What is a "match" for me? *confused*

Applying to College
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<p>So, I'm a really good student. I'm on CC, so you know I am probably someone who worries about admissions and grades all the time. People always joke Harvard will welcome me with open arms, but obviously that's just joking banter. I have my stats below. (I filled in my assumed grades for the rest of this year, I'm a junior.) PLEASE HELP ME identify matches/safeties. I know what my reaches are. LOL.</p>

<p>Courses:
8th: Alg I Honors, Latin I
9th: PreAP World History, PreAP Eng 9, Geometry Honors, Bio Honors, Latin II, Journalism 1
10th:AP World, PreAP Eng 10, Alg II Honors, Chem Honors, Latin III, Journalism 2
11th: AP USH, AP Lang, Precalc/Trig Honors, Physics Honors, Latin IV, AP Psych, Journalism 3
12th (planned): Combined AP US/Comp. Gov, AP Lit, AP Enviro, AP Calc BC, AP Lat Vergil, AP Euro, Journalism 4</p>

<p>I've gotten an A in every class to date, except for Physics where I expect my year to end at a high A-... total of 10 honors/preAP classes and 10 AP's.
That would make UW:3.98 and W: 4.37 after junior year...
However, it'll be hard not to get more A- during senior year with six of seven classes being AP.</p>

<p>Tests:
PSAT- 201. LOL. </p>

<p>SAT- 2080 (M- 660, WR- 650, CR- 770). That's after taking it once. I am currently taking a prep course and should also note that on the one hand, I expect writing to be notably higher because my first time I accidentally skipped parts of the last section and used spiteful examples in my essay. On the other hand, that 660 in math is unusually high for me. I'm aiming for a 2250 as "ideal", but know that 2100+ is very realistic. Will take again in may, will take ACT cold in jun for first time.</p>

<p>AP's- 5 on World... will take APUSH/PSYCH/LANG this year. Based on various practice exams and class performance, I'm very likely to get 5's.</p>

<p>SAT II's- Have taken Latin (750) and World (780) so far. This jun, plan to retake Latin (because I took it out of whim at the center and since it's my thing, I plan to do better), and also Math II :( and US History. </p>

<p>Hooks: I'm hispanic, male, will be first to finish high school <em>knock on wood</em> (but somehow not first to attend college), lower middle class income (we struggle pretty much all the time).</p>

<p>EC: Many bland clubs, but main involvement in Model UN, English Honor Society, National Honor Society, Latin Club, Latin Honor Society, School Newspaper, Certamen (Latin quiz) team. Most interesting one is that I recently taught myself Attic Greek and then taught it classroom-style to three friends who take Latin and prepped the four of us to take the National Greek exam. (I also taught using learning techniques learned in psych/I want to be a teacher.) Served on minority student success panel to speak to parents about teen aptitude and stress. Accepted to state gov school in summer at VCU for latin. I realize i have no widespread/community service. I plan to do that this summer, but all of my service includes some form of tutoring/teaching, and I plan to become a Latin teacher.</p>

<p>-Leadership: PR officer for MUN, President of Latin Club, President of Latin Honor Society, Captain of Certamen team, teacher of attic greek (? lol), News editor for paper one year and now the editor-in-chief. Will try for editor of my state's chapter of the junior classical league. No one else is really vying right now, sooo... I realize I ramble, but succinct is not my thing.</p>

<p>Awards: Mainly latin related. Two gold medals on the national latin exam and one perfect paper. Won second place statewide for Certamen (latin trivia) in Level III. At state Latin convention, I 've ranked on a lot of stuff, including 1st english oratory, 1st myth composition, 1st dramatic interpretation (+best in show), 1st latin sight reading (+best in show), 2nd pl grammar test, 2nd pl lit test, and won 1st place sweepstakes (award for most awards, haha) for my grade. It shows my passion, but it's too latin-centric. I will attend national convention (1st time) and another state convention before apps and expect a few titles in Latin oratory. ;) </p>

<p>Now that I've rambled, here are the colleges I'm aiming for:
Harvard
Stanford
Princeton
Amherst
Duke
Wake Forest
Boston University
Swarthmore
Yale
U of Richmond
Kenyon
UC Berkeley
Columbia</p>

<p>I realize there are only like two safeties, one match, and a WHOLE lot of reaches, but I just cant get excited about many schools. It's not just the name, but the quality of the environment, financial aid, and departments. I want to major in classics and also take up russian (possibly as a double major). A lot of schools don't offer classics as a major. I'm a liberal person, leaning toward LAC's but I don't want to be in the middle of nowhere or in some cold desolate place. I also will need financial aid, and I'm a non-resident legal alien (via TPS) so that's hard to get in many places. My conservative state considers students with TPS as international after someone with TPS killed four nuns in a car accident. Any suggestions for safeties and matches? Do I have a chance for any of my reaches (i.e. assuming there is some slight improvement to my stats test/community service-wise?) My main reaches are harvard (not just for the name), amherst (although the surroundings remind me of the crucible), duke, and swarthmore... Although based on my research it seems barnard would be perfect for me if it weren't all females. :(</p>

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<p>If you can get that SAT close to that 2250 range, you should have very good chances at all your schools being a URM with fantastic grades and SAT II’s with solid EC’s.</p>

<p>Study hard & bring up those scores. Luckily, math can be brought up with practice, practice and more practice and writing too.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the input! Anyone else have suggestions out there?..</p>

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<p>

hahaha. I love this.</p>

<p>But I agree, if you get your SAT up (or maybe even try the ACT?) you’d be golden, with a very well-written essay :)</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>

^y and don’t do it. go to amazon and get a prep book for cheap. After ap exams, you’ll see you have a lot of free time from hw, so study for ACT.
@MarinebioSax, agreed, thats an awesome quote, that made my day OP :slight_smile:
If you can get your SAT above 2200 or close to it, you have a good shot at all those school because of your great grades, coupled with your hooks, and good ec’s. Yeah i think you should retake SAT II Latin just to finish off all those lation ec’s with an 800 on the SAT II. I don’t normally assume, but assuming you get a 2200 on your SAT, here are a list of possible matches with some being high matches and others being low matches…
UNC (EA OOS)
Tufts University
UCLA
Berkeley
USC
Georgetown (one of the harder matches on this list)
UVA (EA OOS) --(also might be a bit tough)
^maybe you might look into these schools to see if your interested in any of them. Based on your post, I feel you might be interested in UVA, Berkeley, Tufts, and UnC. Just work hard to get that 2200, and if you don’t get it in May, study hard over summer and go for it in October. Plus don’t forget a lot of colleges superscore :)</p>

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<p>Apply early to Princeton in classics. There was a guy in the news a couple of years ago who was illegal and he was considered one of the best of this generation and Princeton took good care of him.</p>

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<p>wow thanks for the info guys. I’m in VA, radtomato (lol), but because of my legal status I’m not sure if they’ll consider me in-state for admissions. But me and my GC have talked and if my in-states schools are going to charge me extra or possible give me a harder time in amdissions, then it’s their loss. I really don’t like UVA though. I like U of Richmond, maybe W&M. But I prefer urban campuses and cities, at least nearby. My only complaint of amherst would have to be the surroundings and the general look of the buildings.</p>

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<p>Interficio - </p>

<p>You do need to have your guidance counselor find out if you are eligible for in-state status at any VA public university or community college. The policy may be different for those two categories. Find out if you qualify for in-county status at your own county’s community college. If you don’t qualify for this kind of status anywhere, you will have to look a lot longer and harder to come up with a list of Financial Safeties.</p>

<p>You also need to talk with your parents about how much they can realistically afford to contribute toward your college expenses, and you need to think about how much you can realistically expect to make at a job of your own. Those numbers will tell you how much aid you need to get to make your education possible.</p>

<p>Since you like Barnard (except for the only-for-girls bit) take a look at Haverford. As a Haverford student you could do all of the Latin, Ancient Greek, and Russian you want (even a full major in those subjects) at Bryn Mawr. Yes it isn’t a safety for anyone, but like Swarthmore it is Quaker which might help out a bit if anything happened to your TPS status. For more Quaker colleges, see the list at [Quaker-originated</a> Colleges and Universities](<a href=“http://www.quaker.org/colleges.html]Quaker-originated”>Quaker-originated Colleges and Universities)</p>

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<p>It’s awesome that you have ECs that complement your personality and distinct interests. Make sure to tie it all together in your essays, of course.</p>

<p>Apart from retaking the SAT, my suggestion would be to retake the subject test in Latin as well. Because Latin is such a big part of your application, you need tangible proof that you’re really good at it. 750 would be an awesome score for most people, but for a prospective classics major, I think 800 is closer to the norm.</p>

<p>Everything else looks great.</p>

<p>Oh, and you may want to look into Holy Cross. Worcester is not exactly a megapolis, but it numbers some 200,000 people and Boston is not too far away. More importantly, Holy Cross would be a match for you in my estimation, and has one of the strongest classics departments in the country (and the largest classics department of any American LAC).</p>

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<p>I cannot figure out from your posts what your legal citizenship is, but you might do research on St. Andrews in Scotland. i know it sounds like a way out choice, but they charge different tuition based on nationality, and I’ll bet their classics would be to die for.</p>

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<p>UT84321 - </p>

<p>TPS is “Temporary Protected Status” which is a legal non-immigrant status awarded by USCIS to citizens of countries that are in temporary or on-going states of crisis. Someone with TPS can live and work in the US, and can study here without needing a student visa, but is considered an international applicant for financial aid purposes. Countries that qualify for TPS at present include El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, but only if the individual meets other requirements as to date of first arrival in the US and uninterrupted residence here. Truly a tricky and messy situation!</p>

<p>Interficio - </p>

<p>I just remembered that one of my neighbors who has TPS, landed a big scholarship to a private U in the area, and is commuting from home to save money on housing. Would something like that work for you?</p>

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<p>Thanks for the suggestions, guys! I’m definitely looking into those schools, my only concern is that colleges like Holy Cross may not be as liberal. I didn’t want to mention this exactly, but I’m gay and would like to be open about it in college. </p>

<p>As for in-state costs, my sister went to NoVA community college and had to pay international student costs, but now she’s at mason paying in-state tuition. I’m not sure if it depends and my counselor doesn’t really know. She keeps hoping that I’ll somehow get my residency within the year, as if it were that easy. </p>

<p>I am planning to retake the Latin SAT and hopefully I’ll do much better! The test is intended for those who have been exposed to both prose and poetry (including meter) and at the time I had only worked with the former, so I’m not too worried. Thanks for the input everyone! My biggest weakspot, however, will end up being my SAT. Probably due to math.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the details, happymom! I’m from El Salvador, and even though we have recovered from the “crisis” (a bad earthquake a few years ago), TPS is still given to people from our country because so many are dependent upon it to remain in this country and work legally. Unfortunately, I have no rights of a resident or citizen but sill have to pay taxes… It really sucked not being able to see if I could qualify for national hispanic scholar or NMSQT.</p>

<p>As for the commute option, I want to leave the state. I really do want to start over because I feel stagnant in this town, as if I can accomplish nothing here. Local schools of note are JMU, Mason, and actually georgetown. The latter obviously would cause me to rethink my “leave and start a new life” mantra if I applied and they offered aid.</p>

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<p>I have a young friend with a similar academic profile to yours – strong interest in Latin and classics – although she is not a minority, not in need of financial aid, and a legal US citizen.</p>

<p>She applied to a slew of Ivies and top LACs, and got in everywhere except one Ivy where she was waitlisted. I don’t think you have anything to lose by aiming at the top (HYP) and then LACs with good classics programs (Williams?) and then find some academic/financial safeties known for classics.</p>

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<p>It’s hard to find matches for truly top applicants because those schools that have traditionally been matches/safeties for the Ivy-bound are starting to waitlist or reject applicants they don’t think are serious about attending. I’d try applying EA somewhere to have an acceptance in hand by December.</p>

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<p>[The</a> Princeton Salutatorian Who Could Become a Leading Classics Scholar: He’s an Illegal Immigrant - ABC News](<a href=“The Princeton Salutatorian Who Could Become a Leading Classics Scholar: He's an Illegal Immigrant - ABC News”>The Princeton Salutatorian Who Could Become a Leading Classics Scholar: He's an Illegal Immigrant - ABC News)</p>

<p>[Dan-el</a> Padilla Peralta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan-el_Padilla_Peralta]Dan-el”>Dan-el Padilla Peralta - Wikipedia)</p>

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<p>Isn’t Holy Cross considered to be good for Classics?</p>

<p>Have you looked into the scholarship program called Questbridge? You have an unusual residency issue and I don’t know how you would fit in for them. There is a dedicated forum for them in the Financial Aid section.</p>

<p>[QuestBridge</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://questbridge.org/]QuestBridge”>http://questbridge.org/)</p>

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<p>Thanks again guys! I felt inferior reading about Dan-el… But I have also had the marriage offers, haha (though obviously as jokes seeing as I’m in HS).</p>

<p>I have been looking at questbridge on and off and will definitely apply. A few months ago I definitely was within the income cutoff, but my dad finally got a job after years of unemployment so I’m not sure how that will work out.</p>

<p>BUT YES: “US citizens, Permanent Residents, and international students residing in the United States are [eligible]” YES. I fit the last description I’m pretty sure. This is awesome guys, thanks for the help! Now I just have to do my part with standardized tests. :/</p>

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<p>bump…</p>

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<p>Interficio - My advise for you would be to make use of your single choice early action and choose Princeton or Harvard for your one shot. Both of those schools dont consider your status at all, like to admit hardship cases such as yours while providing full financial package (if you match with questbridge, they will get you into some of these colleges too) and your interest in classics will go a long way.</p>