Hi! I’m a rising senior and I have found a lot of “reach” schools that I love, but need more “safeties”.
I have a 4.4 gpa or 3.9 unweighted (got my first B in Pre-Calculus Honors last year) and I got a 2290 on the SAT (800 writing, 720 math, 770 reading). I got 5s on my three AP tests so far and I’m going to take a couple SAT Subject tests next month. My class rank is about 10 out of 450. Schedule for next year: AP English Lit, AP Stat, AP French IV, AP Econ/Gov, Zoology, Sociology. My strength has always been writing, so fingers crossed I can whip out a good essay.
My main EC is that I’m really involved in theater at my school, but I also volunteer 3 hours a week at a wildlife hospital/museum near me, taking care of animals, doing presentations to educate the public, giving tours to scout troups, etc. I’ve worked there since I was 12. I’m an editor of my school’s Lit Magazine. I got the “Harvard book award” last year. I worked at Starbucks one summer. Some clubs. Vice President of Cult Film Club? I’m sure that looks great.
So far my list is:
Boston College
Brown
Duke
NYU
UNC Chapel Hill (applying from out of state)
Vanderbilt
Middlebury
Wake Forest University
Northwestern
Also UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara. Would Santa Cruz be a good safety?
I need suggestions of schools with higher acceptance rates! Geographic location and size don’t really matter, but I would like to be in or near a city. White female. The more financial aid available the better! Right now, I’m thinking about majoring in something like English, Psychology, or Anthropology, but also taking science classes so I can apply to med school. Thank you so much!
What can your family pay?
Have you run the Net Price Calculators at the website of each of these places?
Your stats guarantee admission and serious merit-money at places on this list: http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Check through their websites, and see if any could serve as your rock-bottom safeties.
Home state is California. My family is low income, so I qualify for full financial aid at schools like Vanderbilt and UNC that meet 100% of need. From what I understand, less selective schools don’t guarantee that they will meet 100% of need, but I may qualify for merit aid at those types of schools that would make up for it. Mostly I want more possible schools to look at now, so I can apply broadly and then compare packages.
Although the middle and less selective UCs (i.e. not UCB, UCLA, UCSD) do not have any assured admission (except UCM if you are ELC), if you apply to several of them, it is hard to see getting rejected from all, particularly if you include UCSC, UCR, and/or UCM.
Be sure to run the net price calculator on every school on your list to get a financial aid estimate. If not affordable on need-based aid, you need to check whether it has large enough merit scholarships that you can apply for.
You are a very good students, but, in addition to UC safeties, consider adding a school (or 2) that meet full need where you have a strong chance of admittance. What about Occidental or Mount Holyoke? Look through the list of schools that meet full need and investigate those where the acceptance rates aren’t as low as some of schools on your list, ie. Brown, Vandy, Northwestern, UNC OOS, Middlebury and Duke.
If you want to pursue theater as one of your majors, Wake has a Presidential Scholarship for theater. They are also pretty generous with financial aid.
Yes, reply #8 brings up an important point. If your parents are not together, then some schools will expect both of them to fill in financial aid information, and will expect a parent contribution based on both of their incomes and assets. UCs and CSUs only use the FAFSA form, which only includes the parent whom you live with if you only live with one of them, but many schools with good financial aid use the CSS Profile as well, which usually means that both parents, whether together or not, are required.
I would think LACs would be your best bet. Many have strong theater programs. Middlebury, in particular, has the Potomac Theater Project. Many of these schools have a lot of money for financial aid. Middlebury meets 100% of demonstrated need. You’ve obviously worked very hard so far. Keep up the good work. Best of luck.
