Match me -- IL English major, 1400 SAT 3.7 GPA

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I’m not going to lie, looking through the posts here scared me-- I know I’m nowhere near the strongest profile that’s posted on this forum, but I’m hoping you guys will have good advice anyway. I’m a rising senior. I want to go to a college that has a good humanities and music program, maybe smaller class sizes, but also has a good social life. Hoping to stay in-state. I’m prioritizing financial aid.
Demographics
I am a dual citizen of America and Brazil. I’m a resident of Illinois.
I go to a small, somewhat competitive suburban high school.
I am white (my mom is from Brazil), female.

Intended Major(s)
English, linguistics. Minoring in German

GPA - 4.234 W (AP and DC classes went up to 5.33, Honors classes went up to 4.50, Regular classes go up to 4.33)
3.72 UW GPA
SAT - 1400 (I’m thinking of retaking the SAT in August depending on what colleges I narrow my list down to)
My school does not do class ranks

Coursework
9th grade*
Honors english: B+
Honors geometry: A- first semester, B second semester
AP comp. sci principals: B+ first semester, A- second semester (3 on AP exam)
Choir: A+ (mainly a participation grade)
Honors biology: B first semester, A- second semester
Honors world studies: A-
German 1: A- first semester, A+ second semester

*I did 9th grade completely online-- there was a choice to go back in person but I couldn’t due to health concerns. Should I put this in additional information? (sorry if irrelevant)

10th grade
Honors english: A
Intro to business (one semester): A
AP comp sci a: A first semester, A- second semester (3 on AP exam)
Choir: A+
Honors chemistry: B first semester, B- second semester
Honors algebra 2 w/ trig: B
German 2: A+

11th grade
AP Lang: B+ first semester, A second semester
Honors precalc: A
Acapella: A+ (choir combined with music theory, graded on assignments)
Physics: A
DC US history: A
DC German 3: A+

12th grade
AP lit
AP gov
DC calc
DC German 4
DC advanced mobile apps.
Acapella

Awards
Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (3 day leadership conference) – I qualified to apply and went (not sure if this is an award, please correct me if i’m wrong)
My school doesn’t do awards on its own, I’m not too sure how normal this is or isn’t

Extracurriculars
Guitarist in the Jazz Band
Guitarist for my school’s improv shows
Color guard – helped lead sectionals and helped new members extensively. I also created and currently run social media. Created posters and tri-folds for recruiting new members.
Light crew- Ran spotlights for spring plays
Ensemble in the musical junior year
German club- sold over $200 worth of advent calendars for charity sale, tutored students
Guitarist in church band
Volunteer for my church’s VBS (supervised 12-20 kids aged pre-k to 5th grade)
TRI-M- music honors society, volunteered 10+ hours for music specifically
Guitar teacher - This is my job. I teach people, mainly kids, who are new to the guitar the basics.

Essays/LORs/Other
I’m going to ask my computer science teacher and my AP lang teacher for recommendations. I think that I’m going to write my common app essay on how I dislocated my knee on the way to school and how the ambulance ride there impacted what I wanted to do with my life. I also understudied for someone in the fall play (12 angry jurors), I had two days before the show to memorize all the lines as best as I could. It was pretty crazy-- so I could also write my essay on that.

Again, I understand that I’m not what this forum considers a strong or good applicant, but I figured that you guys would give honest advice. Thanks for your help and thanks for reading through this.

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Hey, you’re a fine candidate!!:grinning::raised_hands:
What is your budget for Univ. IL in Chicago? Can you afford it?
How about Illinois State?

You could ask your guidance counselor if you might be eligible for merit scholarships for your GPA and SAT at Augustana, for comparison.

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I could probably afford UIC with scholarships, I’m just worried about it being a commuter school.

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Could also compare Illinois Wesleyan and see its music scholarship for non- music majors.

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You’re a fine candidate.

You’re wanting to stay in state - is that for prioritizing aid or you genuinely want to stay in state ? Lots of Il students leave based on cost.

What is your actual budget ?

Thanks

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I want to be close to friends and family, but Im staying in state because of prioritizing aid mainly. If I got a good scholarship from an out of state college I would go there. My budget is 20k max.

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You could look at these state websites to see how English majors fare, and types of scholarships.

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Have you looked at Lawrence U., in Appleton, WI? It’s only 3 hrs from Chicago, and they’re pretty generous with financial aid. (They don’t guarantee full-need-met aid, but with your stats you’d get enough merit to fill any gap; it just depends whether the family contribution they calculate is in line with your budget.) It’s excellent for non-major musicians, strong in the liberal arts including English (their Freshman Studies program, wherein all first-years have a seminar with a common reading list, was developed by a past president who went on to become president of Harvard), and has majors in both Linguistics and German as well.

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I asked because there are schools - and yes, they’re larger but they have Honors programs - but schools who would provide you great aid to go.

Alabama - you’d get $24K off - so you’d be a tad over $20K. There is a chance for $4k more - yes, it’s big but has an Honors college. Tons of Illinois kids go to Alabama. See the link below.

Others to maybe look at - UAH for smaller (will make budget), Mississippi State, Kansas State, Iowa State and for English - Iowa - but don’t know if it will get to $20K.

How about a Southern Illiniois?

So I just mentioned a ton of large schools and you want smaller.

So here’s the thing - you want to spend $20K. Now run the net price calculators at some private schools - like a Northwestern. What do they say you’d be expected to spend? In other words, is $20K a self imposed budget or would schools agree that’s all you can afford? If it’s determined that $20K is all you can afford, you open up a lot of schools - and you can check a Kenyon, Macalester, Northwestern, Grinnell and many more.

If they deem you can afford more, then it’s a I only want to spend $20K but that’s self imposed - then check a Beloit, Kalamazoo and Depauw - but likely they’ll be too much. You can also check Bradley. Just to get a sense of what they’ll cost.

A Truman State will be about $21K after merit (b4 books and personal expenses) and Murray State may come in at budget with merit with a chance for more.

Western Carolina will also make budget without any additional merit (yes, not easy to get to).

Sometimes to hit a budget you have to make sacrifices (location or size) - but sometimes you don’t.

I didn’t look for German…but that’s just some thoughts.

Good luck.

Growing brain drain: University of Alabama’s gain in drawing Illinois students is a loss for Illinois (chicagotribune.com)

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Im looking at Lawrence and I really like it. Thanks!

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If you and your parents can enter your financial parameters into Lawrence’s Net Price Calculator, it will give you an of what your costs there would look like. This will give you an idea of how affordable Lawrence itself would be, and also whether other schools in this broad category are likely to be affordable for you. Net Price Calculator Every school should have a link to their Net Price Calculator on their financial aid website.

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I’ll add Knox College in Illinois.

I will also second UIC, since it’s English program is considered to be pretty good.

You keep on bringing that article, but few students from Illinois are going to Alabama, and the numbers have been dropping.

SInce 2015, the percent of college-bound students from Illinois who attend college in Alabama has dropped from 2.8% in 2015 to 2.4% in 2019, after which they stopped being one of the top 10 states for Illinois students. This is ANY Alabama colleges, not just UA. Illinois students are mostly going to other Midwestern states.

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The point is two fold:

  1. Maybe the article is a bit dated but your stat itself shows many are still going. To give you an actual #, the top states (exc Alabama) in spring 2023 are:

Georgia with 2509 students
Texas with 1678 students
Illinois with 1562, up 17 from 2022

The next three (all over 1000) are Florida, Tennessee, and California so with 58% OOS it’s very geographically diverse - again likely in part due to low cost for top students.

So it’s still a place many in Illinois are going to and likely due in part to cost.

  1. I’m looking at schools with an assured $20k price point - and unless the student had demonstrated need, all these private colleges mentioned (including by me) are highly unlikely from a cost POV. As I noted, some are farther away but that’s often a trade off for cost.

Thanks

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News about affordable community college in IL:

So one may need to compare, cost of four years on scholarship out of state versus possibly two years free community college plus two years instate.

Perhaps scholarships thru Illinois at Urbana-Champaign would come close to OP’s budget.
https://osfa.illinois.edu/other-financial-aid-options/

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Starting this cycle, Lawrence does guarantee to meet full need for Illinois (and Wisc) residents. NPC here: Net Price Calculator

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It would be in my budget, thanks!

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As @tsbna44 mentioned, take a look at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. It offers English, Linguistics, and German.

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That’s great news! Not that it has to be Lawrence, but it’s proof-of-concept that there are colleges that will give you enough aid to be affordable, without being high reaches admissions-wise.

Check out the website ctcl.org - Lawrence is one of the “Colleges That Change Lives” schools, and there may be others that you would like, as well. You’ll have to run the Net Price Calculator for any that interest you, and compare the financial projections.

In terms of your criteria - music plus English+Linguistics+German plus proximity to Chicago plus small classes + generous aid - I think Lawrence may be a tough one to beat. St. Olaf is another that satisfies all of your criteria and deserves a look, but it’s twice as far away as Lawrence is. Oberlin is farther than Lawrence but closer than St. Olaf, but I think it might not be as good a fit as the other two. (Music not quite as friendly to non-majors, and it has a very politically activist culture that is not for everyone.) Knox, mentioned up-thread, is another CTCL school - not quite as music-focused, but they do have an annual jazz festival - and about the same distance from Chicago as Lawrence.

Your stats are above median for Lawrence, and that’s a good thing as they (and most peer schools) are need-aware, so needing a lot of financial aid will work against you. (Also, a lot of the below-median admits at any school are going to be athletes, legacies, and other “hooked” applicants.) I strongly suggest that you apply in the early cycle wherever you can - Lawrence and St. Olaf, for example, have both non-binding Early Action and binding Early Decision. May need-aware schools start out the admissions cycle giving little weight to the amount of aid needed, but become more need-aware as their financial aid budget gets closer to being spent down. Having high need will be less of a liability in the early cycle - not to mention the beauty of having at least one affordable acceptance before the winter holidays, to put your mind at ease!

If it turns out that you have a couple of favorite schools with good financial aid projections, choosing an ED1 school and an ED2 backup could be smart. You’re not in a situation where comparing merit offers is likely to be too important - it will take need-based aid to get to your budget, so how much of the total package is merit vs. need aid won’t really matter. You can get a pretty good idea what each college will cost from the NPC, and go ahead with a binding ED app if there are one or two schools that really hit the sweet spot for you.

I think you’re underestimating the strength of your application a little, but that’s much better than overestimating and aiming too high. If you focus on schools in the Lawrence/St. Olaf tier of competitiveness, and apply in the early cycle (whether EA or ED), I think you’ll do very well!

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Would you suggest Kalamazoo for this student ? They have a German department and you can get mid 30s in merit alone.

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I think Kalamazoo may not tick quite as many of OP’s boxes as Lawrence (doesn’t have the strong music emphasis, and doesn’t have a linguistics department) but it’s definitely worthy of a closer look. It’s on the CTCL list/website so I figured my suggestion to check out that website would lead the OP to K-college as well as the others in the region. Money-wise, the important thing is the family contribution that the school calculates; merit is helpful in filling any gap, but OP won’t get to her budget on merit alone, so it’s how they calculate her need that is the most important. There probably won’t be any meaningful difference in her out-of-pocket whether the merit component is 10K, 20K, or 30K - as long as it’s enough merit to get her to a full-need-met package and ideally replace the guaranteed loans.

Kenyon isn’t a CTCL school but could be worth a look too. Distance from Chicago is similar to St. Olaf. Top-notch for English, especially creative writing. And they meet full need. They have German but not linguistics. They have a music department with a major/minor, but not conservatory-level like Lawrence/Oberlin/St. Olaf, and no jazz emphasis that I can see.

One more: Bard College isn’t as close as desired, but they have conservatory-level music with a jazz program, excellent liberal arts, and not only programs in German but in fact a whole satellite campus in Berlin. They don’t guarantee full-need-met aid, but have the potential to get to budget with need-based+merit. Maybe too far from home to consider, but the combination of the strong music and the Berlin campus makes it worth at least a look.

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