Chance a sophomore who's wayyyy too impatient over college

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics: asian girl from nyc private school
Hooks: first gen
Income: family of 4, about $80,000 per year
Intended Major(s): anthropology/economics depending on school
ACT/SAT/SAT II: not taken yet
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.6 weighted and 3.93 unweighted (about top 10% in class)
Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc: ap world history, ap bio, ap lang, apush (test not taken yet!)

my school only starts offering aps sophomore year so i haven’t taken any of the tests so far

Awards:

  1. girl scout gold award (national)
  2. business competition award (international)
  3. presidential service award (national)
  4. maybe i should mention an art award? i was the top 5% of entering and it was a multi-state thing (not national though)

will be very vague here for privacy reasons
Extracurriculars:

  1. business internship: at a t30 where i was in a comp (with people from all around the world like all parts of the usa to even people from poland/bolivia) and had to write a business proposal. won $2000 for a small business in a different country.
  2. business intern team lead: became a team lead at a similar program like the one i just listed but it was through its smaller branches across the usa. lead a team of 6 to win a grant of $300 for a small business in a different country. i made our business partner a financial tracker, advertising materials, and a website.
  3. staff at a business internship: after my 2 other things, i was asked to join the staff of the program. i help develop the curriculum for our summer programs and recruit guest speakers (like professors). i led a group of about 10 to win a grant of $2,500.
  4. head debate agent of a national debate competition: i wrote debate resolutions for teams of about 20. conventions had 400-600 attendees. discussed civic and economic issues.
  5. fbla: member of fbla (will mostly likely be treasurer of the club at my school). i helped raise over $6,000 so far.
  6. team captain for an economic forum: attended monthly forums led by college professors (about 200 international attendees). promoted to co-captain of debate for a team of 23. we talked about a lot of different entrepreneurial, economic, and ethical theories.
  7. girl scouts: currently a senior leader. have done girl scouts for 10+ years. led local fundraisers, clean-ups, food/clothes/toy drives. received the girl scout gold award (won’t say my project because then it’ll get crazy easy to dox me).
  8. varsity badminton: varsity badminton, scholar athlete
  9. jv soccer: won most improved
  10. school newspaper editor: have wrote 12+ articles and edited 25+

Essays/LORs/Other: none yet

i know i’m just a sophomore so there’s a lot of things missing and there’s a lot of things i will hopefully get better on :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:i’m open to any college recommendations since i’m not sure what to do quite yet. you guys can recommend me majors based on my ecs too pleaseee

ps if i totally wrongly categorized something please lmk!!

safeties:

  • queens cuny
  • st. john’s university
  • hunter cuny
  • arizona state university

targets

  • binghamton suny
  • fordham
  • baruch

reaches

  • boston college
  • nyu
  • notre dame
  • harvard
  • georgetown
  • cornell
  • dartmouth
  • upenn
  • duke
  • vanderbilt
  • yale
  • princeton
  • stanford
  • washu
  • columbia
  • emory
  • brown
  • mit

i probably won’t apply to all of these but they’re just on my radar ig
edit: dartmouth is my dream so far

2

Are all of these assured to be affordable?

3

I sounds like you’d be a good Questbridge candidate. Have you reached out to them?

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4

You are impatient and it’s early but if you keep on your path certainly your safeties will be there.

Given your income you might want to look at some private meets 100% of needs schools. I linked below. You also have TAP in NY I believe at your family income level.

Work hard on school. Stay involved. You’ll know more in a year. This can wait. Keep your grades up in the meantime.

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well asu and sju im not sure but the other 2 are my cunys so it’s just a few thousands (5k or even less) so it should be doable

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i checked!! it’s 65k or less per family of 4 so i could have been eligible like 2 years ago but tysm

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I could be wrong but I believe it’s only a guideline. I would get in touch and ask directly.

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Agreed but it’s too soon for the student. They may be impatient but others she will be dealing with will force patience upon OP :).

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What’s $65k or less ? TAP ? $80k according to this. But you need to check is it gross income or AGI.

These are things to start learning about.

There are also schools - further away- but that have crazy merit scholarships.

But keep the focus on school. Come summer when the grades are in the books you can start learning more.

https://www.hesc.ny.gov/pay-for-college/apply-for-financial-aid/nys-tap.html#horizontalTab1

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As a sophomore, you have grades from three of the seven semesters which will be used to calculate you GPA. Without that, it is impossible to categorize colleges. Depending on the person, grades can jump up during Junior year or drop. Most accomplishments really start picking up during Junior year, as well.

The most important things for you now are NOT to try to decide which colleges to apply to.

First, importantly, you are on the right track for anything. You may have to decide which of your ECs you like the most and focus more on those, but that depends on how you feel, and which you like the most.

Keep up that good academic work!! Learning how to learn is important for the rest of your life, not only those four very short years that you will be in college. That is the most important thing to remember.

Over the summer, it’s time to start considering what sort of college you would prefer, and if you want, you can go and check some smaller colleges, larger colleges, private and public colleges, etc, just so you understand what, say, a large public flagship is like, and how it compares to a small liberal arts college.

Do not start thinking about any specific college. That is something that is only possible to do in any meaningful way towards the end of you junior year.

Before you can figure out which college is best for you, you need to figure out more about your strengths and weaknesses. That is a large part of high school.

Figure out which classes are the ones you like most, which are challenging but enjoyable, which you hate, and which are OK, but you wouldn’t do them, given the choice. Figure out what parts of school you like. Figure out what your favorite parts of your extracurricular activities are. Figure out which things are important for you to have in your life.

These are all important for the rest of your life, and will also help you think of which colleges you should put on your list.

The colleges on your list vary substantially, and students who would fit in some will not find some of the theirs to be all that enjoyable. Cornell and NYU are extremely different from one another, and MIT is a world away from Georgetown.

You also want to major in anthropology or economics depending on the college. These are two very different fields, which require very different skill sets, and have very different career trajectories. Deciding your future based on which college accepts you is really really really not a good idea.

The fact that you don’t really know what you want to do, what you want to study, or where you want to go IS OK.

You’re a sophomore and you don’t need to know this. However, you do need to know a bit more before you start looking at any specific college.

In short, before you can start even writing up lists, you need to spend more time focusing on your high school academics, and on your extracurriculars. You also need another year of grades and of extracurricular activities. Figure out what academic topic you enjoy the most, and whether you enjoy them after taking tough classes on those topics. Then you can figure out what you want to study (maybe), what sort of college you would like to attend, what sort of “vibe” you would like, etc.

Maybe read some popular science books and articles on at=nthropology and on economics to wee which of these, if either, you would like to do.

Also, personally, I think that you should take some times for yourself. You’re allowed to have fun in high school…

Take care, good luck, and continue succeeding in high school!!

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11

I think that you have a good start. I have three suggestions.

One suggestion is to have some fun and find some time to relax.

The second suggestion is to read the “applying sideways” blog from the MIT admissions web site. While this is on the MIT web site, IMHO it applies to other top ranked schools as well. As I understand it, the point is to do what is right for you, and do it very well. You do not need a long list of ECs. For the top schools you will want good grades and you will want to have done well in whatever ECs you did – which is more likely if you are doing what is right for you. Also remember that “leadership” means making the activity, whatever it is, better for everyone. Usually this includes listening.

Also think about what you want in a college or university. Visit a few schools.

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12

This!

-have written

I get that you aren’t using correct grammar on this website, but you need to consider how a college admissions team will look at an application submitted by someone who “edits” a paper with errors.

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thanks sm. i was just rushing for the post and i’m the format editor so i deal with pictures, letter formatting etc. i’ll make sure to change it nevertheless.

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This is a big mistake. Don’t fall in love with ANY school. Make a list of schools where you’ll be happy at any of them. They all have strengths and weaknesses. A perfect list will have you conflicted between your reachiest reach, your safeties and the few in between.

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