Hi everyone! I’m redoing this thread as I’ve recently had some info updated. I’m currently a rising senior at an IB high school in Florida. Here are the colleges I plan on applying to in the fall:
Barnard College, Fordham University, Sarah Lawrence College, UC Irvine, UCLA, Florida State University, and University of South Florida. I’ll be applying Restrictive EA to Barnard
Here are my rough stats:
SAT: 1350 - 760 RW, 590 Math. (Took my 2nd one today and my math score is definitely going up! I also took the Essay, and will take the SAT Literature Subject Test in August.)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0 so far): 3.2 (it’s very low, I know, but keep in mind I’m in IB)
Weighted GPA (so far): 5.0 expected to be higher
AP: European History (4), Human Geography (4), US History (5), Language & Composition (4)
IB scores: n/a, take exams next May
Senior Year Course Load: IB SL Biology, TOK, Math Studies, HL Art, HL History, HL English, SL Spanish
Extracurriculars:
President of my school’s chapter of Students Demand Action (10, 11, 12)
Digital Media Coordinator for my city’s chapter of March For Our Lives (11, 12)
Wrote a full-length novel, planning to self-publish it this summer (9-12)
Acting and improv classes at my city’s conservatory (10, 11)
International Thespians Society (11, 12)
National Honor Society (11, 12)
Key Club (9, 10, 11, 12)
Volunteer/Community service:
volunteered at a local theatre for all of 11th grade (80 hours), hopefully will do it again in senior year
have been volunteering at a low-income elementary school in my city every summer since 8th grade, where we help kids with their reading and math skills and keep them out of trouble
loads of other volunteer activities, not as prominent as the 2 above, but I love volunteering and have been doing so since middle school and really love helping people
Summer Activities:
attended the ACLU Summer Institute in 2018
attending Running Start’s Young Women’s Political Leadership Program this summer
I’m a white, straight, cisgender female. I go to a public IB high school in Florida, and there are about 80 kids in my graduating class including me. My greatest strength is English and writing, it always has been. I think the fact that I wrote a novel and am planning on self-publishing it speaks great volumes to this (I didn’t write it for the sole purpose of looking good on college apps - I’ve always been a writer and avid reader and wanted to write one!)
Thanks in advance if anyone decides to read this and respond!! My stats aren’t the best but I think my extracurriculars and essays will show that I’m a hard-worker and a good student beyond school smarts. I think I make for a strong candidate and schools will hopefully see that.
Is financial aid an important consideration for you? It looks like Barnard is the most selective on your college list, so if it it is also your top choice then ED might make sense. But of course that also cuts off opportunities to compare financial aid from other schools.
Oh haha I didn’t even realize - thank you so much for pointing that out to me! I think I meant binding ED. I get that and REA mixed up.
Yes, financial aid is a pretty important consideration for me and Barnard is definitely my top choice! I don’t expect to get much financial aid from any other schools, but Barnard is fully my dream school so I know that if I got in, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere else I was accepted.
If financial aid is a consideration, forget about the UCs as an OOS student. 65,000 a year and no financial aid.
The minimum GPA requirement for an OOS student for UC applications is 3.4 so if you still want to try for a UC school, calculate your UC GPA. GPA weighting will apply for the IB classes, but only for 10-11 grades. UCLA with your GPA/test scores will be a massive reach and highly unlikely unfortunately.
You need to run the net price calculator to see if Barnard’s need-based aid would be enough for you. And that will only work if your parents have a fairly straightforward financial situation – if there are complicating factors such as divorce or self-employment, then the NPC isn’t worth much. ED is generally NOT a good idea for people who need to compare aid packages from various colleges.
Okay, we’ll keep that in mind, but the colleges won’t.
The UC’s will be out of the running if you can’t pay $65K per year. These are funded by the taxpayers of the State of California. They can’t afford to fund non-residents.
OP should consider some LACs that provide good academic support, since the GPA/test scores don’t quite match up. The AP scores are pretty good with majority 4s with the 5 in US History.
AP Euro and History are among the hardest to get a 4+ score on the test so OP obviously can handle the work. 4 in AP Lang is a great score. And yet the GPA does not match the potential of the student.
1390 is a pretty good SAT score and way above the national average, but the math score is a red flag.
I suggest a long talk with your counselor at school to find a match school. You have the potential to do well in college. It needs to be the right environment that will nurture you. In the right school, I am sure you will be an excellent student.
The UCs are not the right environment for you, and not just because of your grades. You seem like a student that will do well if the right instructor meshes with you. And with the large class sizes at a UC, it’s not going to be a good fit.
I think Fordham and SLC are both reasonable match schools for her. It wouldn’t hurt to find identify a few more, but she seems to have a balanced list. I agree that Barnard is s reach (but not impossible), and that the UC’s don’t make sense for a Florida resident. Those are application fees that are better spent elsewhere.
With her GPA, i think she’s unlikely to be admitted ED to Barnard, though she might get deferred. The GPA needs to be considered in context with the school profile… could be she’s at a school with particularly tough grading. Obviously we don’t have that info, but the colleges will.
Fordham is borderline. Their average SAT for 2022 was 1310 - 1450. Your GPA is also low. To get substantial merit from Fordham, you should be in the top 25% stat wise. Do you plan to try the SAT again? Might be worth it. i think it would be a good school for you and I think you would take advantage of the proximity to NYC. Agree that UC schools are out due to costs. Would you be happy attending either of the Florida schools? I do think you need a couple more safety / match schools. Maybe look at something like James Madison University in VA (average SAT 1160 - 1320) or University of South Carolina (average SAT 1276). Anecdotally, I’ve heard of both schools giving merit money to OOS students.
As for self-publishing your novel, why not try to land an agent instead? I don’t know what genre your novel is (YA? Fantasy?) but go to agentquery.com and find a couple of agents to send a query / first chapter to. Whats the worst that can happen? Rejection! Or, you never know …
Hi, all! Thank you for the feedback. I wasn’t aware about that in regards to the UCs so I will definitely look more into that. I took my SAT again yesterday and felt really good about it and am pretty positive I scored much higher on the math.
About the GPA - A lot of students at my school have fairly low unweighted GPAs because IB is really difficult and most of us cannot manage straight A’s. We’ve been told colleges will take this and our IB curriculum into consideration.
And about all my reach schools - I would be perfectly happy attending either of the Florida schools, know I’ll get into those, and will probably realistically end up there, which is why I’m applying to out-of-state universities that are pretty much total reaches for me. They’re my “in case something crazy happens and these schools decide to accept me.”
If the Florida publics are safeties for you – your strategy makes perfect sense. My daughter did the same for the most part – though she also threw in a last minute app to Fordham. But there was no need to stress over safeties as she had guaranteed admission to our in-state publics. (In our case that was California).
I’d add that while it is always helpful to boost your scores, Barnard has holistic admissions and will look at your whole application. My daughter’s math SAT was 590 and Barnard’s 2018 CDS shows that 9% of entering students had math scores in the 500-599 range. Now obviously it is NOT at all helpful to be in the bottom 9% when you are applying to a college – but the point is that you are still in range for consideration. Yes, it’s a reach, probably a very big reach, but not an impossible reach. So go ahead and apply… just don’t hold your breath.
Rather than self publishing try to get your book legitimately published (and/or get an agent). That will matter - elf publishing won’t (and may hurt, ie , you’re not confident in our own book since you can’t see it legitimately published and would settle for self publishing).
UCs are out if you need financial aid: by law they can’t offer any to OOS students. OOS students are there for the money they bring. (check out the thread from the post student currently at Berkeley who wants to transfer because she has classes with 1,500 students. 500+ isn’t rare.)
Run the NPC on each college on your list and see if your parents can afford the net cost.
Are the Barnard, Fordham, Sarah Lawrence affordable?
What about Skidmore, St Lawrence, Wheaton MA, Muhlenberg, Lafayette?
Get your app to the Florida universities in July to make sure you’re ok.
About the novel, it’s a huge accomplishment to have completed a novel and that is well worth mentioning in your application. There is no harm in seeking an agent and/or publisher before going the self publishing route and if you succeed in landing one that will be great but typically the process takes so much time that it won’t be something that you can use on your application.
