Hey guys, I just made an account and have been casually surfing threads for some time. I am a rising senior graduating in class of 2017 and am not sure what colleges I want to attend outside of Stanford(extreme reach I have heard it many times, but would feel bad if I didn’t at least try) as my dream school and a few others such as UCLA and USC. I am not sure about schools outside of those 3 though. I am not sure what major I want to pursue either, but I am considering business or medical. A few other basic points is that I am an African American male(if that even matters) am ranked 29 in my school out of 500.(top 6%) an ACT Score of 30( looks academically weak I know) and I have an unweighted GPA of 4.45 during my time in high school so far. I also had a 4.83 GPA for yearly grades my junior year. Lastly, I took 4 AP classes junior year and am taking 5 next year. I took APUSH, AP Physics, AP English 11, AP Biology/ and am taking AP Stat, AP Psych, AP Gov & Econ and AP Calc BC my senior year. I feel like I would like to attend places with weather similar to California and the atmosphere as well if that makes sense. I would appreciate any advice, tips, or recommendations about my choices or other good colleges to attend.Thanks in advance (super excited to start applying 
*Weighted GPA of 4.45
Are you from CA? How much can your family afford?
I am not from CA and I am not sure how much we can afford right now with only one parent working.
UCLA along with any California public university will not offer you financial aid, so expect to pay full fees $55K+/year.
URM status is also not considered by California public universities, but it will help at USC. You need to bump your ACT score for a better chance at USC.
What is your home state? You need to find out exactly how much your parents can pay and which schools to target if you need financial aid. What about EC’s?
“I am not from CA and I am not sure how much we can afford right now with only one parent working.”
You have to find out how much your parents can contribute for school each year, and then build your list from there.
My home state is TN and I know we will need financial aid. EC’s is another weak point. I am apart of a chess club and I helped young kids learn how to play at my local library at weekly meetings.I occasionally tutor underclassmen at school as well. I also am apart of FBLA, Mu Alpha Theta, and Science National Honor Society. I was rejected for NHS for lack of leadership positions so I will apply again for that this year. Also my parents gave me an estimate of a salary of $34k a year. They said they will let me know if anything changes later because my mom is still on disability, so in a unsure situation at the moment.
As stated above, you will not financial aid from the UC’s, so I would cross those off the list. If you are interested in California schools, then you need to target private schools. USC which is on your list and I would look at some of the Claremont Colleges (Pitzer, Claremont McKenna or Pomona), Loyola Marymount, Occidental, University of San Diego (USD), University of San Francisco (USF) to name a few.
Here is a list of potential schools: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Check each school’s web site because aid changes from year to year.
I’ll echo what others have said here about financial aid. My daughter’s stats were very similar to yours and she applied and got into almost all schools she applied to. The UC’s she applied to offered absolutely NO financial assistance (other than Plus loans). She will be attending Occidental College. They have a sticker price of $67000 per year but they were extremely generous with her with grants, scholarships and financial need grants. It will cost almost exactly the same as UCLA except there are so many more benefits including studying hard sciences (bio-chemistry) in a class size a 10th the size of UCLA.
Thanks for the replies so far. I will make sure to find plenty of safety schools and schools that fit our affordability. Now considering that, are there any specific recommendations for schools I should look into based on my stats. Reaches and matches included.(Does not have to be just CA) :-B