Please Help Me Find a Balance :)

College Search & Selection
1

Hey all!
Extremely brief overview of my application:

33 ACT with Writing, 4.0 (or really close, not 100% sure), near 5.0 weighted (haven’t calculated it but I have straight As in my APs, not sure how it works.)

Tuition: My family can some-what comfortably afford full-pay, but it is still a factor because I don’t want to take a lot of money from my parents unless I am sure that they can comfortably pay without blinking (through a new business venture, for example), or that I will be able to pay them back more over time (great education).

Canadian doing online school from an American, accredited high school. Something like 8 APs and 2 honors in my last two years, everything before that was college prep.

My first three years of high school were terrible. In those three years, I only finished like 3 pass or fail courses. I was doing around 20 minutes of homeschooling per day with my Mom. Nobody had positive expectations for me, and instead thought I was going to drop out and live off ‘daddy’s money.’ I decided I wanted more out of myself, so I started online school. Although I fell really behind my friends and family, I worked through it and did everything by myself with little direction or help. Here we are:

"Wait, I actually got in??"
Stanford
Product Design
MIT
Management with Entrepreneurship and Inno. Minor *likely to remove this one
Brown
Behavioral Decision Sciences

"Really excited!! Can’t wait to get started:"
Babson
Entrepreneurship/Technology joint
**Northeastern **
I have a list of like 10 majors I love from Northeastern, prob will apply for multiple
**U Washington **
Industrial Design
**Penn State University Park **
Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Waterloo
Global Business and Digital Arts
McGill
Entrepreneurship

"Academics might not be as great, but I’m sure I will enjoy it:"
ASU
Industrial Design
**U San Fran **
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Chapman
Behavioral and Computational Economics
UBC Okanagan
University of Saskatchewan
UBC
Simon Fraser
Interactive Arts and Technology and Business

Italics = ED
Underline = Home Country / Canada
Also considering College of Charleston for a Chapman-like vibe, safe-ish, alternative.

Notes:

-I used the following, ordered criteria for my college search: 1. Programs available, 2. Academic strength, 3. Location/State, 4. People there; social fit, 5. Campus.
-Other factors (class-type, size, etc.) are varied because I genuinely don’t know what I would prefer, so I wanted some options.
-AFAIK, Canadian schools don’t require as much effort to apply to, so that is why the list contains so many schools.
-I fell in love with Brown’s academics. I could not have made a better program/curriculum for me. I don’t have a good chance at ED admission, but there is no other school (possibly Northeastern lol) that could take my ED.

How’s it looking? Thank you, everyone!! :slight_smile:

2

This makes no sense. You have 2 years of online courses at an American high school, and 3 years of high school before that? How can 3 pass/fail courses in 3 years be considered college prep?

Are you a senior now? It looks like your high school transcript is basically 3 pass/fail courses and 10 AP/honors courses. That amounts to about 2 years of high school. I don’t think a high test score and the ability to be full pay is going to make up for the courses you must be missing. For selective US colleges you need 4 years each of English, math, science, and social studies/history, plus 3 years of a foreign language. How many of those courses have you taken?

3

Does your American online accredited high school have college counseling?

Is there a person there who knows you and can write you a strong college counselor letter of recommendation?

If there is such a human, I suggest that building that relationship and talking about college strategy should be Priority #1.

My admittedly very limited experience (via friends of my daughter) suggests that students who homeschool and have unusual looking transcripts with coursework drawn from multiple sources may have a harder time with college admissions than students with more regular looking transcripts of four years at a public or private independent school.

You and your college counselor should sit down and talk about what your transcript is going to look like and how you are going to package your academic work to date. I agree with @austinmshauri : what you said about the first three years of high school + two years of online high school was confusing to me. That’s not important because you don’t need me to understand it. You DO need admissions offices to understand it! They are going to be looking at rigor of program and GPA, and they are going to want to see sustained achievement in all major academic subjects.

I might suggest targeting Northeastern for your ED rather than Brown. You seem quite enthusiastic about it as well and schools like Brown and Stanford are such long shots for everyone even with more regular looking transcripts. Plus Northeastern does have some merit scholarships, and it sounds like your family may be too well off to qualify for need-based aid.

I also would suggest reframing the way you think about schools in your third category. Make sure you don’t confuse “difficulty of getting in” with “quality of academic program.” There are a lot of terrific colleges and universities where you can get a first-rate education even if they have less name recognition than Brown!

4

I’m confused as well. How do you have enough required courses for US schools?

And honestly, a 33 ACT isn’t going to cut it for MIT, Stanford, or Brown, especially for an international student. You also need SAT II subject tests for some of the schools on this list. Have you taken those yet?

5

@austinmshauri That’s my mistake. I’ve explained the situation so many times I forget to go into depth into this one.

I did homeschooling with my Mom, and in 2.5 years-ish (don’t know exactly) I only finished like 3 or 4 pass or fail courses. This only counted for a grade 9 requirement of 1 credit in ELA, Science, and Math.

I then started my schooling at an accredited online school, where I did grade 10 and 11. I am currently a Junior, almost done for the year. In my grade 10, I only did college prep courses because I had no clue what I was getting myself into and didn’t realize I could handle anything more. The next year (grade 11, my current year), I took like 5 APs and some other courses. I’m taking some courses this summer as well.

I will meet all the requirements, with the exception of the recommended 3-4 years of FL. I will have taken ASL 1 and 2 for the requirements. I am doing two courses this summer: Honors Precalc and ASL 1. Both of which are an attempt to fix my previous mistakes in course-enrollment.

I will definitely consider doing Northeastern ED. I might tour both this summer and get a better feel for them

@BookLvr

I don’t really trust my counselor, to be honest with you. Many of the things she said has come back to bite me; for example, telling me they were 100% sure there was absolutely no reason for me to take AP exams other than for class placement, only for me to find that they were recommended for high school students. Or when they told me that AP Calc wasn’t necessary, knowing that my planned major at the time was AP Calc and most schools on my previous list required it. Regardless, I can try to see what I can do!

My transcript will include two schools, one where I finished my grade 9 (pass or fails, took like 2 years), and the other is where I will have done 10-12, including summer classes.

I totally agree with your comments on my characterization of my last-tier of schools. I would be ecstatic to go to any one of them.

@momofsenior1

I’m surprised you say that. Brown’s average ACT scores are 31-34. Sure, as an international student I will be against tougher odds, but I want to apply regardless. MIT I was likely to strike, and I thought I’d do Stanford just for an absolute hail marry. Early decision and around 60th percentile ACT scores would surely give me a chance, right? I don’t really understand why you are saying ‘won’t cut it,’ considering I am doing ED and am in >50th percentile of ACT scores. Considering it’s my dream program, it’s worth an application, right?

People always speak to the invisible moving target of admissions in top schools. Since I am such a unique applicant, I thought I may as well shoot my shot :wink:

Do you know what schools, specifically, you are talking about? I’m planning on taking Literature and Math 2 in the fall.

6

The acceptance rate for Brown is around 7 1/2%. Stanford is below 5%. It’s even lower for international students.

Students on the lower end of scores typically have some hooks - under represented minorities, recruited athletes, parents were huge donors. You need to look at the acceptance rates for schools, not just their scores.

Any school that says SAT II subject tests are recommended mean you should take them unless it would present some kind of hardship to do so.

I would not waste your ED on a school with very limited odds of acceptance.

7

@momofsenior1 The key here is what you originally said: “a 33 ACT will not cut it for Brown.” You meant that I should not apply to Brown because I will not be accepted with my ACT score, correct? I’m clarifying because when typing on the internet, some things can be misinterpreted.

I know my chances are small, but I am a full-pay OOS, ED applicant with test scores above the 50th percentile. Doesn’t this mean I at least have a chance?

Noted. I will try to take as many as possible. Thank you!

I’ll reconsider my ED! I might use it at Northeastern, but if I feel like I have even a small chance at a top school, I will probably ED there. We’ll see how my other scores go and all that stuff!

Keep in mind (with regards to my ED), that my family would be paying over 300k Canadian dollars. There is a good chance that I would take the much cheaper tuition at a school like Simon Fraser if I don’t get into my top schools like Brown. This is the line of thinking that made me want to ED at Brown: would Northeastern be worth me taking 300k from my parents? I’m not too sure yet, but Brown certainly would be.

disclaimer: my parents can afford it. It’s just a big change in cost between American and Canadian, so I might not want to put them through that. Even though they can pay, it’s still a lot of money that could be spent elsewhere!

8

Brown is a private university. Being international is a negative for admission, not a positive.

IMO, no school is worth that much if you have more affordable options, including Brown.

9

@momofsenior1 Yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible; simplistically speaking, there is one negative and two positives.

Academically speaking, I would agree with you. But it isn’t just spending 300k for a great college vs spending 50k for a good college. Other factors like finding the right program, fitting in socially, and going to a place that I would really enjoy are more important to me and my family than cost.

10

I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve agreed with @momofsenior1, but not on this. The ED application should always be to the top choice, even if it’s a reach school and the student has no hooks. The reason is that acceptance by the second (or third, or fourth,…) choice will introduce that doubt that maybe they were a stronger candidate than they realized and that they sold themselves short on their life’s dream. Better to be turned down by your top choice reach school and be satisfied that you at least tried.

11

@damon30 Thank you for the input. I don’t think anyone would disagree that college admissions are extremely hard to predict. Given that I meet the average admissions for Brown and I am such a unique applicant, I would be constantly wondering what could have been.

12

@FakeName1332 You’re welcome, and thank you for the acknowledgement. If you want to read an ED tale gone wrong, read this thread: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/2131179-i-feel-horrible-ed-regret.html

The OP was mocked repeatedly, including by me, and eventually he recanted somewhat, but I have no doubt that he was just being open about how anyone would feel in the same position.

13

@damon30 Yikes… Yeah, I don’t want to be in that situation. I can’t believe someone who appears to be so well-rounded and academically intelligent would be so confident that they would get into Duke and have a good chance at the top schools. Thanks for sharing; I had a pretty good laugh at some of those responses lol