Match School for me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

This is my first post on here, so please be brutally honest with me. But also gentle. I am fragile.

Anyways, this is to confirm or challenge my hunch - which schools would be good matches for me (or at least ones where I am academically competitive or thereabouts)? I am a Washington state resident, so no UC schools for me because there is no way my family could afford that. I can release my personal list of colleges for consultation, if that would help.

My stats are:
SAT I (breakdown): 1440 (darn) (720M/720CR+W, essay scored perfectly) - school average is 485M and 510CR+W
ACT (breakdown): 35C (36R, 34M, 36E, 34S) - school average is about 21-23C because the “better” students take it at my school
SAT II (place score in parentheses): 760 US History, 700 Math 2 ( :frowning: for the math score)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0, school average is about 2.9-3.2, I think
Weighted: ??? Don’t know. I’d argue that weighted is not as valued as unweighted, anyways, but I could be wrong. It is so inconsistent between schools.
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1 of 244 (but the high school is only grades 10-12, total school size is about 800)
AP (place score in parentheses): US History (5), Language and Composition (5) (Only AP classes offered at my school before senior year) - 40% of those who take the classes pass at my school, and about 40% of the class takes AP.
Senior Year Class Load: AP Literature, AP Gov, Ap World (offered for the first time), Physics (no honors or AP), Calculus (no honors or AP), Spanish 4 (highest at school). This is the hardest schedule offered at my school.

Extracurriculars: Black Belt in karate for 10 years (active volunteer, “instructor”), FBLA for 4 years (VP, 2x National Competitor, 2x 3rd in State, 3x State competitor, project leader educating the community about business and ), NHS for 4 years (President), 2x Class Treasurer, Band President, FCCLA, Renaissance Club (2 years), Drama
Job/Work Experience: 14 months at a local Mexican fast food restaurant, summer internship at an IRB (!!!)
Volunteer/Community Service: 1200 hours for my karate (6 hours a week, every week of the year), discussed in my Common App essay. Even though it is true, I feel like colleges are going to think I am exaggerating… is this a legitimate concern?

Intended major: Public health or neuroscience/psychology/chemistry. I have a demonstrated interest in community service and, technically, public health because of my internship at the IRB.

Common App will talk about karate - wanting to quit when I was a lot younger to convincing a friend to not quit a few months ago… Or, maybe I should write about the IRB since it plays into my interest in public health. IDK, man. IDK.

I would like to go to colleges on the East Coast or in California. Also, I am liberal, so probably no colleges below Virginia.

Thank you for your time!

– ALSO – I am writing in the extra information section of the Common App about four courses that my district requires, mentioning that I had no choice but to take them. BUT, when I was a sophomore, I took a graphic arts class… will this make it seem like I didn’t take the hardest schedule available, even though I did except for this one class?

Sorry about all the questions in here :slight_smile:

2

There’s hundreds of schools that will accept you and meet your criteria. Have you tried the supermatch function on this website? You enter in your GPA, test scores, and all the things you want in a college (location, major, size, Greek life, sports, student organizations, etc.) and it spits out a list of schools.

To find match schools specifically, make sure you select “selective (admits 1/3 to 2/3 of apps)” on the “getting in” tab.

http://collegeconfidential.com/college_search

If your family makes too much to qualify for enough need-based aid, but you still need money for college, there are a lot of schools that are “lower tier” that will offer someone with your stats significant merit aid.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

One of these schools could be at the very least a safety school for you. Some of these threads and links are a bit outdated, so it would be a good idea to check each college’s website to see if these opportunities have changed.

3

EXTREMELY impressive everything. You have amazing stats, but most top schools are stingy on merit aid scholarships. If you are in need of financial aid, you have a chance at almost any school in the nation.

What is your family income because if money is a major concern, competitive OOS schools will be tough.

4

Jpgranier - Thank you for your response. My family makes about $190,000, but can only afford about $45,000 total so I would need about $20,000 in grants/loans/work study/scholarships. I would probably take $5,000 a year in loans, and $3,000 in work study, so about $12,000 in scholarships/grants… is that reasonable for a family that makes $190,000?

sophie9999 - Thank you! I will look into these.

Money overall is not a super big issue, but there is a limit like I said. My family just put two people through college, so even though we make as much as we do, a lot of it is still going into paying for the other educations as well.

5

I agree with the other responses that your profile is competitive for many top schools so it is difficult to narrow down recommendations.

Some of the things you think are important aren’t and you may be overlooking things that are important. Are you male or female? That’s relevant. Your ranking first in your class- important. How to count total enrollment at your school- irrelevant. Required classes and an elective- not worth highlighting and getting defensive about that. Talk to your guidance counselor about how her/his recommendation communicates the academic offerings and programs at your school.

Your CA essay needs to be somewhat generic so the karate experience is okay as it obviously was a big priority for you. But make sure with each specific college essay to talk in substantial detail about how you will fit with public health-related academic research and student led initiatives (blood drives, stress relief). Check the demographics for the surrounding area for at-risk populations to demonstrate interest too.

6

Oregon2016 - Thank you very much! Your response was very helpful. I’ll be sure to do that, and to take out the note on the elective.

I am male, by the way. One thing I have noticed from looking at common data sets is that males have higher acceptance rates because, statistically, greater amounts of women apply - is this accurate, wherein LACs are slightly easier to get into for males than for females?

7

Yes, I wouldn’t spend time talking in the extra information section about why you have additional courses on your transcript. Let the GC describe the overall academic program at your school. Curious what you could have found so exciting at an Institutional Review Board as some of us view IRB as something to be endured rather than enjoyed.

8

CheddarcheeseMN - I work at the largest IRB in the US (not to characterize the “prestige” of working there, because who cares, but rather to explain the variety and magnitude of the work that goes through our doors). I can’t talk about the specifics of the research sent through my work, but one of the studies had to do with a combatant for HIV, which is amazing to me. Hearing about all of this research that will change lives in the future is fascinating, at least to me, regardless of how it is to work with an IRB from a researcher’s standpoint. From my perspective, it ties perfectly into what I want to study.

9

Right, as a boy you’re looking at smaller applicant pools for seats at LACs, but it wasn’t clear from your first post that you wanted LACs. With your ACT score, GPA, rank, resident state and gender you are very competitive for the top ones (except Harvey Mudd). With research universities (Johns Hopkins for example) you still have a good shot. Good luck!

10

I would just like to point out there are more liberal schools than you think in the south: UT Austin, Tulane, Warren Wilson College, etc.

So don’t completely black out the rest of the united States when looking for colleges!

Also Illinois has tons of liberal colleges, you can see there too

11

Your stats are top notch and I am a little skeptical that you don’t realize that. Anyway, your family can’t afford OOS at UCs, which tells me you are looking for big merit aid. If you are open to LACs, many of which are liberal, especially in the midwest and northeast, there are many that will fall over themselves to have you and probably offer great merit aid. Not all LACs do offer merit though, but it’s pretty easy to find out. Just google colleges that offer merit aid. Off the top of my head, I think you would be a great candidate for Kenyon College, a top notch LAC that does offer merit to tippy top applicants. Grinnell and Oberlin also offer merit aid. I am guessing NorthEastern would also offer you a lot of money. Frankly,with those stats, the world is your oyster.

You don’t need to explain your required courses. This info will be obvious from your school’s profile. If you are concerned, talk to your counselor at school, and let them address it. I am not a fan of students trying to explain what courses or grades they got in school, because it just sounds like an excuse.

12

@Oregon2016 My current list of colleges is JHU, Williams, Tufts, Brown (for fun, no chance), NYU, USC, Amherst, Northwestern, Vassar, Occidental, UW Honors (in-state), and maybe BU. A lot of them are competitive, but NYU, USC, and the last three should all be safeties/matches, I would think.

I cannot decide between Williams and JHU for ED. I have visited both. :frowning:

@DurejaVu I guess maybe I am just attracted to the northeast. That would have been good to clarify. I kinda want to stay away from the Midwest, too, but I have been to Chicago and loved it so that is why I am interested in Northwestern even though it is in the Midwest. Basically, I want to be near NYC/Boston/DC/Philadelphia/Baltimore (JHU ^:)^ ) or in California, but I will look into colleges in Ohio. Thank you for your time!

@Lindagaf I’ll admit, you have seen through my (partial) cover. I had suspected that I was competitive, but I was hoping for confirmation. Going off of my list above, would you say that I have a good shot of getting into at least some of those? Like I said, I think NYU, USC, Occidental, UW Honors, and BU are safeties/matches for me I think and would give me good merit aid (Well, I think NYU is a safety). The thing is that while I would like a lot of merit aid or grants (anyone would), I do not need a lot - only about $12-15k for my parents to be able to afford it.

I am interested in normal universities as well, as evidenced by NYU or USC or JHU. I’ll look into Kenyon, Grinnell, and Oberlin, too.

Thank you for the advice on my courses, too, I appreciate it.

13

If your parents can’t afford UCs, how can they afford USC? Unless USC gives merit aid? I am thinking a lot of those colleges do not give merit aid. If you will need that money, DO NOT apply ED anywhere.

14

USC is a private school and yes, it gives merit aid.

Also, be aware that Williams, Amherst and Northwestern are essentially just as hard to get into as Brown. Same SAT/ACT and class rank profiles for admission. Brown just gets many more applications from the “what the heck might as well try for one Ivy even though I’m not really qualified” crowd so its acceptance rate is lower.

Also be aware that NYU is notoriously bad for financial aid.

15

OP, Just curious - what does this mean?

“I am interested in normal universities as well, as evidenced by NYU or USC or JHU.”

16

@Lindagaf While this is true, UC schools do not offer financial aid for OOS students while USC does. USC does give merit aid, and looking at students who have gotten it in the past, I think that I have a decent chance of receiving some.

@ThankYouforHelp I was kinda figuring that, but also figured that my chances would be marginally better anyways at those locations than at Brown. And I have heard about NYU’s dismal aid, but was hoping that I maybe qualify for merit aid there, too. I figure it is worth a shot.

@ClarinetDad16 Just that they are not LACs. I can definitely see how that was a strange thing for me to say, though.

17

Another question is - what would be my standing with Tufts? Before I visited, I had been thinking of taking it off my list, but I LOVED it when I visited. Do I stand a good chance of getting in there if I apply ED2 if I don’t get in wherever I apply ED1?

18

As with the others, you are competitive for Tufts. Google “Tufts Syndrome” and read past Tufts threads on CC to understand its admissions practices and outcomes.