What colleges are match and reach for my stats?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi I’m a rising junior just trying to sort out my match and reach schools and would like an external perspective on myself. The format is actually from a decision thread so sorry if it’s weird. Feel free to list any colleges I should apply to (only constraint is U.S. only!)

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): predicted 2100s

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.7 (5 bi-semester Bs, but I did move in sophomore year and this year I am back to a 4.0 unweighted and I’m taking 7 AP subjects in a range of courses)

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 17%

AP (place score in parenthesis): (predicted) BC calc (4), physics (4), English Lang and comp (5), world history (5)

Senior Year Course Load: ap english lit, ap french, italian, or spanish 5 (I will take one and probably self study another one) , ap studio art, ap physics C, ap multi variable calculus, ap micro and macro economics

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): a few scholastic and magazine publications for art, and 1 local exhibit (not major )

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): literary magazine, school newspaper art staff, 9 years of private piano lessons (performed at small local shows)

Job/Work Experience:

Volunteer/Community service:

Summer Activities: planning a trip to study spanish language in Peru while volunteering

Essays: I will give it my all, my essay skills are impressive (hehe maybe) but definitely not outstanding

Teacher Recommendation: plenty to choose from (math, science, English, art) I have a friendly relationship with all my teachers but not extraordinary, I think I do stand out to my art teacher though

Counselor Rec: I maintain a friendly relationship with

Additional Rec: probably from studio art instructor at a local college

Reflection
Strengths: I will submit a dense and spectacular art portfolio that I have been putting together over the last 10 years of my life

Weaknesses: extracurriculars, lack of leadership, I actually moved from a less competitive school to a much more competitive school with more rigorous course work from freshmen to soph year, the transition was really tough…will this hurt my chances? My gpa… T_T

2

Home State? How much can you and your family afford? Location(s) in the US? Large/Small school, Urban/Suburban/Rural/Private/Public/Religious/Greek Life? Intended majors? Really difficult to recommend schools until you have an SAT score. If you want a start, use the Super Match feature on this website to narrow down some schools.

3

Ok thanks, I will start with that :slight_smile:

4

Are the scholastic awards gold key, at what level (regional or national), and individual works or portfolio? Did you go to a national portfolio day and talk to any reps from RISD, VSA, etc? Then I have the same questions as post #1.

5

Basically I just want some suggestions base do on any of your experiences (for example if you have a friend with similar stats) I would like a ballpark estimate so I can have an idea of where I should start looking at more realistically (of course I want to go somewhere really good but I’m hoping I can get a reality check if you will on here) thanks in advance!

If it helps:

Home state: NY (moved from Arizona)
I’m definitely going to apply for financial aid
Any school that has a good campus
Undecided major (I’m thinking of engineering or fine art related)
The SAT score should improve since that was from a formal practice test from soph year
Scholastic award : silver key -regional individual
I wasn’t able to get to RISD due to the line but a rep from MICA said my pieces were strong but should show more interest, and or focus in one area particularly

Btw I actually did not know about the national scholastic art contest, sorry for being so ignorant, but is it held every year or only certain years?

6

MICA is a great program so I hope you put the advice from its rep to good use in your portfolio. But unless you are applying to an undergrad art school the art itself isn’t going to be evaluated or even be much of a hook. What may be more interesting is writing an essay on how you found a concentration, focus or theme for your work, how that plays out, and what you learned from the experience.

You should first look at the SUNYs and decide which 1,2, or 3 would fit your interests. Visit them. Take the SAT. Define your version of a “good campus”.