Overwhelmed Junior Needs Help Deciding What Colleges To Apply To

College Search & Selection
1

<p>If you guys could help me out I would really appreciate it :)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.54 Weighted (A's in APs and Honors count as 5, A's in Regs are 4)</p>

<p>SAT: 660 CR. 800 M. 710 W. 2170 Overall. Probably sending ACT but retaking SAT in Oct</p>

<p>ACT: Took twice. 1st time-35 Eng 35 Math 27 Reading 29 Science 32 Comp
2nd time-34 Eng 36 Math 34 Reading 28 Science 33 Comp</p>

<p>SAT IIs: 770 BioE. 800 Chem. Took Math II and USH in June and expecting 780-800 range on both.</p>

<p>APs: Chem-5. Took Bio, APES, and APUSH this year. Expecting all 5s.</p>

<p>Rank: School doesn't rank but definitely top 10%</p>

<p>Demographic: Chinese Male in NJ. Pretty solid High School. Top 15% usually go to Top 20 Schools.</p>

<p>Major Awards: NHS, Spanish Honor Society, Commended Scholar, USABO Semifinalist, AP Scholar with Honor, Presidential Community Service Gold Level Award, Columbia University Science Honors Program</p>

<p>ECs: Environmental Club (President, VP, head of Solar panel Committee);
Newspaper (Editor, Our Newspaper won 1st Place Award from the National Scholastic Assocation for best high school newspaper);
President and Founder of our School's FACE AIDS Club;
President of Future Physicians of America;
EMT-Hopefully Captain of township's First Aid Squad Explorers;
Cross Country Team (4 yrs, Varsity Jr and my Sr year probably)
Swim Team (2 yrs, Varsity Jr Year)
Chess Team (Team won Shore Conference Championship Titles)
Science League (31st in the State in NJ Sci League for Bio II, team was 2nd in the state; Merck State Science Day placed 23rd in the State for Bio and team was 2n din the state)</p>

<p>Volunteering: EMT on First Aid Squad (500ish hrs), Hospital Volunteer (200hrs), SPCA Volunteer(50hrs), Christian Camp Volunteer(80hrs), Liberty Science Center Volunteer(100hrs). </p>

<p>Jobs: Tutor at Kumon</p>

<p>Senior Year Courseload: AP English, AP Calc BC, AP Chemistry (taking again because I hate Physics :P), AP Stat, AP Computer Sci, AP Spanish, AP Macro, AP Micro</p>

<p>My Summers were spent at CTY (9th grade), NYLF-Med and volunteering at a Christian Camp (10th grade). Going to spend this summer volunteering and doing apps since I got rejected from a bajillion summer programs :(</p>

<p>Oh and I don't really know what I want to major in or anything. Leaning more towards Sciences though. Thank you for your help :)</p>

2

<p>If you read the other ‘chance me threads’ you will see that you need to provide more information to get useful advise: financial situation geographic preferences, size/type of school, culture, etc…</p>

3

<p>You should definitely apply to your state college. And then use Collegeboard’s college matchmaker as your starting point to see which colleges fits your overall preferences.</p>

4

<p>Are you a likely NMSF? How did you do on the PSAT?</p>

<p>You’re interested in sciences. Are you interested in research or maybe pre-med? </p>

<p>Is money a concern or will your parents pay for wherever you get in? If money is a concern, you need to determine what kind of aid you’d qualify for and whether your parents will pay the “family contribution.” If that will be a problem, then you need to carefully select schools that will be affordable - either thru low cost, scholarships, etc. </p>

<p>Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are the 3 ivies that have the super-generous FA programs. For families making - say $150k - they expect a far smaller family contribution than other privates/publics who might give such a family very little or no aid.</p>

<p>If you don’t know how much your parents will spend each year, ask. You need to know that before really coming up with a list.</p>

<p>And, as you probably know, you need to include reach schools, match schools, and a couple of financial safety schools. Even if your parents say that they will pay for everything, it’s still a good idea to have a couple of financial safety schools. Some families have economic meltdowns between the fall app season and spring acceptances.</p>

<p>Do you have any school size preferences? Weather? </p>

<p>How about an LAC like Amherst?</p>

5

<p>Well, I think that you have a really good background. You might be able to get into a school that has a partnership with a medical school, so that you have a guaranteed admission. I think the RPI/Albany Med has that. If you need aid, places like George Washington U, Boston U, and Case Western give a lot. You can shoot high if you want to, or you can play it out to give yourself the best shot at a career in medicine.</p>

6

<p>I would spend some time this summer with focused study on the SAT. Getting those scores up to 2250 or above would help generate more options.</p>

<p>Key criteria is if you want a large university or a smaller LAC. Then you need 3 reaches, 3 matches, 3 safeties, all of which you could manage financially.</p>

<p>But you haven’t given enough goal/preference information to steer the advice you get–it will be all over the place.</p>

7

<p>In all that you wrote you described what an adcom might see evaluating your app. Not a word about what you want your college experience to be like.</p>

<p>Its early in the summer and there’s plenty of time. I suggest you do nothing else before you read a good book or two about college admissions to learn about fit and how to find colleges that are right for you. One book I can highly recommend is “Admission Matters” and there are lots of others out there. </p>

<p>Truth be told, out of the thousands of colleges in the US most of them admit the vast majority of their applicants. Its only the 100 or so in top demand, probably the ones you’re thinking of right now, that are very selective. So you can follow the herd and try to figure out which of those will take you. Or you can try to figure out which colleges are the best for you (and which very might well include colleges in that popular 100).</p>

8

<p>What does LAC exactly insinuate? If it hurts my opportunities for undergrad research/internships and jobs, etc then it’s probably not for me. </p>

<p>Colleges with good financial aid would also be helpful. My family makes over 200k/yr but we have a large household (7 people) so I’m not sure if we would qualify for aid. </p>

<p>If you guys could start shouting out names it would be nice.</p>

<p>Oh and regarding other criteria that chance threads appear to be using I’m not interested in cutthroat schools that would hurt my chances in premed. I’m also pretty open to schools in any geographical region. Not particularly interested in urban areas though (Columbia SHP makes me sick of the city oddly enough)</p>

9

<p>LAC (liberal arts colleges) are NOT necessarily liberal nor just for artists. They are small schools (under 2,500 usually) that offer only undergraduate education (no grad students, no grad schools), with majors in non-vocational areas (no nursing, engineering, business). Lots of pre-meds go to LACs. They offer small classes, close relationships with faculty who like to teach, and no competition from grad students for research opportunities or faculty attention. They also offer research opportunities, study abroad, and most of the things that large schools offer-but fewer majors, fewer classes, and not as many research opportunities, as a function of the smaller size. The top LACs are as highly regarded as other top universities and in no way hurt your ability to get in anywhere. On the contrary, the fact that you know the faculty well means you are likely to find it easier to identify a mentor and get letters of recommendation for grad school.</p>

<p>I suggest you read up on a few, visit one and then decide if you like the environment.</p>

10

<p>And since you asked for suggestions, take a look at the midwestern LACs, where being an Asian male makes you a URM. Carleton, Grinnell, Macalester and Oberlin all have strong sciences. </p>

<p>Grinnell offers merit aid to people with your stats and GPA even at your income level. They also have a top-ranked swim team. All the sports teams are walk-on, so you can participate in anything. Also no distribution requirements.</p>

11

<p>*Colleges with good financial aid would also be helpful. My family makes over 200k/yr but we have a large household (7 people) so I’m not sure if we would qualify for aid. *</p>

<p>OK…this is a real problem. You won’t likely qualify for any aid. Your family’s income is too high.</p>

<p>You need to get a clear budget from your parents as to how much they will pay each year. Once you know that, you can make informed choice. </p>

<p>If your family can’t pay for your most/all of your college costs, then you’ll need to look for merit scholarships from the schools that award them.</p>

12

<p>If you are really taking that many AP classes and killing yourself, then you might as well use the summer to get your SAT/ACT scores up, unless you feel you got the highest you can get, because then you would probably have a shot at a few Ivies. </p>

<p>Your GPA is really good, but your SAT score could use some improvement to translate to your GPA. Really good extracurriculars.</p>

<p>I’d recommend at this point basically any top 20 schools if you are leaning towards science: Johns Hopkins, Duke, UChicago, Cornell, USC, etc…</p>

<p>or if you want a smaller college, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, etc…</p>