Looking for parental wisdom: Chances...

Parent Cafe
1

<p>How are my chances for these schools? (Experienced adults might know better, so that's why I'm posting here.)</p>

<p>Stanford
Yale
Wharton
Columbia
Dartmouth
Duke
USC
Alabama (full OOS tuition guaranteed)</p>

<p>BACKGROUND + ACADEMIC
[ul]
[<em>]First-generation college student. Caucasian and in Los Angeles CA
[</em>]Family income = $20,000/year. Single parent household (Mom is a widow)
[<em>]French, Corsican, Persian ethnicities; fluent in French
[</em>]GPA: 4.06 Weighted, 3.6 Unweighted; Top 10% of high school class
[<em>]SAT: 2080 (740 M, 670 CR, 670 W, 10 essay)
[</em>]SAT Subject Tests: 800 French, 750 Math 1, 730 US History
[<em>]Total AP courses to be completed by graduation: 9
[</em>]AP Psychology: 5; AP French: 5; AP European History: 3; AP US History: 4
[/ul]</p>

<p>EXTRA CURRICULAR
[ul]
[<em>]Cross Country (3 years) "MVP", Varsity
[</em>]Track (4 years) 1600m, 800m, long jump; "Most Improved", Varsity
[<em>]French club (3 years) (President, Treasurer) Organized events; in charge of coordinating dates, finances, trips...
[</em>]FBLA club (2 years) 3rd Place in State competitions
[<em>]Debate Team (2 years) Oratory speeches; head defense attorney for Mock Trial
[</em>]Service Club (2 years) "Respect Campaign Organizer", raised awareness for drunk driving, raised funds for leukemia, held raffles, assemblies, invited guest speakers. We raised over $15,000 for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.
[<em>]Church youth leader (5 years) Organized camping events, movie nights, service opportunities...
[</em>]Jr. Scholar's Academy (3 months) Was selected among 50 students in our school district for two courses from the Gilder Lehrman Institute: "A Historical Perspective on Lincoln" and "Founding Fathers, The Revolutionary Generation".
[li]Internship at Zion's Bank (2 weeks) Shadowed one of the top credit administrators in the bank.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>AWARDS / HONORS
[ul]
[<em>]Questbridge "CollegePrep Award" Recipient
[</em>]Questbridge Finalist (anticipating this fall)
[<em>]Cross Country: "MVP"
[</em>]Track: "Most Improved"
[<em>]3rd place in FBLA State competitions. Team event: "Business Decision Making"
[</em>]High School Academic Letter I; and consistent Honor Roll.
[<em>]AP Scholar with Honor
[</em>]Nominated by high school teacher for "Keys to Success"
[/ul]</p>

<p>WORK
[ul]
[<em>]Educated an autistic boy for a family (1 year) I educated a 9 year old autistic child, Spencer during all of 10th grade on my own time twice a week. I taught him how to speak correctly, write, think and express himself.
[</em>]Digitized thousands slides, neighborhood project. (2 months) Summer of 2009: scanned over 1000 old picture slides of the 35mm type.
[<em>]Designed, created, and maintain the e-commerce website located at earthcrossroads.com.
[</em>]Drew vector computer graphics for a small Los Angeles real-estate company. (2 months)
[/ul]</p>

<p>MISC INFO</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]I'm retaking SAT in October, aiming 2250+. By December I'll try to hit 2300.
[</em>]I'm taking Math level 2 in October and aiming for 800.
[/ul]</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]All of my bad grades were from Sophomore year, we didn't have a place to live and were living in family friends' houses etc. I spent several weeks sleeping with my family in our car.
[</em>]My entire Junior year is filled with straight As in 8 courses, no exceptions. We had moved to suburban Utah for this year.
[/ul]</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]My father committed suicide about a week before my mom discovered she was pregnant with me. He was attending Stanford; they were married and living in the dorms for couples.
[</em>]I have spent my entire life in Los Angeles, the only exception is Junior year.
[li]My grandma has a big house that we live in when it's not being rented, but as far as legal guardians go, we have no assets/equity over $1,000.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>[ul]
[<em>]I'm applying to several of those schools through the Questbridge process for low-income students.
[</em>]Intended major: Economics + Political Science / Finance, depending on the school.
[/ul]</p>

2

<p>Being in Questbridge helps, but USC is your only match and Alabama your only safety. The rest are reaches for everyone because of their low admission rates.</p>

<p>Might you need more financial aid than the package at Alabama offers you? If so, you might want to add more matches and safeties – especially those known for good merit aid – to your list.</p>

3

<p>Is there some reason why you have decided not to consider any of the small liberal arts colleges? Most have excellent economics and political science depts (though not finance) and some offer outstanding financial and merit aid for attractive students like you. You will have a more nurturing environment, close relationships with faculty, and lots of mentoring. The small class sizes offer more opportunity to develop your writing and speaking skills.</p>

<p>And I agree with Marian that you have a lot of high reaches and reaches + one safety. Some of those LACs (or mid-sized private universities) could fill the gap in the middle where your match schools should be.</p>

4

<p>Well I really think that LACs are not for me, as excellent as they seem to be. However, mid-sized private universities are definitely in the radar. If anyone has suggestions for match schools for me, I’ll consider them. Right now the only one I’m thinking of adding is Emory. However, it might just be another reach? I’m not sure.</p>

<p>Oh and thanks for the replies</p>

5

<p>Have you looked at Rice and Tufts? Rice is on Questbridge too.</p>

<p>Pomona is another Questbridge school. Even though it is a smaller LAC, the student population at the Claremont colleges is around 5,000.</p>

6

<p>Yea I have considered all of those schools as well, however I’m looking for less reachy-type schools. And I don’t like Pomona’s area (grew up nearby)… Those 3 schools have average SAT scores that put me way below average and they have low acceptance rates. USC and Emory would be easier to get into IMO, so those are more low-reaches / matches for me.</p>

<p>I can’t seem to find any other school to fill the Duke -> Alabama gap besides USC and Emory though…</p>

7

<p>Brandeis, Georgetown, Vanderbilt, CMU in the reachy/matchy category. Fordham, BC, GW, Marquette, Pitt, in the matchy/safety category. Your life story would make you an interesting candidate for all of these schools… but obviously admissions/fin aid is always a question at the higher selectivity schools.</p>

8

<p>blosson thanks for those suggestions! georgetown and boston college are the two that i might consider, because the others would either be too small for me (ex brandeis), or not a fit (ex vanderbilt), or terrible financial aid when i need a lot (ex fordham i hear).</p>

<p>Georgetown, Boston College, Emory, and USC might be a good bunch of matchy schools… I’ll have to cut them down to 2 or 3 based on which gives the most financial aid (more grants less loans).</p>

<p>Any other comments still welcome and thanks everyone for the replies.</p>

9

<p>U of Chicago is excellent for econ major, and it is on Questbrifge list.</p>

<p>Fin Aid is best at the very top schools, but if you go through Questbridge, it will be irrelevant.</p>

10

<p>Brandeis has both a strong econ department and offers a Master’s in finance which is very well regarded (I imagine you could take some grad classes by the time you’re a junior or senior). You may find it’s not as small as you think it is.</p>

<p>Just a suggestion; I think first generation college students do relatively well in Brandeis admissions.</p>

11

<p>Dartmouth: Approximately 4,100 undergraduate, 1,700 graduate
Brandeis: 3,185 undergraduates, 800 grad students</p>

<p>Is that really so much smaller?</p>

<p>I’d suggest looking at U. of Rochester</p>

<p>Full-time undergraduates: 5,066
Full-time graduate students: 3,065
SAT 620-730 CR, 670-760 M, 620-720 W
75% top 10% of class</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>American University, which is in Washington, DC, is known for being very generous with financial aid with students of your caliber. And, of course, the political opprotunities are fantastic.</p>

<p>My S is also applying to Yale but that is reach for everyone. He did not look at Georgetown (too conservative) but did visit GW and AU. He went in thinking that GW would be his preferred choice but left with AU near the top of his list. We’ve been very impressed with how responsive AU has been to his questions and concerns. </p>

<p>Best of luck to you.</p>

13

<p>What about the UC’s? As an in-state student you may be eligible for financial aid…</p>

14

<p>^ Hmm UCs are risky because I just moved back to CA, and my mom is still living in another state… so I’m not sure about the whole state-residency issue. I will still try to apply and see if they go with it, because UCs would be a great option to have.</p>

15

<p>Would Santa Clara be a match?</p>

16

<p>^ I don’t think their financial aid is good so I probably couldn’t afford it anyway…</p>

17

<p>Be sure to apply for Emory Scholars if you are applying to Emory. Watch those scholarship deadlines!</p>

18

<p>Haha well… I don’t think I could get any merit aid from Emory… I’ll barely be getting into the school in the first place! Maybe if I had a 4.6 and a 2300 or something, but my scores right now are below average. Unless there’s something about Emory Scholars that I don’t know about?</p>

19

<p>Emory Scholars is on the same par as Yale, Stanford, and the other schools that you referred to in your original post. There are many cross-admits with all of these schools.</p>

20

<p>Well I don’t think I would need money from Emory since if I am admitted, based on my family’s income I would be pretty much covered anyway… I’ll look into it
Oh and I added Bates as a safety so if anyone wants to chance this is my college list</p>

<p>Stanford
Yale
Wharton
Columbia
Dartmouth</p>

<p>Duke
Northwestern
Emory
USC</p>

<p>Bates
Alabama</p>