<p>I've been looking at a couple colleges but I can't get a feel for whether my stats are good enough to apply or not. Help me out? :) Looking for both matches and safeties.</p>
<p>Female, South Carolina
Taiwanese (dual citizen)
1st Generation, low income (parents are deaf)
Attending a public magnet school with rigorous graduation requirements (including a senior thesis)</p>
<p>GPA: 4.9 (weighted)
Rank: school "doesn't rank" but would be in top 10%
SAT (CR/M/W): (2080) 680/690/710 - retook in Oct, waiting for scores
SAT II: Chemistry (710) US History (780)
ACT: 33 (English 35, Math 32)
AP courses:
Biology (5)
Chemistry (5)
English Lang (5)
US History (5)
currently taking AP Gov, Macroeconomics, Psychology, English Lit, Calc BC
-All A's freshman through junior year except for Lang (which was a B >.<)
-Mostly A's so far this year</p>
<p>ECs/Honors:
180+ hours volunteer service at local hospital
summer internship at local aquarium; one of 10 chosen from a pool of 150
employed 1.5 years at grocery store
National Merit Semifinalist
Questbridge applicant
2nd place in school science fair and tri-county science fair
AP Scholar with Honor
science decathlon (3 years, 2 time national champions)
french national honor society (2 years)
secretary of NHS
junior intermezzo club
city recreational soccer (2 years, all-stars state champions)
JV soccer (1 year)
JV volleyball (1 year)</p>
<p>I prefer schools in the northeast, particularly those near urban areas, especially smaller universities and liberal arts colleges. Also, should I just send my ACT scores if my SAT scores don't improve? I'm looking at colleges like Tufts, Haverford, Bowdoin for reaches.</p>
<p>I don’t think Bowdoin, Tufts and Haverford are such huge reaches with an ACT 33. They are reasonable reaches. Probably just send the ACT but I’m not totally sure. It converts to a slightly higher SAT score. Another thing to think about is that Middlebury and possibly others will take 3 SAT II scores instead of SAT I. It would nice to use that 780! For matches that are similar to the choices you mentioned, consider Colby and Trinity.</p>
<p>Good list of schools but Bowdoin is not near a city bur in a nice small town-Brunswick. If interested in sciences, Tufts is good and might look at Holy Cross(don’t have to be religious). HC has nice campus and good science reputation.</p>
<p>Hi! Thanks for the responses.
I guess I could try to take the SAT IIs once more; are there any other schools like that?
M’s Mom - thank you for the suggestions.
I actually am interested in the sciences! I’d forgotten to add that. </p>
<p>In the scope of this, would applying to Ivies like Brown or Dartmouth be too unreasonable?</p>
<p>If your SAT’s don’t improve, use the ACT. The 33 is competitive for any school. You are low income and underprivileged and that will give your case a boost. I think you’re a tremendous Questbridge candidate and that will take you a long way. </p>
<p>I think that Tufts and Haverford are matches and Bowdoin, Brown and Dartmouth are reaches. A reach means that it’s difficult BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE to get into. Think of a match as maybe 50-50.</p>
<p>I don’t think there are ANY schools that are unreasonable for you to apply to as long as you’ve identified a safety or two where you would be happy to attend.</p>
<p>Since your family’s income is low, then your list of schools need to include schools that meet need (these will mainly be reaches) AND schools that give HUGE merit scholarships (these will mainly be safeties). </p>
<p>Don’t bother with schools that are likely going to gap you since your family can’t cover those gaps.</p>
<p>You’re interested in the sciences…what is your intended career?</p>
<p>I agree that she should apply to schools that meet need. With her situation though, I disagree that they will mainly be reaches. MANY match schools will meet her need. I’m assuming the 4.9 weighted average is on an (A=5.0) scale. This girl should not need to go the merit aid route. I think merit aid is really important for middle class kids caught in the squeeze or for kids whose parents just won’t pay. For top students who are also low income, the path to paying for private college is much easier and should be the path of first choice.</p>
<p>Can you provide a list of match schools that will meet need with either small or no loans? I know that there are some, but not sure which ones do. I used the word “mainly” because many/most of the schools that meet need with no or low loans are reach schools.</p>
<p>I think Tufts, Bowdoin, Brown, Haverford are great choices for you- and you will be an attractive candidate to them. Dartmouth, too- but it’s remote from any real city. IMO, Trinity, Colby, are safeties. Be sure you’re looking at “student life” on all campuses, not just academic rep.
Adcoms will notice all the 5’s. They’ll be happy with the volunteering, internship- and that you held a job. Write a great personal essay and answer the “why us?” essay well.</p>
<p>Some of them include loans as part of the self-help part, but my understanding is those loans are limited to what the kids can borrow themselves. </p>
<p>For THIS student, if I had to speculate based on Naviance scatterplots I’ve seen, I would guess that the only reaches on that list are</p>
<p>It’s kind of a long list. I haven’t heard of Adrian, Chapman, or Salem, I don’t think SUNY College of Environmental Science is relevant to the discussion, and Wabash is a men’s college, but I think that all of the other colleges on that list are matches for the OP.</p>
<p>There is a similar list from doing a wiki on needs blind admissions that doesn’t correlate 100% with the USNews List</p>
<p>1) Take the link I referred to in post #13. It is a list from USNews of colleges that claim to provide full need.
2) subtract the ones that I thought were reaches in post # 13.
3) subtract the ones in post #15 that I didn’t know or were not relevant. </p>
<p>The remainder are matches for the OP that claim to provide full need. There are a lot. </p>
<p>Just my opinion on whether schools are reaches or matches. I’m using our school’s Naviance to get my guestimate.</p>
<p>These are some really great resources; Thank you, ClassicRockerDad. The varying levels of “100% need met” worry me, though; do you know of any lists that show how much gap that these schools leave for family to pay (maybe depending on income brackets?)</p>
<p>Go to the ^ QuicKEFC on Finaid.org. Then, try to do the FafsaForecaster. That will give an ideaof EFC. </p>
<p>I think with your stats and ECs, you don’t have to swoop down to the level of some colleges on the Meet Full Need List. You’ll just need to spend an evening researching what’s there. It may help to see if these schools have sample student aid packages on their web.</p>
<p>I don’t know where to find that info. It’s a good question to ask colleges. I also wouldn’t be afraid of borrowing a little bit of money. Coming out of college owing 80K is too much unless you’re in a high paying career like engineering or finance. Coming out of college owing 30K does not seem that unreasonable to me for any professional. 40K isn’t out of the question if you think the opportunity is especially worthwhile. </p>
<p>Also you should be aware that many of the schools are matches (rather than safeties) because even though you have good stats they care a lot about how likely you are to attend and you need so show them a lot of attention in order for them to accept you. They reject some very high performing kids and accept lower performing ones.</p>
