So, one breakdown later, my parents and I have decided that we need to edit my college list profusely. I have, like, one safety right now (University of Washington—is this even a safety for me??). My college list is ridiculously top-heavy, so I’ll be trying to cut down on some of my reaches. Does anyone have any recommendations for safeties with good chemistry (or just science in general) and English departments?
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1540 (780 reading 760 math 24 essay)
SAT II: Math 2: 780 Chem: 780
ACT (breakdown): 34C (35 English 33 math 36 reading 31 writing 8 essay) (not sending)
Unweighted GPA: 3.88
Weighted GPA: 4.37
Rank: N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): Chinese (4), APUSH (4), Chem (4), CS (4), Spanish (2—not sending)
IB (place score in parenthesis): not offered
Senior Year Course Load + quarter grades: AP Bio (B+), AP Physics C (A), AP BC Calc (A-), AP Psych (A), AP Lit (A), law (A)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): N/A
Minor Awards: 2 regional Scholastic Arts and Writing awards, AP Scholar, NM Commended, Department Award
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 3 years basketball for my school and 3 years of club (co-captain my sophomore year), writing club for 4 years (president this year), law club for 4 years (treasurer this year), creative writing in general (published in 4 places)
Job/Work Experience: basketball coach at my local middle school
Volunteer/Community service: my local hospital (200 hours)
Summer Activities: sleeping, procrastinating, intern at local start-up for 1 month, attended a pre-colligate course at Hopkins, played too much basketball
Check out UNevada, Reno. They’d give you some good money and tuition is only about $9,000 per year if you’re in the WUE states. They’d also give you guaranteed admission.
Kenyon College. You are above the 75th percentile on SAT. They meet 100% of demonstrated need (important for a safety). Top notch English department. History of sending students to top PhD programs in sciences. It is a small school in nowhere Ohio.
Washington is not a safety for a non-resident from a $50,000 income family, since it will almost certainly be too expensive.
Kenyon is not a safety, because it requires both parents’ finances to determine financial aid, and you have not indicated that the other parent will be cooperative (and if the other parent has significant income or assets but will not pay, that also means insufficient financial aid).
If you are a California resident, the less selective UCs (probably UCSC, UCR, UCM) and probably your local CSUs are likely safety candidates.
@ucbalumnus My application/FAFSA income info only accounts for the parent living with me as the other is unemployed/unknown.
@AroundHere My college list as of last week was UPenn (ED), UChicago (EA), Johns Hopkins, Brown, Duke, Columbia, WashU, Northwestern, Rice, Vandy, Cornell, USC, Emory, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, Barnard, Boston U, Stanford, UWash, and Scripps.
I’ve decided to remove Cornell (I feel like it’s a bit big and I hear the competition is cutthroat), Stanford (dream school since I was 6 but there’s no chance), and possibly Columbia (love the school, don’t feel quite comfortable living in NYC for 4 years though).
Kenyon uses the CSS Profile as well, and normally requires the non-custodial parent Profile. You either need his cooperation or hope that a waiver is approved. Therefore, Kenyon cannot be a safety, since these are uncertain.
The same applies to many of the other private schools on your list – they may be reaches for admission, but also reaches for affordability, due to uncertainly with respect to your non-custodial parent or waiver.
Why no in-state California public universities or any other safeties? If this is your list, your default safety is to start at a community college.
So, your list being top heavy makes a certain amount of sense since you are low income, high scores, and those schools give the best financial aid. But, you have a problem if you cannot get money from both parents.
For elite schools, you normally need to provide financial information for both biological parents, plus their new spouses if they remarried after the divorce. However, they can grant exceptions if you can describe why your other parent is out your life and how you lost contact. You need to start reading financial aid webpages and, where both parents households are required, writing to financial aid officers asking about whether you qualify for an exception. Only apply where you will be able to get the aid you need.
You actually only need one safety, if you know you can get in and can afford it and will be happy to go there if your reach schools do not work out.