Please match me: European-American female, 3.98 UW GPA, 35 ACT, Chemistry & Art History [US+EU citizen living outside the US]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US-EU dual citizen
  • State/Location of residency: major city in Western Europe
  • Type of high school: academically competitive British international school (single-sex, so I would prefer a co-ed university)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: white female
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): legacy at Georgetown

Intended Major(s): Chemistry and Art History (interest in art conservation/restoration)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.98/4.00
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): n/a
  • Class Rank: top 10%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT (composite, one sitting)

Coursework

  • Highest level of rigour since Year 9
  • A-Levels in Math, Chemistry, and Latin (school only allows three, but I have taken the Further Math curriculum as academic enrichment)
  • Highest level of Math is linear algebra/second order differential equations
  • Nine years of Latin, three years of Ancient Greek, ten years of French (nearly fluent); I also speak Swedish at home
  • Extended Project Qualification (academic research) on relatively obscure Art History topic; I achieved full marks on my research paper

Awards

  • Academic attainment award every year (top 10% of class)
  • School History and English essay prizes
  • Photography competition winner
  • Runner-up in global essay competition
  • Gold awards in national Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Math olympiads
  • Second place in national classical drama competition

Extracurriculars

  • Unusual instrument – working towards diploma level (played in concert, but no competitions)
  • Guitar, piano, and voice
  • Co-chair of school feminist book club
  • Globally competitive STEM internship
  • MUN – won several awards at conferences
  • Editor-in-Chief of school newspaper
  • Competitive screenwriting course
  • Working for publishing house
  • Volunteering for a children’s charity – ten hours/week for seven years
  • Volunteer tutoring – five hours/week for five years

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Common App essay about playing an unusual instrument
  • LORs from Math and Science teachers; probably strong, but my teachers are not used to writing references for US universities

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • I don’t qualify for aid, but would be grateful for any merit scholarships (not required)

Schools

  • Looking for suggestions for RD and potentially EDII
  • Only applying to the US
  • Priorities are location (on East or West coast, with a direct flight to a major airport in Western Europe, e.g. Heathrow/Paris/Frankfurt), collaborative environment, academic but balanced, neither political extreme, medium size (c. 3,000-10,000), ideally not rural, defined campus (i.e. not NYU or BU), limited presence of Greek life, no preference re: core vs. open curriculum
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I seem to have unintentionally tagged “first generation” – I’m not!

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Removed that for you.

You look like a competitive candidate. I’ll leave it to others to provide suggestions. Where did you apply in the early round?

Best wishes.

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Georgetown would seem the best fit and with legacy your chances improve.

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I think your desire for direct flight will limit you.

You really need a budget.

Why ?

I’d say a school like Vandy could work. But it’s $90k a yearWill be morewhen you go. Flights from London to Nashville.

On the other hand, my daughter goes to College of Charleston. She’s a Charleston Fellow - look it up - and they have a Historic Preservation major. And Art History.

The Fellows is a small subset of Honors. Not all get free tuition but she does. You’d certainly get merit and hefty merit if you got Fellows. I’m paying for her living so let’s say $20k a year. Even if she didn’t get the endowed $, it’d be $45k with regular merit. Half of Vandy. X4

Which would your family choose ?

For someone with your stats - there’s lots of money out there. Lots!!

Transport is a few times a year. Even when there are direct flights some stop because it saves money.

But British Airways also flies there or will non stop.

Give us a true $$ figure because you could spend $25k or $90k. When you say this - it’s very ambiguous. Have that chat with your family now. And then I can offer suggestions.

  • I don’t qualify for aid, but would be grateful for any merit scholarships (not required)

But these are two initial comparators. Charleston and Vandy.

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Thank you! I didn’t apply anywhere in the early round.

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Thank you for all of this! I’m not familiar with College of Charleston, but I’ll take a look. Thanks for the suggestion!

A direct flight isn’t a necessity, but a strong preference, as it’s a lot of travel over a long distance.

I don’t have a restricted budget, i.e. my parents can and will pay in full, but a lower cost would be nice as it’s otherwise excessive. That said, I won’t go “anywhere” for merit – fit is the most important factor.

My concern with Vanderbilt was the monopoly Greek life seems to have on the social scene. Is that true? I really don’t want a party school.

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Thank you! Do you think I’m at a disadvantage applying regular decision rather than early action?

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I was looking at cities with direct flights and looking for budget comparatives. You can be at a Greek school and not participate. That’s not an issue at many. At the same time, you can avoid politics. Most kids aren’t overly political. They go to school. We’ve seen that change recently. And while not exclusively at, at higher pedigree schools.

I’ll shoot some possibilities later but with travel, while some secondary cities will have flights, it’s gonna mainly be your Miami, Atlanta, DC, NY, Boston, Chicago, Dallas.

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I think with legacy you have a very good chance.

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I would definitely be open to an academic or service sorority, but I’m not interested in going through the “rush” process. I’m still open to suggestions for schools that will award merit and/or aren’t a direct flight away. I really appreciate your help!

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Princeton, Northwestern, Emory(?), Boston College, Duke. Rice is the right size and campus with very frequent air service but not on a coast.

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You could benefit from considering Barnard, which, while a women’s college, composes part of the coeducational Columbia University.

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Thank you for these suggestions!

What’s Emory like? I can’t really get a sense from videos.

Do you think Princeton is (at all) realistic? I hadn’t considered it as I didn’t think I had a chance.

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Barnard looks very interesting – thanks!

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May as well try

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William and Mary checks your boxes. I’d check flights from Norfolk, Va.

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Thank you! I like what I’ve seen of William and Mary so far.

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You’re an interesting candidate, with a very unusual career goal. For this reason, I would say that you need to go to an east coast major city school, where you can do an internship in a major museum that does art restoration. For this reason, I’d say Philly, NYC, Boston are your best bets, because each city has major art museums. There are direct flights to Europe from Boston and NYC of course, but Boston’s airports are pretty easily reached by public transportation. It’s possible to get to the airports in NYC by public transportation, but a pain, and the traffic can be horrible. From Philly, your best bet is to fly out of Newark, rather than Philadelphia. There’s a shuttle to the NYC airports from New Haven (Yale)

Doing the research to find out which colleges have art conservation/restoration is beyond me, but all schools will have Chem and Art History. Penn, Yale, Harvard all have multiple museums, in addition to the museums in their cities. For reaches, I’d list Penn, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Brown, Harvard. I’d also apply to Barnard, which would fit the bill, maybe slightly less of a reach for you. Georgetown for sure. Maybe Johns Hopkins. Maybe Tufts (but you have to convince them that they’re your first choice, by demonstrating interest). Maybe Brandeis (which is a match for you). Fordham is a safety for you, and would possibly give you some merit money. I would take a very close look at NYU before you decide against it, and at Boston University - they’re both very urban campuses. Emory, in Atlanta - there must be nonstops to Europe from Atlanta. If you’re willing to cast your net farther, there are probably nonstops to Europe from Texas, California, not sure where else. It will depend upon where in Europe you’re flying to.

I think that George Washington would be a safety for you, also Bryn Mawr if you’re willing to look at a small women’s college. Hunter college in NYC is a safety for you, and they have a dorm.

U Chicago is a possibility, has what you want, also has nonstops to Europe.

They’re all going to cost you close to 90K/yr, with health insurance. No merit money at the more selective ones. I think that your academic achievement puts you in the ballpark, but it’s your unusual career goal that’s going to get them to take you. I have never heard of anyone applying who knew that they wanted art conservation, and planned to take both chemistry and art history, to better equip themselves to do it. I hear that you want to highlight your unusual instrument, but honestly, you’ve got to get across to them your passion for art restoration, too, and how chemistry ties into that. You’ve got to tell each school about how their museums will help you to achieve your goals (plus of course access to the pros at the big city museums). If I were interviewing you, I’d want to hear about that, rather than your playing the harp or the didgeridoo.

For cheaper schools, you’re kind of stuck. You could apply to third tier liberal arts colleges, and you’ll get money, but you won’t meet your academic peers there. You’re not in-state anywhere, and only a few states would allow you to become in-state for tuition purposes after a year, or at all. UMass Boston will probably give you a lot of merit money. The flagship is UMass Amherst, but it’s 2.5 hours west of Boston; nearest airport is BDL, which doesn’t have non-stop to Europe, except Dublin.

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Oberlin offers a very strong art history program as well as, I believe, the potential for merit scholarship recognition.

With respect to your academic interests, Emory would be excellent for art history and offers excellent laboratory facilities for chemistry.

Look into the University of Southern California.

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