 50% get into. </p>

<p>Schools that I'm thinking about are all the UC's (preferably Irvine, LA, Berkeley, San Diego), Boston University, Boston College, NYU. </p>

<p>As you can tell, my list of schools is really short. So PLEASE. Someone help me out! :(</p>

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<p>I would check out the info here for eligibility for the UCs. [Transcript</a> Evaluation: How do I figure out a student?s GPA?](<a href=“http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/resources.php?cat_id=51#resource]Transcript”>http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/resources.php?cat_id=51#resource) Cal Grant will help you a lot.</p>

<p>I would drop NYU. They are awful at financial aid and you can’t afford $55K/year.</p>

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<p>While it’s true NYU is not always good with financial aid, there are a number of students who are very surprised with their FA packages. E.g. close to full tuition; full tuition; full/close to full ride. But whether or not you want to apply is up to you.</p>

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<p>When making recommendations it helps to know what you think you’re going to study in college. Next, I suggest going to the “College Search” link under the “Main CC Site” heading on the left side of this web page (third link above the sponsored ad), it does a good job of coming up with a big list of possibilities depending on your criteria. </p>

<p>A 3.7/1950 will probably make UCLA and UC-Berkeley big reach schools. It might also make BC and NYU tough - you should either try the ACT or make one more run at the SAT - the mid-point SAT for both of those schools is about 2040. I think BU is more of a match/safe school for you.</p>

<p>NYU has a reputation of being cheap with aid, BC is starting to develop that reputation. What other types of schools are you thinking about (size, geography etc)?</p>

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<p>Thank you for the tip about NYU. I really wanted to go to New York for a change, but I think I’m going to have to reconsider after hearing about the financial aid. :frowning: and I’ll definitely check out the site you provided. </p>

<p>and NYU2013, do you know what the students did to get those kinds of FA packages by any chance?</p>

<p>and Vinceh, Can you explain why it would make those schools such reach schools? I know my SAT score isn’t too great, but I thought a 3.7 nearing a 3.8 was a good gpa.
I’ll be trying the ACT next semester as a senior as well as another SAT. Do you happen to know what ACT score is considered a suitable score to make schools like UCLA a match? If I achieve a SAT score of 2200, would my application be more solid? This is the score I will be striving for over this summer.
Geography wise, I prefer the East of West Coast. I’m a Cali boy, so I enjoy the sea. Size: I don’t have much of a preference. I just want to get attention from the professors and counselors. Does that mean I want a small school?
I want to pursue a path in law or business. These days, I’m leaning more to the business side. Do you know any schools who are strong in these fields? My goal of going to college is to find an opportunity to make a lot of money to buy my parents’ a large, comfortable place they can call their own. </p>

<p>Thank you guys so much for taking the time to answer my previous question. I really appreciate it. :slight_smile:
*I’m sorry for asking so many questions. Senior year is coming up, and I’m clueless.</p>

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<p>Vinceh is probably comparing your 3.7 to the UC weighted GPAs which most UCB/UCLA students have - above a 4.0. Compute your own UCWGPA to see where you stand. The link I provided shows how scores and GPA are used as entrance criteria.</p>

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<p>LivingLife, ErinsDad is correct, I’m less than familiar with the California grade scale which seems to have been created by a former Internal Revenue Auditor who was having a bad day. I like to look at chances in a ‘big picture’ sort of way. Anything where you’re average or better helps; anything where you’re below average hurts. Then I start to factor in things like admittance rates.</p>

<p>The UCLA undergraduate admissions web site says that the average admit has a UC GPA 4.34/2026 SAT. That puts your stats below the mid-point, not horribly so, but still below. Second, as a Korean you’re part of an over-represented minority. Asians make up 36% of the student population at UCLA; I don’t know if they try and cap the number of admits from a particular ethnic group, but if they do that could hurt your chances. Finally, UCLA admits 25% of applicants, put another way that means that 3 out of 4 applicants get rejected. To my way of thinking that puts UCLA in the reach category. Given that Berkeley has similar to tougher numbers it feel like a reach to me as well. Others may disagree with that assessment.</p>

<p>My feeling is to treat UCLA and UCB as reach schools - not impossible by any means - but not places to get too comfortable about either.</p>

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<p>head east or at least to the mid west! look at schools like Drake University or Butler University (mid west) or further east U of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Dickinson College smaller size school in PA. you should get a change of scenery if you spent your entire life in CA ! If you can afford it a plane/road trip is in order!</p>

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<p>Oh, I computed the gpa according to [CaliforniaColleges.edu</a> - Calculating Your GPA](<a href=“http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/california-state-university-csu/gpa_calculator.asp#calculator]CaliforniaColleges.edu”>http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/california-state-university-csu/gpa_calculator.asp#calculator)
, and it says that I will have a gpa of 4.14 weighted after two semesters. However, this seems inaccurate. On my transcript, it says that my Acad Overall weighted is a 4.1852…</p>

<p>Vinceh, my weighted gpa is 4.14 if that changes anything. I still think this might make these schools a reach school. Thank you for the information though. It’ll help me reevaluate my choices of colleges. </p>

<p>Zobroward, I would like to head east but at the same time I want to stay near my family, so I’m having mixed feelings about the idea of an out of state college. :frowning: Hopefully, I’ll road trip! :)</p>

<p>Thank you everyone for the help! :slight_smile: but I was asking more of a “what colleges are my match schools?” question than a “what are my chances of…?” question. :/</p>

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<p>LivingLife,</p>

<p>I think that a 4.14 California GPA certainly puts you in the discussion for UCLA and UCB. I don’t want to imply that you have no chance at those schools, but in the last few years admissions have gotten increasingly intense. I just think it’s a better strategy to treat those schools as reaches.</p>

<p>As for other suggestions, I think you need to give us some more details on what you’re looking to study. Some schools, especially state schools, have automatic merit scholarships depending on your statistics (e.g., University of Alabama and Indiana University). But without knowing your academic and geographic preferences it’s hard to provide too many suggestions.</p>

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<p>Oh. ok. :frowning: do you happen to know if the gpa is strong in for any other uc? or a match? Will UCSD or UC Irvine be a match school for me then?</p>

<p>I don’t really have any preferences. Well, I’d like to go to a school on the East or West Coast. In addition, if the school is well known, it would be great. I’d like to major in business or law, if that makes any differences. </p>

<p>Again, thank you for taking the time to reply. I appreciate it :)</p>

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<p>If you’re into business, you might want to look at Lehigh University in PA. They’re well known for engineering, but also have very strong business programs. It could be a high match/low reach for you. An SAT 2200 would definitely help you at most schools, but I wouldn’t bank on getting in on SAT scores alone.</p>

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<p>Lehigh, Miami of Ohio, SMU, Ohio St, Indiana, and Purdue all have great business schools</p>

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<p>Irvine, Santa Barbara, or Davis seem reasonably possible, and your being a first generation college student might help at some of the others. Will you be eligible for the UC system’s Blue & Gold plan? Are you eligible for Cal Grants? Have you run your family’s numbers through an EFC estimator? These are all important things to know so that you can be sure and have some college choices that are likely to work financially. </p>

<p>(I don’t think NYU is even in the ballpark for big merit or financial aid for you. While they do give some very large awards, it seems that most of those awards go to the tippy-top students, and like most NYU applicants, you don’t fall into that category.)</p>