Realistic?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a junior now and I was wondering if the colleges I've picked out are realistic for my profile (this is going to be a long post! sorry, I labeled the sections so you can find the most important details quickly!)</p>

<p>Me:
-Male
-African-American
-my mom has the MS and my dad has the MD (in NY)
-I live with just my mom
-North Carolina
-I'm not sure how much my mom makes. Not a ton, but it's just 2 people so it's not very tight, but I think I would qualify for financial aid</p>

<p>School:
Freshman Year: (UW: 2.7; W: 3.3)
Honors Enriched World History B+
Honors Enriched Biology C
Honors Advanced Geometry C
German I A
Honors Advanced English I B+
Band C</p>

<p>Sophomore Year: (UW: 3.5; W: 4.1; UWC (cumulative): 3.12; WC: 3.7)
Honors College Level Civics and Economics A-
Honors Advanced Chemistry B+
Academic Algebra II B+
Honors Enriched English II B+
Honors German III A(+) (I don't remember if it was a 98 or 99)
Band A-</p>

<p>Junior Year: these are my current grades
APUSH: B+ (it keeps going from 92.3 to 93.6, but currently it's the former)
Academic Advanced Functions and Modeling B
APES A
AP Language A
AP German A
Band B+/A- (I should be able to get this to a A)</p>

<p>Planned Senior Year:
AP Euro
Healthful Living
Honors Pre-Calc
AP Literature
Honors German 5
AP Psychology </p>

<p>Here's my school profile with the school name removed: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3OlK3NRsg1raFBNTjNqaHI3OFk/edit?usp=sharing%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3OlK3NRsg1raFBNTjNqaHI3OFk/edit?usp=sharing&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Tests
SAT: CR 590, W 640 (essay 10), M 610 composite= 1840
This was my first time taking it and I'm going to buy the questions and answers to prepare to take it in March and then again in the fall of my senior year.
ACT: Everyone in my state, NC, has to take it to graduate. I may take it 1 or 2 more times outside of the school administered one (December/January and fall of my senior year)
SAT II: I plan to take US History and German w/o listening
APs: Gov (5), future: APUSH, APES, AP3, AP4, German, Pysch, Euro</p>

<p>ECs:
-German tutoring: for pay and for free (9,10,11)
-German Club (9,10,11)
-Student taskforce- we help to fight poverty and homelessness in our community (9,10,11)
-I volunteer with a program that brings food and school supplies to low income kids
-Mock Trial (10, 11)
-100 Black Men Saturday Academy- every few Saturdays we spend a few hours learning about real world things (bank accounts, taxes, politics) as well has how to be moral male adults and also what it means to be black in America (7,8,9,10,11)
-NC State German Club (10,11)
-Social Justice Club (11) we discuss current events and political issues Wed during lunch
-Tutoring Club (German) (11)</p>

<p>Leadership:
German Club: President (11)
Student Taskforce: Parliamentarian (11)
Mock Trial Team Captain (11)
NCCU Summer Youth Business and Entrepreneurship Academy Junior Student Mentor (11)</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
I'll probably have ~125 hours when I graduate</p>

<p>Achievements:
-National German Exam Gold Honors (2nd in North Carolina Level II) (I expect similar for level III this year) (10)
-Tri-M Music Honor Society (11)
-I'll be in German Honor Society this year (I couldn't be in it last year b/c my GPA rose above 3.0 a few weeks after induction)
-Best Camper: Omega Psi Phi Boy’s Camp <a href="2012">over 200+ campers</a>
-NCSU Emerging Issues for Future Leaders Camp Competition: Winning Group, 2013
-Summer Youth Business and Entrepreneurship Academy: Business Plan Project, Winning Group, 2012
-National Bar Assn. Crump Law Camp Mock Trial Competition, Semi-finalist </p>

<p>Summer Programs:
-Duke Camp Med, 2012 (10)
-NCCU Summer Youth Business and Entrepreneurship Academy, 2012, 2013 (10,11)
-NCSU Emerging Issues for Future Leaders, 2013 (11)
-National Bar Association Crump Law Camp, 2013 (11)</p>

<p>Finally, here are the colleges I'm looking at
UNC CH (in-state)
University of Maryland, College Park
University of South Carolina
NC State University
UNC Charlotte
UNC Asheville
East Carolina University</p>

<p>Prospective major: German and Operations/Supply Chain Management</p>

<p>So, are the colleges I'm looking at realistic? Will my freshman year weigh heavily? If I'm not on the right track for any one of them in particular, what would I need to get (GPA/SAT/ACT-wise) to get on track? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!!</p>

2

<p>May I ask why you’re such an exceptional German speaker? Definitely raise that GPA for 11th (Defs) and 12th grade (to a lesser extent). Those B’s and C’s are going to hurt you. SAT, try to get 2k+. I think ACT is more popular where you live though, so 32+ there would be sufficient for the schools you want to attend. </p>

<p>Not sure how much this matters, but I do believe being black is a huge advantage here as well. Flame me as wrong if you wish, but a black student’s 1840 is like an Asian student’s 2100 on the SAT.</p>

3

<p>That is an impressive jump in your gpa. Even though freshman year lowers your overall gpa, the upward trend will look good. I don’t know those schools stats and admissions policy but you can check the stats of admitted students by using primary source data like the school Common Data Set or secondary data like collegedata.com Generally those look like reasonable targets.</p>

<p>Don’t spend a lot of time taking tests over and over if your scores are in the upper range of accepted students at these colleges. I’m sure you can use your time more wisely, don’t get distracted from keeping your grades strong. But do take a look at xiggi and silverturtle’s study plans for the SAT, since you are taking it again. They are pinned at the top of the SAT prep forum and xiggi’s method is famous here. Your SAT is already pretty good.</p>

<p>Nice EC’s.</p>

<p>[SAT</a> Preparation - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/]SAT”>SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums)</p>

4

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<p>Whether or not it is advantageous at a given school (and different schools are different in this respect), it is unwise for a college applicant to assume any amount of advantage, since schools where it may be an advantage tend not to say how much of an advantage it is (hiding it in an opaque holistic admissions process).</p>

<p>I.e. make your reach, match, and (especially) safety lists assuming no advantage for race or ethnicity, and treat any that comes you way (in the form of unexpected admission to reaches) as a bonus.</p>

5

<p>kentrian: I wouldn’t say I’m exceptional, but I just really enjoy it so I do what I like
BrownParent and ucbalumnus: thanks for the input! I’d like to get my score up to a 2000. Also, whenever I look at colleges, I do it with the expectation that I won’t get any preferential treatment</p>

6

<p>You may be making a huge mistake about your assumption that you will qualify for financial aid. Even in divorce situations, colleges use the income from BOTH parents when determining the eligibility for financial aid. Even if one parent has nothing to do with the child and refuses to pay anything toward school. (Not saying that’s your case.)</p>

<p>Financial aid tends to roll off severely to zero after $150K in total income unless there are multiple children in school. Since your father is an MD, odds are that his and your mother’s total income exceeds that threshold. </p>

<p>You probably need to determine your financial aid status now, before you get too far along in your college search. Being eligible for aid vs. no aid can change things in the extreme.</p>