What would be reach, safety and match schools for me?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>First generation American, Hispanic, Jewish, Bilingual (Spanish and English)</p>

<p>I attend a public high school in the DC Metro area (Northern Virginia)</p>

<p>SAT I: CR790, M710, W690 (2200 combined, retaking in 2 months to bring up scores)</p>

<p>PSAT: 221 (80/71/70)</p>

<p>Will be taking the SAT IIs in Chemistry and Math II in about a month</p>

<p>A note about my school's weighting policy: My school typical grades on a 4.0 scale, with a quality point given only for AP classes, not intensifieds</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 3.97</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.67</p>

<p>Freshman courses: Algebra II Int, English Int, World History Int, Bio Int, Spanish IV, Theatre I, Pe/Health I</p>

<p>Sophomore courses: English, Precalculus, Chemistry, Theatre II, AP Economics, AP Spanish Language, PeHealth/ II</p>

<p>Junior courses: AP Calculus BC, Physics, US History, AP English 11, AP Chemistry (2 periods), Theatre III</p>

<p>Courses for next year (Senior Year): Multivariable Calculus, AP Spanish Literature, AP English Literature, AP Psychology, AP US Government/AP Comparative Government and Politics</p>

<p>AP Scores: 4 in Macroeconomics, 5 in Microeconomics, 5 in Spanish Language</p>

<pre><code> I have taken mock exams in my AP classes this year and have scored 5s each time, so that should be fine
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<p>Extracurriculars: Tae Kwon Do (5yrs), testing for my black belt in November</p>

<pre><code> Adaptive Tae Kwon Do (4.5yrs) Recreational therapy for students with Pervasive Developmental Disorders or PDDs such as Autism, Aspergers, Downs, Cerebral Palsy, ADHD, Sensory Processing Disorder, Brain Damage/Tumors, and other less common disorders

                 Theatre (3yrs) Have either acted in or been tech in every show at my high school for the past 3 years, am a member of Thespian Honor Society for having spent 100+ hours working on shows

                 National Honor Society (2yrs)

                 28th St. Improv (3yrs) Student run/managed improv troupe

                 Students Against Sexual Violence (2yrs) Currently writing a curriculum soon to be implemented school and possibly countywide that teaches freshmen about consent and sexual assault of all kinds

                 Gay-Straight Alliance (1yr) President, founder at my school;

</code></pre>

<p>Summer activites: Volunteered at summer camp for the past three years, this year will be taking advanced classes in Spanish at local community college in the mornings and interning with a local law firm specializing in various social justice causes</p>

<p>Employment: 4 years total as student teacher (Volunteer 2 yrs, Paid position 2 yrs)</p>

<p>Volunteering: Aforementioned special ed Tae Kwon Do program, approximately 210 hours/year for the past 4.5 years</p>

<p>I want to double major in Spanish and either Politics, Pre-Law, or Women's Studies in college and then go on to law school.</p>

<p>My life drive/goal is to make politics and aid (feminism, LGBTQA rights, and disability services in particular) more accessible to lower income populations, especially where English is typically a second language.</p>

<p>I have been told that in an interview setting, I tend to come off as passionate and eloquent, if that helps at all.</p>

<p>What schools would you guys suggest as reach, match, and safety, given my information and goals?</p>

2

<p>Preferably in the northeast, around Boston in particular</p>

3

<p>I might be naive, but I’d guess you’d have your choice of any school. I wonder what would be your academic and financial “safety.” Otherwise, I’d guess the sky’s the limit. How’d you get to be so awesome?!</p>

4

<p>Harvard is a long-shot for everyone, but I’d say you have a shot, and should try. Wellesley is all-women, but has a strong feminist tradition. Tufts and Brandeis are solid matches for you, and have progressive traditions. Brown would probably be a pretty good fit for you. Add BU as a safety. If you are seeking a lot of financial aid, you might need to add some more safe and match schools. Otherwise, I think you have a good starting selection. </p>

5

<p>Here’s a few:</p>

<p>Harvard: High, high reach.</p>

<p>Georgetown: Reach.</p>

<p>Tufts: Low reach.</p>

<p>Brandeis: High Match.</p>

<p>BC: Match/High Match.</p>

<p>NYU: Match.</p>

<p>BU: Match/Low Match.</p>

<p>Umass-Amherst: Safety. </p>

<p>Let me know if you’re also interested in LACs. These are all universities. I think that given your profile, some LACs sound really good for you given the interdisciplinary nature of what many of them offer.</p>

6

<p>Liberal arts colleges would also be great, but hopefully nothing too distant. I visited/interviewed at Wellesley earlier this week and the size/location of campus gave me an impression of pervasive loneliness. </p>

<p>Where would Wesleyan University figure into this list? </p>

<p>And how could I improve my chances for Harvard, Yale, and Brown (besides improving my grades, I am doing my best to bring them up a bit but am looking to finish this year with 4 As, 1 B+, and 2 Bs, and next year’s grades are sure to help)?</p>

7

<p>Wesleyan would be a potential match for you. Numerous Boston based schools have already been discussed. I would also suggest Swarthmore, just outside of Philadelphia, as a place that would match your interests, it would be a reach/low reach school. You also might want to look at Amherst, it’s in a very active area with the 5 college consortium including Smith & Mount Holyoke. As for improving your chances at H,Y & B; keep your grades up, keep doing what you love, ask nicely for recommendations and take time writing your essays to really show who you are & why you care. One area that also impacts your chances, which you did not mention, is your class rank. </p>

8

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<p>Law school is expensive. You are going to want to minimize your undergraduate debt if this is your goal. Not sure what the NMF PSAT cutoff was last year in Virginia, but you may be NMF. Which gives you some very good scholarship opportunities at places like University of Alabama. Work with your parents to run the net price calculators for the schools on your list to make sure they seem affordable. But don’t be scared off from some reach schools, a lot of them meet need and give generous aid.</p>

<p>A safety might be Dickinson or Mount Holyoke, both of which give a fair amount of merit aid if you are full pay.</p>

9

<p>Please read <a href=“Before you ask which colleges to apply to, please consider - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1621234-before-you-ask-which-colleges-to-apply-to-please-consider.html&lt;/a&gt; , particularly point 1. Your safeties must be certainly affordable, as well as schools that you will certainly be admitted to. Match schools must be probably affordable at least, while reach schools must have at least some chance of affordability.</p>

<p>If you need merit scholarships because net price calculators indicate that need-based financial aid at various schools will not be enough, take a look at these lists:
<a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (safety candidates)
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #50 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (match/reach candidates)
<a href=“NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>NMF Scholarships: An Updated Compilation - #833 by BobWallace - National Merit Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; (if National Merit)</p>

<p>Law school does not require any particular undergraduate major. Here is a list of how students of various undergraduate majors did on the LSAT: <a href=“http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Phil/upload/LSAT-Scores-of-Majors.pdf”>http://www.potsdam.edu/academics/AAS/Phil/upload/LSAT-Scores-of-Majors.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

10

<p>At liberal arts colleges, you can do an interview. While this won’t provide a huge bump to your application, if you really impress them it will be a small plus. It’s definitely worth doing for a college you really want to get into. </p>

11

<p>Before you go haring off to a bunch of schools look at the Common Data Set for schools you are interested in to see if interviews are even considered.</p>

12

<p>Based on your interests, I wouldn’t limit by region yet - rather, I’d look at all the women’s colleges and try to figure out the best fit on a spectrum from Wellesley to Smith, plus Scripps. I’d include Agnes Scott College, too, as a good safety. American would be a good match, as would NYU. Wesleyan, Macalester, Middlebury.
Run the Net Price Calculators on all websites and bring the results to your parents to see what their budget would be.</p>

13

<p>Schools that have a known tradition of social justice also seem like they’d be a great fit for you. Look at schools like Oberlin, Pitzer, Sarah Lawrence, and Grinnell, which are all strong academic schools which offer social justice opportunities. I know that Sarah Lawrence and Grinnell both have strong faculty in Spanish and Politics, though I’m not sure about the other two. </p>

14

<p>Sarah Lawrence only has seven total Spanish courses, plus a few related courses in other departments, on offer:
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/humanities/languages-and-literatures/spanish/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/humanities/languages-and-literatures/spanish/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It offers eleven politics courses:
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/history-and-the-social-sciences/politics/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/history-and-the-social-sciences/politics/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Strengths appear to be in other areas:
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/dance/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/dance/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/music/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/music/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/theatre/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/theatre/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/writing/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/writing/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/visual-arts/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/creative-and-performing-arts/visual-arts/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/history-and-the-social-sciences/history/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/history-and-the-social-sciences/history/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/history-and-the-social-sciences/psychology/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/history-and-the-social-sciences/psychology/&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/humanities/literature/”>http://www.slc.edu/catalogue/humanities/literature/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>The small number of courses is due to the nature of conference projects - since professors meet with students every other week (or even more), their teaching load tends to be far less. And a number of courses are year-long.</p>

<p>If you look at the actual faculty pages, most of the teachers come from top grad schools in their respective programs. 3 of the politics faculty formerly taught at Harvard. </p>

16

<p>My school does not offer a class rank; I am in a class of slightly over 500, in the top 10% (this is the most detail they offered).</p>

<p>In order to pay for law school, I plan to use a loan repayment plan through the federal government (4-5 years as a public defender and they will pay for law school).</p>

<p>In terms of undergrad, unless I get into an out of state school that is either a. highly ranked or b. feeds into a top law program, my parents say I need to stay in state. However, VCU is the only school in a city, and literally 20-30 people from my high school attend UVA, VT, and W&M each, making them unusually competitive (people have gotten into the ivy leagues but not UVA not infrequently). Ideas for mid-range schools?</p>

17

<p>I’ve started looking at Mt. Holyoke as a safety for precisely that reason, and Middlebury for its amazing languages.</p>

18

<p>Keep in mind that undergrad institution has very little influence upon law school admissions - the schools that do ‘feed’ into top law schools generally do so because of the high caliber of their student body (which means higher GPA’s and test scores). </p>

<p>What exactly qualifies as ‘highly ranked’ in the eyes of your parents? Top 25? Top 50? Top 100?</p>

19

<p>I think you are a pretty solid candidate for UVA and William and Mary - those are the two state schools that come to mind as a good match for you after reading your profile. You might also look at U of Richmond, as a private you could be eligible for merit aid. Since instate is preferred by your parents, you would need to look at out of state privates where you would have a shot at merit aid that will get the private costs down to near what public costs would be for you. </p>