Hi, so I am currently a rising senior attending a college prep high school. I plan on applying to a variety of strong communication schools:
USC
UCLA
Pepperdine
Ithaca
Boston University
Emerson
Williams College
Unweighted GPA: 3.93
ACT: 32 (will retake in fall)
US History SAT II: 750
Latin SAT II: 670
Advanced Courses:
Honors Latin III
Honors English
Honors Precalc
Honors Chemistry
Honors Latin Lit
AP Latin: 4
APUSH: 5
AP Lang and Comp: 5
Will take AP Bio, AP Calc, and AP Lit Senior Year
ECs:
Mock Trial (2 Years)
Newspaper Writer (4 years, VP for 2)
Mentoring Middle Schoolers (2 Years)
Varsity Baseball (4 Years)
Varsity Swimming (2 Years)
JV Golf (1 Year)
JV Basketball (1 Year)
Attended HYPE Leadership Conference, will attend a 3-day leadership summit in August
Habitat for Humanity Service Trip to build houses
Working at Theme Park this Summer
What are my chances for the schools I listed? What are my reaches versus matches and safeties? How can I improve/what should I focus on? Thanks in advance!
For safeties, they have to be 1) affordable with little to no financial aid, 2) a school you are willing to attend and 3) high chance for an acceptance.
What is your home state? What is your EFC? How much can your parents pay/year $$?
@Gumbymom I was thinking just in terms of my chances of being accepted. Similarly, if I’m considered above average for a school, merit might be given which would take away the first point about safeties. Lastly, all the schools listed in my post are ones I would want to attend. Home state is NH.
Finances still need to be considered since there is no point in applying to schools that are unaffordable. Take UCLA off your list if you cannot afford $55K+/year to attend. There is no financial aid available for OOS students and little merit aid to make a significant difference on the price tag.
USC looks like a Match. Use the Net price calculator to make sure you can afford it.
Pepperdine is a Low Match with very good chances for an acceptance.
I cannot comment on the other schools.
@Gumbymom Thank you for the help – does UCLA really not offer aid for OOS students? That seems so limiting… Anyway, thank you so much for the response.
Starting this Fall 2016, UC’s no longer offer financial aid to OOS students. You can run the Net Price calculator to see if you might have chance at some of the merit scholarships, but most will still not be enough to offset the costs.