I need some more match schools, less reach! Help!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey-yo.
I think that I've made my list of schools a list of reaches and not guaranteed matches. Finances just became a big deal also, so I hope to find some schools where I might have some better chances at aid.</p>

<p>Do any of you have suggestions for match schools/schools where I will get good aid to look into, considering the schools I like and my profile??</p>

<p>TOP SCHOOLS (in order):
Davidson College
Princeton
UNC-Chapel Hill
Stanford
Notre Dame
Georgetown</p>

<p>Safety: UFlorida
Maybe Grinnell, William & Mary, University of Arizona</p>

<p>MY PROFILE:</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
State: Florida
Current Grade: Rising Senior</p>

<p>GPA/Class Rank
Unweighted GPA: 4.0
Weighted GPA: ~4.78 (should be 4.83 by grad)
Class Rank: 2 or 3/~250
School Type: Small town school, not many go to top schools.</p>

<p>AP/IB Classes Taken (by far the hardest course load at my school)
AP US Hist (5)
AP Environ Sci (5)
AP Eng Lang (4)
AP Microecon (self study 5)
AP Macroecon (5)
AP U.S. Gov (5)</p>

<p>may self study for a few tests sr. year</p>

<p>Senior schedule
AP psych
AP Eng Lit
AP Euro
AP Calc AB
journalism 3 (yrbk)
AP Biology online</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning Test (1 try so far, confident I can raise score)
Critical Reading: 690
Math: 690
Writing: 600
Composite: 1380
Total: 1980</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests
World History: 750
Math Level I: 680
U.S. History: 790
*will take Bio E, Math II</p>

<p>ACT (take early senior year)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities/Awards:
-Interact Club (3 yrs - offices: Director International Relations, President expected)
-National Honor Society (10,11,12)
-Varsity Cross-Country (2 yrs in HS)
-Varsity Track (2 yrs in HS)
-I participate in every run within about 40 mile radius... member of local running club
-Co-founder/co-captain of bike team
Bike in few local races
-Fencing (2 yrs @ national level, had to stop after I moved to Florida)
-AP Scholar with Distinction (maybe ntl as senior)
-County Teen Court Attorney
Tri-county winning mock trial team Attorney
-Boys State
-Sr. Class SGA representative
-Yearbook sports editor (11th), assistant editor (12th)
*Trying to work out making Hi-Q (aca deca) practices before school so I can participate.</p>

<p>Work Experience: 9th grade: UPS store during December rush
current: YMCA Kids camp counselor</p>

<p>~250 hours of community service as of now, should be much more by grad (maybe 400+)</p>

<p>Should have some interesting essays.
and if it matters, I'm a first-gen college student.</p>

<p>thank you guys.</p>

2

<p>Except for Stanford, Grinnell, and Arizona your list is very east coast. Would you be willing to go to the midwest or northwest where being from Florida would be more of a novelty? Work the geographic diversity angle. Are you eligible for financial aid or looking for merit money?</p>

<p>Your list has a mix of school sizes so I'm not too sure what to recommend for you. Brainstorming: Lewis & Clark, Whitman, Pacific Lutheran, Macalester, St Olaf, Lawrence (WI), Rice. </p>

<p>I don't know much about midwest/western smaller universities. Perhaps someone else can suggest a few.</p>

<p>First generation is generally a slight tip. </p>

<p>You may find the ACT is your test - different format and more straightforward. For the SAT2 I think just take the math2 one. The other scores are great and you don't need a gazillion of them. You have a nice number of APs with good scores - good job.</p>

<p>I think if you can raise the SAT slightly or get a 32 or higher on the ACT, doors will open for you. I'll see if any other college pops into my head this morning.</p>

3

<p>Okay.....judging from your list.....you should add the following:</p>

<p>Georgia, South Carolina, Furman, Wake Forest, Sewannee, Clemson, Rhodes, Washington and Lee.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

4

<p>I don't have very many suggestions, except that I'm not sure W&M is a safety. Also, if finances are a huge issue, strongly consider UF honors. UF is a school on the rise. I would consider it at the top of the second tier flagships. Also consider FSU honors or UCF honors. You can get a great education in FL.</p>

5

<p>What kind of aid are you looking for? Need, or merit money? (You are very unlikely to get good aid from William & Mary as an OOS student.) Any preferences as to climate or location?</p>

<p>You already have good SATIIs, and most places will just look at your top 2, but it wouldn't hurt to take Math11C if you really want to. Reportedly, the curve on Math IIC is actually easier than on Math I, so you are likely to get a higher score.</p>

<p>I really don't see the point in self-studying for a bunch of AP exams next year, unless your goal is to get out of college more quickly. I'd suggest that staying in college and taking advantage of the classes offered is a better idea, unless it means racking up huge debt.</p>

6

<p>1) I am def. open to non-east coast schools. I forgot to add Pomona to my maybe list. Rice I was also considering, but it seemed to be seriously bent towards preprofessional programs for some reason. Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look into the others :)</p>

<p>2) I didn't really like Wake, Clemson, or Georgia. And though this is just hear-say, I've heard Wash&Lee is very much rich, white, snobby and conservative. I'm sure it's much more diverse but I don't know much else about the school and just wasn't considering it. Is this stereotype somewhat true? I'll look into the others more, thanks for suggestions :)</p>

<p>3) Knights, haha, I'm guessing you're at UCF. A lot of my friends are going there next year. And no, no, no... UF was my only safety (hence why I need more), W&M and the ones following it are schools I'm considering applying to. Maybe I didn't separate the two lists enough.
I am kind of considering FSU honors, but I stayed there for a week during Boys State and didn't really enjoy it. And yeah, UF honors would not be disappointing, I think. I kind of want less of a party school (recently ranked #1...lmao) and a smaller school, though.</p>

<p>Regarding aid - I am looking for schools that might give me a good bit of Merit Aid. I'm really unsure how much need aid I will get. My ability to pay is looking to be, pretty much: aid, my own sources, and a very small family contribution.
I want to keep loans low if possible... I know I could fully afford UF Honors, but want more financial and acceptance safeties than that. I'm sadly aware I most likely won't be able to go to UNC-Chapel Hill or W&M because of finances.</p>

<p>I'm really open regarding climate and location. I've lived in almost every climate in the US. Only places I'm against are places where it constantly rains (Washington, Oregon, etc) or where it is bitterly cold all winter (assuming this is places like Minnesota, Maine).
I'd preferably be somewhere near a city, but not necessarily in one. I very much like the idea of smaller classes. I don't want to go somewhere where half of your classes are 75+ person seminars. I think the perfect size would be between lib. arts & a large university, something like 3,000-5,000. Having a great football team would be a big plus. </p>

<p>I could go on and on, but as you can see, most of this is flexible, except class sizes and attention. </p>

<p>Thanks for your help guys!</p>

7

<p>If you can raise your test scores, either SATs to 700+ across the board or 32+ ACT, you should be in the running for merit aid at many good schools. You may want to search merit aid on CC, I'm pretty sure there's been threads before. Look for full-need schools as well. For example, University of Rochester fits most of your criteria, except climate; but what are you looking to study?</p>

<p>If you can get your test scores up, you could be looking at Ivy-level schools as not-impossible reaches. Everything else looks great.</p>

8

<p>U Rochester, Case Western, Tulane, and Ohio Wesleyan give good aid and are in the easy match/safety range. USC and George Washington are worth looking at also. If you qualify for the Odyssey aid program, look at University of Chicago.</p>

9

<p>Haha no.. I'm still in HS. I was just saying don't be afraid to stay in FL. By the way, all of your schools except Davidson and Princeton and Grinnell know how to throw a party. UF has about a billion students, say half party HARD. That's still 500 million you can hang out with. Plus honors college will make it much like a small uni or LAC..</p>

10

<p>The Odyssey program at the University of Chicago--a school I love--gives a MAXIMUM of about $5250, unless they decide to change the rules. So I wouldn't count on that to make a big difference. If your family income is low enough to get the maximum Odyssey award, you should qualify for additional need-based aid there and elsewhere. The U of C does have some big merit scholarships, but I have the impression that they are VERY hard to get. </p>

<p>U of Rochester is an excellent school that doesn't get enough recognition, IMHO--for example, they aren't in the PR 386 Best Colleges book, but many lesser institutions are--and does have a variety of substantial merit scholarships. I'm not sure what they look for in SATs for those awards, though. You might want to take a look at the Rochester forum, where there was some discussion of this in the spring. Rochester is going to be cold and snowy, though-as is Chicago--which I gather you don't want.</p>

<p>Re W&L: a kid from our town went there recently, according to the parents "in search of a more politically conservative environment." He left after the first year because the Greek/drinking scene was too prevalent for him, again according to parents. Totally anecdotal, of course.</p>

11

<p>W&L is a politically conservative, socially liberal school. Lots of Greek Republicans drinking and partying. Still an outstanding LAC though.</p>

12

<p>Major
I'm looking at majoring in one of the social studies, or Philosophy.
Philosophy, Economics, PoliSci, etc are my top choices for a major.</p>

<p>Aid
The thing I was saying was I am banking on that I won't qualify for much need-aid, though I will need aid to attend anywhere, so I'm looking for merit aid.So stuff like Chicago's Odyssey doesn't really fit.
I also get the feel that Chicago would be better for grad school, maybe not undergrad.</p>

<p>USC - I heard it was in a pretty bad part of L.A., is this true? I'm not sure I'd want to be in the middle of a city like L.A., especially if the campus isn't in the best part of town. Once again, hear-say, though.</p>

<p>GWash - I was looking at Gwash along with AmericanU, but AU kinda dropped of the list. </p>

<p>Rochester - They've sent me some stuff. I look into their merit aid some more </p>

<p>Yeah, and just in general, "Lots of Greek Republicans drinking and partying." doesn't fit me that much. lol. I'm all about school spirit, teams, and parties - but the idea of a greek-dominated drinking social scene doesn't really fit me too well. I don't want to go somewhere that's study-study-study, though.</p>

<p>I'm still not sure if I will get in-state for Florida, so UF might not be an option.</p>

<p>This is my list of schools to look more into from you guys atm...:
South Carolina
Furman
Sewannee
Rhodes
Lewis & Clark,
Whitman,
Pacific Lutheran,
Macalester,
St Olaf,
Lawrence (WI),
Rice
Rochester
George Washington</p>

13

<p>Why wouldn't you be instate?</p>

<p>Also, re: USC: the campus is beautiful, but right when you step off campus you are in a shady part of LA.</p>

14

<p>raise the SAT's for your top schools</p>

15

<p>Your class rank and GPA are really great but your SATs are on the lower end... I don't even think you can consider UF as a safety. It's more of a match. I think you'll get in... but still, it's not a safety. And if you're really interested in their Honors Program, you have to retake the SAT because you need a 1400 CR+M minimum.</p>

16

<p>For nationally top ranked colleges that do not require the SAT apply to Holy Cross, Bowdoin, and Colby.</p>

17

<p>^ and Wake Forest.</p>

18

<p>I'm not really worried about the SAT scores. I'm going to take it again twice, and the ACT. I took it the first time cold feet. I'm looking at Bowdoin though.</p>

<p>And i'm pretty positive i'd get accepted to UF if I was in-state. I know people with 3.2 gpa's and just over 1200 SAT scores that got into UF. the reason i might not be in-state is complicated.</p>

19

<p>Yea, UF is a joke in state and out of state, you will get in easily. (I live in FL also)</p>

20

<p>TT: Your scores arent bad. You are in that "very close to 1400 threshold" range. Some schools are hardnosed about that 1400 cutoff, but many are not. So dont fret about them. If you can raise them up a tad, fine. If not, dont worry about it. BEING HAPPY IN COLLEGE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR OF ALL. KNOW YOURSELF, and you will find the right college for you.</p>

<p>You mentioned a really good football team. A lot of small schools (you mentioned wanting to be at a smaller school....smaller than most public universities) dont have good football teams, or are in division II or division III. SOME schools are in division I-AA, which is very competitive in sports, but also great academics. </p>

<p>Judging from your commentary, I think you really need to visit some schools. You have likes and dislikes...and that is fine....but you need to know going in what it is like. What you are willing to compromise and what you are NOT willing to compromise. Visits help you know what you like and what you dislike.....and can cross off the list. </p>

<p>There are over 3,000 colleges in the United States. So your universe of choice is endless. That means its up to YOU to determine what is the best fit for you. How much does "academic prestige" weigh on you, versus "great social scene and great sports."</p>

<p>There are several schools out there that fit the bill and are a wonderful mix of both. </p>

<p>I can tell you we are southerners. My D ended up in NYC at Fordham! Not our top choice on paper, but once we visited it was "Eureka! This is ME!" Great sports, super academics, in NYC!, GORGEOUS campus, tight student body, lots of fun, SUPERB job opportunities etc. For us, it was the right fit. She is doing very, very well. It may not be you, however. But its a great balance between sports, campus, location, academics, WONDERFUL people, etc.</p>

<p>Just another thought.</p>

<p>I am a bit perplexed about your dislike of Wake Forest: great sports, small size, great weather, superb academics, lots of fun. What was it about Wake you didnt like?</p>

<p>W & L is known for a somewhat conservative student body...but not everyone is conservative. They are increasingly drawing from the northeast and have moderate liberals as well. Its a gorgeous campus, bucolic setting, amazing academics. But its division III...so that may hurt you.</p>

<p>What about UVa.? (you picked at W & L for being "White, Rich etc." are you a minority?) UVa is fairly diverse. Great school, great sports, stunning campus, top drawer academics...number one public school in the nation. Your scores are close to what they admit.....its always tough out of state, but definitely worth the application.</p>