Pls help me (:

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I am new to CC and curious as to your opinions on my college admissions chances.

Female from WI

ACT: 34
SAT: 1500

  • math 730
  • reading 770

GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.135 weighted
Class rank: 2/200, should go up to 1 this semester

APs:
APUSH 5
AB Calc 4
Chem 2 (my teacher didn’t teach us, and literally used Yahoo answers if we had ?s and our school didn’t provide lab materials. Do you think I should explain this somewhere on my apps? Or can I just not mention my score?)
Literature ?
Microecon ?
BC Calc ?
Physics?
Stats?

Extracurriculars:
Business club (officer)
Health club (officer)
NHS (president)
Student Council
Mock Trial
Lots of sports…volleyball, basketball, soccer, track, cross country
A few other small ones

Community service/other:
A few hundred hours from various club stuff, nothing I’m super involved in
I started a program in my community that provides resources (food clothes etc) to families in need
I am assisting my school district in working with businesses to switch to LED
Grocery jobs

Awards:
National Merit Semifinalist
Girls State Lieutenant Governor
A few state level 2nd place awards for business and health clubs

Recommendations:
Solid, but not stellar. My teachers have never written recs for top schools before so I’m not surprised.

Essays:
Common app is basically about reading/writing which turned out more basic than I thought :frowning:

Applying to: Northeastern, USC, UC Berkeley, U Washington, Brown, Cornell, UChicago

Any info/advice helps, even if it’s just for 1 college!

2

Are you also applying to U.Wisconsin?

I ask for two reasons.

One is that U.Wisconsin is a very good university. Being in-state is going to give you a significant advantage in terms of being accepted, and will also give you a huge advantage in terms of the cost of attendance. Your superb stats are largely due to your own hard work. Your having such a strong university in-state might be considered very good luck.

Also, your list of schools to me mostly split into two groups. One group is reaches (Chicago, Cornell, Brown). The other list is schools that are just as good as U.Wisconsin (ie, excellent), and likely to be only about $160,000 more expensive over 4 years. At least for what I studied I might give Berkeley an edge over Wisconsin, but I am not sure that I would be full pay at Berkeley for the academic difference (at least for undergrad). Actually, for what I studied I might rather get a bachelor’s at Wisconsin plus a master’s at Berkeley for the same cost or less than the cost of just a bachelor’s at Berkeley.

3

Just checking, have you run net price calculators on all the schools on your list? Berkeley, for example, will likely give you no financial aid. And I agree that you should definitely apply to UW (or UMN, or both) as good affordable choices.

4

Thanks for your input!

Yes, I did apply to UW Madison, my only early action school. Their acceptance rate is 50% and I am not worried about getting in there, which is why I didn’t include it. UW is my “back-up” school (albeit a very good one). For me, it is just too familiar as it is the “typical” college for my school’s top grads. My sister goes there as well so I am familiar with the campus.

As far as prestige, Wisconsin and Northeastern are the lowest on my list. Berkeley is almost always ranked the #1 public university, higher than WI. Since Berkeley is public out-of-state I doubt I’ll get much help financially, but I toured there and loved it which is why I’m still applying. The rest of the schools are private, which, as far as I understand, would be cheaper for me as an out-of-state student. Also, USC and Northeastern offer good scholarships through National Merit.

I hope this explains my list more.

5

“I am not worried about getting in there,”

I am not worried about your chances at this one either :slight_smile: Good luck with your search.

6

intparent, I just responded to a similar question above.

Yes, I understand that Berkeley will probably be too expensive but it is my top choice so I’m still applying in case I get awesome third party scholarships.

I have run net price calculators and the others are around 20-40k per year. USC and Northeastern will give me scholarships for National Merit as well. I understand that Madison would be cheaper, but I’m hoping that I will be able to manage the others through scholarships.

Also, I did my FAFSA and my EFC is about 17k. Does this mean that if a school “meets 100% demonstrated need” I will only need to pay 17k/yr? I don’t understand how this works.

Thanks for the feedback!

7

@wigrlpwr Congratulations on your excellent record. Regarding your Chemistry AP exam result, I wouldn’t report the score, nor try to explain it away. Your overall performance speaks for itself.

Regarding FAFSA, “demonstrated need” can be met in the form of loans that need to be paid back. So if a school costs 60K, and your EFC is 17K, the $43K balance might be: a combination of Federal Student Loan (5.5K for freshman year with phased increases to 7.5K your senior year), Work Study (2-3K per year), grants (that don’t need repayment) and Parent Plus or other loans that would have to be repaid. So it may be that “meets full need” provides 10K in grant money and you come up with the rest in loans and work. Every school has a Net Price Calculator and many of them will break out the different components in your package. Every school’s calculation of need and how it is met differs. For example, I ran the numbers for a family friend who is Pell Grant eligible for a OOS public. The “aid” was entirely loans and work study other than the Pell Grant. This was not viable for a family whose EFC was close to zero.

I hope this is semi clear. One of the reasons for HYPS being so desirable is that their financial packages tend to be mostly grants and not loans. So for an accomplished student that has financial need, they can be incredibly generous.

Have you also looked a U of Minnesota in the Twin Cities? I believe it offers reciprocal tuition for WI residents. There is probably a deadline for merit scholarships/Honors Program - if it hasn’t already passed, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s December 1.

8

Ahhh, thanks for the clarification.

U of M Twin Cities – I’ve considered it, but would probably rather go to UW if it came down to it because it’s considered a better school. Also, my parents and sister are super biased against it.

9

@wigrlpwr

I assume you’re aware of USC Dec. 1 deadline for merit aid applicants. If serious about USC be sure not to miss that.

Some very good threads on CC about applying to USC. If you have not yet submitted your app might be worth looking at them for last minute tips.

10

@CaliDad2020 I am aware and will be submitting my application tonight.

11

@wigrlpwr awesome! If you have time take a look at the “applying to USC thread” - might have a few last-minute tips.

Make sure you essay is as good as it can be!

12

@CaliDad2020 Will do, thank you!