Stressed Junior Looking for Advice

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi so I’m a junior from a competitive selective high school on the east coast and my class alone has about 800 smart students. Recently college results came out and I saw all my senior friends getting into great schools, some multiple at a time. I’m just looking for advice / chances to certain schools and any way to improve my current statistics. I’m not trying to aim for a ivy but I still want to try to get into a a great school! I’m interested in the pre-med track but I’m unconfident if I’ll be able to succeed if I’m struggling just at my high school. Please don’t be rude but please I want some constructive advice or information regarding my standings.

My Info:

Asian Korean Female from East Coast (will get Financial Aid lower end of the spectrum).

SAT: Nov 2015 (R 670, M 630, W 570), Dec 2015 (R 630, M 660, W 620), Jan 2016 (R 630, M 680 W 570) - Superscore (R 670, M 680, W 620 = 1970).
PSAT: 1330/1520 and 198 Index
GPA: 89.91 UW
SATII: Bio 690; going to take USH, Chem June.
** Def going to take ACT this June/Fall senior year. My average… is not going to get any higher this junior year term… maybe first term senior year it would increase…

APs: AP World History (4), AP Chemistry, AP US History, AP Eng Comp, AP Gov (Senior), AP Psych (Senior), AP Eng Lit (Senior).
^my school has this policy that favors students with higher averages. They limit the amount of APs you can take and students with higher averages will get the first spots in a certain course. So there are few amounts of students that are taking 5/6 APs while most students take either 1 or 2 APs.

Letters of Rec are 2 humanities trying to look for a math/science but prospects are not looking good.
*Will it hurt my chances if I want to enter the STEM field but don’t have any stem recs? Additionally, my stronger grades are towards humanities… so I was wondering if I should apply to college as a humanities major and switch later on.

Essays, I’ll figure something out during the summer but I feel like I am a strong writer and have a good voice etc.

ECs:
-JV Volleyball 1 year, Varsity Volleyball 1 Year (then I got kicked off team during my junior year)
-Varsity Handball
-Vice-president of Red Cross (a club with over 1000 members) 400+ community hours for total of 3 years
-Member of yearbook photo
-Mentee of the school’s alumni network learned professional development skills (resume, interviews, etc)
-School newspapers photographer?
-Member of Board of Election for student union elections
-volunteer at a museum assistant to teaching artist

*EC are my strongest point but would that actually effect my college application?

Summer options not all finalized - paid internship (idk where its through a youth employment program), paid summer camp job (finalized), volunteer at local hospital, study for ACT, summer courses at community college, other options for internships?
not sure which to do but I want to apply to all of them first and then have the option to choose. I want to do as much as possible during my junior summer to make up for my slacking freshmen and sophomore year.
*Should I try to get a part-time job my parents insist that I should focus on my grades but I want to make some side cash + it would have a good story attached? Not trying to destroy my grades either…
***Grades have started from a 94 GPA but slowly decline to a 89.91… how much would that hurt me.

Hooks (?):
-sibling with mental disorder (2 suicide attempts) very difficult family situation. I want to go into psychiatry because of this personal issue
-volunteering? I genuinely love helping out at my free time

Majors considered:
-undecided
-premed track?

Colleges:

  • University of Rochester
  • UChicago
    -UMich
  • Vanderbilt University
  • Johns Hopkins
    -Stony Brook (Med track)
    -NYU
    -UCLA
    -UPenn
    -Villanova
    -Swarthmore
    *I haven’t done much research so any suggestions will be great.

Thank you so much in advance!

2

What’s your weighted GPA?

3

Just a small piece of advice - while it may be acceptable to briefly mention it, I would avoid using your difficult family situation as too much of a justification for what you want to study when writing your application essays as you do not want to give them the impression that you could be using college as a type of therapy for you or your family’s personal problems. Good luck! Your overall application looks plenty strong to me for most the colleges you mentioned (but obviously a school like Swarthmore is tough for anybody to get admitted).

4

Not sure what you mean “will get Financial aid lower end of the spectrum” but if you need a decent amount of FA to afford college, cross UCLA off your list. OOS students no longer get FA from the UC’s so expect to be full pay at $55K/year or more.

5

@h08vs20 theres no weight at my school and @Gumbymom like i would definitely get financial aid become I come from a low income family. Yea I also heard are there any alternatives if I wish to attend college on the west coast?

6

@Aire11 yea I was unsure if I should’ve mentioned that as one of the main components. I let my guidance counselor know when he was writing my SSR so we’ll see how that goes

7

If you are looking for West Coast schools (California) and require FA, then you need focus on private schools where need based and merit aid would be available. USC/Occidental/Loyola Marymount/University of San Diego (not UCSD), Santa Clara, University of the Pacific/Claremont Colleges (Pitzer, Harvey Mudd, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Scripps) to name a few.

8

@Gumbymom im assuming most of these are liberal arts? how hard is it for someone with my stats to get accepted?

9

Based on your posted stats, University of the Pacific, Loyola and possibly Univ of San Diego might be your best targets. Your GPA and test scores look to low for the Claremont colleges, Santa Clara and USC. There are still many more LAC’s in California such as Univ of Redlands, Whittier College, Concordia, Univ of San Francisco (USF), Mills college, Univ of La Verne. You just need to do some research. Even if you applied to UCLA, your stats do not look competitive.

If you are looking for significant FA/Merit aid check this link:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html

10

Hey! I’m a current junior too and I’m going through the same crisis haha! I can’t tell you what schools you do/don’t have a chance of getting into, but as a Michigan resident, I’ve heard that OOS UMich students typically have to have higher test scores to be more competitive. All of the seniors that I know that have been accepted to UMich are are the top of their class, and I go to a large High school where each grade has roughly 500 kids each. My one friend is a senior and his dream school was UChicago. When I tell you that he’s qualified, I mean he’s done literally EVERYTHING that a person can do, and he’s successful at Every single thing he does, but he still got deferred from Chicago. He is now going to Umich next fall. Another girl got rejected from Boston University but got accepted into UCLA, which in my opinion is much harder to get into than Boston based on how many people apply, so really, I think it all just comes down to chance once we submit our applications.

Moral of the story is, I wouldn’t stress too much, and as depressing as it is, it’s probably best to not get your hopes up on the super selective schools because even the most brilliant of students get rejected. (I’m trying to keep this in mind because my chance of getting into Umich is pretty much 50/50)
Right now, I’m just trying to get the best test scores as possible, and trying to raise my GPA as much as possible and keep it stable. Dont stress too much right now, save that for next fall when we’re sending in our applications haha!

Good luck on the rest of this year, and good luck on applications next year! :slight_smile:

11

Remove Vandy, UCLA, UPenn and Swathmore. Usually, I advocate for people banking on sheer luck, but you just simply won’t be a competitive applicant at those schools. With test scores like that, you’re out of the Vandy applicant pool for sure, and with a GPA like that, you won’t stand a chance at UCLA. UPenn and Swathmore… you get the picture. Sit down with your GC and formulate a comprehensive list of reachable colleges, with maybe a pipe dream or two (hell, I did that, and I felt no pain from the rejection). Sit down with your parents and discuss how you will be able to afford college. Modify your list from that, and then go from there.

12

You have way, way too many reaches in your list for your test scores and GPA. I am going to be honest, med school requires high MCAT scores. Your SAT scores show you don’t standardized test well. If you want to take the premed courses go ahead, but I would major in somethings marketable (not bio or Chem) as a backup plan.

I think your problem will be that you need a fair amount of FA, but your stats are in the low end for schools that meet need. You might look at Holy Cross, Dickinson (meets 96% of need), or Franklin & Marshall. What state are you in?

13

@maddyp21 same honestly im just trying to not get overwhelmed by the ap tests coming up, satiis, act, newsat? and summer opportunities all while trying to maintain or raise my gpa.
@thisisfine2020 im trying to study hard for the act and I want a 33 but i’ll probably end up with a 31, 32… Also I don’t know if it’ll matter but I come from a competitive high school and the average acceptance rate to the schools you mentioned at my school is Vandy 92.55, UCLA 94.32, Swarthmore 94.36, Upenn 95.88 respectively which doesn’t look too bright… but yea I will be sitting down with my college counselor

14

@imparent NY, I’m considering applying to a good number of SUNYs I was also considering nursing as another route but at this point I’m not sure or set on anything.

15

Don’t stress, it’s not anywhere near as big a deal as many HS students and people on this website make it out to be.

Do the best you can with the ACT, meet with your counselor to put together a realistic list (your current list is not) and everything will be ok.

16

HEOP is a great program if your family income falls within its guidelines. It tends to favor underrepresented minorities, first generation, and poor test takers. The first determinant is income bc it goes by household size and is across the board for all HEOP schools. Be sure you are looking at the right year.

http://heop.org/guideline/

There are lots of posters w experience who can help you if this is a course you would like to pursue.

It would be a good idea to do a lot of reading and research. Also coming back to this website for feedback because it sounds like you are receptive to it.

17

@8bagels thank you!! it’s just so stressful because all my peers have amazing averages and great SAT scores that I subconsciously compare my grades to them.
@momcinco I am considering applying to Questbridge but I don’t think my grades will qualify me much for that. My guidance also said he might recommend me to POSSE and it sound’s like a might have a higher chance of getting matched to a college through that program.

18

POSSE is a fantastic idea! Good for your counselor.

Did you check HEOP income guidelines yet? It is very straightforward. You only need to know size of household and dollar amount of annual income to find out if you would be eligible.

19

@momcinco yea I’m eligible thank you for recommending that! I’ll look into it more on my free time

20

OP in that case you just may luck out. It is by no means a sure thing but it does increase your options for affordable schools and it can be an added strategy for your overall application process. You should not limit yourself to HEOP schools, or pin all your hopes on an HEOP admittance! However adding it to a many-pronged approach will make more schools possibilities.

If your family income is definitely below the guidelines, the next step is to educate yourself about the HEOP program.

There are many posters with a lot of info and experience who can help you, but it would be best if you do some research first.