looking for good college matches

College Search & Selection
1

Hi I’m a junior in high school who’s been looking into the whole college search. I live in NJ but I’d prefer to go somewhere warmer, or at least not super cold, and near/in a city. I also think I should get pretty good recommendation letters from my English teacher and APUSH teacher. Can someone give me a list of schools that they think would be a good fit for me that I could get into with my stats and still get a good amount of money from them? (annual household income= $40,000 to $60,000)

weighted GPA: 4.052
unweighted GPA: 3.98
PSAT: 1140 (got a 1250 on a khan academy practice test though)
Class Rank: 10.4 (just made top 10% in my class)

Major: film production, media, communications (something along those lines)
Race: Brazilian background (speak english, Portuguese, and some French)

Grades:

FRESHMAN:
Basic Foods
A – 95
Communication in
TV and Social Media
A – 97
English I CP
A – 94
French II CP
A – 97
Geometry CP
A – 95
Health 9
A+ – 98
Physical Ed 9
A+ – 98
Physics First CP
A – 97
Theatre Arts I
A+ – 98
World History 9 CP
A – 96

SOPHOMORE:
Algebra II H
A- – 91
Chemistry Lab H
B+ – 87
Driver Theory
A – 96
English II H
B+ – 89
French III CP
A – 95
Physical Ed 10
A+ – 100
TV Production I
A- – 92
US History I H
A – 93

JUNIOR (only 1st Quarter and 2nd Quarter combined):
AP US History
A – 93
Biology H
A – 94
English III H
A – 93
French IV H
A- – 91
Physical Ed 11
A+ – 100
Pre-Calculus H
B+ – 87
TV Production II
A – 96

SENIOR: plan to take AP Lit, AP Calc, (maybe AP Bio), TV 3, Rock and Roll Academy, Personal Finance, etc.

Extracurriculars:
FRESHMAN: volleyball, relay for life participant, taught self guitar
SOPHOMORE: relay for life participant, HOWGlobal Fundraiser volunteer (3 hour event), babysitting on my own time, guitar
JUNIOR: Key Club member, Student Council member, relay for life participant, thinking about getting a job soon, guitar
SENIOR (plan): key club member, student council member, thinking about starting a film/TV club at my school, guitar

Awards: Renaissance Academic Achievement Award (all years)

  **side note: I'm really worried that my ecs are way too weak to get into a good school. I decided to quit volleyball after freshman year because my mom could never really pick me up after practice. I also have scoliosis so having to take my brace off and back on all the time like that and carry it around got very annoying to do everyday. I'm also doing an exercise program for my scoliosis this year too which takes up a lot of time as I have to go there 2x a week and spend an hour doing the exercises everyday. Is this something that would help to leave a comment on in the activities section of my application or does it just seem like I'm making up excuses?
2

Without actual test scores, it is too early to make suggestions.

Your first priority will be finding a way to pay for college, either by getting admitted to a school that meets full financial need (very competitive) or gives big merit scholarships (either competitive or automatic for certain levels of test scores and grades).

In either case, you will need as high a test score as you can get. I suggest you do serious test prep and take the actual test more than once - fee waivers may be available. Also try a practice ACT to see if that test works better for you - ACT is good for fast students.

Questbridge is an important program that matches low-income students to schools that give full ride scholarships - I don’t know much about it myself, but search about that program here.

Also, it sounds like you are hispanic, an underrepresented minority (URM). Low-income URM might help with admission to some competitive colleges. Get your scores as high as you can. Focus on grades and scores first, ECs second.

3

Ok thank you for replying! And yeah I’ve been practicing on khan academy for a good amount of time. If I were to get the same score and stay consistent with the grades I have though, what kinds of schools do you think would be a good fit for me?