Chance/Match a rising junior [TN resident, 4.0/35, for business/pre-law]. Also pls give me resources for awards

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State: TN
  • Type of high school: Private, small (~100 students per grade)
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: White/Caucasian male

Intended Major(s):Business/Pre-Law (Ultimate goal would be a corporate lawyer or banker)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.00
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.96 b4 junior year (Out of 6.00, Impossible to get 6.00 tho)
  • College GPA (for transfers): N/A
  • Class Rank: 14/115
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

  • Freshman Year: All Honors/AP level classes
  • Sophomore Year: All Honors/AP level + APUSH (5 on exam)
  • Junior Year: AP Government, AP Biology, AP European History, AP English Language + honors Pre-calc (rip)
  • Senior Year: AP Stat, AP Calc AB (rip), AP English Literature, AP French, AP Physics C EM/AP Chemistry (idk which one yet)

Awards

  • School Publication Award, Honor Roll + Dean’s List all semesters, Monetary grant for service project. (will be doing lots of contests to get awards up this year)

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  • Leadership position in service organization (largest club in my school) all throughout high school and will probably end up president with 400+ total hours; Editor of Yearbook; Ambassador for my school; Summer intern at local non-profit organization (12 hours a week); On the student-run disciplinary committee for school code offenses, only 2 per grade and will probably be VP senior year; 2 years Varsity Sport.

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

  • Essays: I have no idea, but I usually get 90-95s on essays in English.
  • LORS: Most likely good, have good relationships with most teachers+ school college counselor knows my family

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

  • Cost: Full-pay, parents have let me know this

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability): University of Tennessee, SMU
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable) : No idea, pls help
  • Match Same as above, no idea
  • Reach: Georgetown Dream, liked Michigan as well.
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Paging @AustenNut to help! I’ll throw my own thoughts in when I can!

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So I think one of the first things we need to know is whether it is a hard requirement that your college have an undergraduate business program.

For background, there are many “liberal arts and sciences” colleges which have produced many successful businesspeople and corporate lawyers and such, but which have no undergraduate business program. Including some of the most famous colleges in the United States.

Those people might study something business-adjacent, like Econ, or law-adjacent, like Political Science. But many will study something not particularly associated with those fields, like English, or Philosophy, or a science, or so on.

The idea is that to succeed in fields like business or law, you most need general skill development at the college stage–math skills, reading and writing skills, analytic reasoning skills, and so on. Eventually an MBA or law school can address more specific knowledge and skills. And most importantly, a business or law firm can train you for a certain specific career. But, these colleges believe, their job is to prepare you for all that with a good liberal arts and sciences education.

Of course other colleges do have undergraduate business programs. It is perfectly fine to conclude you only want to apply to such colleges. But it would be good to know.

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If you like Georgetown, you might want to look at Fordham. If you like Michigan, you could look at any number of other large flagship universities. Indiana Kelley would likely be another safety for you. But what about Ohio State, or University of Maryland (apply EA to this one for best chances of acceptance), or Pitt?

What about some of the other colleges in the greater DC area? George Washington?

Or what about the Boston area (BC, BU, Tufts)?

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Perhaps this thread will help…

Both @NiceUnparticularMan and @thumper1 provide some great suggestions and insight.

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And I am going to add a suggestion that might not be a popular one. If you are really happy with your “safety” schools, there is no need to add anything else to your list.

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Some of these colleges cost $90,000 a year or close to it. Is your family able to fund this amount?

Do you want to be in NYC at some point (either in a job or law school), or what?

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I’ll add an even more specific version of this thought.

This somewhat famous study of IB “target” schools gave a very high rating to SMU in particular:

Particularly if you looked at the per capita rank–it was 15.

Now that is just IB, and very few people get into IB. Still, I think it reflects a fundamental truth about SMU, which is that it has long been a highly-connected college specifically for banking and other business placement in a good chunk of the country.

And just to dovetail a bit with my other post–many of the colleges ranked on this list between #1 (Penn (Wharton)) and SMU at #15 do not actually have undergrad business programs. So, not much point in talking about, say, Harvard (#2), if you want that sort of program. Georgetown, though, at #3, makes sense.

So actually–a quick leap from Georgetown to SMU with little if anything in between actually does make some sense, if in fact SMU is a “very likely” or indeed “safety”.

That said, I agree we could talk a little about schools like Texas or Indiana, which are more like Michigan in that they place well in gross terms but not quite as well in per capita terms. And I think a lot of that per capita result in the case of those colleges is self-selection, meaning I think if you focused on just the undergrad b-school students, they would look more similar per capita to SMU and such.

And to me, it would make sense for most people looking at Georgetown to also consider Notre Dame and Boston College.

But again, SMU is a really good choice itself. So if it is very likely? That’s great, and it might naturally lead to a short list.

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Your title asks for resources for awards. Are you asking about merit scholarships?

With a 35 on the ACT, you are probably a good test taker. Prepare for the PSAT this October. If you score high enough on the PSAT, you may be a National Merit Semi-Finalist. There are many large scholarships offered to students who are National Merit Finalists.

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What is your dream. Michigan and UTK are huge. SMU not.

There are LACs. Mid size. Large.

IU is the elite safety business school. So it’s the Michigan safety yet similar in prestige (maybe a tad lighter). But if money is no object there are others.

If going into law, that’s three more years of big expense. Are your parents ok with that abd $300-400k in UG.

Tell us your desires in school type - location, size, Greek, sports Vs just giving out names.

Also there are various types of bankers and they come from many many schools including UTK. What do you mean by that (banker) ?

Thx.

Ps - UTK is a very solid b school.

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An undergrad business program wouldn’t be required for me, as I enjoy learning and studying about History as well. I’ve heard History helps with pre-law, but correct me if I am wrong. For college, I would just like to go to one that has the best professional outcome for me, whether that be entrance to T14 law schools or target schools for IB.

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I’m told by my parents and counselor that SMU would be an auto-admit and many people from my school matriculate there, so I believe I would be happy. Also, my parents have told me they have a good business program. As for school size, I believe I would be happy with anything that isn’t super small. And again, money is no issue; my sister fortunately got a hefty scholarship to our state school and my parents have paid my brother’s private college tuition. I would like to end up working in the northeast, so I think going to college in the northeast would be the first step towards reaching my goal. I’m indifferent towards greek life, as I would rush if the school has it but it is not a deal breaker. Same with sports, it is not a dealbreaker. For the meaning of banker, I would just like to end up in the financial side of a corporation. Whether thats by being a lawyer for them or an analyst, I would like to help with the finances of companies.

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I’m taking the PSAT in October, but I also feel as if my awards section in general is lacking. I’m joining DECA, Model UN, and Mock trial this year to try and win some, since I quit my varsity sport. Please let me know any other ways to win awards.

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Thanks for the article. Do you know of any other well-known Texas schools in the business realm? I’m touring SMU this year and would love to add some more. I have also toured and enjoyed Boston College, as I felt it was similar to Georgetown.

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Yes, I can fund this amount. Instead of NYC, I would be fine with any city in the Northeast. Boston, Philadelphia, NYC, and Chicago (if you count it) would be my dream city to work and live in.

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I don’t know about any auto admits at SMU. Hadn’t heard that. But I might just not know. But I suspect you’d get SMU on your own merits.

You can study any major for law - from
Exercise to history to business to engineering.

You mention business but now history.

What is it you want to study ? That’s what you should study but if you want to work in finance, I’d study that. But history might or might not be more conducive for law. More reading and writing. Perhaps you can double or minor.

Would you say Harvard is T14 because their class is represented by 174 schools. Cal State LA and Northridge, Oakland U in Michigan, Fairleigh Dickinson, Georgia State , U of you name it - Arkansas, Alabama, Wyoming and on and on.

Your gpa and test taking will get you into law school. You’re a great test taker. Going to Michigan or Gtown on its own - won’t.

Where you go to school likely won’t impact where you work. My son went to Bama. We are in Franklin TN and it’s not why he chose it but it was cheaper than UTK. Culverhouse is a great b school.

Had an offer outside Providence. He ended up with a Cleveland company but in Utah. NY is another possibility for future rotations - he has 4 six month rotations. You could go to NYU and end up in TN. Don’t pick a school thinking - so I can work there.

For a corporate finance gig, any school mentioned will be just fine including UTK. Today more hiring is done on indeed and LinkedIn plus handshake - you can get anywhere from anywhere, especially for a corporate finance gig.

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Thanks for the ideas, I’ll add IU Kelley to my research list. I’m touring NYC schools this year and Fordham is planned, so I’ll see about that. As for DC Schools, I hated GWU. I don’t know if it was the lack of campus or what, but I did not like the vibe at all. My counselor told me American University would likely be a safety, but I haven’t searched about it at all. I’ve toured Boston and I enjoyed BC and Tufts, but felt BU was too spaced out.

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You don’t need to win awards. Overrated. You need to accomplish things that can be quantified. I was the club vp and recruited 20 members. I walked dogs at the shelter and helped in four adoptions.

Most don’t have meaningful awards. I hope you didn’t quit a sport for that. Tenure/commitment matter.

My daughter also hated GW. Same reason. Loved AU. AU is a safety but you need to demonstrate interest.

You don’t need 100 safeties. A few you like. You can tour IU. It’s drivable from most of TN - within 5 hours. If you loved SMU - then you don’t need a million more - maybe U of Denver, AU. Knowing you love SMU takes a lot of pressure off. I’d check UGA Terry if you have time, Bana, UTK, others if interested - Richmond, W&M but once you have the safety you love and can afford you are golden. SMU places well. As does IU and others.

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@RedWaterbottle95 if you’re wanting to look in Texas, I suggest Baylor and Texas A&M. A&M huge & SEC like UTK, Baylor more along the lines of SMU, but better/bigger sports (Big12) and larger campus.
SMU in Dallas, TCU in Fort Worth, Baylor in Waco-would be super easy to tour all 3 in 2 days. Texas A&M in College Station (which is closer to Waco), but could still tour all 4 in 1 visit.

Any major can go to law school, just need a strong gpa and high lsat. There really isn’t one major that gives a ‘leg up’ on doing better on lsat (my student just took the lsat this last week). I wouldn’t suggest going a ‘pre-law’ track…select a major that will stand alone, if you decide not to go to law school.

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The sport was because I didn’t enjoy it anymore as well as injuries I had due to it. And you are sure about no awards? I’m thinking of starting a fundraising club to fund more of my service organization’s works.