With a situation like mine, what colleges should I go to?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay so I used to have a solid college list that consisted of UCLA, Northwestern, and other places I had no idea would reject me in a jiff, not only because I have weak statistics BUT also for the fact that as a Micronesian, I would be quite an expensive student. So right now I'm trying to compile a new and improved list of colleges that would make more sense for me. I hope you all are willing to offer some of your help. Thanks so much! =)</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>-High school junior
-Straight A's this whole year
-Received 2 B's, one in Freshman year and one in Sophomore year
-SAT: 2040 (not going to retake)
-CR: 640
-M: 680
-W: 720
-SAT IIs: haven't taken any yet, but I'm going to take Biology, Chemistry, and Math sometime during the first semester of my senior year
-ACTs: will not be taking
-GPA: 4.5
-Rank: Top 5% out of about 200 students. Possibly #1, but I'll never know that until senior year. And anyway even if I did rank #1 or #2, I can't get recognized as the valedictorian or salutatorian because I need to have been in the school system for 3 years (I've only been in it for 2.5).</p>

<p>Honors Courses:</p>

<p>-Honors American Literature
-Honors Technical/Business Writing
-Honors Chemistry
-Advanced Biology
-Pre-Calculus Honors</p>

<p>Prospective Honors/AP Courses:</p>

<p>-AP Calculus (first AP class to be offered at my high school)
-AP U.S. Government (through JSA Georgetown 2010)
-AP Physics (through dual enrollment with another high school)
-Honors British Literature
-Japanese II and Japanese III</p>

<p>Personals:</p>

<p>-Female
-Pacific Islander/Asian (Chamorro/Filipino)
-Born and raised in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
-Parent makes under $60k/year, will be sending my older sister to college this fall
-Underprivileged high school, does not rank nationally, has not sent many/ANY students to top-tier colleges</p>

<p>Activities:</p>

<p>-Freshman Class President
-Junior Class President
-NJHS in freshman year, NHS in junior year ; I ran for NHS president, and elections were held today. I'll post a reply tomorrow letting you know the results.
-Varsity Coed Volleyball, 1 year. First-string player, won first place that year.
-Varsity Girls' Volleyball, 1 year. First-string player, won second that year.
-Varsity Girls' Soccer, 2 years. Starting player, won second both years. Will continue during senior year.
-Varsity Girls' Outrigger Canoe Racing, 1 year. Starting paddler, won second this year. Will continue during senior year.
-Volunteer hours: average 4 hours/month for Sophomore and Junior year through multiple service projects (beach clean-ups, campus clean-ups, etc.)
-School representative to Taro Leaf Diversity Workshop 2009
-Summer Health Careers Program 2009 <-- this particular activity has a lot to it, including crash courses in Chemistry and Anatomy, job shadowing, and much much more
-Rock band member: Lead/background vocalist, Lead/rhythm guitarist, bass guitarist
-Accepted to JSA Georgetown 2010
-One out of 6 students in the CNMI to receive a full scholarship to the 2010 JSA program
-1st place in Math Court - Geometry Division (CNMI-wide)
-5th place in Attorney General's Cup Speech Competition (CNMI-wide)
-Will be participating in Americorps next year
-Will be participating in the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition</p>

<p>Okay, so this is what my profile looks like. Not so impressive, I know. I've seen many of these chances threads and they are just absolutely AMAZING. I've even seen ones that make the absolutely AMAZING profiles look like absolute butt. But it's okay =) I know I belong somewhere; I just need help figuring out exactly where that is. So please help this Micronesian from a 45 square-mile island figure out which part of the real world is right for her. Again, thank you for your time!</p>

<p>P.S. I would love to chance back but I have limited knowledge as to what specific schools are looking for in students. Sorry!</p>

2

<p>Hey! Don’t worry so much! You have a very solid profile here. Your grades are okay, your rank is impressive, and SAT isn’t bad. I’d aim for 700 on SAT IIs, 650 at the least. The fact that your options were limited, and that you even went to another high school to take an AP–that shows that you actually care about learning. Your ECs are definitely above average–I would really emphasize the Health Careers and everything that was CNMI wide. And no matter where you go, I’d say you have a little hook in being Micronesian, and you’ll probably qualify for some financial aid too.</p>

<p>I don’t really know much about where to apply. You have to like the college you go to. Do you want a big campus? Small campus? City setting? Small school? Party school? Conservative/Liberal? Small classes? Diverse student body? Huge interest in athletics? There’s a lot more to applying to college than just seeing where you could get in. </p>

<p>That being said, just based off your SAT scores (since those make up the majority of the application), I would look into Swarthmore, Colby College, Williams College, Pitzer, Bucknell, SUNY (State Universities of New York–I don’t know any one in particular that would be good), University of Richmond, Whitman, Colgate, University of Florida, Franklin and Marshall, Eckerd College, Warren Wilson, Whittier, Williamette, and Ursinus. </p>

<p>Swarthmore, Colby, and Williams would definitely be reaches. Bucknell might be too. The SUNY schools are all slightly different, but I think you’d have a fair shot at most of them, maybe 60%. UF, Whitman, Richmond, Colgate, Willamette, Pitzer, Franklin and Marshall, and Eckerd, I’d say maybe 50-70%. Ursinus, Whittier, and Warren Willson are probably more around 75%, give or take, and Whittier might even be higher. Keep in mind, though, this is basically just using your SAT scores.</p>

<p>Also, most of those colleges are in the northeast USA, and most of those in the northeast are in PA (that just happens to be where I’m from). I tried to pick some from other regions too–Richmond is slightly southern, in Virginia, Whittier and Pitzer are in California, Eckerd is in Florida, right on the water (or so I’m told), Warren Wilson is in North Carolina, Whitman is in Washington state, Willamette is in Oregon–but I really don’t know much outside Pennsylvania and New England. I don’t even know any colleges in the midwest, south, or southwest (besides University of Chicago and Rice, but those would almost undoubtedly be major reaches).</p>

<p>Here’s what I would do: go to some college sites, like collegesearch.collegeboard.com, collegeprow ler.com [take out the space], College Search | Find Colleges | The Princeton Review, etc, and plug in your stats. Usually they’ll have some sort of quiz you can take. Mine gave me some tiny college in the midwest, which is the furthest from my kind of college as any college could be (give me huge student body in a major city any day), so take whatever they suggest with a grain of salt. Who knows? They could give you your dream college. The quiz thing is only a sideshow though–the main reason you should go to those college sites is to look up some of the above colleges. Read through the descriptions, learn about the school, see if it appeals to you. Then look at the stats, diversity of student body, selectivity, etc, and see if you think you have a chance. Also, those college sites usually have links from one college to colleges similar to it in terms of stats and/or location, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find many more schools in more regions of the States than what little I could give you.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Your safety must be a school in your country. Unfortunately there is not a school in the US for every international who needs a lot of aid. Post on the international board where they really know what it will take and can point you towards realistic schools.</p>

4

<p>@swimgeek and redroses: Thanks for the insight, I really appreciate it. As for my safety being somewhere in the area, it’s actually kind of hard to get a quality education here at home. The Northern Marianas College has had a bad rep in terms of its education and stability as a postsecondary institution. Many people trust it, but I’m not one of them. I have a cousin who got an AA there and then transferred to a school in the U.S. expecting to attend for only 2 years. However, the credits she earned didn’t transfer, and she ended up going down the normal 4year path.</p>

<p>Another college around the area is the University of Guam. I don’t find anything particularly wrong with going to that school, since it’s so close to home. But honestly? I guess it’s just me being selfish. A college is supposed to open your eyes to a world bigger than the one you grew up in. My world in particular has been quite small. Going to the University of Guam wouldn’t exactly expand my horizons because it’s so close to home, plus the fact that majority of my school’s graduates go to that school. I can’t stand being deprived of a wholesome college experience, and so I chose to cross out UOG entirely.</p>

<p>As for universities in the Federated States of Micronesia or Palau, well let’s just say I’ve never actually heard of any. Other schools in the area that I’d like to try out though are in other countries such as Australia, Japan, and South Korea. I’d love to go to those universities BUT I know it will be such a hassle to be a student in a country where you don’t have citizenship. (Note: CNMI residents are U.S. citizens)</p>

<p>So yeah, that’s what’s going on right now. It’s kinda lame and I wish I had residency somewhere in the U.S., but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles eh?</p>

<p>Oh, and I got elected NHS president. Woohoo =)</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>She is a US citizen, not an international, foreigner, or alien.</p>

<p>Anyway, if you were a Macronesian it would be even more expensive (ha ha, not).</p>

6

<p>Missed that she’s a citizen. Still, all that qualifies her for is any federal monies she qualifes for based on income. UCLA will not give any aid to an OOS student and stats are iffy for most schools that meet need.</p>

7

<p>I agree with some of the guys up there^^^</p>

<p>Other than your SAT (needs like a 100-200 pt. increase honestly), You have pretty good stuff. You’d honestly be a ‘legitimate’ applicant for like top 25 schools.</p>

8

<p>Okay, so I should take the SAT1 again then? It’s kinda expensive just for a test but then again, it’s a good investment if it’ll get me in a top 25 =D</p>

<p>Oh and how much are the SAT2s?</p>

9

<p>Sorry this is not a chance reply, but I couldn’t resist replying to JSA GEORGETOWN 2010!!! I did JSA Yale 2009 and it was amazing. JSA Summer School is such a wonderful experience and I hope you love the crazy workload, long days, unbelievable classes, and great new friends as much as I did
If you want to know anything more about JSA Summer School feel free to PM me, I love to talk about it :)</p>

10

<p>Okay, disregarding the whole financial aid situation, please chance me on the following:</p>

<p>University of British Columbia
Lehigh University
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Barnard College … super duper reach :slight_smile:
American University</p>

<p>Oh I can only hope that at least one of those colleges is not a reach for me…</p>

11

<p>bump bump bump</p>

12

<p>"Okay, disregarding the whole financial aid situation, please chance me on the following:</p>

<p>University of British Columbia
Lehigh University
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Barnard College … super duper reach
American University</p>

<p>Oh I can only hope that at least one of those colleges is not a reach for me…"</p>

<p>Check out McGill University as I see you’d consider going to Canada.</p>

13

<p>I think you’d get admitted to all of them, even Barnard.</p>

14

<p>@Sean1218: Why McGill?</p>

15

<p>bump bump bump</p>

16

<p>bump bump bump and chance me plsss:</p>

<p>University of British Columbia
Boston College
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
American University</p>

<p>No more Barnard; too many liberal arts courses lol.</p>

17

<p>“@Sean1218: Why McGill?”</p>

<p>Because it’s an amazing university, as good if not better than UBC. Plus it’s in Montreal.</p>

18

<p>Ah, I see. Thanks! I’ll look into it.</p>

19

<p>Given your GPA and SAT scores, I would not say that Northwestern and UCLA would reject you immediately. You at about a 3.7 right? This is their range. Having said that, it really comes down to your ECs and essay. </p>

<p>Your ECs seem a bit disorganized to me, do you mind having only the highlights (i.e. exactly what you will put in the little space the Common App provides). From what I can tell, there’s a focus on sports, service, and speech. What are key experiences in those activities? Tell us. </p>

<p>And chance back pls :stuck_out_tongue: </p>

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