I am struggling to find colleges that I have a good chance of getting into. Does anyone have any good safeties/matches in the Northeast? I want either a suburban or urban campus, medium sized, good science program (I’m interested in Neuro/Psych)
Stats
Female (Hispanic)
GPA: 96.409 (UW) 106.882 (W)
Class Rank: 3/600
SAT I: 1530 (740R, 790M) (18 on essay, I know it’s low)
SAT 2: Spanish(800) Biology (780)
AP: Lang-4 Bio-4 APUSH-5, (taking 4 more this year)
All AP/Honors Classes
Activities/Awards
National Hispanic Recognition Scholar
A lot of community service
Treasurer and then Co-president of a club
Piano lessons since freshman year
National Honor Society
Science league… etc
I think Rutgers is a safety for you as a NJ resident. Your chances are excellent at Temple, also, although the financial package might not be quite as good as for an in-state student, you wil probably receive some merit aid. Both TU annd RU have strong programs in your field. Tulane might give you a good merit scholarship. They have non-binding early decision option, so that you will receive notification by Thanksgiving. Temple and Rutgers both have rolling admissions, and so you will probably hear from them promptly.
Dickinson, Denison… colleges in that vicinity of selectivity should be safe as long as you express interest (strictly speaking they’re low matches due to their taking interest into consideration)
You are an extremely attractive candidate for many schools. I would look at schools that are both need-blind in making admissions decisions and guarantee to meet full need if you’re accepted. In addition, look at colleges that don’t consider the SAT essay score. I haven’t researched these schools as to whether they meet all these criteria, but some schools I would take a look at include University of Rochester, Fordham (doesn’t meet full need but has EA and I think you would be a strong candidate for several of their merit scholarships), Barnard (not a mid-sized school, but you are basically part of the Columbia campus), Lehigh, Brandeis, George Washington and some of the smaller liberal arts colleges including Franklin & Marshall, Lafayette, Connecticut College and Mt. Holyoke and Smith (not urban and women’s colleges, but part of a five college consortium and the area is very lively).
With your high stats and URM, you should have a shot at Ivies/top schools. As for safety school, try St. John’s in Queens NYC (not far from your NJ home). St John’s usually offer full-tuition merit scholarship to Ivy-caliber students, and it is pretty strong in pre-med and pharmacy.
I wouldn’t go with St John’s, in part because for a low income student a full tuition scholarship is not sufficient, and also because St John’s academics outside of some specific fields wouldn’t match those of other safeties (such as LACs ranked in the 40-60 group).
I agree with others that Rutgers is a great school and with your stats and in-state status it should be a safety. I agree that you can and should apply to higher ranked schools also, but it is great to have such a strong school as a safety. I would run the NPC however and verify if it will be affordable.
Between full ride St. John’s (not sure about room/board part) and Rutgers (huge campus, huge class), I’d choose St. John’s for its much smalle class. LACs are great choices, so are the Ivies too.
One of my relatives is not a Ivy-caliber and attends St. Johns on a full scholarship. He’s a very bright student though, and I think he’s a bit disappointed with the quality of the education, but is saving a lot of money and making his folks very happy.
I think OP can do better at a high quality private school with FinAid
Well, the issue is that academically they’re below many SUNY/CUNY’s too (outside of one specific program). They do offer smaller classes and less red tape. For a lower income student it’s not a good value.
Fordham is much better, for instance, and offers scholarships for stats too - but still not the best choice for lower income students. NYC residents may have a shot through HEOP but it’s tricky to be competitive.
Roughly any school with an acceptance rate above 20% will be a match and 45% a safety. Use that as a starting point but remember to do your own research to make sure they are a match/safety.