What kind of schools are in my reach?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi all, I'm new here.
I am a Junior and I need help with picking schools because I'm not your typical highschool student.</p>

<p>For reference, here are my stats:
Student:</p>

<p>User Name: krndandaman
Gender: M
Location: New York
College Class Year: 2016
High School: Private
High School Type: rarely sends grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.48
GPA - Weighted: 3.84
Class Rank: top 5%
Class Size: 25</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 710
SAT I Critical Reading: 660
SAT I Writing: 590</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: Model UN Club for 2 years, Math Olympiad for 2 years, Christian Club 2 years</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Took college level Logic: Principles course at CTY @ John Hopkins (Center for Talented Youth), named Long Island Young Scholar of Mathematics by the Institute of Creative Problem Solving for the Gifted and took 60 hour course at SUNY Old Westbury.</p>

<p>Leadership positions: Member of Leadership Team at local church</p>

<p>Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Varsity Winter Track for 2 years
Varsity Spring Track for 2 years</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work: 200+ hours volunteer at AGAPE (program for persons with disabilities), Mission trip with AIM organization to New Mexico in Navajo Reserve over 5 days, Mission trip with Boston Project to Dorchester and Boston in Massachusetts to help out the needy over 5 days.</p>

<p>Honors and Awards: Honors Program, National Merit Commended Student</p>

<p>Desired College Characteristics:</p>

<p>Location type: Urban, Small City
Size: Small (Under 2,500), Medium Small (2,500 - 5,000), Medium (5,000 - 10,000)</p>

<p>Area: East Coast, West Coast
Importance of cost: Very important</p>

<p>Anyways, here is why I'm peculiar.
I've always been the kid who's been naturally smart and never studied for his grades.
I always had low motivation and studied/did homework to the minimum where I would just get A's/B's and that was that. I only did extra curriculars to be with friends or my parents forced me. My Freshman and Sophomore year I went to a top 300-400 school in the U.S. and got an unweighted GPA of 3.48 while taking all Honors. For a kid who didn't care about school at all, I was actually doing pretty good. (Everything up above on my stats is what I did during my soph/fresh year)
Stuff happened, I wanted to start fresh and do well. The situation was perfect for a move to a new school because my dad just started a new business nearly an hour away and I wanted to go to a better school and start working hard. So we moved to a top 50 school in the nation and top 5 in New York state. I obviously did not have the studying habits to take 4 AP classes for the first time as well as the energy to continue studying at an intense level. I burned myself out quickly after 2 months and after receiving a dismal 84 overall average over 2 quarters (Yeah not really dismal but it seemed like it to me) things started to go wrong. I had family problems, social problems as I was in a new school and had no friends, and now I lost all self-esteem. I quickly fell into depression.</p>

<p>blah blah, didn't go to school for 1 year. After a year I managed to recover.</p>

<p>I did alot of self reflection over the year and decided to start school at a Christian private school in New Jersey. It wasn't very tough academically and the people there were known to be very kind, hardworking, and God-driven. I decided with my parents to start school again there. Right now I am dorming with Korean international students (every student dorming is an international student from korea except me) I'm korean-american and am fluent at korean so it was no problem for me to adjust.</p>

<p>The school here is rather weak academically. The courses aren't rigorous, there aren't many courses to choose from, and the average SAT score here is something like 1500. The international students actually do the best here, and the highest score out of them is usually 1900-2000. No one goes to ivy leagues, we get at least someone going to a top 40 school every year usually. GPA's are pretty high here.</p>

<p>So at the moment, I have no SAT 2's (I don't think I'll be taking any... considering Math 2c but im so rusty at trig because I took it 2 years ago) was gonna take korean SAT2, but heard its not good to take it unless you're 100% sure of getting 800. i'm actually kinda average/weak at reading/writing in korean. I'm mainly a speaker of korean.
I also have no AP's. I'll be taking AP calc next year (the only AP course available) and I will most likely be taking 1 or 2 courses at the local community college because I have 3 free periods next year due to me being in accelerated courses at my old school.</p>

<p>Not really any clubs here other than this SWAT thing (which 60% of the school is in)
and im going to do Soccer next year (all the koreans do it and i'm actually decent at it here). not really into other sports anymore and track is pretty useless on resumes.</p>

<p>My first quarter overall grade unweighted is 95.0 here. I'm confident I can keep that up easily and perhaps even raise it. I'm halfway through this quarter and at the moment I have a 97.5 average unweighted. I'm in all honors.
By the end of my senior year I should be able to raise my low 3.48 unweighted into a 3.8 at the very least. </p>

<p>Thanks for bearing with me, my question is which colleges should I be able to apply to and expect to get in? I started at a decently hard school and now I'm at an easy private school.</p>

<p>Also I only took the SAT once last year before I fell into depression and got 1960. That's with no studying. I'm thinking that if I study a bit for the SAT here I should be able to get out a 2040 at the least. Raise my math to 760, Writing to 640 hopefully. </p>

<p>At the moment, the colleges I have listed are:
Loyola University Maryland
Emory University (reach)
Univ. of Minnesota Twin Cities
Rutgers new Brunswick
Stony Brook SUNY
U. of South Carolina
Cuny City College
Boston University
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Geneseo
CUNY Baruch</p>

<p>The major I am looking at is Business Management/International Business. Most likely going to go for international business. The college list is my first draft, still not sure which are better fits for me and affordable.</p>

<p>thanks for looking at my long post, hope I still have chances at going to an okay college...
will I also have to explain my 1 year break from school when applying?</p>

2

<p>It almost seems like for a National Merit Commended student with a 1370 you don’t have enough low reaches and maybe you don’t need so many safeties. Your grade point isn’t great but it’s not terrible. Loyola, Rutgers, South Carolina, CUNY and the SUNY schools all seem like safeties so maybe you would eliminate some and add in something else not quite a selective as Emory but close. What about NYU or George Washington? Maybe take a look at Bucknell (although it’s not urban!) Your college counselor will probably need to say something about the year off and put it in context somehow, but see what your school advises. Check carefully to see if you need SAT II’s for any possible schools. Maybe you could take Lit. or brush up on the math if necessary.</p>

3

<p>@hitch
I got the commended for getting a 206 on the PSAT last year before I stopped going to school. Ah… I thought the SUNY/CUNY would be at my level because Geneseo/Bing is like #1/2 SUNY’s in terms of competitiveness and CUNY Baruch’s school of business is decent.
NYU was actually my dream school… but I’ve heard from so many people that they don’t give good financial aid.</p>

<p>I’m not exactly sure if I’ll get much financial aid so I’m looking at cheap colleges atm.
My parents are the kind of people who have high pay but tons of loans to pay off.
Who knows though, because my mom quit her high pay job 2 years ago to help my dad with his new private vet clinic.</p>

<p>my situation is definitely confusing and complex, I have no idea how colleges would judge me in terms of admission and financial aid.</p>

<p>oh and if its the counselor taking care of the 1 year off thing I guess I am fine. I have a written statement from my guidance counselor at the school I left explaining why I missed a year of school. I’m also medically cleared for that year for depression.</p>

4

<p>Check the various threads on which schools are good for merit aid and find those with your score at the high end of their range. U. Pitt maybe? Colleges are pretty score oriented which could work to your advantage, so try out a wide range of options. Ursinus is supposed to be generous for higher scorers. Maybe Muhlenberg.</p>

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<p>ah i see. i didnt think much of merit commended. do they really give scholarships for commended? first time hearing the last 2 schools mentioned.</p>

<p>also if i wanna do business, nyu is not an option right? because stern is way too elite for me</p>

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<p>My parents are the kind of people who have high pay but tons of loans to pay off.
Who knows though, because my mom quit her high pay job 2 years ago to help my dad with his new private vet clinic.</p>

<p>You probably won’t qualify. Schools don’t care if you have high debt.</p>

<p>Are you at a boarding high school now?</p>

<p>*will I also have to explain my 1 year break from school when applying? *</p>

<p>I doubt many schools are going to want an explanation. Top schools would (Emory probably would…maybe BU and UMinn might), but probably not your other schools. Your other schools are largely going to admit you by stats…Period.</p>

<p>I don’t think you’re going to get merit from UPitt because of your GPA. Your M+CR is pretty good…1370…however, overall SAT…1960</p>

<p>Emory and BU are not going to be affordable unless your parents are willing to pay a big chunk.</p>

<p>If you’re OOS for Rutgers, that may not be affordable either.</p>

<p>You need to ask your parents how much they will pay per year. You need to know that. Your GPA is going to hurt you for merit at many schools. Plus, Dec 1st was the deadline for many school’s scholarships.</p>

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<p>There are VERY few schools that give merit scholarships for National Merit Commended. Very few.</p>

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<p>[RIT</a> - Programs of Study](<a href=“http://www.rit.edu/programs/program_detail.php?id=522]RIT”>http://www.rit.edu/programs/program_detail.php?id=522) </p>

<p>RIT has International Business, so does SUNY Brockport, SUNY New Paltz & SUNY Plattsburgh. (although these 3 SUNY’s aren’t located in cities) </p>

<p>Alfred University (NY) has a School of Business which Fiske Guide always commends, but no International Business program. Alfred, NY is rural location, but there is merit aid and it is in Princeton Review’s Best 373, Fiske Guide 2011, USNWR’s Great Schools Great Prices category. Rolling Admissions! </p>

<p>If your father is self-employed and runs his own business, many times FA offices will add back in certain expenses he has deducted: Vehicle expense, depreciation of assets & the like as the FA offices do not view these as real expenses. </p>

<p>If you are first to go to college in your family I suggest your parents buy “Paying for College Without Going Broke” Princeton Review, by Kalman Chany 2011 Edition. Calculate their EFC on the worksheets in the back of the book, know what you are up against!</p>

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<p>

So you are #1 in your class with a 3.48 GPA?</p>

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<p>Erin’s Dad: I think OP is mixing years… 3.48 is for fresh/soph, and Top 5% is only for his current school in Jr. Year.</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids
i’m aware colleges don’t care about debt, but will my mom’s income from 2 years ago be counted in when i apply to college? my household income in 2008 was about $120,000
now it’s much much lower. probably $80,000. will the $120,000 per year count even though its from 3 years ago? or will the $80,000 count?
and yeah i’m going to have to fix my SAT writing. I literally had no knowledge of grammar when I took the SAT the first time. When I came to this school I learned for the first time what a predicate is and how parallel wording and such works. I only chose answers based on how the passage/sentence sounded like. Pretty confident I can raise it to at least 640 since even the international students here get around there on writing.
I’m hoping that if next year I do get accepted BU/Emory they will give me some good financial aid… I know a girl who’s attending BC (definitely known for not giving alot of FA) right now and she got really good financial aid (only pays about $5-10,000 per year) even though her household income is around $100k. Her dad works at his own business and apparently he didn’t have to include alot in his tax report.
@SLUMOM
thanks for the college recommendations. I’m liking RIT and Alfred. Yes, my dad is self-employed. I thought it was better for self-employed people? My mom told me about several families who are self-employed with high income yet got really good FA because they didnt have to report some things in their tax report. Don’t know exactly, but yeah…
@Erin’s Dad
3.48 is from soph/fresh year
This year so far I’m 4.0 (i’m above 4.0 with weighting)
I put my projected ranking for this year because my old school didn’t have ranks.
So yes, I probably have the highest GPA in my Junior class, if not 2nd at the very least.
There’s only one other girl who has a GPA that rivals mine.</p>

<hr>

<p>I’ll have to check if im OOS for Rutgers. I probably am not so I’ll have to remove it later.
Adding UPitt, RIT, Alfred.</p>

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<p>dunno why i cant edit :confused:
rethinking about RIT. someone just told me its pretty expensive actually and that i might be screwed if i want to switch majors there because it’s a technology school.</p>

<p>also added GWU, American University</p>

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<p>my household income in 2008 was about $120,000
now it’s much much lower. probably $80,000. will the $120,000 per year count even though its from 3 years ago? or will the $80,000 count?</p>

<p>Since you’re a junior, the income that’s going to count is the income your parents earn in 2011.</p>

<p>I’ll have to check if im OOS for Rutgers. I probably am not so I’ll have to remove it later.</p>

<p>If you live in NY, then you’re OOS for Rutgers.</p>

<p>Because you’re a junior, there’s still too much uncertainty.</p>

<p>1) Don’t know what your best scores will be.</p>

<p>2) Don’t know what your parents will earn in 2011</p>

<p>3) Don’t know how much your parents can contribute.</p>

<p>BTW…since you’re only a junior, how can you possibly know that you’re NM Commended yet?</p>

<p>Have you gotten your junior year PSAT score???</p>

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<p>@mom2collegekids
yay. that means the ~$80,000 gets counted instead.
my mom currently gets little to no pay (only works on some projects for companies independently), my dad makes all the income at the moment.</p>

<p>ah okay. My family lives in New York, I am attending boarding school in New Jersey.</p>

<p>1) I’m fairly confident I got a good estimation for my best score on SAT. I expect it to be between 2000-2100 range. I’m not especially studying hard for it or anything, but I did improve alot on Writing and Math I definitely can get up to 800 but I just need to make sure I dont make stupid mistakes.
2)Should be a little bit more than this year.
3)Parents can contribute very little. I expect at the most 10k per year (for tuition). I mean if it does go to like 15k or so per year I can pull out some student loans or they might be able to get a loan with their good credit. But I’m definitely not looking to go to a school where it gets to around 20K or over.</p>

<p>I was a Junior for 3months at my old school before I quit school for the rest of the year.
During that time I took the PSAT and this year I got my commended letter. I guess I’ll have to explain that to the college as well…? Or will it not matter since they only will see ‘National Merit Commended’ and I’ll just send over the letter I received?</p>

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<p>Definitely check out Oxford College of Emory University: [Oxford</a> College - Home](<a href=“http://oxford.emory.edu/]Oxford”>http://oxford.emory.edu/)</p>

<p>It provides a more nurturing environment than Emory College, which will allow you to get yourself organized. After two years at Oxford, there is an automatic transfer to Emory College - which has a very good interdisciplinary international studies program. </p>

<p>Alternately, you can apply to transfer to the BBA program at Goizueta Business School. It is one of the top BBA programs in the country, and they focus on international stuff. Be warned that you will need to do well at Oxford if you want to make that jump.</p>

<p>(Emory Dad)</p>

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<p>Have you asked your GCs how your prior grades will play in your class rank? They might just insert your prior grades and where you end up in the class rank “is what it is”. You should ask about this because it would probably drop you quite a bit.</p>

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<p>@chazsf
thanks for the recommendation. is it easier to get into oxford than emory itself?
and are there options for transfer to another school?</p>

<p>@ erin’s dad
hm… my GC just said she’ll give me a rank once i get some grades in here.
so i’m assuming it’ll be based on my years here?
if its not i’ll have to argue… it’s not fair that i’d get ranked so low because of my grades at another school because it’s so much more competitive there than here.</p>

<p>for example, if a kid from a top 10 public school moved to a school in like the top 3000, even if he got straight B’s in the previous school, he’d get straight A’s possibly even near 100s at the new school. but his class rank would be mediocre due to his previous grades.
that would be pretty unfair.</p>

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<p>Would it be any more fair to other students for your past bad grades to be ignored? </p>

<p>One of the moms online is really high on Alfred University and it’s supposed to have good merit aid. [Alfred</a> University : Financial Aid : Undergraduate Freshmen Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.alfred.edu/finaid/freshmen/scholarships.cfm]Alfred”>http://www.alfred.edu/finaid/freshmen/scholarships.cfm) Check it out.</p>

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<p>@erin’s dad
I don’t see how it wouldn’t be unfair because I’m actually at a disadvantage.
I have to adjust to the school and all which is tough. In the beginning my first few grades were bad because all the teachers here teach so differently than public school teachers and the tests are all very different from what I’m used to. I even got a 65 on the first test in English cause I’ve actually never learned grammar at public school. 4th day here I had to take the grammar test where I didn’t even know half the terms on it. Refused to let me retake. Also, I can’t qualify for valedictorian/salutatorian my senior year because it’s required you have attended the school for 2 years or have taken 75% or more of your classes at the school. The school should at least give me a rank based on my years here or no rank at all.
To put it in another perspective, if a kid from an easy school transferred for his senior year to say, Stuyvesant in New York (a top 10 highschool in the nation) and his past grades were included in the ranking, that would be completely unfair.
If my school says they’ll include my old school grades in the ranking, rather than argue for excluding the old grades, I would argue for a ‘no rank’ like my old school.</p>

<p>Yeah, Alfred seems nice. You are the 2nd person to recommend it and I think I’ll apply there next year.</p>