No Idea Where To Apply??? Please Help!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I am currently a junior in high school and thought I had a list of colleges in mind, but it turns out that I am completely and utterly lost.
If there are any colleges that you think I would be a match/low reach for, please feel free to leave any advice!

SAT- 2030 (740 CR, 620 M, 670 W)
ACT- 31 (31 M, 31 S, 26 E, 36 R)
SAT II- Taking U.S. History and one other subject in May, with a projected score of 740 for USH
Unweighted GPA: 3.92
Weighted GPA: 4.64
Rank: 8/490
AP: Human Geography (4), World History (3), currently in AP Chem, AP Seminar, AP English Language, and APUSH
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP Research, AP English Lit, AP Micro, AP Gov, AP Stat
Major Awards: None :confused:

Extracurriculars: National Honor Society, Science National Honor Society (hopeful VP), Rho Kappa, Mu Alpha Theta, Key Club (Historian), FBLA (only 1 year), SAVE Club (only 1 year), Chem Club
Play both high school (co-captain) and travel softball, working towards (hopefully) a spot on a collegiate softball team
Member of a leadership magnet program at school (4 years)
Job/ Work Experience: Folded sheets/made beds at a hotel for one summer
Volunteer/Community service: Over 350 hours at a local elementary school, over 30 hours for SNHS at various functions, 50 hours for Horses for Handicapped, 60 hours at a local food bank, over 100 hours as a volunteer summer camp counselor, over 60 hours at VA Hospital
Summer Activities: Travel softball, volunteering, couponing, online courses

Demographic:
White, female, middle class
Large public high school in FL

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Any piece of advice or possible school would be greatly appreciated!

2

Are you against UF/FSU? Great schools and you’re instate tuition. I forget the name of the FL tuition assistance program but I know it was scaled back.

Without an idea of what you can pay it will be hard for folks to provide guidance.

3

UF is actually my dream school! And I think the program you’re thinking of is Florida Prepaid (which I have).
And thanks to a set of extremely generous grandparents, I am lucky enough to be able to spend about $50,000-$60,000 a year on tuition (before scholarships).
Thank you for the recommendation!!

4

Nothing would keep you out of UF. If it’s your dream school, what else are you searching for?

Academic interests?

5

Just wondering what all is out there! Thank you!

6

Because of your high academic rank in particular, you would be a solid (as in match/low reach) candidate for schools such as Bates, Kenyon, Colby, Middlebury and Hamilton. However, if UF strongly appeals to you, know that the atmosphere at these types of colleges would be substantially different. Their softball programs would be more likely to value your skills, however.

7

@merc81 You know I respect your opinions and consider you a reliable poster, but a white female with a 2030 SAT is not a match at MIddlebury and Hamilton. Those schools are reaches for most everyone, including the OP.

8

U of SC. Your stats probably get reduced/waived OOS tuition. Good softball team. But not sure you can beat in state in Florida. Will you get bright futures or whatever it’s called? Do you need smaller school to play softball and how important is it to you?

9

@urbanslaughter : And I respect yours of course. But I did say “solid candidate” as in “match/low reach” (when referring to the group of five colleges). By analysis, I’d think Middlebury and Hamilton could be regarded as low reaches or reaches, but entirely appropriate ones. Female applicants do have a particularly high bar at Middlebury in particular, though. Softball could make the difference at either of these schools.

10

@scmom I am on track to receive bright futures, which would be a big help if I stay in FL!

11

@scmom And in order to play softball I would most likely need a smaller school than UF (currently the #1 softball program in the country)! I would love to play softball at the collegiate level, but not playing wouldn’t be an automatic deal breaker. :slight_smile:

12

@merc81 I’m thinking of majoring in political science/international relations (hoping to go to law school), but not 100% committed to any major!

13

Why on earth are people in this thread suggesting schools like FSU, Hamilton, and South Carolina?

To the OP: If you raise your ACT to a 35 or SAT to a 2300 you could have a great shot at the lower ivies. Your extracurriculars are a bit lacking, but your GPA is great. With a bit of work over the summer you could raise your test scores and get a shot at higher-ranked schools. Here’s a list of schools I’d be applying to for political science (assuming you get the chance to raise your test scores to 35/2300)

Reaches:

Brown
Penn
Duke
Vandy
WashU
Northwestern

Matches:

Emory
Michigan
NYU
Florida
Miami

Safeties:

FSU
The other schools that’ve been listed so far in this thread

14

“Why on earth are people on this thread suggesting schools like . . . Hamilton” (#12)

For several reasons, one of which would be because Hamilton, with a middle range ACT of 31-33,* would make a perfect low reach school for the OP (whose current ACT is 31). And, as it turns out, Hamilton is, partly, but not wholly, because of their semester-long program in Washington, very strong in political science/government.

“Safeties . . . The other schools that have been listed so far in this thread”

“you could raise your test scores and get a shot at higher-ranked schools”

Why would a student need to raise her scores to get into colleges with lower student standardized scoring?

School | Rank**

Hamilton: 37
Michigan: 42
Emory: 47
Middlebury: 51
Bates: 56
NYU: 60
Colby: 70
Kenyon: 74
Miami: 77
UF: 122

“If you raise your ACT score to a 35 [from a 31]”

I don’t even know where to begin with this.

  • Brown's middle range, one of @yinuos ' reach schools, is, for comparison, 30-34 (respective Common Data Sets).

** When compared to all colleges nationally (“The 610 Smartest Colleges,” Business Insider).

15

@merc81 Are you serious? Do you not realize that a student’s chances of getting admitted increase exponentially when their ACT/SAT scores are brought above average? A 31 will not cut it at Brown for a Caucasian female without any significant hooks, extracurriculars, or legacy status. Those with an ACT between 29-32 had an acceptance rate of 6.9%. Take out the huge amount of hooked applicants and your chances diminish even further. She should be aiming at the very least for the 75th %ile, and if she wants a better chance she should be aiming even higher.

My mistake on Hamilton, I might’ve gotten it confused with Humboldt State :wink:

16

Why not the UC schools? Great campuses… and it’s just like Florida… just some 2,500 miles away. I think Berkeley’s average ACT is 31~33

17

@bsdjs22 The UC’s would also be great, but OOS tuition is brutal. The difference between UCB/UCLA and Florida/Miami isn’t worth paying 40k more per year for.

18

Anyhow, rankings don’t really matter when they’re that close together. Michigan and NYU will carry far more prestige and opportunities in political science than a school like “Hamilton” which is likely ranked higher due to a subjective/poor methodology. If you like liberal arts colleges that are strong in political science, consider Amherst/Swarthmore/Williams/Pomona/CMC.

Raising your standardized test scores will never hurt, and at this point it’s probably the best thing you can do to improve your application.

Oh, and you can add Dartmouth to the list of reaches to consider and BU to the list of matches.

19

@yinous:

  1. You have incorrectly linked footnotes (asterisks, #13) with what immediately preceded them, making your subsequent comments (#14) illogical.

  2. A Student cannot just choose, even with preparation, to raise her ACT score from a 31 to a 35. The test itself is designed to make an increase of this magnitude extremely unlikely.

  3. Humboldt’s forestry and wildlife departments have national reputations. The school, as well as the sincere students who study there, should not be used as a foil for whatever point you had intended to make.

  4. If you do not know anything about colleges (and particularly if you are also not interested in learning anything about colleges) you should not post on threads such as this. You have served to derail the topic and have made it challenging to offer input of value to the OP.

20

I admit I am biased, but your scores and interests match up well with Valparaiso. Check out the Honors program. It is a smaller school that places a lot of emphasis on the student part of student- athlete where you could play softball possibly as well.