i dont really know where to apply to so any guidance would be great.
Demographics
State/Location of residency: NJ
Type of high school: large competitive public school (around 500 in my class)
Gender/Race/Ethnicity: african-american
Intended Major(s)
i’m not sure yet. probably either biology, ecology, or pre-med (i know this is a wide range but i’m still deciding).
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.9
Weighted HS GPA: 4.5 (AP classes have a weight of 4.5 at an A and 4.0 at a B)
Class Rank: top 5%
ACT/SAT Scores: 1340 (690rw+650m) and 1380 (740rw+640m). i qualified for national merit from my psat i think which was 1310.
Coursework
sophomore year i took AP french and got a 4 on the exam
this year i am taking french 6 (the only level above AP), precalc honors, art 3 honors, AP lang, AP biology, and APUSH. i am taking all the exams.
next year i am taking AP stats, AP lit, and APES. not sure what exams i’m taking.
Awards
in middle school i received multiple art awards including honorable mention in the scholastic art awards, county and state-wide competitions
gold at multiple prestigious regattas (rowing)
Extracurriculars
junior NHS and NHS currently
volunteered at my local hospital and soup kitchen 30+ hours each.
have done paid french tutoring.
very active in my community. i am cameroonian and i help organize events, educate younger kids, and partake in ceremonies. also help run a scholarship event for young girls in my village in cameroon.
high school rowing team since frosh year. have rowed JV and V.
got into my school run science research program frosh year.
conducted independent research on mosquitoes.
helped and worked with a biology (entomology) prof. at my local university.
Cost Constraints / Budget
no more than 40k a year (that’s a stretch). i’m hoping to get some scholarships and i was invited and applied to the college board national recognition program for african american students.
i would prefer to go out of state but not super far. i don’t want a super small (~3,000) and rural school.
so far i’m interested in tufts and barnard as reaches but i’m not sure of my chances.
You might look at the Common Data Sets for any schools that you are interested in: Section C7 tells you how each school weighs both academic and non-academic admissions factors; Section C9 gives you the SAT and ACT ranges of admitted students; Section C10 tells you how admitted students ranked in their respective high schools; and Section C11 gives you the GPA ranges of admitted students. (NOTE: While all universities and colleges are required to maintain this information, some schools do not have a published common data set.) Reviewing this information can give you some idea of how you might fit in, statistically, in recent admitted classes at the schools you are interested in. Being a URM may give you a “hook” for some schools, as well as your rowing – especially if you are at a level where you can compete on the collegiate level, and you can get college coaches interested in you.
You should sit down on multiple occasions with your high school’s guidance counselor and discuss admissions strategies. Further, if your high school uses Naviance or similar software, look over where you fall on those plots of GPA vs. ACT/SAT compared with those of other students from your school who have applied to the schools you are interested in; and discuss those with your guidance counselor.
Is Philadelphia a possibility geographically? You have Temple and Drexel there (which are very large), and Penn of course, plus La Salle University and St. Joseph’s University, as well as Villanova University in the suburbs. Don’t just focus on reaches, but be sure to look at matches and safeties as well.
And, good luck with the rowing! (Are you port or starboard?)
Villanova is way more than $40,000 a year and is not known for merit. My suggestion would be to try the ACT, my kids all did better on it than the SAT, so I made sure they all took both.
You have good stats which make you a competitive candidate anywhere. Rutgers Honors College could be a safety. If you are expected to be a National Merit Semi-Finalist, you may look at University of Southern California where they offer half tuition for NMFs. In hindsight, it’s better not to apply for many public schools if you want to go out-of-state as the tuitions are just outrageous and they typically don’t offer much aids or scholarships.
A top 5% underrepresented minority with 7 total APs is sufficiently competitive to apply anywhere.
Most schools are still test optional for this fall. Use that to your advantage by not submitting your score to colleges where it falls below the 25th percentile. See the Common Data Set, section C9.
If you decide to aim for highly selective colleges, consider taking a calculus course instead of AP stats.
Check to see whether you would be eligible for need-based aid by using Net Price Calculators. They are specific to each college and are found on the college’s financial aid website. Many selective privates offer quite a bit of aid.
Do you want to row in college ? If yes, do you have input from your current coach and are you competitive enough ? Barnard students row on Columbia’s team and Barnard brings in a good amount of female athletes for Columbia’s athletic teams. There are no athletic scholarships.
Run some net price calculators, including Tufts’ and Barnards’. Is the estimated cost affordable? Note that NPCs may not be accurate if your parents are divorced, own a business, or own real estate beyond a primary home? Are any of those the case for you?
I wouldn’t say the honors college is a safety. My daughters with 3.8 UGPA and 34/34 ACTs were not admitted, and a friend who accepted admission from Cornell wasn’t either.
Rowing for a college will give you a huge advantage foe admission at elite East Coast colleges (NESCAC and others) HOWEVER rowing in college is brutally hard. Of course at D3 schools if it’s too brutal, you can give up and still stay in college with the same scholarship.
Apply test optional at elite schools with women’s rowing?
If you made national merit, and then apply test optional, colleges will assume that you would have had a much higher SAT score than you actually achieved. So you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by applying test-optional. Your GPA/class percentile exceeds your SAT by quite a bit.
Rowing will give you a tremendous boost at those schools with women’s crew. As an under-represented minority with these academic credentials, plus rowing, you could get in anywhere. Just don’t submit your SAT scores.
So the real issue is going to be money. Sit down with your parents and ask them if they can please be totally frank and transparent with you about finances - their incomes, their savings, their investments, their retirement savings, the equity in their home, etc. Know that if they own rental real estate, or a second home that has equity, or a business with assets, you might not qualify for fin aid. Then together run the net price calculator at some schools, like Ivies, which tend to have large endowments and tend to be generous with financial aid. You might be surprised to find out that a tippy-top Ivy would cost less for you than Rutgers.
Next, research how to become a recruited athlete as a rower. This may necessitate your scrambling for a spot at an exhibition type rowing summer camp this summer, where college recruiters go to scout out talent. You could wind up a recruited athlete at an Ivy, with significant financial aid if your family qualifies.
I agree. Rutgers would be a safety but not the Honors College. My NJ son had 4.0 UW, 4.6 W GPA, first decile in competitive class (school only gave deciles) 34 ACT and 5 APs including Calc BC with scores of 4 and 5 and was admitted to Honor’s Program but not Honors College. However, I think they are looking for diversity and inclusion, which may help this poster.
Also, you might want to clarify if you were a National Merit semi-finalist or just commended. NJ has one of the highest cutoffs in the country. My son was commended but not a semi-finalist.
I plan to talk with my guidance counselor sometime this month, so hopefully I’ll be able to gain more insight. Philly is definitely a possibility, and I like some of the schools there. I feel hesitant about some because of the religion factor though, as I am agnostic.
Also, I am mainly port but I sometimes row starboard
I am a US citizen and none of those situations apply to my family. My NMSC index was 201. I don’t really know anything about how it works so I won’t be let down if I’m not a semi-finalist or finalist.
My son is agnostic and just completed his first year at a catholic university. He loves it there and has had absolutely no issues regarding religion. For 98% of all so-called religious universities in America, I’d bet there is no real detriment for most who don’t practice that particular faith.
Instead of automatically dismissing every religious uni, research each that might be of interest to you. I’ll bet you find it’s not a problem. For instance, St Joseph’s was one we considered and we found there would be no issues for a non-Catholic there.
It’s an important first step, to figure out whether full-need-met schools will be affordable with need-based aid alone.
If so, Wesleyan could be another good one to consider. It’s just above your size threshold, it’s not too remote (just outside of Hartford), and it has a strong DIII women’s rowing program.
