Which colleges should I aim for? 3.5 GPA, top 15%, 1500+ SAT

Chance Me / Match Me!
141

At this point, OP, you need to sort out the soccer piece first. You have months to figure out which colleges you might be interested in without soccer. You have a much shorter window to figure out soccer recruiting.

Once your academic qualifications reach a certain level – and it sounds like yours are there – then they become almost irrelevant: then it’s the soccer piece that determines whether or not you will be admitted (to a highly selective school)

Since you haven’t shared what your level is, my advice would be to focus on d3 schools with big endowments. If you are a low level d1 player, you’ll likely be an impact player there. Which means a top recruit, which means admission. I would not worry too much about the finer points. Cast your net wide and see what your options are.

Off the top of my head, I would suggest Williams, Amherst, Tufts, Bowdoin, Washington & Lee, U Chicago, Vassar. (I’m trying to list schools with large endowments/good financial aid where I am a little familiar with soccer recruiting. Emory isn’t listed because although they have a lot of resources, they don’t recruit much outside of the South, let alone internationally).

2 Likes
142

I think most (all) of those schools you listed are a high reach

143

I know a soccer player who got into Williams with a 3.4 gpa (several years ago). I certainly cannot assess German credentials, but people on this thread seem to think they are strong. If his stats are remotely acceptable to the schools, if the coach really, really wants him, he’s in.

1 Like
144

Why is everyone going on and on about soccer? I scrolled back through this thread and didn’t find one post where the OP said they wanted to play soccer in college. In fact there are several posts where the OP asks about a school without soccer.

I understand that bring a soccer recruit can open up additional schools, but it seems there are a lot of posters trying to make the OP into something that he has expressed no desire for. All OP said was that he played soccer and then in response to questions said that he played on a high level team. OP didn’t say he wanted to play in college and has ignored most of the direct questions about soccer. Unless I missed something, I think the OP isn’t really interested in being a college soccer player.

145

Yes you missed something😅 I said my plan A is to play college soccer, that is my dream especially at a good university. My plan B is to study in the US without soccer. And plan C study in Europe. I was asking in this forum about plan A and B

2 Likes
146

Sorry. I guess I did miss that. Never mind

147

A lot of the full-need-met DIII schools have very traditional liberal arts curricula where you will not find majors like business; however, plenty of students from schools like Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Vassar, etc. still end up with business careers. More full-need-met options in this category: Connecticut College, Hamilton, Skidmore, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Colby, Bowdoin, Bates, Swarthmore, Haverford, Carleton, St. Olaf, Macalester, Colorado College, Kenyon, Grinnell, Washington & Lee, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Pitzer, Occidental.

At the other end of the spectrum (but still DIII and meeting full need), consider Babson, which is a unique and top-tier school with a business/entrepreneurship focus. They don’t have traditional “majors,” but rather a core curriculum plus a wide variety of “concentrations” which are more like minors. It’s a one-of-a-kind school - worth a look to see if it appeals.

Then there are the mid-sized DIII universities: UChicago, Tufts, URochester, CWRU, Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Emory, WashU in St Louis… and then there’s NYU, which is larger and probably has some of the attributes you like about USC (minus the California weather, but then again NYU Stern is a bigger name for undergrad business than USC Marshall) but is DIII for sports unlike USC.

And lastly there’s Claremont McKenna which might really hit the sweet spot for you. It’s a tippy-top school for poli sci, econ, and IR, with a strong business/pre-professional bent. Small, but part of a consortium with 7000 undergrads and seamless cross-registration. (Two athletic programs: Pomona/Pitzer and CMC/Mudd/Scripps) Full need met aid, great weather, and the top men’s DIII soccer team in its region. The other DIII full-need-met LAC that has a bit of the same kind of pre-professional leaning with strong Global Commerce and Politics & Public Affairs majors is Denison in Ohio - could be worth a look as well.

One question is whether you’re willing to join a lower-ranked DIII team at a school that is top-tier academically. Some schools obviously wouldn’t require that compromise (Tufts, Amherst, CMC, Swarthmore, UChicago for example) but others are stronger academically than athletically and might really want you as a player. For example, NYU and Carnegie Mellon both have T10 undergrad business programs and DIII soccer teams, but they’re not at the top of their leagues athletically. (Whether this means they’d want you more, or whether they’re not powerhouse teams because they don’t recruit as hard, is for people who know athletic recruiting better than I to say!)

1 Like
148

Thank you very much for the post. This will help👍

149

A complicating issue is that you MUST apply to a “meet need” school, ie., not NYU, AU, or CMU.

Your strategy, if you are recruitable - and you’ll know that quickly*- is two-fold
1° D3 soccer at meet need schools
2° merit based scholarships at universities such as Miami-Ohio, UArizona, UAlabama, Temple, CNU… that have decent merit for your stats.

*: if you have the YT channel and highlights videos, time to look up the name and email of the coach AND assistant coach for men’s soccer at all the NESCAC, CMC&Pitzer, Denison, Dickinson, Davidson – colleges have been listed above.

Dear Coach X, Dear Coach Z, (starting with the Head Coach, 2nd the assistant coach)
My name is … … and I am a rising senior from Germany (US citizen) with a ~3.6unweighted/4.45 weighted GPA in Gymnasium (German prep schools for top 40% academically). I am also a (midfielder, winger, goalie…) for … U18 Team, ranked # … in the national championship, with … national titles to date.
I am interested in attending … College and in playing for your team. I attached a “highlights” video and my Youtube channel is … My coach is … …, email …
Would my level of play and position be of interest to you?
I am at your disposal for further information.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
… …

If your level is of interest, you’ll hear back (positively) by the end of June. If you haven’t heard back by then, time to reassess that strategy and the level you’re aiming for.

6 Likes
150

Hmm, I was thinking NYU met need for low-income students but I guess they don’t necessarily. (I knew they were terrible $-wise for “donut hole” families but thought it was better with high need. Guess not, sorry.)

CMU meets need for 97% - very close, but still… with athletic recruiting requiring an early commitment, it wouldn’t be smart to go out on a limb with any school that can’t guarantee a full-need-met aid package.

Lots of good full-need-met options though, some of which would even give no-loan packages.

151

My bad, I forgot that OP is a US citizen, which changes things for CMU. They’re need aware but meet need (95+% meet need is “meet need” in my book since only borderline students don’t see their need met, however CMU are need aware and not very generous so OP would need to run the NPC to see if they’d qualify for enough and then they should keep in mind that their EFC is likely to keep them out due to CMU’s relatively low endowment compared to other colleges.)
Run the NPC on NYU, clicking on “income 30-39k” and you should find they expect that family to pay 26k a year… the exception is HEOP students since part of their fees are paid by NYSED, especially NYC HEOP students who commute.

OP can also look into Case Western (D3) and Northeastern (D1 Atlantic conference but non traditional college due to the co-op system).
If you like the co-op system, apply to UCincinnati and its Honors College before Dec 1. Pioneer of co-op education. Offers highly selective "honors within honors’ programs to boot (but your 1.8/1500 would qualify you).

152

Maybe athletic recruitment would cancel out the low-EFC disadvantage? Big question is, as you say, whether NPC results are favorable enough in the first place. If they are, then CMU is the one full-need-met DIII university with a highly-ranked quant-heavy undergrad business program - peer to UVA and Chapel Hill - if that’s something OP wants. OTOH, if he wants more of a pure-academic poli sci, econ, or PPE* type program, there are probably better options than CMU.

OP, there are a number of schools that offer “PPE” - Philosophy, Politics, and Economics - as an interdisciplinary major, often a seminar-style honors program, modeled after Oxford. CMC has this: Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) - Claremont McKenna College - Acalog ACMS™ as do Pomona Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program | Pomona College in Claremont, California - Pomona College and Denison Philosophy, Politics & Economics | Denison University Denison also has a particularly strong semester-in-DC program.

153

That’s why I asked about the “Advanced courses” (sort of like Advanced Highers, or pre-major, or major pre-reqs) - and they’re not math-based so we’re not talking quant.
OP would have a sufficient background for a regular program but not for something quant-heavy.

1 Like
154

If you would like to combine political science and economics, as well as philosophy, into a single course of study, research colleges with available public policy majors:

155

Regarding finances, this site can be especially convenient for calculating costs:

156

So have you contacted coaches yet? Any early reply ?

Have you made 2 early lists (with soccer and without soccer) based on running NPCs in colleges mentioned on this thread?

157

Yes, I looked at the D3 programs that were mentioned and contacted one. I have the list and will continue contacting in the following days. The one D3 program is very attractive to me and responded within one day but I was told that they wanna be honest and right now somebody else is slightly ahead of me but I should keep the Coach updated. I wasn’t able to do the list without soccer yet.

1 Like
158

If not she is in big trouble: US citizens have to file for Federal taxes on their worldwide income no matter where they live - or how long they live there- unless they specifically renounce their US citizenship, a process that is deliberately difficult.

159

Adding. This doesn’t mean she will need to actually PAY any IRS taxes…as there is a foreign income exclusion.

@kelsmom for aid purposes…is the foreign income exclusion applied first…so that portion of income is actually excluded from the FAFSA formula?

1 Like
160

The foreign income exclusion is not considered income for FAFSA (I have no clue for CSS Profile). It’s essentially zeroed out on the US tax return that a citizen working in a foreign country files (that is, it is not considered taxable income on the tax form). It does not get reported as untaxed income on FAFSA, although any foreign income not earned from work is reported in untaxed income. This is one of those things that I always thought didn’t make sense, but it is what it is.