Help with my college list

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone, I’m a junior looking at colleges. I’m concerned about my lack of freshman/sophomore EC’s, and have been worrying about college lately. I know these threads can get annoying but the ones I’ve read have been somewhat helpful (and frightening, I must admit), and I’d like some feedback on how realistic my list is.

Here are my stats:

School: large public school
Gender: F
Race/ethnicity: white, african-american
Intended major: astrophysics/physics
State: pretty competitive

GPA: 4.00 UW, 5.02 W
Rank: 15/~800
ACT: 36 (single-sitting & superscore)
SAT II: 800 Math 2, 770 Chemistry, (will take physics)
(PSAT: 1490/1520, probably national merit)

AP scores: Chem, Bio, Calc AB, World, Psych, Human geo (all 5’s)
Current AP’s: Physics 1, English lang, Environmental, US history, Art history, Calc BC
Current dual enrollment: Programming
Senior AP’s: Physics 2, Stats, US Gov, Macroeconomics, English Lit, Comp Sci A
Senior dual enrollment: Calc III & above

Extracurriculars:

  • Student researcher (paid) at lab (11-12), work on multiple physics projects, spend a ton of time there
  • Science Olympiad (11-12), team captain, placed at regionals & states
  • Science NHS (11-12), co-president, currently working on reforms to make club more active
  • Orchestra (9-12), assistant concertmaster + officer
  • Math Honor Society (10-12), running for officer position so fingers crossed lol
  • Volunteering clubs (10-12)
  • Church volunteering/band/etc. (9-12)
  • Quiz bowl (11-12)

Summer activities:

  • 10/11: volunteered in above mentioned lab
  • 11/12: accepted to somewhat competitive summer academic/research program

Awards:

  • Presenting my research at a conference (11)
  • 2nd place + special award at county science fair (11)
  • AMC 10 school winner (10), AMC 12 honorable mention (11)
  • All-county orchestra (10, 11)
  • National AP scholar/National merit/National Latin exam/etc. (don’t know which I’ll mention)

Here is my list of potential colleges:
Princeton (SCEA?)
Harvard
Yale
Swarthmore
Bowdoin
Colby
Grinnell
Lawrence University
U Wisconsin
U Washington
U Maryland College Park
Pennsylvania State University

(I also have good in-state & OOS backups.)

Would you be able to tell me the likelihood of getting into the colleges in my list by categorizing them as reaches/matches/safeties? If you have any insight, how good are these schools for physics? Lastly, would I be able to get any significant merit aid at the last 6 schools (Grinnell to Penn State)?

Thanks so much!

2

@coffeeaddict To be honest, I think you have a very nice profile and I do believe you have a chance at getting into those above mentioned schools. Your accomplishments seem to make you much more qualified than other juniors. aka me, oh dear.

Good luck girl! Keep it up with your science-related activities and yeah :stuck_out_tongue:

3

@coffeeaddicted this is like 100x more impressive than my stats. I think you will be a very competitive applicant to those schools. I’m applying SCEA to Princeton too!! I hope we both get in :slight_smile:

4

Have you considered Caltech/MIT? Both have excellent Physics departments, and they would be more than willing to have a girl fill in the spot!

5

Thanks everyone! @Menduch And @tinawu98 I hope you get in too! Although I’m sure your stats are great. @thisisfine2020 unfortunately the EFC at both of those schools is out of my range : / I wish I could but I wouldn’t want to apply, get in, get my hopes up, and not get to go (although I doubt I’d get in; the female pool of applicants is pretty self-selecting which is mostly why the rate is higher).

6

@coffeeaddicted Thank you, fingers crossed for all of us! And hey, random question. Did you apply for the Questbridge CPS?

7

Considering your interests, you might prefer a college with at least an astronomy minor. Bowdoin, I believe, lacks one.

8

@coffeeaddicted Unfortunately, I had personal problems (depression and anxiety) that plagued me sophomore year, which caused a significant drop in GPA. MIT and Caltech are both Questbridge schools, so if you go through their CollegeMatch program, you have the chance to earn a free ride at one of them! Fingers crossed for you, I think it’s such a shame that money gets in the way of obtaining of education these days. You’re an excellent student, and I wish you happiness wherever you go.

9

Definitely think you have a solid chance! Your stats and ECs are really good.

10

@Menduch @thisisfine2020 My family’s income definitely puts me out of the range that would qualify me for Questbridge. My parent’s just can’t afford to pay very much so I could only add schools that give really generous financial aid. @merc81 I got most of my schools off lists where their physics/astrophysics programs were ranked high; however I added Bowdoin and Colby because they both gave generous financial aid and because Maine is my favorite state, where I have lots of family. Also, I heard that for someone who wants to go into astrophysics research, it is really only necessary to have a physics major for UG, and that astronomy classes are good but not necessary. However, I’ll keep it in mind that they are not as strong in my major.

Would anyone be able to evaluate my list by categorizing them as reaches/matches/etc.? I’d like to be able to know my chances at individual schools.

11

Hi I’m a QuestBridge College Match Finalist and I urge you to apply to the program!!! You’re brilliant, as shown by your stats, and if money is an issue QuestBridge can at the least help you cover application costs. Btw, with strong essays I believe you have a very healthy shot at any of those schools. Be realistic with your upper Ivies come decision day, but you’re in a much better position than 99% of juniors, and huge percentage of applicants as well. Best of luck, and if you need any information on QuestBridge don’t feel afraid to PM me!

12

@Jcannon1023 thanks so much, I get what you mean about being realistic with the ivies, since many with much better qualifications than me are denied. However, I’ll remain a little bit optimistic.

I really don’t think I qualify for anything QuestBridge related though…I’ll PM you

13

What about Cornell? Have you checked your EFC there?

RPI? Don’t they provide a fair bit of merit aid?

14

@Ynotgo Does RPI provide more merit aid than the medal program? Or do they commonly give more aid to medalists than the medal program’s minimum? I could probably be a medalist (I’m at the top of my grade and no one else is interested in RPI, as far as I know), but 25k per year isn’t enough to cover the aid I need.

My EFC at Cornell (34k) is way too high, unfortunately :frowning: I was interested in the school until I calculated that.

15

Out of the 6 you listed only Grinnell, and, possibly, Lawrence, would provide you with lots of merit aid.
Penn State MIGHT give you something for science (Eberly or Mineral Science, two “colleges” within he main campus, have scholarships, especially for girls/firs gen/minorities in science) and if you get into Schreyer you’ll get something like $4,500 on top of it.
UWashington and UWisconsin have limited merit aid.

16

@MYOS1634 would it be more worth it to just take Washington and Wisconsin off my list? I looked through each of their scholarship lists and they seem to have quite a few competitive $1000 ones that wouldn’t make a dent. Are there no full tuition/half tuition or anything like it at either? I looked at Penn State as well, and the merit aid there looks better (on the Eberly page), which is good because it’s one of the best for astrophysics.

Could anyone categorize the colleges on my list as reaches/matches? (Bump!)

17

At Washington, the OOS merit scholarships range from $5,500 to $8,500 per year ($22,000 to $34,000 over four years).

https://admit.washington.edu/Paying/PurpleGold

18

Since coa is 49k, and 34k at Cornell is too much, the 8.5k maximum at uwash wouldn’t work.
You can monitor announcements from uwisc in case they start offering higher scholarships but all in all yes those two would be out.

19

Princeton - R
Harvard - R
Yale - R
Swarthmore - Low reach
Bowdoin - match
Colby - safety (you’re way above average from your test scores, but I don’t know your GPA)
Grinnell - match
Lawrence University - safety
U Wisconsin - safety
U Washington - match
U Maryland College Park - safety
Pennsylvania State University - safety (you’d easily get into the school, not sure about the honors college as the people they admit vs. the ones they reject is always weird)

You have a solid chance to get into any school you apply to with your background, etc. Best of luck! If you have any questions about Penn State, let me know! My family all goes there so I know quite a bit about the school (Eberly in particular)!

20

@allison1225 thanks so much!! This is really helpful; I feel like my list is pretty sane now. And I looked on the Schreyer annual report, and it seems crazy selective, which I had no idea about. But Penn State looks awesome! Thanks for the info!