What schools are realistic?

Chance Me / Match Me!
,
1

I’m a high school Junior looking to form a realistic list of reach, safeties, and target schools. It’s important to me that schools have small class sizes and a solid on-campus community, as well as a good study abroad program. The size of the actual school doesn’t matter, nor does location. In fact, I’d be interested in international universities. I’m interested in International Relations, or possibly education. Test optional is a plus because of limited opportunity to test because of COVID (and a poor first try.) Need blind would also be amazing. Equestrian team is a plus, but by no means necessary.

Stats:

-White Female in NY

-1220, 690 reading, 530 math, first try no studying on the SAT, planning on retaking asap.

-89.3 unweighted GPA, 90.6 weighted

-Grades are impacted by changing schools, as well as less cushioning due to Sophomore year abroad. Skipped Chem and Geometry as well due to Sophomore year abroad.

-currently enrolled: AP Physics, APUSH, SUPA (SU dual enrollment) creative non-fiction writing, honors essay writing (no AP option), Algebra II Regents (took honors first semester, transferred schools and decided that transferring into an honors math halfway into the year wasn’t the best option for me)

-planning to take AP Bio, AP Lit, SUPA econ, and SUPA government next year

-mostly humanities-based electives (theatre, anthropology, creative writing, etc)

ECs:

-Full scholarship to study abroad the entirety of Sophmore year through the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) which is bilaterally funded by the US and German governments) Met with diplomats and government officials in both the US and Germany.

-Fall Semester Junior Year was spent as a US Senate Page, worked 40-60 hours a week in the Senate in addition to maintaining rigorous honors-level course work.

-Been riding horses since Elementary school, typically 3-5 days a week as well as helping out around the barn in exchange for riding time.

-School clubs like yearbook, Model UN, community-wide dialogue. Nothing super amazing, though.

Thanks for any advice!!

2

A few schools in your home state may fit the bill. Hobart William Smith is not need blind, but you may be eligible for merit, especially if you can increase your test score. St. Lawrence is another good option, need blind but great merit as well. I would consider both to be matches. Skidmore for a possible reach, mostly need blind.

3

Thanks so much for your reply! Definitely options to consider, Skidmore is certainly interesting. Any suggestions outside NYS?

4

Maybe Conn (reach) Fairfield (safety) Goucher (safety)?

5

Dickinson College in Carlisle PA is test optional and has a strong global/international focus and would look very favorably on your year abroad. Your ERW score would be fine if you can get your math SAT score up a bit (I think the 25% mark for math is around 590). Lots of virtual sessions for Dickinson this week/month so you might want to look into it. Haven’t hear anything about an equestrian team there though. LafAyette College has an equestrian team but would be a bit of a reach. Good luck!

Oh…want to add that I’d strongly suggest that you take geometry senior year. I think a lot of schools would see that as a big red flag if you don’t cover geometry in high school.

6

I’ve been looking at Dickinson, it does have club equestrian! And an awesome study abroad program. I definitely understand the concern about Geometry, it would just be challenging to fit that in without dropping PreCalc for next year. I’ll see what I can do, possibly a summer class? Thanks so much for your advice!

7

Just FYI, there are about 400 schools with a competitive equestrian club team. Not all are easily found on the school websites, but google is your friend. When my daughter who rides was as looking at schools, I was surprised at how many had a team.

8

Skip the abroad stuff , go straight to Canada, either McGill or UT are both great schools, no idea about horses, maybe U of Vancouver?

9

If you’d consider a women’s college, how about Mount Holyoke?

10

I’d consider Canadian schools, but aren’t schools like McGill and UT extremely tough to get into? Not to mention the potential for very, very large classes. I’d be interested, but I’m not sure how realistic it could be.

11

I’d consider a women’s college, I’ll absolutely check it out! Thanks for the input.

12

“I’d consider Canadian schools, but aren’t schools like McGill and UT extremely tough to get into?”

McGill and the University of Toronto admit largely based on stats, particularly GPA. If your SAT is well over 1400 and your GPA is high, then you are in. One daughter applied to McGill with two B’s in her first three years of high school. We thought of it as a safety. When I was in high school many years ago it actually was my only safety. If you do not have the stats, then you do not get in.

Toronto is a very large university. The ratio between the number of incoming freshmen and the total population of the country that it is in makes it easier to get accepted to compared to similarly ranked US schools.

McGill and Toronto are right in the middle of the two largest cities in Canada. Of course Montreal being bilingual makes the experience at McGill a bit unique. UBC is right on the western edge of Vancouver, surrounded by water on three sides and Vancouver on the other side, but sort of in a forest on a very large campus that was somehow granted to UBC a very long time ago. It also has a small farm on campus as well as a forest. I do not remember seeing any horses however.

There are quite a few other good universities in Canada. The famous ones get most of the international attention, but there are others that are quite good. Most Canadian universities are relatively large, but there is a small number of very good small universities. The small schools that we looked at are in the east (Quebec and the maritimes) and all are test optional except for one which does not consider SAT or ACT scores at all. The larger universities in Canada in normal years require the SAT or ACT for all American applicants (and for Canadians applying from US high schools), but I do not know whether they will change this due to the coronavirus pandemic.

13

Thanks for the information! I’ll look into some of the smaller schools because I don’t have particularly strong stats.

14

Bard seems like a realistic target; and in addition to their main campus, they have a campus in Berlin. It’s an option to apply directly to the German campus (total costs are in the low 30’s in USD, and they have scholarships specifically for students who have studied abroad in HS http://tools.bard.edu/wwwmedia/files/9881405/4/High%20School%20Exchange%20Scholarship.pdf ) and you’d have the option to spend a year at the main campus in NY. Their econ, politics & social thought major (which grants both a German and a US BA degree) is appropriate for students wanting to pursue IR careers. https://berlin.bard.edu/academics/economics-politics-and-social-thought/

15

Thanks for the information! I’ve been looking at Bard, but I didn’t know about the Bard Berlin scholarship. My only concern with Bard Berlin is the very limited options for majors, which could end up being tough if I change my mind. The “social thought” also feels a little too far on the liberal arts swing, but that’s just first impressions. I think it would be interesting to study, but employability worries me.

16

You could look at Rutgers, Douglas College for women, and they have horses as well.