Hello! This is just another High school junior in need of some guidance ^.^
Female; African/American
3.96 uw gpa
32/680 rank
SAT:1440 PSAT: 1420
First gen
AP Human; 5
AP Euro/Lang: 4
AP World: 3
5 more AP tests will be taken this year
Beta Club President, Model UN, HOSA, language clubs
AP Scholar w/ Honor, GHP nominee
I live in Georgia, and I hope to pursue medicine or nursing. I’m also interested in foreign language. Financial Aid is needed (5k per year is how much my parents can afford.). Based on my stats, could you give me some help as to which of the following colleges are matches or reaches and offer any possible others.
UNC Chapel Hill
Vanderbilt
UPenn
University of Miami
UGA
Emory
Mercer
University of Alabama
Davidson
Rollins
Furman
Rice
Wake Forest
Duke
High Point
John Hopkins
Swarthmore
Have you done FAFSA? Is your FAFSA efc $5K or below?
Run the net price calculators for these schools.
The ouf of state publics might be too much. Alabama might work with a loan and pell grant if you qualify.
Check out these, note the full rides at Troy, Tuskegee, Howard, Arkansas, FAMU, Louisiana, Texas State, Prairie View, Utah, etc. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
There is an EFC calculator on the BigFuture (CollegeBoard) website, since you are a junior and don’t need to fill out an actual FAFSA. Not sure if the link will be allowed; if not do an internet search.
However, if the schools you are interested in use the CSS Profile, then they will be using institutional methodology to calculate your need. FAFSA uses Federal methodology.
You should apply to some Ivies. They are reaches, but you have more than one hook, good stats are from an underrepresented state, etc. These schools are also very generous. Are there any others besides Penn that you like?
If you get that full ride to UGA and it’s a sure thing then you can focus on reaches. That is, if you would be happy to attend UGA
UGA will most likely be cheaper than everywhere else. With Zell, all of your costs (attendance, room and board, personal costs) will be under 20,000. You’d be able to get most if not all of tuition covered at Alabama. Even if you get full tuition scholarships, UGA will likely be cheapest and there are some other scholarships you can apply for. Good luck!
@citymama9 thanks for the reply! I’ll look into the other ivies; I usually just skip them while I’m looking lol, so I only like UPenn. I do like UGA (other than its huge size), but I would probably only go if i could get into the honors college.
@doschicos I’m just keeping options open lol. I like Swarthmore’s out of the boxness, but hpu is closer and it’s academics aren’t too bad so it’s up there. I’ll probably end up taking hpu out, but for now it’s still an option
If you like Swarthmore and want a less selective school to add to the list (but more selective than High Point), consider Bryn Mawr if female. Also, Haverford which is slightly less selective than Swarthmore. All are in a consortium together with Penn. All are good options for pre-med types.
We live in NC, our daughter looked at HPU for pre-med and decided not to apply. Based on what we found out, their academics are mediocre, they have a reputation as a country club for rich kids.
I would categorize the schools on your list as follows:
High Reaches: Penn, Duke
Reaches: Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Rice, Swarthmore
High Matches: Emory, Davidson
Matches: Wake Forest, UNC, UGA
Safeties: the rest
Now with regards to applying to other ivies besides Penn, make sure you do an in-depth research and figure out which ivies you actually like. Not all ivies are similar and it is very possible hat you could really like some by dislike some others.
Your list is kind of all over the map in terms of environment, social and academic vibe, size and type of school, etc. That’s ok, just as long as you understand what you’re looking for and that there are stark differences among some of your schools.
No two Ivies are exactly alike: there are major environmental, social, curricular and other differences among them. Be sure to read up on those differences to help figure out which of them is the best fit for that extra app.
