Uncompetitive suburban HS with average rankings in state (~1200 students)
Unhooked
Cost Constraints / Budget
<$60k/year
Intended Major(s)
Business or finance
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.90 UW GPA
School doesn’t weight GPA or rank, but W GPA would be near 4.54/5
ACT/SAT Scores: 34 ACT (34E, 34M, 34R, 33S, W:12)
List your HS coursework (AP scores indicated in parenthesis):
Freshman year: AP Human Geography (4), Honors Geometry, Honors English 9, Honors Biology, Spanish 2, Freshman-level band
Sophomore year: AP European History (4), AP Seminar (5), Honors Algebra 2, Honors Chemistry, Spanish 3, highest-level band
Junior year: APUSH (5), AP Micro/Macroeconomics (5/5), AP Chem (4), AP Lang (5), Honors Precalculus, highest-level band, Spanish 4
Senior year (upcoming year): AP Literature, AP Calculus BC, AP Biology, AP Research, higher-level band, and dual enrollment spanish, business statistics, and 300-level econ elective taken through UW-Milwaukee
Awards
WI FBLA 2nd place winner/national finalist
WI DECA 4th place winner in a finance event
WI FBLA 2nd place winner
State speech tournament 5x gold medalist
WI School Music Assocation 5x gold medalist at state festival in 2 solos and 3 ensembles
Extracurriculars
FBLA National Council: chosen through a process w/ less than 7% acceptance rate, leader representing 25,000k+ members across 9 states, contributed to fundraising $2,750+, initiated 4 unique programs (10-11)
WI FBLA State Officer: elected to serve 5k members, designed workshops and presented them to 1000s, assisted in fundraising $6,750+ (our state fundraised the most for FBLA’s charity of choice on the national level), ran council of 3, developed 3 toolkits reaching 30+ chapters statewide (10-11)
3x FBLA/DECA Officer @ School: very standard “running the club duties” (slotting members into events, running meetings, etc), ran can drive raising 250 pounds of food, increased social media interaction/following by 125%+ through short videos (tiktoks)
Speech captain: edited teammate speaches + occasionally practiced with them (9-11), 10x+ tournament finalist, state awards
NHS President: I haven’t been able to make much impact through this role yet (was elected at the end of the last school year!), but our chapter will be running a trick-or-can event, blood drive, can drive, pickleball tourney, leadership academy (guided class on developing your own service project, available to 5 club members). I have also spent many hours tutoring, and have tutored 30+ students in group sessions working on ACT prep. I inherited a chapter of 180+ members, who collectively have volunteered for more than 4,500 hours so far (11)
Tennis team captain-elect (will-be captain next year, tennis is a spring sport so our season hasn’t started yet), 3x varsity letter, competed at sectionals (9-11)
Cultural club VP of Finance: managed $900 in club funds, overseeing field trip accomadating 20, created workshop-like activities at monthly meetings, etc
School marching band: member of state-award winning marching band, state 2nd place and 3rd place finishes (9-11)
Lifeguard: 400+ hours worked, I once had to jump in the pool and rescue someone!
Quora author: wrote 20k+ words of responses, received 300k+ lifetime views (9-11)
Essays/LORs/Other
I’ve put time and effort into my relationships with mentors/teachers, and I feel that my dedication to building genuine connections with these figures will be reflected through strong LORs which positively convey my character. I’ve already decided to ask 4 individuals for LORs (whichever letters I don’t use on the common app will be used for scholarships): my english teacher, econ teacher, forensics coach, and tennis coach.
I also feel somewhat self-assured in terms of writing my essays. I’m confident in my writing abilities and am sure my essays will turn out all right.
Schools
Saftey: UW-Whitewater, UW-Madison, ASU, DePaul
Target: University of North Carolina, Indiana University, UT Austin
Reach: Penn, USC, UCLA, University of Michigan, Duke, Northwestern
I’d love to hear your guys’ honest thoughts about feedback on my school list so far, where I might be a strong fit, or even insight into how my application might be viewed by college AOs. I’m still in the early stages of navigating the college process, so any help in furthering my college list is much appreciated!
It’s best not to go into this process with assumptions. You don’t need to know every detail of their personal finances, but have you talked to them about how much they are comfortable paying, and are they OK paying up to $90-100k/year for college?
UCLA is one of those schools that is a reach school for everyone; you’ll want to move this one to your reach category. The UCs also have a separate application, which might feel like a lot of effort if you are applying only to one UC. To be competitive for UCLA, you’ll need to spend significant time on the UC PIQs and activities list. Finally, COA for the UCs is now over $80k/year.
If you’re interested in the UCs, it would be helpful to calculate your three UC GPAs here (be sure to follow instructions, especially about how the UC treats OOS honors courses): GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
As an out of state student, the various universities of California, including UCLA, will not meet this budget.
Whether Penn will meet the budget will depend upon whether you qualify for need based financial aid. Ditto for Northwestern and USC unless I am missing something. I am not sure about Duke. Most of your reaches might be reaches for affordability in addition to being reaches for admissions.
Mu guess is that UT Austin is probably a reach, although maybe (?) less of a reach compared to some other reaches on your list. You should find out what it is likely to cost.
I like UW-Madison. It is a very good school. ASU and UW-Whitewater I suspect are probably solid safeties. This is the most important part of your list.
If the OP means the USC in LA, this school does have merit scholarships, but it would be a high reach to receive one. (The base COA is nearly 100k/year, so hitting the budget number would require one of their highest merit scholarships, unless OP is eligible for need-based aid.)
Can’t tell you where you’d be a strong fit - as I don’t know anything about you.
I can tell you, unless you have need, you should take off UT Austin and all your reaches - because they’re not happening - they either cost too much and/or have no merit aid (and cost too much). And one doesn’t even have your major - UCLA - but that’s ok as it’s over your stated $60K budget.
I think U Wisc is a great place to start. Why Whitewater?
After that, if you’d choose ASU or DePaul over U Wisc - then sure - but if not, why bother?
UNC - has secondary admissions - meaning getting in does not mean getting into the business school.
So what fits you? If you want smaller, how about a U Denver? If you want large, you have Wisconsin and IU is getting close - but other publics will be cheaper - UF, UGA, U of SC are strong in finance. And neighboring UMN a home run. Purdue too. More likely to get $60K with merit - would be a school like Syracuse - not a sure thing to get there - but it has merit whereas a NU or USC have near zero chance of getting to $60K (short of aid).
There’s lots of schools $60K or less but you seemingly didn’t choose them.
This is a very impressive resume. Grades, difficult classes, but also 4 years band and language. Clubs, sports, jobs. But you have a lot of schools with single-digit acceptance rates. Including UNC for out-of-state. Nothing wrong with looking at these and picking a few you like. But you need more easier admits. I see a lot of larger schools, in your Midwest region. So I’d definitely look at Madison, great school, and Univ Minnesota as well. Maybe Illinois, Ohio State and Penn State. If you’re willing to consider Penn or Duke, then how about Villanova or Wake Forest. Cost may be an issue, but these have great business programs, and have moderate sizes.
I think your profile makes you a solid applicant for your reach schools. The odds are still against you, but they are against everyone. If your parents have the money, I do think the cost difference is worth it for schools you mentioned like Penn, Duke and Northwestern.
I received my bachelor’s degree from UT Austin, so I am a fan, but I wouldn’t pay 4X the money to go there (or UNC) compared to Wisconsin-Madison.
I’m assuming OP’s HS counts AP Seminar as a 10th grade English. We are seeing that trend in some areas of the country.
But…for OP, if you haven’t take physics, I would encourage you to do so senior year. Physics > AP research, DE biz stats, or 300 level econ at UWM, at least for the reachier schools on your list.
