<p>Currently a junior but already considering...
3.7-3.8 UW GPA
SATs probably 2000 to 2100 (studying hard, haven't taken it yet)
1 AP course (there's only 2 in my school）
SAT Subject Tests - Chinese (800), Math lvl 2 and Biology not yet taken
Plenty of good and focused ECs</p>
<p>uPenn
Cornell
Duke
UChic
NYU
Boston College
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Boston University
Fordham University</p>
<p>Most of these are close to where I live because my family is extremely poor and we can't afford to move far away. I thought about Emory and Rice but that's the reason.</p>
<p>For Questbridge, these are the 8 I already ranked and picked (In order)</p>
<p>uPenn
UChic
Darthmouth
Brown
UVA
Northwestern
Emory
Notre Dame</p>
<p>I know all these seems like high reaches for me lol.</p>
<p>If you want to, posting your ECs would give us a more complete picture.</p>
<p>Based on your scores (and your predicted SAT), I think your background gives you a boost out of the high reach zone into the reach zone. Sorry, I’m no expert. </p>
<p>Good list so far. Keep bringing your GPA up and try to get AT LEAST a 2100 on the SAT. Most of the schools you name have a 2150-ish as the 25th percentile score.</p>
<p>They aren’t bad, but like you say… Definite lack of leadership positions. Oh well, some colleges look past that and seeing your kind of family history, that probably gives you some kind of boost. I think that, and if you can get good recs and write good essays, colleges may overlook the leadership thing. The only other problem I see is that you go to a really small school. This may be problematic as the adcons tend to favor schools that are highly ranked in the state or often send students to high caliber schools.</p>
<p>The really good schools (like the ones you’re applying to) often have an adcon for each state, so the fact that you do so many ECs in such a small school… The adcon for your state will probably take that into consideration so it may not hinder you.</p>
<p>Oh okay, yea I do the most I can in my school without having to obstruct tasks I have to do at home because my mom take cares of me, my dad is in my home country and he does not and cannot work (Idk how to prove that though). I have to go home and do chores for her too with all the schoolwork, etc. </p>
<p>My school is about 250 high school kids, my class only about 66 kids, and it’s also a middle school with another 250. The school however, is a city school.</p>
<p>With your GPA I would say the ivies, Chicago, and Duke are very high reaches, the others are lower/mid reaches. But keep in mind that all of these schools are extremely expensive and you said that your family is “extremely poor”. I’m sure you’ll get some need based financial aid, but I don’t think you’d be able to get much merit aid from these top tier schools. Make sure to find some lower tier schools that you know you’ll get enough aid from.</p>
<p>These schools promise to meet 100% of demonstrated need, and, in the case of the Ivies (and maybe the other schools although I’m not sure), ask that the student/family make no contribution if the annual income is less than 60k a year. UVA is a state school so I don’t think that rule applies and I hear Northwestern is notorious for not giving much financial aid. And some say the same of UChicago.</p>
<p>Aw well it’s not like my family can’t pay a little but, but yea my family earns $15,000 annually, and my mom has a small amount of money in cash. </p>
<p>I really want to go to UChic though, and for QB some of the colleges are too far like Rice and even Emory is kind of far.</p>
<p>I wanna go to Carnegie Mellon, I’m in the same state but it’s still like 4-5 hours away.</p>
<p>I told my mom I would have absolutely no chance at uPenn but our family’s financial situation makes it possible (and me trying to improve my scores lol). </p>
<p>Also this guy who’s like 3rd or 4th in class rank had a 1980 SAT and he got into Penn Early Decision, I’m way below 3rd or 4th (like 15th out of 65) but I’ll get a higher SAT then him so maybe…</p>
<p>In any case, best of luck! I’m also applying to similar schools (Penn, Yale, Stanford etc.) so I know the feeling x.x I’m sure you’ll get in to at least some of them :-D</p>
<p>Also even though my school is small, it’s known city-wide as one of the best schools, especially musically, and it’s a magnet school.</p>
<p>And also, the regular list is going to be mostly RD since I’m applying for match if I become a QB finalist. (UChic and UVA offers EA after match)</p>
<p>Or I can forget about match and do ED for UChic or Duke, idk.</p>
<p>Just so you know, when a student goes to college, his family doesn’t move with them, so you could apply to any school even if your family doesn’t want to move :).
The top schools actually take travel costs into account and throw that into financial aid so that you can go home for the holidays, etc.
However your list is not very consistent, UChicago and Dartmouth are not similar at all.
If you like UChicago, see if William&Mary offers Questbridge. (If not = not affordable).
If your family makes $15,000 or even $20,000, your EFC is zero, they can’t afford to pay anything for your education.
For this reason, you should apply to as many “100%” schools as possible:
[100%</a> Meet Need Colleges | CollegeGreenlight](<a href=“Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students”>Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students)
I would definitely include schools like Rice or Emory (perhaps Oxford’s Emory). You also need safeties.
NYU is notorious for giving bad financial aid - a recent applicant whose family makes about $25,000/year was expected to pay nearly $16,000… needless to say, she gave up on NYU immediately.
Notre Dame is seriously Catholic, so if you’re not, it may be a problem. There are parietals for example (women and men live in separate dorms and they’re only allowed to visit at specific times.)
Questbridge gives you much better chances than ED.
Try to use number2.com as much as you can so that your SAT score is as high as possible.
Get your vouchers (guidance counselors) ASAP and plan to take SAT Subjects in May and/or June.</p>
<p>Yea NYU is kind of expensive but it’s easy to get to and it’s easier for my mom to live there (she wants to follow me), and I can’t find a college like that in the NYC area, Columbia is too high reach.
I took Fordham and Boston University as safeties but I may need better safeties…, I don’t think I need safeties for QB.
Yea I’ll replace Notre Dame with Emory.</p>
<p>What about Carnegie Mellon? It’s in the same state.</p>
<p>Indeed, now it’s all depending on my grades
Here’s my updated list
QB (Ranked in order):
uPenn
UChic
Dartmouth
Brown
UVA
Northwestern
Emory
Rice</p>
<p>Regular:
Reaches-
uPenn (half of the people in my class are applying here, so unless I get in here through QB, RD is really slim…)
Cornell
Duke (Closer to where I live, easier to move…, I would like an alternative but they’re so far…)
UChic
Emory
Rice
John Hopkins
Closer to match:
NYU
Boston College
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA
Carnegie Mellon (In state)
Safety or closer to safety:
Boston University
Fordham University
Drexel University (In same city but I don’t wanna go here really…)</p>
<p>These may be too many, but I don’t mind applying to all these after QB if I don’t get matched.</p>
<p>Boston, Fordham and Drexel are definitely safeties. I would move NYU to a low reach. The state schools though don’t have as good financial aid as the private ones. Also, since you’re a junior, the RD application won’t be due until late December/early January of your senior year. EA will be mid-November. Because of this, I don’t think it will be an issue for your QB results in October.</p>
<p>Yeah but if I go for match the results come in December so I only can do RD.</p>
<p>Also what about Wake Forest University?
(So many colleges lol, but I’ll apply to 14 if I need to)</p>
<p>But how many of those do you recommend me to apply to? I really want to go to Duke, Cornell and Penn. Emory and Rice because I can still do EDII after QB match.</p>