Demographics
US citizen
Massachusetts
Public high school
Latino guy
First generation
Intended Major(s) Business, biology (undecided but some that interest me)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
UW: 3.1 on a 4.0 scale
W: 3.3 on a 5.0 scale
Class Rank: Don’t know
ACT/SAT Scores: ACT 32/36
Coursework
6 Honors, 3 APs (next year)
3 years of foreign language I already speak (Spanish)
Awards
Not really an award but MA Seal of Biliteracy (English/Spanish) Extracurriculars
Track/cross country team
Swimming recreationally for years, planning competitively soon
Leadership in activism club
Working at restaurant for a few years
Reviewing pop music on a blog for a few years
Studied abroad in a program that required application
Freelance graphic designer
Essays/LORs/Other
Depression, OCD, and COVID made for a whirlwind my sophomore year which I failed with a 1.6 GPA on a 4.0 scale. Got better this year and looking to end with a 3.2 GPA which is better than last year but not as good as my 3.6 GPA freshman year. Planning to get a LOR from my CP English teacher who also teaches the AP Lit class I will be taking next year. She studied at BC under and post-grad and we have a good relationship.
Cost Constraints / Budget
No cost restraints in mind for now, want to see the options and decide from there
No gist constraints doesn’t work. Sorry. I’ve read 20 messages in the last two days of kids can’t go to where they weee accepted. They never should have applied but never looked at budget.
I like:
Medium-small. Will take large if absolutely necessary. Urban or suburban. Weather doesn’t matter to me, come rain or shine. Maybe an active sports community.
Budget, I don’t have need, I have talked to my family and they said they would obviously prefer something under 50k but they would support me in paying a more expensive college. 200k> salary.
And I didn’t mean to make that my essay topic, just meant to put it under the other section. : )
Can your family afford $50k without taking on any loans?
Is there a certain distance/time you would like to be away from your family (i.e. no more than a 3-hour plane ride or within a 7 hour drive, or…)?
Is there an area of the country where you’d be interested in living after graduation? Most colleges have the strongest job recruiting in places that are geographically near them, although it’s possible to go anywhere after graduation, it just takes more effort.
Are you hoping to play any of your sports at college? Either as a recruit or just as intramurals?
And were your 3 years of foreign language in Spanish or a different foreign language?
I think ultimately distance from family doesn’t matter to me since my parents are moving back to their home country after I leave for college either way. Long plane ride sounds fine.
Probably the West Coast would be most interesting for me. I would also like the Northeast or Southeast, anything between that doesn’t interest me too much.
Intramural track/cross country probably.
1 in Latin, 1 in Spanish. I withdrew from Spanish in freshman year, took Latin sophomore year, switched back to Spanish and now will go to AP Spanish for my senior year.
Should you major in business and perhaps minor in biology, that would give you a nice background for working in a pharmaceutical company. Does that hold any interest for you?
This list is categorized based on my very fallible sense of what might be your chances of acceptance. These schools are either on the east coast or west coast, are small or medium sized, would allow you to continue running, and have business and biology majors. If you start to hone in more on what you want (or get more interested in particular colleges), let us know.
Guaranteed
Extremely Likely (80-99%)
U. of Puget Sound (WA)
Merrimack (MA)
Washington & Jefferson (PA )
Whitworth (WA)
Saint Michael’s (VT)
Likely (60-79%)
Ursinus (PA )
Siena (NY)
Saint Anselm (NH)
U. of Redlands (CA)
St. John Fisher (NY)
Wheaton (MA)
Allegheny (PA )
Biola (CA)
Seattle U. (WA)
Springfield (MA)
Adelphi (NY)
Monmouth (NJ)
Sacred Heart (CT)
Ramapo (NJ)
Whittier (CA)
Roanoke (VA)
Elon (NC)
Marist (NY)
Stonehill (MA)
Toss-Up (40-59%)
U. of Portland (OR)
Duquesne (PA )
Westmont (CA)
Christopher Newport (VA)
Geneva (PA )
Wagner (NY)
College of New Jersey
Gonzaga (WA)
Wofford (SC)
Fairfield (CT)
Possible (20-39%)
Providence (RI)
Connecticut College
Union (NY)
Less Likely (20% or less)
In crafting a list of schools you want to apply to, make sure you select at least a couple in the extremely likely or guaranteed category. You also want to make sure you only apply to schools that you would be happy to attend, and would be able to afford to attend a school for 4 years, preferably without loans.
Thank you so much! I’ve carved out a list out of your list of ones that interest me.
Elon (NC) - This one interests me a lot but it seems to have a very high GPA average of admitted students from what I got from search results, although it does have a 72% acceptance rate.
Stonehill (MA)
Springfield (MA) - Like the athletics part of this one
I would include U.Mass Lowell on your list of universities to seriously consider. U.Mass Boston might be worth consideration also.
Your sophomore year would make U.Mass Amherst a reach, although COVID was tough for many students. Even some students who were able to pull through the pandemic with good grades have told me that the entire year was lousy (they used stronger terminology).
According to the College Board’s website, Elon has a 78% acceptance rate. Only 6% of students had below a 3.0 and 7% of students had a 3.0-3.24 GPA. Now, the issue with GPA stats is nobody knows if those are weighted or unweighted GPAs. So GPA odds are slim, but you have a 32 ACT where its 25-75 range is 25-30. So with your ACT score I don’t think the acceptance rate is going to drop by more than 18 points, which is why I kept it in the likely category. But these are just my educated guesses, nothing more.
When picking out the schools that interest you from the larger list I gave you, what is it that sparked your interest? Knowing that can help other posters narrow in on suggestions and provide appropriate feedback. Or were these just names that you had heard of and thus they’re the ones that interest you?
Stonehill - Interests me because it’s in MA, seems to have a decent reputation around here and has a nice campus
Fairfield - Like this one because of its size, in-between too big and too small- enough to recognize faces but meet new people
Connecticut College - Small size, LAC
Providence - This one I’m a bit more hesitant on because of diversity issues, but I like the campus and I like the athletics programs
Springfield - MA and nice athletics programs, campus is nestled on a lake
Gonzaga - School spirit, in an area that I like its weather, West Coast, new experience from home
University at Puget Sound - same as above, much more likelier to get in
Merrimack College - I like this for being in MA and for its likelier chances
I also have been looking at the College Board site to see the GPA percentages, but I was a bit hesitant to make any decisions based on them since I saw Tulane had 20 percent of students with my GPA range but I know it is also very selective at the same time, maybe the processes for different colleges can just be extremely different.
Yes, but Tulane has an overall acceptance rate of 13%. 13% acceptance with 8% with a GPA lower than 3.0 is a lot different than 78% with 6% with an ACT below 3.0. Tulane’s ACT range is 30-33, so 25% of students have an ACT higher than 33. Elan’s range is 25-30, so your score is significantly higher. So with a score that’s above the 75th percentile and a high acceptance rate, I judged your chances accordingly. You may differ, and that’s totally fine.
So it sounds like you do have a preference for staying around Massachusetts or for going to Washington, and not just east, southeast, or west coast. You’d prefer an environment with more diversity than less. Is it that you need more info on some of the colleges? Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t mean they’re not good schools. Most people in Washington State have probably never heard of Stonehill, Fairfield, Springfield, or Merrimack. People usually have a tendency to know the names of colleges that are around them, or that they see playing sports on tv. That doesn’t mean that other good options don’t exist, though.
Your parents have assured you that they can spend $80k per year for your college education?
If not, find out what the amount they are comfortable contributing. Also, if they do not want to given them basic financial information for you to run net price calculators on college web sites, ask them to run the net price calculator on the web site of each college you are interested in.
Yeah, that’s completely true. I’m going to spend some time looking up and researching these colleges and I’ll get back to you. I think I have a tendency to gravitate towards more recognizable names because of this deep ingrained first generation college student trying to impress thing, but I know that name doesn’t matter in the end, just the education. I’ll get back to you after I research a lot of these.
What none of us knows is how any individual college is going to view a first gen URM whose grades are all over the place. His 32 ACT and combined 3.4 gpa in 2 of his 3 years show some potential, so is there a college more selective than we might otherwise consider which sees potential and is motivated to give him a chance because he is a URM? I wish that I knew enough to know where such a college(s) might be which also has a business school.
That’s one of the interesting things with Stetson - they have a business school with great connections in central florida so amazing internships. As a regional school it’s well regarded in this area. They even have some BBA/MBA thing.