I was wondering what my chances are getting into theses colleges with my stats:
STATS:
-weighted: 4.07
-unweighted: 3.67 rounded to 3.7 hopefully
-Highest SAT: 1390
-ACT score (only took once and not sending in): 23
-Still waiting on the SAT Subjects in US history and Math 2, but freshman year I got 690 on the Bio SAT
Taken: AP World History (I got a 4 on this and this is the only score I know so far), AP US History, AP Biology, AP English Lang & Comp in 11th grade , AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Governomics (Macro), AP English Literature in 12th grade
COLLEGES:
-New York University
-Northeastern University
-Boston University
-Tufts University
-University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
-University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
-Villanova University
-University of California - Los Angeles
-UVA
-Cornell University
“I only really like one safety school and that is University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign.”
I really don’t think that this is a safety school for you – neither from the perspective of getting accepted nor from the perspective of being able to afford it. Have you run the NPC?
At this point you need to focus on finding real safety schools that you can afford and would be okay attending. I would start with your in-state public schools. With a budget of $30k, very few schools will be safeties until you have run the NPC and verified that you and your parents are okay with the results.
With a budget of $30k, UCLA is probably hopeless unless there is something that you haven’t told us (such as being one of the top 10 high school quarterbacks in the country).
Some of the other schools on your list are also unlikely given your budget. The large majority of students are constrained with regarding to which schools they can attend based on their budget.
I am also considering UMASS - Amherst. I would apply to Binghamton or other SUNY schools, but I seriously don’t see myself going there and I have no interest in those schools.
NYU has a reputation for being very expensive, and not meeting full need. I am pretty sure that full pay there is over $70,000 per year. I don’t know what sort of aid you might get. New York City is a very expensive place to live.
For us, BU and Northeastern were by far the most expensive universities that either daughter got into (no one in my family applied to NYU). They were NOT the academically strongest school that either daughter got into, but were way more expensive than anywhere else. Your results may differ. However, you should run the NPC on all three schools before you give any more thought to attending any of them.
“I am also considering UMASS - Amherst.”
In-state costs are just over $30,000 right now. Out of state is about $49,000. The costs have been rising from year to year. I doubt that you will get these down to $30,000 with aid, although you could see what the NPC says.
Until such time as you find NPC results that claim otherwise, I would not expect you to find anything under $30k per year except for your in-state public schools and the less well known universities in Canada outside of Ontario. This still leaves you with a lot of very good schools to choose from.
High school students in Massachusetts think that U.Mass Amherst is boring and UVM and the SUNY’s are cool. High school students in Vermont think that UVM is boring and U.Mass Amherst and the SUNY’s are cool. The grass often appears greener on the other side of the street. Whether it really is greener, the grass certainly is more expensive on the other side of the street.
Percentage of documented financial need met, on average:
Northeastern: 100% by their formula (which is generally acknowledged not to be generous - run the NPC and see)
BU: 85%
NYU: 67%
All of those OOS public schools - UVA, UCLA, UNC, UIUC, UMass Amherst - are going to be completely unaffordable for you, based on your budget. There is honestly no point in even applying to these.
Tufts and Cornell will give you excellent financial aid if you can get in, and if in fact you qualify for enough financial aid to bring your out-of-pocket down to 30K. But if the NPC says you can afford 50K, nobody’s going to give you the additional 20K, so run the calculators and see.
If you do, in fact, qualify for enough financial aid to get your costs down to your budget, then you need to be looking at private colleges and universities that meet full need, but that aren’t as competitive as Cornell and Tufts.
If you do not qualify for enough financial aid to get your costs down to your budget, then you either need to look at in-state publics, or look at schools where merit aid will get you to your budget. This will mean looking at schools where your stats are in the top quartile, not schools where you would be lucky to get in.
What do you want to study?
Once you run the NPC’s for Tufts and Cornell, let us know whether your Expected Family Contribution is 30K or under, or not. People here can recommend schools for you, but the recommendations will be completely different depending on whether you need merit aid or need-based aid. https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/tufts
My D is attending Northeastern with a lot of merit aid.
She was around 3.6 uw, 34 ACT, and 10 AP classes. You probably want to get that SAT up to the 1450-1500 range.
I am curious as to why you would consider UMass Amherst but none of the SUNY or CUNY schools. Depending on what you want to study, they can be a tremendous value and provide an excellent education. Depending on your family income, you may also qualify for the excelsior scholarship to bring your costs down even further.
My daughter, with a 34 ACT and 3.9ish UW GPA is seriously considering both SUNY and CUNY schools.
Without considering a budget, how are my chances based on my stats for my updated list?
-New York University (ED)
-Northeastern University
-Boston University
-Tufts University
-University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign
-Villanova University
-Suny Geneseo
-Suny Stony Brook
-Suny Binghamton
-Cornell University
** I plan on majoring in the STEM field, so biology, bioengineering, biomedical engineering, or Undecided. I plan on applying ED for NYU and hopefully EA for all the schools that offer it (I havent researched much about EA and so I havent decided yet)
"I am curious as to why you would consider UMass Amherst but none of the SUNY or CUNY schools. "
The main reason I am not interested in SUNY schools is mainly because of the location of most SUNY schools. I prefer to be in a city unless I get accepted into a top school such as Cornell or Tufts. Also, since I’m from NY, I would prefer to go to a school outside of New York.
I think the SUNY’s are a good addition to your list. Does your school offer Naviance so you can see how kids with your stats have fared in the past? It isn’t a perfect indicator, especially because it includes data from several years ago and the admissions standards keep getting harder, but its something.
From our school’s Naviance, it looks like Northeaster, BU or NYU could be matches. Many kids with your stats from our school have gotten in. However many other were rejected. The other privates, Tufts, Cornell and Northwestern would be reaches. The SUNY’s look like excellent matches as well. I hesitate to call them safeties because admissions has gotten much more competitive because of the excelsior scholarships.
By the way, NYU doesn’t seem to give much of a boost to ED. google NYU collegedata under the admissions tab for the stats. If you are looking for ED to give you a large boost, you might want to check out American University. They take a huge number of the class ED and are in Washing DC, which might appeal to you.
UIUC looks likely, but not an absolute safety (our school’s Naviance puts your stats right on the borderline with acceptances/rejections fairly equal–and that’s in state.) Also instate tuition, R&B, basic expenses was close to $35K. No merit in or out of state unless stellar stats.
I’m not really sure why you’re EDing to NYU. First of all, it definitely will not meet you $30k a year budget. They offer very minimal financial aid and scholarships based on scores and GPA, which are your areas of weakness for these schools. I think UIUC would be a great fit for you, especially if you in go in for engineering as their engineering school is ranked in the top 5. I think its a good list of schools, but you should highly reconsider your use of ED. GL!
You are a sophomore (well, rising junior at this point) in love with a Mercedes, on an Acura budget.
I strongly suggest not worrying about this right now. Get into junior year, visit colleges over the coming year, but focus on making junior the best you can- in every dimension. This is a fast changing time in your life, and you want to be living it.
True story: one of my collegekids was super into college shopping, and had her absolutely definite final list set by spring of grade 11 (had visited them, spent the night @ the ED choice, etc.). By September that list had changed 100%- she ended up applying to completely different colleges. There was nothing wrong with her first list, but she was changing, so her list changed.
In other words: don’t get too locked into one idea of the dream school now. You have the gift of time: use it.
(out of curiosity, have you visited UIUC? why is it so high on your list?)