Calc AB (5, A,B), Calc BC (B, A), Chemistry (3, B,B), Human Geo (A,A), Psychology (A,A), Compsci Principles, Statistics, Environmental Science.
Honors courses:
Honors English (freshman, unweighted, B,B)
Honors American Lit (junior, weighted, B+,A)
Linked honors courses for AP Chem and AP Calc (Honors Chem (B), Honors Pre-Calc (A))
Foreign language: 3 years
Awards
Several athletic awards but nothing outside of honor roll in terms of academics
Extracurriculars (Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
4 years of varsity XC/Track, team captain. Several athletic awards. Recruited athletes from middle schools and youth track clubs within my school’s zone.
Leadership roles in volunteering organization
Photography/Hiking website, about 1.5-2k views per month
Will likely work over this summer. Probably as either a tutor or a lifeguard.
Also won a triathlon my entire high school class (450 people) participated in if that’s worth mentioning.
Essays/LORs/Other
No extenuating circumstances - I feel like I’ve lead a pretty normal life so far. I’ll guess my essays will be 5/10.
Cost Constraints / Budget
Parents will pay 20k a year, more if the college is a really good match. A job and loans will cover the rest.
Schools
I’d love to go to a school pretty close to the mountains. Besides the academic and cost factors that’s the only thing I truly care about.
Safety (certain admission and affordability)
CSULB
Cal Poly Pomona
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
Utah is an obvious option, much better than anywhere in CA for mountains. It’s a safety for admissions and not too expensive with WUE, overall cost is slightly cheaper than the more expensive UCs.
If you are looking for a metro area near mountains, UNR and Boise State will fit the bill. NAU and CO State also get a lot of CA students.
If you want more of a resort/college town Ft Lewis College in Durango Colorado is a must visit - 3500 students, beautiful campus with 360 degree views, small GE classes, easy access to professors - a private school experience on a public school budget. My son LOVES it there.
These are for the whole campus. Different divisions or majors may have different levels selectivity (usually, engineering and computer science majors are more selective).
I second Utah - my kid got a merit-based package that brought her costs down to 19K per year plus admission into the honors program. WIth the regular WUE (Western Undergraduate Exchange) discount, it would probably be affordable with taking the federal student loan.
Other affordable options near mountains are UNM (with your stats, you’d be eligible for in-state tuition with total cost of about 19-20K; there is also a highly competitive regents award that is a full ride), NAU (Northern Arizona, safety, high merit likely), Western Washington (safety/low match; with WUE discount, cost would probably be mid-high 20s/year), U of Arizona (mountains are a bit of a drive, but not too bad, good merit/honors program).
You may want to take your excellent ACT score merit shopping. You would get automatic merit and full tuition/close to full tuition at Bama, Ole Miss, etc. No mountains but also no mountains with most of your CA schools on your list either.
Agree with Utah being a good option with WUE for your mountain criteria.
Think you have your safety/match/reach assessment accurate.
Do you have need - vs. parents will pay. If you have “demonstated need”, U Denver and CU Boulder. Arizona. Colorado State u of Arkansas you’d do well and it’s mountainy. U of Montana or Montansa State. Wyoming
If your parents will pay $20,000 a year…and you don’t qualify for significant need based aid or merit aid, you may find that OOS schools whether public or private will be unaffordable.