Hello, I am a rising senior, and like many others, am very stressed about applying to college. I am really hoping to go to a t20 school because they seem to check all of my boxes. I am looking for good financial aid (All of my reaches offer 100% of need) and somewhere that I will be proud to attend. I am anticipating being a NMSF, so many of my safety schools are based around that. However, I am very much struggling to find “Match” schools. They are often just extremely expensive or not a school I am interested in attending. I have absolutely no concept on my chances of getting into any of dream schools. I’ve seen people with far more impressive applications get rejected from everywhere, and people with worse stats get into schools by which I would be sent into cardiac arrest upon admission. I’d really appreciate any advice at all. I am not even sure what I am asking at this point…
Here are my stats and schools I am applying to for reference.
Middle class, white male from suburbs
GPA: 4.0 UW / 4.6 W (top of my class)
SAT: 1540
ECs
Principal Bassist in local youth orchestra (Traveled internationally to perform)
Bass player in pit orchestra in school musicals, as well as District and Regional orchestras.
Varsity Volleyball
Treasurer, National Honors Society
President, School’s Math Club
Vice President, School’s French Club (fundraises to supply food and education to Haitian children in need)
Entrepreneur (started reselling business, profits upwards of $15,000)
Consistently worked part-time jobs throughout high school.
Awards
Black belt
Eagle Scout
Le Grand Concours (National French Contest) Silver Medalist
NMSI Star Award
National Merit Scholar (likely)
AP Scholar with Distinction
Applying to:
All of the ivies (I know this isn’t recommended, but with the financial aid and prestige I truly would be ecstatic getting into any of them)
UVA
Stanford
Vanderbilt
MIT
Some schools for NMSF, probably University of Alabama
Sounds like you are asking for match/safety recommendations? We need more info to do that: things like budget, potential major, preferences like small, large, urban, rural, interest in sports or Greek life, etc. What are you looking for in a college and how much can you pay for it?
Thank you for helping me to guide the conversation…
I am planning on pursuing finance or economics (depending on the school). My EFC is around $15,000, and I cannot see myself and my family paying any more than $30,000/year. I am pretty indifferent as to the size and setting of the school, but I would like somewhere with large networking capabilities so I can find internships and a promising career upon graduation. I am not planning on playing sports in college, but I am hopeful to be able to continue music.
In your case it makes sense to me why you are applying to all the Ivys because #1 you are considering finance which is still prestige sensitive and #2 the Ivys give great financial aid. Of course even with great stats like yours, the Ivys are a huge reach for anyone who isn’t hooked, i.e. the child of an alum or faculty member, a recruited athlete or a major donor.
Not sure MIT is a fit, though. Many graduates do end up in finance, but you need to be willing to go through a hardcore STEM degree to get there. Are you genuinely passionate about STEM?
Do you have interest in elite liberal arts colleges such as Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Pomona etc.? These schools have good financial aid too, and can recruit into finance.
For any school you are interested in, it is worth running the Net Price Calculator, if you haven’t already, to give you an estimate of what you might pay (search: NPC plus Name of School)
It is usually worth applying to the honors college of your state’s flagship as well (maybe that is Virginia for you? If so that is a great option.)
For other schools that give big merit for NMSF/NMF look at this thread:
Thank you for the reply! The comment about MIT is interesting. Exactly the type of advice I was looking for. I will look into it. Home for me is Pennsylvania. I have struggled to find any match schools that offer reasonable aid. As for the elite liberal arts colleges, I have looked into them, but they just seemed like more unlikely reach schools. Do you think it is worth applying to those despite my already extensive “reach” list.
Also, I love the NMF thread! Thank you for starting it. It has been a great help.
I think it really depends on #1 How much energy you have for applications. You def don’t want to start sacrificing quality. #2 Whether you genuinely are interested in going to a small school in a (usually) rural location. …I guess if it were me, I would run some NPCs. For example, maybe run Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Grinnell, Williams, Carleton, Bowdoin, Vassar (males have an advantage here.)
I will check all of those out! Thanks so much for the advice.
I guess my last question is do you know of any schools I’d be likely to get into that aren’t crazy expensive. I have ran NPCs on Penn State and University of Pittsburgh and they’re both upwards of $40k. That price just simply isn’t possible for me.
You are a PA resident. I think Pitt is a match maybe even better for you. You have the potential for merit aid there too. I hope that is on your list of application schools. I realize it’s not NYC, but it would be a good school.
For finance, there are many options. I’m going to tag @Catcherinthetoast to see if that poster might have some suggestions for you that are a tad less competitive than the schools you listed above.
You do have a spike of music. Bass is not as common an instrument and since your level is high you should definitely reach out to teachers at both the ivys and schools like Williams that support musicians. Work with your teacher to prepare a high level music supplement and make sure the schools know you want to continue.
Truthfully, I think you are going to have trouble finding “match” schools. The universities that are a tier or two lower ranked than the Ivys would have better admit odds for you, but usually don’t have as good aid. So they might be admission matches, but they might be financial reaches.
Sometimes students like you (high stats, small budget) end up with very bimodal lists. On one hand you have the reaches that meet budget by giving great need-based aid. On the other hand you have the big-merit NMF schools that are safeties for both admission and budget. Little or nothing in between, but that can be ok.
Remember that at all the big merit NMF schools, you will have a good group of peers because there will be a critical mass of other National Merit students. My own kid is at one of these schools, and is thriving.
Do it now. Some of the schools will set up trial lessons. Williams loves musicians. So does brown, Yale, Princeton. If you contact the department they will connect you with the teacher and if they support you it is very helpful. For NMF U Tulsa and Maine also have excellent music departments. Schools more in the low reach category if you are willing to look at lacs that I believe meet full need are Skidmore, Davidson, wake forest and U Richmond.
Their music school is audition based and there isn’t much cross over between the college and the conservatory. I don’t know how much ability op would have to play in their orchestras if he is not a member of the conservatory
@brycec you can submit a music supplement with recording/video, music resume and music letters of recommendation- whatever the particular schools accept. The video can be short and is not similar to what you would submit to, say, a conservatory. You can even cue the best 3 minutes.
We did not contact the dept. or a teacher until after acceptance. For my kid the music supplement was very very helpful for admission to a “top school.”
Some colleges may surprise you with merit aid. You don’t want to get exhausted though! I always like the Colleges that Change Lives- see that website!