Trying to figure out where I stand.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I’m currently in 11th grade and am starting to look more seriously at colleges. However, I’m not quite sure what range I of schools I should be looking into. I have very good academics, but am also very weak with my ECs; almost laughably bad. Anyway, I’d like some advice on what level of schools I should be looking into.

Academics: I have a 4.0 GPA with a 4.6 weighted. I’ve only taken two AP classes so far - world history (5) and calc AB/BC (currently in) - due to prerequisites/schedule trouble. I know I should have taken more, and I will next year, but there isn’t much I can do about that now. I scored a 1460 on this year’s PSAT, with a 740 in the reading and a 700 in the math. I think, if i work at it, I can push that up to about 1500. Next year I’m planning to take AP Psych, AP Lang, AP Latin, a community college stats class, and calc 3, which I don’t know will be a college class or not. The rest of the classes will be relatively insignificant.

ECs: As I said before, this is where I’m concerned. I did nothing in my first two years of high school. This is mostly due to having no standout talents - I’m athletic, but that hasn’t translated into any particular sports. I played baseball and was ok, but not quite good enough to make the high school team. I’m a decent actor, but I can’t sing/dance and didn’t make it into the school plays. (Plays, not musicals. I didn’t get dissed from an ensemble role lol). I play the bass well/make my own music, but I’m not particularly interested in the school band music stuff. This year, I’m doing academic team and tech crew for the theater productions. It’s not much, but its better than nothing. I don’t have a job at the moment; I worked as an intern for my dads company a few years back, but thats not much. I plan to get a job within the coming months. I have no service hours besides what the school provides, but I hope to do some over the course of this year.

I’m not quite sure where I stand because I don’t know how colleges weigh academics vs ECs during admissions. I’m hoping you all can guide me a little bit there…I plan to major in a business field, so some of the schools that have caught my eye are University of Maryland - College Park, University of Virginia, and University of Pennsylvania. (I live in MD). What type of schools do you think are realistic for me?

TL;DR: Good academics, straight up bad ECs. Want to know what range of colleges I should be looking into.

Thanks!

2

You’ll get into UMD, and you have a chance at UVA (though not likely because you don’t really seem to do that much honestly outside of school). I highly highly doubt you will get into Penn, as everyone has good academics, so you need other stuff to make you stand out.

3

What is your financial situation? Are you eligible for need based aid? If not, can you afford the OOS price for UVA or high cost of Penn? Each college has a net price calculator on their website – you should work with your parents to run them.

I would say you will get in to UMD.

4

I’m in a pretty good situation financially. I’m not sure about this, but I think my parents said I’ll have about $20-30k before I need to take out a loan. Of course, financial aid would be ideal, as I don’t think they’ll want to spend all that money. UMD seems like the best financial choice.

5

I figured Penn was a distant reach. I think UVA is the tier I’d like to shoot for, but again I’m not sure.

6

So… that doesn’t really answer the financial question. You should run the net price calculators for sure. You personally can only take out $5,500 per year in loans freshman year, with slightly higher amounts in subsequent years. Any other loans have to be taken out by your parents or with an adult co-signer, and you can easily end up with too much debt. Penn, for example, costs over $60,000 per year. They give good need based aid, and the calculators can help you see if you might get some. The good news is that you like your state flagship and it is affordable. But don’t waste time on unaffordable schools – get a handle on that issue before looking much further. You will get different suggestions based on the answers, too.

7

How do you have a 4.6 weighted with only 2 APs? I think you’ve got a good shot at Virginia if your class rank and test scores are strong.

8

I’m pretty sure honors courses count towards the weighted GPA. I’m not 100% sure thats the number, but its definitely in the 4.5 range. I know my class rank (12th), but I don’t know how many students its out of. Probably a little over 300.

edit: also, the two APs were both split up between two semesters, so I guess they get counted twice.

9

You should have a great chance at UMD.

For ECs, it’s better to have a reasonable number and be able to talk about each of them substantially, rather than have a bunch and be able to say nothing about the majority of them. Colleges can tell the difference between you doing your ECs for your own benefit versus just trying to “check the box”. For volunteering, think about your interests and find an opportunity. For example, if you are interested in a healthcare career, try volunteering at a hospital around you.