What schools should I be looking at?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>About me:</p>

<p>Special stuff -
1st Generation College Student
Hispanic
Male
Low income family (if that's an advantage or makes a difference - only got my mom, father's deceased, $20,000 < /yr) so I'm kinda poor, I don't even know how I'd pay for college apps., waivers for the win!
From a no name town near Houston, TX (grew up in Honduras though so that'd make for an interesting essay?)
Fully bilingual (Studying french so hopefully that becomes trilingual soon :D)
Started school a year early so that cut down on my EC's seeing as how I won't be driving till I'm a senior and my mom works all the time so I have no way of being uber active in extracurricular activities</p>

<p>Stats-
Class rank - 4/720, may be 3 next year, but I know I won't be going down
GPA - 3.7+
SAT I - 2040 (650 CR, 690 M, 700 W), this is gonna be a retake come October! Hopefully gonna be at 2150+ by then :)
SAT IIs - 710 Chem (May retake in November), 750 Spanish, 710 Math II (Retaking this in November, I didn't study much so yea, my bad there)
Courseload - The most rigorous offered during 9th and 10th grade but most people all had the usual schedule for that so..</p>

<p>11th grade:
AP English Lang/Comp (4 on AP test)
AP Chemistry (4 on AP test)
AP U.S. History (5 on AP test)
Pre-AP French III
Pre-AP Precal.
Pre-AP Physics
Soccer</p>

<p>12th grade schedule looks to be like this -
AP Statistics
AP Government/Macroeconomics
AP Calculus A.B. (My stupid school doesn't offer B.C. -_-)
AP Physics II
AP French IV
AP English Lit
Soccer</p>

<p>I don't think it gets more rigorous than that at my school lol :D</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Soccer 9-12th grade (Eats pretty much all my time, for most of the year I go to practice 2+ hours every afternoon, every day.. except on game days where it's so much more :D)
NHS 11-12th
French Club 10-12th
Leo Club Treasurer 11-12th
Helped a town park cleanup during spring '07
Going to help organize rock for the cure come this November (Lots of local bands come play and we raise money for hospitals) and stuff
I have a lovely summer job at a local grocery/hardware/feed store... yep, pretty southern</p>

<p>Anyways I know that you guys will say that my EC's are lacking and in comparison to everyone else... they most certainly are, but if you'd read earlier I'm not in the position to be able to be very involved considering my mom is working pretty much all day every day and I have a younger brother to watch out for and no car until senior year.. wee poorness. But whatever, I do what I can, even if it doesn't compare to you awesome over achievers :(</p>

<p>I kinda have high hopes but I truly -don't- know how I fare against other people, but as for right now my college list looks like this:</p>

<p>University of Pennsylvania (Top choice by far, really leaning towards applying ED for College since I'd get shot down bad at Wharton =P)
Rice
Northwestern
U. Chicago
NYU
U. Michigan
Stanford (Longshot!)
Duke (Longshot!)
Some other Ivies
Well, they're all longshots
...</p>

<p>I would love to apply to like... all top colleges but I don't have much self-confidence cause I look at everyone else's stats and accomplishments and compare them to me and yea, I leave lots to be desired.</p>

<p>I'd really appreciate if anyone could tell me if I do have a chance anywhere at these top schools and those who could possibly give me advice to what other ones I should apply to, the only criteria I have is that hopefully it's at/near a big city but that's not very important. What IS important though is that financially I'm taken care of because there is no way I'll ever afford college... ever.</p>

<p>Thanks for future help guys!</p>

2

<p>Friendly bump</p>

3

<p>Because you're first generation and low income I'd say that you've got a decent shot at UPenn ED (and you're right, CAS will take you where Wharton would reject you).</p>

<p>Make sure that you write good essays and get great recommendations.</p>

<p>That said, Stanford isn't going to happen. And I wouldn't waste too much energy applying to Ivies just to apply, if you don't get into UPenn early (ie they defer or reject you) you should probably forgo apply to others.</p>

<p>Rice is your only 'match' school. And even Michigan isn't a lock because a big state school like that doesn't take as much time to consider first generation/low income status, private schools are more interested in recruiting 'development' cases like you.</p>

<p>Add safeties! State Us and smaller schools that will give you AMAZING merit aid. Also: Look into QuestBridge, they're a scholarship program for low income students that works with colleges to make sure that your costs are as minimal as possible.</p>

<p>Best wishes!</p>

4

<p>Hispanic and awesome stats?</p>

<p>I'd say accepted everywhere except Stanford.</p>

5

<p>Family income under 20K is definetely a low income. Looking at your school list about 95% are private, I would look more into public schools in your home state, how to pay for college should be one of your main concern. Save your application fees to NYU or Northwestern, even if you get in how to pay for them is a huge problem.</p>

6

<p>But don't many of the private schools take care of you if you're low income?</p>

<p>And well my safety school is UT Austin, top 10% in Texas get in sorta automatically so I'm not worried about safeties, plus the business program is decent so I'd try to get into that.</p>

7

<p>Most private schools (ie the Ivies) have programs where you automatically get full tuition (although i'm not sure if this does not include loans) if your family income is under a certain amount.</p>

<p>$20,000 a year is low.</p>

<p>For example, at Columbia any student who is part of a four person family that makes less than $27,000 a year is automatically eligible for full tuition and a special academic counseling/advising program.</p>

8

<p>Some of the privates now have the "no loans" programs. Davidson comes to mind, and there are others. You're in for sure at the 2nd tier. Just don't forget travel expenses... it can cost lots of money to get from Philadelphia to Texas twice or more a year.</p>

9

<p>20k a year...wow
Your scores are quite poor, but 20k puts it into context I guess.
Don't apply to UMICH or NYU.
They nail OOS on tuition.
The rest, I believe are need blind, and should offer you full tuition.
Check into it though. UT as a safety? state schools are fairly expensive, look into more need-blind schools.</p>

10

<p>Apply to cornell, they have pretty high acceptance (around 30%), and you should be able to get a full ride considering your income</p>

11

<p>Yea the scores are low but I kinda had it coming lol, I didn't study much before the tests and tomorrow I'm gonna pick up some prep books and crack down on it, I'm bound to do better come fall on my SAT I / SAT II... honestly I'm more worried about EC's though</p>

<p>And yea that's why I'm reluctant to apply to a state school, they're massive and I doubt I could get enough loans/scholarships for it to even be fathomable.</p>

<p>And to put it more into context it's like less than $15,000 a year for my mum, she gets paid 7 bucks an hour at Wal-Mart, and even if she worked every day of the week year-round we make less than 15 thousand. Actually our family friend helps us with bills and stuff, life sucks =/</p>

<p>If I get my Math II to 790-800 and SAT I to 2150+, what could my chances be then , and what other top schools could I look may be down my alley?</p>

12

<p>^ if you got a 2150+, you'd be in almost everywhere, considering the fact that you are low income, and an URM. I know that some of the ivies ( like harvard), give free rides to accpeted students w/ less than 60K (or 50k, i forget) a year.</p>

13

<p>I'm sorry, but I don't buy the "I'm poor so my test scores suck" excuse. All I did to "study" for my SATs was do the three practice exams in my $25 Princeton Review book. That's really all the practice anyone of reasonable intelligence needs. </p>

<p>That said, you have good chances everywhere because of all your other factors. But I would be hesitant to advise you to go to schools in big cities...with such a low family income, you won't get to take full advantage of cultural offerings because frankly, you won't be able to go out much. Here in Philly, a cab downtown is going to be at least $7 (and closer to $10 if it's near rush hour).</p>

14

<p>I never said my test scores suck cause I'm poor, they're poor because I NEGLECTED to study for them as much as I should have, so either you don't read well enough or I didn't make myself clear, in which case my apologies for the confusion. I have the materials I need, education is tops at my family so if it's for school it'll be available to me.</p>

<p>And I know I won't be able to experience everything but still, I've lived in this loser town for too long and since I plan on working in college, a night out every once in a while wouldn't be too bad :D</p>

15

<p>Would I stand a chance at Johns Hopkins/Vanderbilt?</p>

<p>If someone could suggest some Colleges for me I'd really appreciate it... I guess if possible assume me having 2150 ish SAT I and 800 Math II, cause that's what I'm planning on getting!</p>

16

<p>I think that you should apply to all the schools you listed..... if you believe that you can get in and you really want to go there, then you should at least apply....My family income is around the same as yours and I believe with your stats you could get a full scholarship at most schools without loans.... I say this because my 1st older sister had similar stats as yours except her mentor program that she started ate up most of her time and she got into all her schools that she applied to.... Rice...Duke....John Hopkins...Dartmouth....Vanderbilt... and Ut and UH...... just make sure that you make your essays shine and believe in yourself..</p>

17

<p>full scholarship = need based except for NYU cause they are stickliers for out of state</p>

18

<p>The only one I REALLY want to go to is Penn, that's why I wanna apply ED, financially I'd be taken care of, loans or not!</p>

<p>Pending my ED results from Penn @ CAS, I'd apply to all of those and more, but I need to get my test scores up, hopefully one will take me, right?</p>

19

<p>Apprehensive bump :(</p>

20

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Good luck in your college hunt, apply to any school you are interested in...you never know!</p>