What else do I need to do to stand out with College Admisstions ? Anything helps :)

Applying to College
1

Hi,
I talked to my guidance counslers at school to decide where I want to study at and my plans to go to an out of state school were shut down from the start due to the money so when I brought up any of my favorite universties they were always looked over. I know tution is going to be hard since I come from a low income family but I am looking into scholarships,grants and workstudy opportunites to pay for my schooling but was wondering if was even a possibilty to go to these schools or if I should just look into a Utah school.

Schools that I am intrested in (what are my chances) :
NYU
Oberlin College
University of Chicago
Columbia University
UCLA
Stanford
Berkley
Carleton College
I am a highschool junior and have been on high honor roll all throughout high school I have taken all honors, AP, and advanced classes so far.

AP : Euro, Biology,(10th grade), US History, Latin, Literature and Composition,Statistics(11th grade) next year I want to take Language, Chemistry, US Gov,and maybe Envirmental Science.

  • Exam Scores
    *Bio -3
    *Euro-4

Extracirriculars/Volunteer Work
9th grade student council for 3.5 months
Mentored a girls group for 4 months 2 hrs a weeks in 10th grade
Helped Organize/Particapted in a community Fashion show in 10th grade
Debate Club from January till the rest of this year 11th grade
Basketball Club April till the end of the year 11th grade
I created a mentoring and tutoring system at my high school to help get students motivated about school and help them pass their classes by working with teachers -this is still a work in progress and I will get the results by the end of the year how effective the program is.
I also did several service projects through our school field trips
I help care for my Grandmother and my baby sister

Honors :
9th grade student of the year for Lit and Compostion
10th grade students of the year for AP Bio
I particapted in the AMC to represent my school
National Honor Society
I am going to be competing in a state math competion to represent my school.
Student Accalades from teachers about my personality traits that I recieved every year ex: Enthusiasum, Honesty and Dependebility

GPA: 3.97- my school doesn’t do a weighted GPA
Classrank: 3/96
Current ACT score w/ writing 22 w/out writing 23

  • I know that I have really low scores but I have taken it 3 times and I still keep getting a low score and I studied like crazy but I still don’t know what to do. Help ! I am taking it again this Saturday and am hoping to get a better score.
  • I am also going to try the SAT this May to see if I can do any better on that one -Help!

My Backgroud
-low income family-oldest child-first generation to attend college-daughter of Somali immigrants- skipped the 5th grade if that counts for anything- can speak fluently in Somali and English but I know Latin and Arabic pretty well

Also would it be safer to do early descion or just wait for regular registration ? Thank you so much this is will help me like crazy !

2

Do what you want. Don’t try to do things that one may think admissions officers want to see.

I know hundreds of students in High School, and even middle school, who do some amazing things because that’s what they’re interested in. Once you find something you are really interested in, take it above and beyond.

Good luck and have fun.

3

-The schools on your list will be big reaches with your ACT scores (unless they are test optional). There are many terrific colleges that are test-optional so you can also look into some of those. http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional/state
-Check out the Net Price Calculator on the colleges website so you can get an idea of what type of aid you might expect to get from a given school.
-If you need merit aid, look into some colleges where you are in the top 25% of the admissions statistics.
-And yes, certainly look into your state schools as well.
-Good luck.

4

Look at schools that are test optional. Check out fairtest.org. for the list. Schools like Pitzer, Dennison, Clark might be good choices and they do not consider your test scores. Also look into programs like Alexander Hamilton Scholars, Questbridge, Possee, or Gates Millennium. They could be avenues for assisting you with admission and they target low income and/or first gen. students.

Also look at the college partners for the imfirst program. I think the website is imfirst.org. Be sure to sign up for their newsletter and read everything on their website. The college partners will give examples of support and scholarships for first gen students. Look into “diversity fly-ins” which are special programs where colleges host you to come visit their college and most will pay for your travel expenses. Some are listed on I first or here in the AA forum. Always ask colleges if they will do that for you. Dennison has one NAD your counselor has to nominate you.

Since you are in Utah be sure to look at colleges that are part of the Western Undergraduate Exchange that offer tuition discounts to residents of certain states. Some let you combine merit on top of the discount which makes it affordable for you.

Look also at colleges that change life’s. Ctcl.org These might be good safety schools that would give you merit.

Apply early action to as many places as you can. There are application waivers for low income students. Good luck.

5

Did you check costs to attend?

The public colleges like UCLA and Berkeley are funded by the taxpayers of California which means if you need financial aid, you will have to pay full fees of $55K for OOS tuition. Additionally, that ACT of 23 is too low for those schools and would give you no chance at Stanford, Univ of Chicago and Columbia.

NYU is notorious for poor financial aid and will cost you.

How did you make your list?

Apply to your instate safeties while you study for your SAT and ACT tests. Retake the tests to get competitive scores.

6

I don’t know… Many of these schools are very hard to get into, even with perfect numbers. But if you can get those scores up, you’ll definitely have a better chance. Looking at the range of scores they admit, most of them are 28-29+. So if you can get it above a 30, you’ll have a better chance.

Study smarter, not harder. What specifically are you struggling with? A particular section? Time management? The way I studied for the SAT was, I knew that I was good at math, and probably knowledgeable enough about grammar to do well in the Writing section. But I’m awful at reading comprehension and writing essays, and moreover, when I see questions like that, my brain just wants to shut down.

SO… I spent most of my time going over reading prompts, vocabulary words, and sample prompts. It was awful, lol, but working on that really helped me realize what kinds of questions trip me up and how to answer them correctly. Also, when to guess and when to skip (although I know that they’re removing the -1/4 penalty for wrong answers in the new SAT). And then maybe a week before the test, I just did a couple of practice sections a day (not whole exams, that would have taken too long lol) timed so I knew how fast I had to be at the actual test.

Things to know that are different about the SAT if you do decide to take it: http://www.princetonreview.com/college/sat-act

Also, SAT Subject Tests are another chance to show your knowledge of a particular subject. If you can pick 2-3 in subjects that you’re strong in and do well on them, that will help out as well.

Your ECs are good, but they don’t say much about you. What are you interested in studying in college? Also, how many of the ECs are ongoing (as in, you’ll do them all four years, or even 2-3 years)? The honors are also good, although I’d substitute the Student Accolades award for some really good teacher letters of recommendation (start asking now, before senior year when everyone will be asking them and they’ll have too much to do!)

Early Decision could be a good idea, especially for some schools that would give a really big boost in admissions (I may be looking at outdated sources, but Oberlin and Columbia both seem to have really high ED acceptance rates). But in your case, you might want to compare your financial aid options. Definitely try to apply early to U Chicago if you aren’t doing ED, because it’s non-binding for Chicago. Also, have you visited any of these schools? I wouldn’t recommend ED-ing to a school you’ve never actually been to…

7

  1. don’t listen to your guidance counselor. The GA at my Georgia high school said the same thing to me, because her aim was to push GA kids to stay in GA, plus she didn’t think I was “good enough” to get scholarships to elite schools (I hadn’t even taken my SATs & I was a 4.0 student! She was a jerk.). She was wrong! I got a full tuition scholarship to an elite private far, far away (BU). Oftentimes a private school is cheaper than staying in state b/c they’ll throw merit/need money at you to attend.

  2. But your list includes mostly reaches because most of the schools on it don’t give merit aid OR don’t offer need aid to OOS students (ie: the California schools).

What do you want to major in? Can you improve your ACT score? Take the SAT and see what your score is? You’ll need to improve your test scores to be competitive at schools that offer merit and are not test optional. Look through CC archives to find a stable of generous matches and safeties. If you give us a sense of what you want to study, people on CC will be able to help with suggestions.

8

I would be very careful about applying ED anywhere since you need a financial/merit aid to afford a private college.
I do agree with other posters suggestions that you look at some test optional colleges.

9

Consistency is important in ECs, try to do the same every year and show leadership or try to show links between activities for example the mentoring girls group with mentoring tutoring you created.

ACT is a timed test, that is most important, use a stopwatch when practicing. There are a series of books called “Up Your Score” I never got them but a friend’s sister swore by them. You can probably find them in your library. They have one for the ACT and the SAT, she used the one for the SAT.

It sounds like you have some good hooks as a URM (I assume you would self identify as AA and not middle eastern?) and first generation college. Questbridge and the other programs are definitely worth looking into and perhaps they can offer you some guidance

10

NYU- Reach- Try taking subject tests instead (Notoriously bad financial aid. COA is upwards of $70,000 per year)
Oberlin College- Reach
University of Chicago- High Reach
Columbia University-High Reach
UCLA- You will not be able to afford it. Don’t apply.
Stanford- Sky high reach (I wouldn’t apply if I were you)
Berkeley-You will not be able to afford it. Don’t apply.
Carleton College- Reach

You need a new list OP. You need some schools within reach. Your ACT score is barely above the national average. Try some test optional schools.

Look at:
Pitzer. They are test optional if you have a GPA of 3.8 and up and this will be our best chance at a large amount of need based aid.
Ursinus
Ithaca
Mount Holyoke
Muhlenberg
Connecticut College
Dickinson College
And for a bigger school, check out American U.

11

The University of Rochester might be a bit of a reach with your scores, but they do consider applications holistically and offer good need-based aid. Case Western might also be worth a look, as well as the previously-mentioned Clark.

12

I’d second CaliCash’s recommendation of American. They’re selective but test optional (though I do think you need another essay if you choose this option).

13

I just noticed that Rochester is offers test-optional plans, as well as Brandeis. We received very good aid offers from these two schools.

14

For now, you’re going have to recalibrate your schools a bit because of your low test scores. That said, you’re a very good candidate for some excellent schools. Check out the list on fairtest.org. If you like small LACs (like Pitzer and Carleton) cross check the no-test school with the schools on Colleges That Change Lives because many CTCL schools are test optional. (If female, several womens colleges are test optional: Bryn Mawr, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Agnes Scott. )

Build a compelling story out of your EC’s and life experiences for your application. Don’t just list every single activity. Think of out this way: schools want to know who you are outside the classroom and how that impacts you inside the classroom. Your activities and EC’s paint an interesting picture. Take advantage of that.

It looks like you’re capable of a higher score but something’s off in your test taking skills.See if your library has “The ACT for Bad Test Takers”. It contains good test taking strategies. If you decide to take it a fifth time. There’s a corresponding book for the SAT.

Last, applying Early Action is great, but I would avoid Early Decision.

15

How do I know if I am in the top 25% stastic for that school then ? I really want to study something in the humanities department. Also I am not so sure on what I want to study yet but I am leaning more towards law, literature and pre-med and schools with a really strong arts program so I can minor in that but other wise I am really lost when it comes to careers but am hoping to take a make sure that when I do my generals I take a variety of different classes to see where I best fit within them. Do you guys have any suggestions ? I was told by a teacher to try international law/realations because they said it would be a good pick for me with the way I think but I really don’t know much else.

16

I am looking into these optional schools and was wondering what it is that I need to do to stand out like Bates for example the majority of students that made it in had an ACT of 31 so how do I compete with that and still not show my scores since they have such a low acceptance rate. Also for my EC most aren’t continous since I have to care for my grandmother and mom who are pretty sick so a majority of the time I can’t join or do more clubs since I am always needed at home to do something so do you guys have any suggestions ?

17

Dreamer, I don’t think you need to add any EC’s to your list. You are doing the most important EC, taking care of your mother and grandmother. You need to express that in your application. You have enough hooks imho. You need to write a strong essay about you and what you are doing and where you hope go. It would be great if your SAT score was stronger than your ACT’s but even without that you will have great choices. If you haven’t considered Muhlenberg College, I would take a look. A strong LAC, they do great at getting students into medical and law schools. A very strong theater program. They have a diverse group of students who all get along and support each other. It might be a good fit for you although it is far from home. Best of luck to you!