Unsure of Myself

Applying to College
1

Can anyone help me out?

High School Junior at a catholic school in New York

Hooks: I am a URM (Hispanic), a first generation college student, musician, and I’m also adopted

My dream schools are Cornell ILR and Mendoza at Notre Dame

Reach schools: Columbia, Harvard, Duke, Boston College, Stanford, Upenn, U Chicago, U of Virginia (I know, HIGH reaches)

Target Schools: Binghamtom, George Washington, NYU, Boston U, Fordham, Northeastern, Stony Brook, Ohio State

Safety Schools, CUNY Queens, CUNY Baruch, SUNY New Paltz, St. Johns University Queens, York PA.

SAT I (breakdown): didn’t take yet goal score of 1800 for May, goal score of 2200 by October

ACT (breakdown): not taking

SAT II: Taking US and Chem in June

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.7

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school doesnt rank

Course Rigor: Frosh- Stage Band Honors, Integrated Geometry Advanced (took Algebra 1 in middle school). Sophmore- Biology Honors and Global History Honors, Junior Year: APUSH

AP: taking US in May

IB (place score in parenthesis): not available at my school

Senior Year Course Load: AP Lit AP Environmental AP Government Honors Calculus Business Law
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nothing too significant

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): 200 volunteer hours, golf team, bodybuilding, peer tutoring 4 yrs of band, National Honor Society, Foreign Language Honor Society

Job/Work Experience: 3 years in 2 different businesses 20 hours per week during school 35 in the summer, National Honor Society, Foreign Language Honor Society

Summer Activities: Mainly my job, hope to go to business boot camp this summer at Molloy college.

Essays: I plan to talk about my adoption and how my work and volunteer experience has inspired my interest in ILR and its incredible curriculum

Advice? Any colleges i should look into?

-I hope to major in Business or ILR (Cornell only)

  • I want to set myself up to eventually successfully apply to Stanford Law School.
2

It’s really hard to gauge without an actual SAT or ACT (by the way, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Giving the ACT a try might work in your favor.) What was your PSAT?

3

I dont remember what my psat was but ive scored in the 1800-1900 range on practice sats with 1800 being the firsta month ago and 1900 being 2 weeks ago

4

How much can your family afford? For instance NYU will cost you $70K/year.

5

I think my family will get decent financial aid. I come from a middle class family making under 100k per year

6

Cornell looks for how each applicant will fit towards their major and in all the cases I know, fit is the main thing going for each applicant. Cornell is pretty lenient with grades and scores as long as you have solid ECs that demonstrate fit in your major (however this varies between individual colleges i.e. CAS, AAP, SHA, CALS, etc)

7

I think you have an idea that all schools meet need. That is not true. NYU may give you a token FA offer but that would be it. Your reach schools do meet need so your FA offer would be based on that. Run the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site to see what you can expect, then talk to your parents about the number.

8

Ok i will look into it thank you Erin’s Dad

9

" Cornell looks for how each applicant will fit towards their major and in all the cases I know, fit is the main thing going for each applicant. Cornell is pretty lenient with grades and scores as long as you have solid ECs that demonstrate fit in your major (however this varies between individual colleges i.e. CAS, AAP, SHA, CALS, etc)"

^ That is very true. If you can show Cornell your passion - be it through your essays and/or EC’s - you have a good shot. Cornell is making their school very, very diverse. They obviously want a well-rounded class.

Their quote is “any person… any study”. Enough said.

You got this bud.

10

I think Cornell ED is a match for you if you can achieve your goal score on the SAT.

11

No school is a match with a sub 15% admission rate, particularly with a 3.7 GPA.

12

If your long term goal is law school (at Stanford no less) you will need to have strong grades in college and you will need a very high score on the LSAT exam. In order to do that you will need to have excellent critical reading skills and the ability to solve logical reasoning problems. Keep working hard in high school and building your resume. Read widely in your spare time. Your current list of colleges looks great. Once you get those standardized test scores you will be better able to see where you may have a chance for admission. Also do make sure you and your family know what it takes to pay for these schools as law school will also be expensive!

13

That’s a lot of high reaches; probably too many unless you have a bunch of fee waivers and really love writing essays. You might want to consider adding Case Western to your list of targets, as they are known for being extremely generous with merit aid and have well-regarded business and law schools. Case also has the urban vibe present at many of the other schools on your list.

Like NYU, I don’t think GWU, BU or Northeastern are known for their especially fabulous financial aid. Even OOS, Pitt and Temple might provide you with lower net prices than some of those schools.

14

thank you sltxdad definitly going to look into case western more