<p>Just curious...I'm from a small city in eastern North Carolina. In the class of 2010 at my high school, only one of the top students is going anywhere out of state. I'd like to go somewhere different than UNC, but how realistic is that really? Can you give me some advice about where I should be looking, please? I'd really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Junior
Female
Caucasian</p>
<p>My family is classed as low-income, but both my parents graduated from Cornell.
GPA: 4.0
SAT: 2300--800 Critical Reading, 760 Writing, 740 Math
I'm 2/346 right now, but I have a good shot at Valedictorian</p>
<p>Classes Junior Year (block scheduling):
AP English
AP US History
Pre-calc Hn
Chem Hn
Band III/Band III Hn
I've also taken three French classes (one over the summer) and Computer Applications as electives plus band both semesters every year.</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars
NHS President (we start NHS spring Junior year)
Writing Club (will be 4 yrs)
Lifeguard job (year round, junior + senior years, approx. 6-15 hours a week)
Marching Band (4 yrs); Drum Major (like Team Captain) Junior and Senior year
Swimming, high school and competitive year round (4+ yrs)...I've never won any major awards but have gotten MVP for school sophomore and junior years</p>
<p>Also--this past year our school Wind Ensemble attended the National Concert Festival in Indiannapolis; this is really prestigious and I'm one of the top players, does that count? Preparation involved a LOT of after-school/weekend rehearsal, about 14 hours a week from the beginning of January through the first week of March.</p>
<p>As far as community service goes, I've only got about 50 hours so far but I'm starting an initiative this summer that will be a lot of time (and no, I'm not just doing it to get hours.)</p>
<p>I want to major in Physics (I hope to be an astrophysicist). Thanks!!! :D</p>
<p>Yes you should really look at various places! Larger universities like Cornell, Penn (closer), and other ivies; Rice and Emory if you want to stay in the south; top liberal arts colleges (Amherst, Middlebury, Haverford if you want something a little closer), liberal arts colleges a little farther down the U.S. News list which might give you merit aid (Bucknell, Lehigh—closer— Colby, Trinity etc. farther)</p>
<p>I’d say you have a great chance at Cornell. Compared to other Ivies, Cornell is not as selective. It’ll be easier for you since your parents also attended Cornell. The only thing you have to worry about is writing a good essay.</p>
<p>Affording it will probably be your biggest hurdle. You should make sure to apply to some of the schools with deep pockets that <em>genuinely</em> meet full need. They are hard to get into, but if you do you have grabbed the brass ring, so to speak. Merit aid schools are fine, but even very large merit awards often leave the family with $20K per year to cover. I doubt yours can do that. Apply to a range of schools to maximize your chances of getting in and being able to pay for it. I would suggest 10-12 schools drawn from this list: UNC Chapel Hill (your safety), a few Ivies (one of which should be Cornell, but also consider HYPD), Pomona and/or Harvey Mudd, Williams and Amherst, MIT, Rice, maybe Stanford. The University of Rochester would be an interesting safety for you, and they do care about music–see Eastmann–but their FA can be spotty. They care about interviews, so be SURE to see the rep who visits your area if you do apply. You might want to consider a midwest LAC such as Grinnell or Carleton. I would also consider Wellesley and Smith.</p>
<p>In order to be reasonably assured of getting the money you need, you will probably require a somewhat top-heavy list, with 2 good safeties, one of which should also be a financial safety (here I’m assuming UNC) and maybe one merit aid school in the middle ground (like Bucknell or Lehigh).</p>
<p>Before you do anything else, you and your parents should run your financial figures through a couple of the online calculators. Make sure you don’t just depend on FAFSA, because a lot of the deep pockets privates don’t use just FAFSA. Amherst’s is a good one.</p>
<p>And don’t forget to start taking SATIIs! You should take two in June: probably Math IIC and one other. Make sure you take calculus next year, as well as physics (preferably AP in both).</p>
<p>Financial aid I know is really important for me; I would never want to put my parents in a position where they have to really compromise anything to meet my dreams. I’ll definitely check out the calculators. I am going to a conference at Yale this summer, through Questbridge, largely about affording college, and plan on pursuing scholarships, so hopefully that will work out.</p>
<p>I have taken some SATIIs (all on one day) but didn’t do very well: US History 760, Biology 740, Math 2 720. I’d like to improve at least the Math.</p>
<p>Your SAT IIs are fine. It is true that if you are applying to some of the technical schools a significantly higher Math2 might well help you. (I think I heard somewhere that literally all students at Cal Tech scored an 800. )Three tests in one day can be a bit much. If you are willing to put some real prep in on the math test, it might be worth retaking if you think you can score something like 770-800 based on timed practice tests. Otherwise I would be inclined to let it ride.</p>
<p>Glad to hear you have hooked up with Questbridge. I should have suggested that!</p>
<p>my dad teaches astrophysics at harvard so look there :)</p>
<p>there are also tons of great options with your GPA/test scores, look at Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Princeton, UC-Berkeley, Cornell, UChicago, Illinois, UC-Santa Barbara, Columbia, Michigan, Yale, UC-San Diego, Maryland, Texas, UPenn, Wisconsin.</p>
<p>pierre, she would be OOS at Michigan Illinois, Maryland, TX, Wisconsin, and the UCs and therefore paying much higher tuition and most likely getting little or no FA. She needs a lot of FA. The U of Chicago, although a school I love, has notoriously iffy FA. Certainly apply, but don’t fall in love until you see the package! (Actually, that should be true for all schools.)</p>
<p>Maybe so. But iffy does not necessarily mean bad for an individual like the OP. Last year Chicago distributed about $60M in institutional need based aid to an undergraduate student body of about 5K. Brown distributed about $70M in institutional need based aid to an undergraduate student body of about 6K. Chicago also awards merit scholarships; the Ivies don’t.</p>
<p>So Chicago is about as generous with aid overall as some peer schools. But their distribution patterns seem to be different (judging from reports on this forum). You have to apply to know for sure if this will work for you or against you. Chicago is an excellent school for physics and a little less selective than the Ivies.</p>
<p>Other than this detail, I’m on board with Consolation’s excellent advice above.</p>
<p>Cornell is definitely possible. Pretty good (and focused!) ECs, so HYPS are a possibility. </p>
<p>Basically, you have a decent chance at many unis. Cornell, however, is probably your lowest reach, in the sense that you have a fairly good shot at acceptance.</p>
<p>well I was just throwing out options with regards to financial aid. That’s something that definitely needs to think about if finances are a problem</p>
<p>Brown is also considered to have iffy FA, compared to its peers. That is why I didn’t recommend it among the Ivies. Brown simply has a much smaller endowment than one might expect. The fact that Chicago gives out a very few merit scholarships is, I think, irrelevant to this particular student: I doubt that she would be competitive for one. But I completely agree that she should consider applying and see what they give her if she gets in. Chicago’s institutional methodology may favor her parents’ situation. And of course it is a great, great university. For that matter, if she likes Brown a lot the same thing applies there.</p>
<p>thank you all so much! you’ve been very helpful.</p>
<p>I’d like to stay East Coast/great lakes region; california and other west coast schools, while lovely, are just too far. I’m going to look into Chicago, I hadn’t really considered them but I think you’ve changed my mind.</p>
<p>@Consolation: definitely will try to raise my Math score. I don’t know about other schools’ but MiT’s median Math SAT II score was 750-800. Thanks for your advice!</p>
)Three tests in one day can be a bit much. If you are willing to put some real prep in on the math test, it might be worth retaking if you think you can score something like 770-800 based on timed practice tests. Otherwise I would be inclined to let it ride.</p>
you’ve been very helpful.</p>