Please Help Match/Chance a Rising Senior

Chance Me / Match Me!
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You have a very interesting profile that I think will attract a lot of admissions officers. A high SAT score from a school that’s not known for being an academic powerhouse is definitely going to grab people’s attention. Combining that with a strong background in Chinese and extensive music experience in bands, plus the desire to study some variation on astrophysics, and I think you could be very interesting to schools. Obviously, there are many, many qualified applicants to the most popular schools, but I think you definitely stand a chance.

All the schools listed below offer majors in both Chinese and physics.

Lehigh (PA ): Met 97% of financial need and has a similar size undergrad population size to Tufts.

North Central (IL): Only met 81% of financial need, but between financial aid, academic merit aid, and possible music merit aid (available to nonmajors…and athletic band counts), I think this would be a definite possibility. There’s a train from Boston to Chicago, and then Naperville is a short train ride or 44m drive from Chicago. And there are certainly lots of direct flights between Boston and Chicago, too.

Wellesley (MA): I’d take a long, good look at this one. It’s the only women’s college offering majors in both Chinese and physics, according to College Navigator, and it’s in the Boston area. Tremendous alumni network, too, and all the opportunities that @aquapt mentioned. Based on what you’ve said, if the Net Price Calculator is promising, this would be hard to not ED to. Meets 100% of financial need (as they calculate it).

Union (NY): Meets 100% of financial need. A good school that’s not nearly as competitive for admissions as other possible ones (47% vs Wellesley at 16% or Tufts at 11%).

Vassar (NY): Also will meet 100% of financial need. Not a shoo-in for you, but I think you might have a shot.

Boston U (MA): May not have the traditional campus feel you’re hoping for, but it’s in the Boston area, has the majors you’re looking for, and now meets 100% of financial need for incoming freshmen.

Norwich (VT): I don’t know much about this school except that it’s about a 2h drive from Boston, offers majors in physics & Chinese, and is a private school that meets 81% of financial need. But like North Central, I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up getting a very generous package from Norwich.

And as mentioned above, I think that U. Mass – Amherst should definitely be a strong contender for you.

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Irrespective of your uncertainty, a physics major would provide you with a better foundation for graduate study in astronomy/astrophysics than would a major in astronomy/astrophysics, in my opinion.

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My guess is that a 3.7 UW GPA is likely still below Tufts’ median GPA. It has a 9% acceptance rate, and I suspect that the majority of students who are accepted have nearly straight A’s across the board. Also, from what the OP posted, she may not be judged to have taken the highest rigor at her high school. OP, not knocking your accomplishments and record at all … . it’s just that Tufts is a really competitive school and 91% of applicants will be rejected, including, I suspect quite a few students with close to 4.0 UW GPAs.

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True if you look strictly at Chinese as a major, but others have Asian Studies (“East Asian Languages & Cultures” at Smith and Bryn Mawr) majors with Chinese as a possible concentration. I’d guess that any of the top women’s colleges would work fine for a prospective physics major who wants to pursue Chinese language and study abroad in a Chinese-speaking country. Also, UMass Amherst is top-notch for Asian languages.

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No offense whatsoever! I’ve seen the stats and I know that mine are much lower than Tufts typically accepts. I’m not expecting to get in but it would feel like a waste to not at least try, given that I’ve been to the school and spoken to admissions officers and overall put a lot of interest into the school. If I get rejected at least I made my application as strong as I could.

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Yes, the UW could be below median, although the median weighted is lower than 4.3. The point about highest rigor is important too; as part of the counselor recommendation, the school counselor will be asked about level of rigor, and if they do not say that the student pursued the highest rigor available, that will weaken the application. Overall, I think both Tufts and Wellesley are pretty reachy for an unhooked Boston metro area student with this profile.

Some students want to shoot the moon in the ED cycle; whether this is wise depends on one’s fallback position. If UMass Amherst is affordable and OP is okay with going there, it’s an excellent school for all of her interests, and ending up there would be a good outcome by all objective measures, so risking ED1/ED2 rejection is not so bad. OTOH, if (for example) Smith or MoHo would offer a significantly better deal financially than UMass, or if OP very much wants a smaller/private school, then going the high-risk route with a high-reach ED school may not be the best strategy.

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This is a lot of people to respond to, but thanks to all of you for responding! It will be really helpful to have this list to reference going forward as I finalize my college list. Appreciate the help : )

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Regarding the study of Chinese, this site may be of interest:

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Other schools to look at would be the Chinese flagship schools as all will have physics. Indiana, liberal leaning with lots of Jewish students, comes to mind. Yes another where school and state don’t have the same leaning. URI also is a flagship and will have nice merit. Here’s all of them for Chinese.

https://www.thelanguageflagship.org/chinese

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