<p>Hello guys I'm a rising high school senior who needs some help
I think this list is far too top heavy (especially with my gpa) any suggestions???
also an interesting linguistics program is a must for any school I apply to.</p>
<p>(as a note i really need FANTASTIC financial aid as my bother attends ualbany and my parents make less than 50k/yr)</p>
<p>Binghamton University
Brown University
Columbia University
Harvard University
New York University
Ohio State University
Swarthmore College
UC Santa Cruz
University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~~stats~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm from New York.
gpa 3.5 no weight with a very strong upward trend. (all my worst grades are in things like art and home ec; academic gpa closer to 3.7)</p>
<p>i've taken 6ap classes: biology5 world history3 us history5 chemistry5, English comp5 stats4</p>
<p>Sat2s
bio 750
world 740
lit 740
sats:cr700 m610 w610 cumulative:1920</p>
<p>I'm a african american female that plays varsity football.
I'm also a varsity member of both indoor and outdoor track (year round athletics ftw)
I'm president of mock trial
editor in chief of our lit mag
a science research multiple-award winner
and our academic league(quizbowl) has won numerous contests and appeared on tv
also countless hours of volunteer tutoring</p>
<p>i think you need to be more realistic. most of the schools on your list aren’t happening. keep nyu as a reach and bing as a low reach/high match and get rid of the others. try some more SUNYs if money is an issue. new paltz, stony brook (has a pretty good linguistics department, too), buffalo, or oswego would be good to look into.</p>
<p>Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, and Swarthmore seem all like super near impossible reaches, and NYU is a realistic reach but you shouldn’t get your heart set on it if you need fantastic financial aid.</p>
<p>This, my friend, is why you need to find yourself some financial safeties. And no financial safety is a real safety unless it is also an academic safety as well.</p>
<p>You need to identify at least one rock-solid safety that:
guarantees admission based on your stats (some of the SUNYs might, and the NYS community colleges almost certainly would)
you can pay for without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid
offers your major (or if a community college, offers the first two years with a formal articulation agreement with at least one 4-year college/university for that major)
you would be happy to attend if everything else goes wrong in the college application process</p>
<p>Once you have identified this place, apply early in the fall (most schools like this are rolling admission) so that you can get in line for any goodies that they have to hand out such as unpublished scholarships, preferential housing selection, preferential course selection, etc.</p>
<p>The SUNY system is excellent, and there are some real gems in the NY community college system. You are in state for the public divisions at Cornell. Take a long hard look at what is offered there in CALS, CHE, and ILR. You may find something that you like.</p>
<p>She’s a urm female on the football team, she has a shot at these schools if she can increase her sat to at least 2000. Can you imagine how good of an essay you could write about being a female football player?</p>
<p>Look at schools like unc and uva, they may be more realistic and they meet full need. Why is ucsc on your list? That’s really random. Plus you’re not likey to get FA from them (dunno about merit money).</p>
<p>I know for my stats, most of these schools are super reaches which is why i need the help =/
(Harvad is quite honestly just a dare) but i think i have an honest shot with brown and upenn (they have new and growing programs in cognitive science and linguistics.)since i have already won some regional awards in linguistics research and i competing in intel this year. I am applying to ucsc because it has one of the best linguistics programs in the country. I’ve done alot of no credit work at my community college that i think can help prove i can do college level work. I really want to go to a school where research is done since my primary interest is in science. I am fairly certain my teacher recs will be absolutely fantastic as well so i think all of that gives me at least a shot…</p>
<p>If you don’t mind being a school that doesn’t have a lot of black people, some of the northern Midwestern schools may give you a much larger preference for your race. You could try Northwestern or even schools like UW-Madison and UMinnesota-Twin Cities (or Ohio State, which you have listed), as I know at least Minnesota gives out of state aid to minority applicants. UChicago is also a possibility, but for an athlete that might not be too appealing.</p>
<p>I don’t like to be blunt, but your current stats will not get you into an ivy school. Although it may or may not be true that Brown doesn’t view standardized test scores with as much scrutiny as the other ivies, it’s an extremely long shot regardless.</p>
<p>I agree with the others when I say that the vast majority of schools you have on your list are very far from potential matches. You should definitely consider adding some safety schools and colleges better suited to your current grades and scores, as even the lesser tier schools that you have listed, like Binghamton, are extremely competitive and are not a guaranteed match.</p>
<p>Your stats are actually very similar to mine, as is the problem with money in your family. Have you ever considered attending a community college for two years and then transferring out? I know that a lot of people are adverse to the idea of community college, especially the majority of the people here on CC, but it’s a cheap, smart, and affordable way to get an education. You’ll be taking the same core classes for the first two years at whatever college you attend anyway, with the exception of colleges with an open curriculum, so why not make it worth your money?</p>
<p>If you can make a 740 on the literature SAT 2 and a 5 on English Comp, then I don’t think it should be too hard for you to make at least a 750 on CR. And Writing is way easier than CR if you practice all of the grammar rules, so that could easily also be a 750. And there’s no reason your math score couldn’t be improved to at least a 700 with enough practice. </p>
<p>I would suggest studying for your SAT and retaking it October or November (this would make you eligible to be an ED applicant at Columbia).</p>
<p>Also, do more than your best your first semester of senior year to pull up your GPA.</p>
<p>Honestly, your OP would be convincing enough for me to accept you at all of the schools you listed (yes, even Harvard). You seem very interesting and incredibly smart, despite you GPA. </p>
<p>I wouldnt apply to OSU, being from Ohio and by looking at your stats you can do way better. A lot of us with higher than 29 ACT scores and good grades view OSU as more of a joke school that is just for the partying type, you can do better.</p>
<p>Since you have very specific academic goals, and you already have experience in the field, you may want to approach your application process more like a grad school applicant. Where are the people that you want to work with? Do their groups have funding that looks like it will last for a while? How close a match is your research to date with the things that they are up to? Who do your current scientific mentors know, and what advice are your mentors giving you about various programs? Do your mentors’ pals know people who know people who can make space for you in their research group? If you have good contacts within a particular individual department, it may not matter so much whether or not your profile is an exact fit for the overall college or university.</p>