Match Me! Strong Literature/Writing Programs - Passionate HS Junior

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello CC, here is my official match-me as I am a junior in HS and the college application process is slowly starting to creep near. I have a rough list but would love some input as well.

Demographics

  • US citizen
  • Florida resident
  • Public, Title I High school.
  • White (Slavic)
  • First-generation student! :tada: (:

Intended Major(s) Literature, Comparative Literature, English, Creative Writing- the works. Minor in journalism, probably.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: ~3.6, will go up by the end of the year.
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.3, weighted on a 5pt scale. Will go up by the end of the year as well, as they recalculate GPA over the summer.
  • Class Rank: My school is very vague with rank, but out of a class of around 630ish, I am in the top 50. That’s all they’ll really say, I report officially being in the top quartile for applications that ask.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: I just took the ACT for the first time and got a 29, with writing. I got a perfect score on the reading and a perfect score on the writing. I intend to actually study, as I did not this go around, and get my score into the 30s.
    Regarding my GPA, I missed around 3 months of school due to health complications in my 10th-grade year. No excuse, but worth noting and I will include it on my applications. Unless I shouldn’t?

Coursework
All offered APs, all offered honors, in my course progression. All of my classes are rigorous and the only non-honors or APs are my electives. All 5s on my AP exams (AP Human Geo, AP World) so far, with a course load this year of AP Environmental Science, AP English Language & Comp, AP US History, and an AICE class (Psych). We just had mocks and I am on track for all 4s and 5s! Took two years of French as that is all my school offered other than Spanish, and I had already taken years of that in elementary and wanted to try something new. Next year, I will take AP Physics, AP Literature, AP Calculus, AP US Government, and AP Macroeconomics. 10 APs, one AICE. I am also looking into the CLEP exams.

Awards
Disney Dreamer and Doer award for a charity I started that helps young women in safe houses and shelters have access to self-care products to ease the anxiety of a turbulent situation. I take the products to the girls and chat with them; hang out a bit. I give them everything in a personal bag, purse, etc, and ask them their favorite colors and all so I can make sure they get something they like. I love running this, it keeps me connected with my community.

I am interested in finding more awards to apply to or find, but all writing awards I have applied to have turned me away. Which is okay, I just might not be what they’re looking for! I am confident in my abilities nonetheless.

Extracurriculars

  • Chorus, in Varsity (yes, Varsity, lol) now. It is weighted as an honors course and we attend competitions. We just got a superior in our vocal assessments! I intend to try and participate in chorus in college.

  • Theatre. I am Vice President and will be President next year of my school’s theatre program. I have gotten superiors in all Thespian competitions. I organize everything for my program, and I am trying to direct, write plays, act, and work tech all at once- somehow I can do it, and I love it! I am writing a play now and my school may perform it as we cannot afford to buy the rights to shows usually. I have played all lead roles starting from freshman year. I really would love to participate in theatre in college.

  • Founded my school’s first student-led club, the Literature Club! Haha, I love it so much, and I look forward to it every month. We just talk and have a really good time, and I found some like-minded individuals at my school so we have a great time chatting. I try to connect them with scholarships and grants that pertain to writing or lit. I am President as well but have a fully functioning leadership team.

  • NHS President next year! I was President of our community outreach organization team this year and I loved it. It was a great experience.

  • Social Studies National Honor Society President! A great program that I love a lot, I organize community service and outreaches and bring topics for our group to discuss regarding politics, history, social issues, etc.

  • Trying to start up an English National Honor Society as we do not have one, unfortunately.

  • Also trying to get a school newspaper running as we do not have one:(

  • Student Advisory Council- I am the only student who actually goes LOL

  • TRIO Upward Bound! They are a huge help and I love that program so much.

  • School of The New York Times 2022! Got in for Creative Writing with substantial financial aid, and I will not personally be paying anything out of pocket as everything else is coming from Upward Bound- they pushed me to apply. I will be going to NYC, my dream city, for the first time.

  • Yale Young Global Scholars 2022 (: Got in for Literature, Philosophy, and Culture. The cost was 100% covered by them.

Essays/LORs/Other
My essays are very, very strong. Any program I have ever gotten into comments about my essays and how they liked them. I am a writer, though, and I spend time planning and writing all of my essays. I make them personal and I try to really show my personality. The essay I got the most positive feedback about was one about how I had related a mathematical conjecture to my life, but then worked to come to a conclusion regarding it and was able to guide my life differently and thus grow to not only appreciate mathematics but myself as a person.
My LORs are amazing, and I am very thankful. Both are incredible, but one from my favorite teacher ever (a core teacher who I have had for 2 years) describes me as someone who completely shaped how he sees the world. There is a part where he says that he thought he had a great work ethic until he met me. He mentions I got the highest scores on all of his exams and the end-of-year exam- the highest in the school. I felt very good after reading it, very honored. The other is also amazing, from a younger teacher (also core who I have had for 2 years) who I mostly regard as a friend lol.

Cost Constraints / Budget
I am a veryyyy poor kid from a poor family in a poor area. We can’t afford to contribute anything really, lol, but most everything would be covered by financial aid anyway. We are well below the cutoff for 100% need-based coverage.

As far as schools go, I would like to get out of state. I want a school with a strong academic focus, I do not care for Greek life (I do love Greek life, but more so the whole toga and oral epics rather than frats) or parties (but that is super cool for anyone who does like those things!). Northeast schools; I like urban areas and my dream cities to go to school in would be NYC or Boston, or outside of those areas. I would like to study Latin further in college, as I independently study it now alongside Japanese. I speak conversational Spanish, a bit of French, I am getting better at Latin, and I am moving on to Kanji with my Japanese studying. I would love schools that are more open when it comes to their curriculum, as I would love to be able to take as many classes as possible that aren’t just English 101. I would love to be able to focus on my major all while taking a philosophy class, classics, pure mathematics, etc.

Other than that, I just love literature. I independently study it every day, I mostly study literary history and classic lit. I love it so much and could actually talk about it for hours. It, along with writing, is what I have been interested in my entire life. I would like to be a fiction writer but to support myself or fill in the gaps I intend to pursue a career in journalism, editing, publishing, etc., and write in my free time.

I plan to go to grad school to get my Masters, and my dream grad school is Columbia as I love that school more than anything lol.

Whew. That was a lot. Anyway, thank you for reading! I hope this is a good outline for possible help. Thank you in advance!

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You need a school that meets 100% need for a 3.6 gpa/29 ACT. That is your top priority, not all the other factors you would prefer.

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I’m going to get those up, but that is solid advice. Thank you.

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Full rides are hard to find. Devote your research to searching for them and applying to Questbridge, Posse, Jack Kent Cooke, etc. You can worry about fit later.

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I would focus on improving those grades. Check out the community colleges near you and think about heading there and applying elsewhere after that. You’re average at the moment and you are asking for alot.

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Oh, okay. Thank you for your input, CC is always a great option that I guess I hadn’t considered. I think I was giving myself way too much credit, haha. Thank you.

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You’ve done a great job and I wish you well. That said, when someone doesn’t have the finances to afford school - well…

Go back to @roycroftmom - that advice is spot on. You are a Junior - even if you get those up, given what you say about finances - that’s critical.

You are in Florida - with BF, not only do you have great large schools, but you have New College and FAU Honors - both solid choices. I know Florida (the government, not the schools) have a stigma against gay students - but these are fine and hopefully affordable schools for you.

You should look at Quesbridge although you may not get a match.

Then there’s the list of colleges that meet need.

Short of community college, it’s all you can look to.

You are unlikely at most every.

From this list, Oberlin (unlikely but strong in your desires), Franklin & Marshall, Kenyon (strong for you but unlikely), Occidental, Pitzer, Sewanee, St. Olaf, Trinity, Miami.

Note many schools (these) are need aware - meaning, they can and will turn you down for needing too much money. And you’re already looking from the outside in stats wise.

I wish you look - but your priority has to be affording school b4 anything else.

Iowa is a flagship that excels in these areas and has aid - but I’m assuming you won’t be able to afford. They’re not interested in meeting the need of a non-resident although they will offer merit.

There are colleges like Berea that could work as well - look into it.

US Colleges that Meet 100% of Demonstrated Need | College Greenlight (â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– â– )

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Yeah, thank you for the solid advice. If I had to take out loans to get a great education, I would. I’d do that or just pay the best I can in college.

Thank you! I’ll look into everything you said.

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Starting at community college is an excellent option, and if you do well there you might be able to transfer to UF. You should also give serious thought to how you expect to support yourself as an adult. Few students from very poor backgrounds major in creative writing, as it can be a very difficult path to pursue without family financial support.

No one should be taking loans for an English degree. Moreover, you wont qualify for substantial loans anyway.

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You can’t take out loans - well you can - $5500 in year one - $27K over four years.

And honestly, you don’t want to start in debt.

You need to take advantage of BF (in Florida) and you are so fortunate to have this, Questbridge, a meets need school or a work school like Berea and I think you can look into Warren Wilson but I don’t have much experience.

So many kids say - i’ll just take a loan. A) you’d cripple yourself financiallly maybe forever (especially with that major) and B) fortunately, the government has limited the damage you can inflict upon yourself by allowing you to borrow so little.

Florida is a wonderful state to be a bright student - so many fine colleges and such great pricing!!!

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I have many options for my major, and I agree with you on CW. I will probably go the English/Lit route. However, I wouldn’t be supported financially by my parents in any way just because they have their own expenses and unfortunately that’s not something we could do. I am focused on getting a great education in something I love, and getting out of an area with a vicious cycle of poverty. I hope that I will get into a college other than CC as while that is an education that I would be happy to have, I still want to see what I can do elsewhere.
I appreciate all of the advice so far, thank you.

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Be careful about taking out a lot of loans, Literature majors don’t usually find high paying jobs straight out of college. @roycroftmom is spot on, you need to do a lot of research into what path you can take to come out of college without significant debt. Community College is one path, and it can be a great path to an excellent university (one that will meet your financial need) provided you maintain a very high GPA.

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Is the general consensus so far that I should just apply to community college? I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but if that is what my stats and academic history support then I should maybe just focus on that. Nothing wrong with CC, I’m just a little discouraged now.

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I would not be as pessimistic as others - your passion shines through & your rank is good even if your grades are not top notch. I would definitely study hard & get your ACT score up (or consider taking the SAT, my D did better on SAT than she did on ACT). I would concur with Oberlin & Kenyon, though neither is urban, and consider Bard (also not urban & doesn’t promise to meet full need but has good financial aid nonetheless) and Sarah Lawrence (also doesn’t promise to meet full need, but has good financial aid and is urban). Look at a school like Beloit or other small midwestern colleges but be aware they may or may not meet your full need. I’m thinking you may not get urban, but otherwise I think if you can get your test scores up a bit and if you can have your passion & enthusiasm shine through as they do in your post you may be fine. Also, I don’t know much about them, but I would consider putting the School or the NYTimes and Yale Young Scholars as honors achieved if they were competitive programs to get into. Good luck!

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Thank you so much, I have no qualms with a school not being urban, I think the schools you recommended would be a lovely fit for me if I were lucky enough to get into them. I appreciate the advice regarding the ACT/SAT. Thank you again!

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I did not say that.

I said you have:

  1. Bright Futures - lots of great schools in Florida - UF and FSU are likely unrealistic. But UCF, USF (may be a reach), FIU, FGCU, FAU - and FAU Honors in Jupiter is a hidden gem.

  2. You need to apply to a program like Questbridge. Research it.

  3. I sent you a link to colleges that meet 100% of need - research them.

  4. CC could be a possiblity but you are giving up without going through the other steps if you come to that conclusion.

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Please don’t listen to the “don’t take out loans for an English degree” nonsense. CC is overall incredibly biased towards STEM majors ignoring the fact that the world absolutely needs humanities kids with the skills to write. English majors have great options for career paths and, quite frankly, a lot more flexibility.

You have a really compelling story and your essays will carry for some solid schools as long as you get that GPA up.

I grew up poor like you. I had no family help at all. It CAN be done.

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Oh no no no, I didn’t mean that you directly said that! I am so sorry, I promise I am taking all of your advice into account. I literally wrote it down in a notebook and started a QB application! :sweat_smile:

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Bennington is another I would consider, though it is pretty small & even further from a city - again it doesn’t promise to meet full need, but I think it often does.

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I love Bennington, it is a fantastic school I would love go to! It is on my list for sure.

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