About to start applications: Is this list delusional, well ranked, lacking in options? [MS resident, 3.7 GPA, 34 ACT, <$60k; business/ finance]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: Mississippi
  • Type of high school: 9th grade: public school; 10th-12th: small, private, Christian, nonfeeder; Class of 2025
  • Other special factors: will not qualify for need-based aid

Cost Constraints / Budget
None/up to $60K

Intended Major(s)
Business/Finance

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.7
  • Class Rank: unsure but at least top 10%
  • ACT Score: 34 (in tutoring now to bring up math [32] and will take again in Sept.)

List your HS coursework
AP classes: Bio 3, APUSH 4, Eng Comp 4 (no others offered at this school).
Honors classes: Chem, Pre-Cal, French I and II, Physics, Engl 9 and 10, Alg II, WH.
Also taking full load of honors/AP classes in senior year.

Extracurriculars
*Varsity soccer, varsity football; rec indoor bouldering; rec pickleball; rec weightlifting; work part time at tax office during tax season, and part time in medical office during summer; approx 150 service hours so far as summer camp counselor and weekend activity helper for nonprofit serving children/adults with IDD/ASD.

Essays/LORs/Other
Working on these now. LOR will probably be from Honors Chem teacher.

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): UT Knox, U Ark, Ole Miss, Auburn, UGA
  • Extremely Likely: ?
  • Likely: ?
  • Toss-up: U Florida, UIUC
  • Lower Probability: Georgia Tech
  • Low Probability: University of Notre Dame (will apply REA)

Like the idea of being in or within driving distance of a big city. Favorite campuses so far are UF and ND. Not a fan of Gainesville and no appealing big city close by. Ruled out UT Austin due to low chance for OOS and UVA due to grossly unappealing campus tour. Unsure about leaving state/being far away from home but would absolutely do it for ND. Still planning to visit Auburn, GT, UTK, and UGA this fall. Are there others I should consider?

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Tuition alone at ND is around 60k. Add in room and board and other expenses and you looking at over 80k per year.

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I’m curious about the “assured admission”. I’m most familiar with GA… UGA aims to enroll 80% GA residents and has become overall more competitive for admissions. Its overall admit rate in 2024 was 37%. As an OOS student there is no assured admission (or for GA students either!)

Here’s a link to the UGA GPA calculator and stats on last year’s accepted students. You should look up this information on all schools of interest to get a better idea of your chances.

UGA GPA calculation

UGA 2024 Admits info

UGA Admissions FAQ

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Did your student happen to take the PSAT, and if so are they projected to be a National Merit semifinalist?

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Yes, his index score is 202. I have no idea what that means.

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Thank you. This is exactly the type of feedback I need.

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So you go to a private school - first step - find out from the counselors where folks went with your #s.

Do you have a 34 ACT? If so, you are fine - or are you projecting that?

If your school doesn’t rank, then you don’t have one - don’t guess - they do or they don’t. Class rank (if they don’t have) isn’t a huge deal.

The entirety of your list, sans UND - will make budget. Well UIUC you’ll be tight.

So UF is your favorite campus - but - you don’t like Gainesville. Interesting.

UVA you couldn’t afford given your budget so no issue there.

Is anything 100%??

But let’s call your assured safeties - and let’s take off Auburn (and not near a city) and UGA. btw - if you want assured and with your stats, Alabama and its fine Culverhouse School will cost you $20K-ish a year all in.

Let’s move Auburn to likely.

UGA and UF are let’s say low reaches but I’d say reaches. For UF, take your GPA. Add .5 for Honors and +1 for AP - to your unweighted. Their students are between a 4.4 and 4.6.

UIUC - which I’d remove. 1) it’s not near a city and #2) Indiana will cost less - and is closer to a city. IU Kelley will be a safety given your scores - and it’s highly ranked. Or Ohio State which is in city.

Ga Tech and Notre Dame are likely high reaches - but UND makes little sense unless you have need. UND was $86,125 this year. Run their net price calculator but if you have a $60K budget, take it out.

UTK and Arkansas are in city - you might add U of South Carolina and U of Kentucky - because if you want “in city” or close to…

You might also sub in FSU for UF. FSU is a smaller campus but it’s in city, closer to home, and if you get an out of state tuition waiver, it will be half the cost of UF. The Arizona schools are both in city - and would both make budget - and both are fine schools. U of Arizona is going through some budget upheaval but I can’t imagine they’d raise you over $60K.

Another that would work for $60K in city - College of Charleston for smaller (10K kids). Pitt will be right on the fringe budget wise but if you get merit. LSU will be comfortably under. And U Denver with merit - these are all in city.

Your list isn’t bad because you have multiple acceptances that are affordable - but you can certainly fine tune it if you’d like.

btw - you want to check at each school for secondary admission. You noted UVA - you have to apply to b school once there - you’re not just in, only into the college itself - then you take a year or two of classes - depending on the school and apply. You might sub in UNC - same issue though - but you might like better.

It’s ok if you don’t get into a school (UT Austin) - that shows you reached - as long as you have two acceptances that you like that are affordable. So if UT Austin is desired, then apply.

What isn’t ok is that you set a budget and then apply to schools where you can’t possibly hit the budget.

So if you like Notre Dame - but also want a city - how about a Creighton or Loyola Maryland or U of Portland (with merit). Or and you’d need merit aid - a TCU or SMU

Good luck

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To clarify on budget: yes ND is outside the budget I’ve listed. It is the exception to this rule. We are still debating whether we will or even should pay this much for a dream school. Can we afford it? Yes. Should we?

To clarify on distance to city: a 2-hour drive to a big city is fine. He is very happy with the distance between South Bend and Chicago.

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Most graduates from this high school go to in-state schools with full ride.

Yes, his composite ACT superscore is a 34. He will re-take in Sept after tutoring to bring math score up (32).

School does rank. He will find out Tuesday what his ranking is going into senior year. Last year he was in top 7%.

Thank you for clarity on ranking the schools. Recalculated GPA based on formula used by UGA and it’s 3.92!

Thank you for the additional recommendations. These are great!

UVA: toured and didn’t like it at all. UTA: toured and liked but wouldn’t choose over state school, so one less application. UNC: did not tour but considered and dropped from list due to other considerations. UF: I loved this campus and liked Gainesville. He loved the campus but wasn’t a fan of Gainesville. SMU was suggested by someone else, and we are looking at it.

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Many of us are in this boat. I’m full pay but set a $50K budget.

Only you can decide of course - but think about stroking that check 2x a year.

It’s not real on paper but it is real when it happens…so to me, if you have a budget, hold forth to the budget!!!

But again, ultimately it’s a personal call as it’s your money.

But you set a budget for a reason!!!

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An index score of 202 is very respectable, but is a little below the cutoff unfortunately. It’s no problem, I only asked because if a student does make NMSF, it opens up a few full ride scholarships.

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UGA, UT Knox, and Auburn are not 100% chance of admission. You have a good shot, but they are definently not 100% The rest of your list seems reasonable for both cost and admission chances except Notre Dame which is over 60k.

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For a business/finance major you might check out Lehigh university. It’s about 62K for tuition, not counting housing and food but they do have some merit scholarships. 1 hour drive to Philadelphia. Campus is gorgeous.

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if you like Notre Dame, then you can consider adding other religious schools, Fordham , SMU and maybe even Santa Clara (if you get merit). Wake Forest as well.

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Generally, the Common Data Set for each school contains some information that might be worthwhile looking at as you estimate admissions chances at difference colleges and universities: Section C7 contains a list of academic and non-academic admissions factors, and how each school weighs those factors; Sections C9-C11 contain information about test scores and GPAs for recently matriculated students at each school.

Georgia Tech and Notre Dame both weigh GPA much higher than standardized test scores; and Notre Dame gives heavy weight to some interesting choices among the non-academic admissions factors that it considers.

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Is NYC in contention? Fordham seemed quite generous with merit when my D applied a few years ago.

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What are you planning to do with your Finance major if you decide to go that route. Finance is one of the few fields where undergrad prestige is important depending on what you would like to do with it.

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Below are my guesses as to your son’s chances at the schools on the current list.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)
U. of Arkansas
Ole Miss

Likely (60-79%)
Auburn
UT-Knoxville

Toss-Up (40-59%)
UGA

Lower Probability (20-39%)
U. of Florida
UIUC (but yielding to @Mwfan1921 or someone with a better read on the business school’s admissions)

Low Probability (less than 20%)
Georgia Tech
U. of Notre Dame

How much of this is respect with your (the parent’s?) preferences as compared to your kid’s preferences? I know that he was not a fan of Gainesville, which would move UF pretty far down the list in my book. Is it his comfort level or the family’s with respect to being far away from home? What is considered far away? Also, are big state schools his preference, or are these listed because they’re ones that your family has heard of?

One school he may want to consider which would be an extremely likely admit is U. of Dayton, as many people think it has a very similar vibe to Notre Dame (outside of football prowess).

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One thing I’d note with Auburn is they have multiple admission deadlines - four for early. I believe the longer you wait, it gets a bit tougher. The OOS deadline may differ than in state.

Pitt, btw, if you go that way, not exactly the same but better odds if early - and better for merit. They are rolling.

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Auburn doesn’t have different admissions deadlines for in state vs out of state. It is somewhat of a disadvantage admissions wise to wait for later rounds, but a much bigger disadvantage in terms of merit scholarships to wait. Once the $$ is gone, it’s gone. Based on last year,a 34 ACT qualified for a $15k a year “competitive merit” scholarship, a 35 would qualify for $17k a year. In the past these have been essentially automatic based on test scores and minimum 3.5 GPA in the earliest rounds. It’s a good idea to submit by the mid September EA1 deadline and decisions come out mid October.

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