I am assisting a rising senior with her college list, and I would love some guidance from the CC community! Here are the basics:
Black female in SoCal
1110 SAT. Willing to study for and try the ACT.
3.95 GPA (UC version uw); 3.89 (grade 9-11 GPA uw)
Ranked in top 9%
Class president throughout HS
Unsure of major, but probably more social science/humanities
Not first gen
Needs financial aid and I believe will qualify for goodly amount (I’m working on guiding her to NPCs, but haven’t gotten word on results yet). Parents told her she will get scholarships, so apply anywhere.
Parents are on board with her going anywhere in US.
Has not visited any colleges other than local CC, so doesn’t yet have a true understanding of difference between LACs and universities (I’m encouraging her to go visit some local ones of both varieties to see what she thinks).
She has her eye on tippy top schools, mostly universities. But we need to create a balanced list.
Ideas for Safeties?
It looks like a Cal State or two could serve as a safety, but most appear to be commuter schools. San Diego State looks like it might be good, but it’s not a safety with her SAT score. Which CSUs are truly realistic safeties given that the better CSUs are impacted and/or have impacted majors?
Would UC Riverside be a safety UC? (I told her about how the top 9% of all CA schools can get a seat at a UC, so she is going to look into whether her school qualifies. No one at her school had mentioned that to her before).
Ideas for Matches/Reaches?
I am encouraging her to apply to some diversity fly-in programs to see some LACs on the east coast that are test optional AND meet 100% need, and at the same time experience whether she really wants to go that far away:
Connecticut College
Mount Holyoke
Bryn Mawr
Smith
Wesleyan
Also, Pitzer (Claremont College) is a CA school that is test optional and meets 100% need.
While her SATs are low for most of the following schools (which are not test optional), I wonder if any of these schools may consider her given her high GPA, ethnicity, and class presidency, all within the context of her likely lower SES HS:
Scripps
Occidental
Loyola Marymount U
Chapman U
Santa Clara U
Coursework?
Finally, her senior year course load is lacking a 4th year of foreign language (she has 3 years) and a science (she has bio, chem, and AP environmental). Her school sounds small and she tells me her course load is quite rigorous compared to that of other students there. I’m not sure whether to encourage her to pick up one of these classes, though. Will it make that much of a difference?
If she is top 9% locally she may fall into the master plan guarantee. A guaranteed UC school admission. It probably will be UC Merced/Davis range Perhaps CSUs.
Also an idea is CCC to a top UC path. If she is that highly ranked locally despite having what would be seen as average stats for selective schools - perhaps the school prep at ccc would be useful prior to jumping into UC competitiveness. Just a thought and not a recommendation.
Also you should have her post directly as the moderators will be closing this down shortly IMHO.
ELC eligible top 9% in her HS or statewide will get her into UC Merced if they have room and not accepted to her choice UC. UC Riverside is probably a Match but bumping up her test scores will be vital if she wants aim higher than UCR/UCM and most of the Cal States.
Capped weighted UC GPA? SAT score will not get her into any top UC’s, CSU’s or privates. What CSU is in her local service area?
Note that California publics (other than CPSLO which uses its own formula) do give GPA a heavier weight than test scores, so that works in her favor at UCs and CSUs (though higher test scores are always better than lower test scores).
If her weighted-capped GPA is higher than the “top 9%” threshold set by a previous class at her high school, she has Eligibility in Local Context, which means that if she does not get into any UC she applies to and UCM has space, she will be admitted to UCM. She may want to ask her counselor what this ELC threshold is.
Yes, test-optional + full-need-met looks like the way to go.
These are the ones I know of, many of which are already on your list:
Bowdoin College (ME)
Smith College (MA)
Wesleyan University (CT)
Bates College (ME)
Bryn Mawr (PA)
College of the Holy Cross (MA) <— this would be a great one to look at IMHO
Pitzer College (CA)
Mount Holyoke College (MA)
Skidmore College (NY)
Trinity College (CT)
Union College (NY)
Dickinson College (PA)
Whitman College (WA) <— I think she’d have a great shot at Whitman - wonderful school that’s seeking diversity
Franklin and Marshall College (PA)
Connecticut College (CT)
Wake Forest University (NC)
In the context of her interest in social sciences, if she’s interested in urban social-justice and leadership type stuff, then Holy Cross would be a great place. Set in Worcester, MA (a 45 minute commuter rail trip into Boston, but a city in its own right), both Holy Cross and Clark do a lot of great work in the community. (And there’s cross-registration with Clark and WPI) It has more of a real-world laboratory aspect than the 5 college consortium schools that don’t have the urban connection.
I don’t really know how to gauge whether diversity, grades and EC’s will help enough with the CA privates you listed.
But among the NON-test-optional schools, check out St. Olaf in Minnesota - 45% overall admit rate, 80% ED admit rate, meets 98% of need on average, excellent school. It’s the antithesis of urban, though - small town 45 minutes outside of Minneapolis (same town as Carleton).
She should get the ELC guarantee and be admitted to Merced - possibly Riverside too, hard to say. (Santa Cruz and Davis could be worth a try, but it depends how her GPA is viewed relative to what’s available at her school, as she’s competing with applicants who have a lot of “weighting” to their GPA’s as well as higher test scores, and as you know there’s no race-bump with the CA publics.)
CSU safeties that are less commuter-ish: Humboldt, and Monterey Bay. Sonoma is more competitive but worth a try.
If her unweighted GPA is 3.95, and she has many honors courses that would bring her weighted-capped GPA to 4.25, when her chances at UCs may be better than what many are assuming based on test scores, since UCs tend to weight GPA more heavily than test scores in their admissions readings. She should still ensure that she has safeties, but she may want to apply more widely to UCs beyond UCM and UCR if she is interested in the other campuses.