Advice on applying, chances, chosing a major... HELP?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Bare with me, this may take a moment. Okay so first off here are my stats so that you can get an idea of who I am:</p>

<p>Student:</p>

<p>User Name: KayJVillarreal
Gender: F
Location: Texas
College Class Year: 2017
High School: Public
High School Type: sends some grads to top schools
Will apply for financial aid: Yes</p>

<p>Academics:</p>

<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.95
GPA - Weighted: 5.54
Class Rank: top 5%
Class Size: 418</p>

<p>Scores:</p>

<p>SAT I Math: 740
SAT I Critical Reading: 680
SAT I Writing: 630</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Significant Extracurriculars: Student Council, Spanish Club, Spanish Honor Society, National Honor Society, Teens Assisting Special Kids, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Soccer, Part-time Job
Leadership positions: Captain of Soccer Team, President of Spanish Club, Secretary of Student Council
Athletic Status - list sport and your level: Soccer-JV Captain sophomore year, stopped playing, 10 years experience
Volunteer/Service Work: Tutoring with SHH/NHS
VBS over summers
150 various hours
Honors and Awards: Academic Excellence
Bronze Award
50 hour community service award</p>

<p>Colleges of Interest:</p>

<p>College: Rice University, Choice #: 1, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: Duke University, Choice #: 2, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply
College: Texas A & M University, Choice #: 3, ED/EA: No, Athlete: No, Legacy: No, Status: Will Apply</p>

<p>Of course I’d be interested in Yale or Brown or Columbia or Stanford or something but I don’t really know what my chances would be. I’m number 15 in my class if that helps. But anyway…</p>

<p>I’ve tried looking at so many colleges and it just confuses me. I’d never really thought of schools outside of Texas because frankly we can’t afford it, but with financial aid some schools would practically offer me a full ride… and that opens a lot of doors. I love Rice, first of all, although it’s a little close to home. I think I may want to do something in architecture, visualization (working on animation with pixar/disney) at A&M sounded cool, but I’m not sure I want to commit to a school for a major when I’m not even positive what I want to do yet. If anyone has advice from schools they go to, have been accepted to, really just anything I’d be happy to hear it. Thanks in advance!!</p>

2

<p>Rice and Duke are significant reaches. There are many good aid schools that rank just a little below those and the ivies that are more realistic.</p>

3

<p>Top 5% class rank as a student in a Texas public high school should get you into any public university in Texas, though not necessarily into any division if it is a popular one (e.g. a student may get into Austin automatically, but not into engineering there).</p>

<p>Try putting “net price calculator” into each school’s web site to get estimates of how much each school will cost after estimated financial aid.</p>