JGross

Hi all, Im finalizing my list of where I am applying and am not quite confident in where I stand with each school. I suppose this is basically a chances thread but any help would be great.

Cuban Male
Long Island

GPA-95 unweighted 97 weighted
Rank-doesn't do rank, but around 10-15/400
Courses
Graduating with 10 AP Courses, pretty much one of the most difficult schedules that I can take, more difficult than the majority of the "honors" kids at my school
US History-5, Psychology-4, World History-5, English Language-5, Biology-5

Sats- (plan on taking them again this saturday, after having a tutor for some time Im hoping to get my reading and writing in the 680-720ish range, possibly higher

Reading-640
Math-740
Writing-650

Bio E- 780
Math 2-680
US history-720

national merit qualifier, ap scholar with distinction, national hispanic recognition program scholar

main extracurricular is 3 years of working with the first tee of nassau county teaching golf and life skills to kids, hundreds of hours of community service, has big connections with NYU

class vice president
deca, 3rd and 5th at state competition competed nationally, secretary of chapter
4 years varsity golf, captain junior and senior years, all conference 10-12

this is just a brief summary of my resume, there are some other little extracurriculars and awards here and there

the schools I am applying to are
BC(ea)
MIT(ea)
NYU Stern
USC
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Pepperdine
Stanford
UPenn
Carnegie Mellon
Suny Binghamton

Im trying to decide if I need some more "safety" schools or just easier to get into schools in general.

entomom

What is your financial situation, will you require need based FA or merit scholarships to attend the privates and OOS publics? I'm assuming SUNY Bing is your academic and financial safety.

JGross

Um I plan on applying for need based aid although chances are I will not be eligible as my dad makes over 200K a year, and yeah SUNY Bing is sort of a if I have to go I will as I prefer to be in the city somewhere

rodney

I must be cynical or have been on CC too long.....is your last name Gross? and you are Hispanic...? No offense intended, but.....

sounds like the Jewish kid around here who lives in $1,000,000 house that got FA from many schools last year for his "Hispanic" heritage.....one of his grandparents was born in Cuba.

entomom

^Since the OP is a sr this year, they are most likely not the person you're referring to, right??

JGross,
You're right, with an income of 200k, you're only likely to get FA from S, so your parents need to be willing and able to pay 50+K/yr for the rest of the need-only privates. Some of your schools do have merit scholarships possible. Are your parents willing to pay 45k/yr for the UCs? Because I can tell you with confidence that you won't get any FA as an OOS student in CA.

Since you have a couple of EA schools, they will give you a fair barometer of how realistic your list is in December. In case of denials or deferral, if you have applications ready for some more match or safety schools that you'd rather attend than SUNY, you should be OK. As far as money, merit is difficult to predict and usually decisions come after application deadlines, so it's good not to have to rely on them as financial safeties.

p.s. your SAT I scores are your weakest point right now, bring them up to the 700s on Sat and you'll be in much better shape. My D2 is also sitting the SAT on Sat, good luck to all!

yabeyabe2

Rodney, I have heard of many kids exaggerating their Hispanic ancestry who are Protestant or Catholic, as well as the one Jew who caught your attention previously. I assume your question to JGross was meant to ask how much of his ancestry was Cuban and why he thought someone making over $200,000 a year could argue financial need with a straight face?

JGross

to rodney, not quite yeah, my dad's jewish, but my mom is first generation american, and no I don't live in a million dollar house

the financial aid situation isn't going to be a factor in admissions for the most part right? or is that really dependent on each school, as far as I can tell all of the schools I am applying to are need-blind with admissions

JGross

also folks, keep in mind that my family has an income of 200k in a middle class suburb on long island, living costs are high here and Im not quite living the high life, and my original question wasn't really about financial aid, more about admissions chances

entomom

As the OP stated, they likely will not get FA at most schools, they're not "arguing financial need with a straight face", just stating a fact. There is nothing wrong with anyone applying for FA, no matter what their income level, it's the school that decides how to compute need, how much to give, and in what form (loans, WS & grants). Also, many schools will not give FA later, if your need changes, if you did not apply for FA as a fr.

The OP was kind enough to answer my question, which is a very important one as admission is only the first hurdle to jump, the second is being able to pay for college. No one has the right to condemn or question their motivation, shame on you.

Similarly, if you think you know anything about the ethnicity of the OP based on what they have posted, you're just showing your prejudices and ignorance. Perhaps you need to read one of the many threads on this forum which discusses the wide range of Hispanic experiences.

x-posted with JGross

rodney

No, I wasn't talking about the OP....yes, the "Hispanic" label has been abused around our neighborhood here in NJ......

To the OP: in terms of FA, from what I have seen, your heritage and your family's annual income will not exclude you from FA at most schools and might actually help (as I pointed out)....the combination of the two is apparently a powerful draw for schools to "bend" their FA requirements....

yabeyabe: who am I to judge how much of someone's Cuban heritage is necessarily valid....the colleges don't seem to care much either.....the abuse is rampant around here..

itsv

I am not trying to get into any debate about who is hispanic but wanted to bring up thte point that College Board defines the term Hispanic and when a student is considered Hispanic for college application purposes. You might thing a person is "abusing" the system but unless you have the person's family tree in front of you, you can't really say a person is not Hispanic. For example, people are surprised to find out I'm Latino (and I'm 100%) but when they see me with my extended family (cousins, aunts, etc.) they then say "oh I see you really are Hispanic."

To JGross, you list looks pretty good except I think you need a few more safeties. Out her in CA, the UCs are so impacted by our bad economy, no one really knows what will happen with them. For example, we were told that my DS's gpa made him "uc eligible", meaning that he would be guaranteed a spot at a UC like UCR or UCSC. The UC's have recently announced that they have gotten rid of the program (which affected say students between the top 5% and 10% of a class) and now only apply it to the top 4% of a class. Even if you get into a UC, students are complaining that it is taking them 5-6 years to finish. Look at your emails to see if you have gotten any "priority" or "VIP" applications. Those type of applications waive the application fee, require no essay or teacher recommendation, are very short (like 2-3 pages) and they will give you an aswer within 2-3 weeks. Plus they give say they will award merit scholarships. Tulane, Drexel, Portland, NAU, and a bunch of others have come across my DS's email.

Hope this helps.

entomom

Can you be more specific about what you mean by "bend"? I can see how being URM and having high income would make a student attractive for admission (the college gains diversity without expending FA), but how would URM + high income increase likelihood/amount of FA?

At least from our personal experience with numerous selective schools, FA was what would have been expected given the policies of the different schools, no URM bump for us .

yabeyabe2

I regret my "straight face" comment. I do volunter work with many poor people while living in an affluent suburb where many students do not realize how financially fortunate they are and overreacted.

entomom

^^Understood, we all get skeptical and overreact at times. And there are too many people on CC who don't understand how fortunate they are and complain about "poor" people getting all the breaks on FA.

yabeyabe2

Jgross, since the rest of your list is pretty selective, will you be reasonably happy if you wind up with Binghamton ? Otherwise, consider looking at least 1 tier down from your others. For example, since you seem city oriented, Pitt, BU and Drexel might be backups for CM, BC and UP. I would not wait until December to contact them, as schools often used as safeties can be touchy about those who do not express earlier interest.

Entomom, which schools have you heard deny FA in later years if it was not applied for originally and there has been a dramatic change in circumstance (as opposed to where circumstances have not changed dramatically)? In this recession, with many people losing high paying jobs, I would think there have been many such requests, as well as when a parent dies.