Chance/match me! [3.88/4.0, 35 ACT, arts+humanities, chronic JJK watcher]

[gojo]

Demographics

US citizen
NEW YORK
public high school

Cost Constraints / Budget
no constraints

Intended Major(s)
arts + humanities (flexible)

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

UW: 3.88/4.0
W: i have zero idea.
ACT score: 35 (34M, 34R, 35E, 36S)
SAT score: 790M, 720RW, not reporting

List your HS coursework

• by junior year: 8 APs, 5 honors classes?? i think??*

AP human geography: 5

AP world history: 5

AP calc bc: 5 (5 on an subscore)

AP chem: 5

AP psych: 4

AP lang: 4

AP physics 1: 4

APUSH: 4 (biggest disappoint of my life bruh i was confident in a 5 )

senior year AP’s: AP lit, AP physics C E&M, AP micro and macro econ, AP 2d art, AP US govt

also multivariable calculus but not an AP

Awards

• 2nd Place in NY State for Junior Duck Stamp Art Competition by Fish and Wildlife Service

• Silver Key in Scholastic Art (Acrylic Paint)

• Honorable Mention in Scholastic Art (Graphite and Colored Pencil)

• AP Scholar with Distinction

• NHS

• School Honor Roll & Student of the Month *

Extracurriculars

• ECs are not lined up in order*

1.) PR officer for an established nonprofit

• provides free resources to kids from a global scale
• managed social media campaigns in order to grow the nonprofit
• 100+ kids attended classes
• also volunteered and taught online art classes for 25 hours with 20+ kids (25 weeks, 1hr)

2.) Art content creator on TikTok

• 60k+ followers, 2million+ likes, videos always average 20k+ likes consistently (not like some who have one vid that blows up and the rest are all barely looked at)
• self taught animations + self drawn digital art for anime fans
• accepted commissions for money
• been offered brand deals by companies on TikTok

3.) Made videocast series project

• project advocated for careers in law to advance gender equality
• educational videos with research done behind them + edited

4.) Volunteer at local art museum (180+ hours)

• Worked as a cashier @ museum’s gift shop
• Organized office shelves in manager’s room
• Assisted with pricing & gift shop sales; helped tag items and calculate prices
• Assessed artwork for sale potential
• Coordinated special events for VIPs @ the museum

5.) Working on publishing a philosophy (?) paper

• working with a graduate law student from Cambridge university
• not much to add, working on publishing to an institute supported by UN Foundation by september!!

6.) Artist @ art studio

• been drawing there since 5th grade, 8+ hours per session
• during the summer have been going there for ~40 hours a week, typically 8-16 hours on normal school week
• compiling art portfolio of 10 works

7.) VP @ school club, mentored elementary school students

• Select qualified mentors from applications and interviews
• Helped grow club to ~90 members
• Match students with mentors based on interest
• The director of the club chooses some elementary school students that she believes might benefit from extra one-on-one time with high school students
• Selected mentors support ~20 elementary students one-on-one with academics & social life

8.) Remote Intern for the Legalist company (in progress)

• working and researching on case studies ummm this place assigns homework too
• tbh idk what description to give this gives me more experience w law related things though

9.) Youth fellow/ ambassador: part of ASPIRE 2030, a global educational equality campaign by UNESCO and Learning Planet Institute

• Accepted as 1 1/100 youth globally in 2023.
• Promoted UN ECOSOC Youth Forum youth event with YOUNGA Group
• Contributed to 2 social media campaigns

10.) Contribjted to school literary journal, OPUS, by submitting artworks

• artworks were all chosen to be in the book! yippee!!

11.) graphic designer for a few independent projects: designed merchandise for 3 clubs (ones im not even in…) , designed logo and layout for a zine, designed a logo for a bubble tea shop

• i was not paid for ts

12.) co-founder of a student led org where we purely attend and participate in seminars about access to education

• this is not going on the app

13.) marketing manager for school yearbook club

• in short i force ppl in my grade to purchase the yearbooks
• designed posters/ ads to push out the yearbook to students
• ummmm this club hasn’t started because it’s solely for 12th graders

Essays/LORs/Other
9/10 AP Lang Teacher: was one of his favorite students
8/10 AP Chem Teacher: had him for two years, i think i’m a solid student. i listened and had solid grades in both of his classes
8/10 History teacher: I’m debating if I should ask my history teacher instead of mY chem teacher because i was closer to him since he is more outgoing. he’s a new teacher though, so idk if he has experience with recs

Schools
i did not finalize anything. if this was my actual school list, i’d be cooked. it’s very loose because everytime i do school research i end up going in circles and getting nowhere because im indecisive

THESE ARE MERELY SCHOOLS I’VE LOOKED AT. I AM 1000% OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS PLZZZ

*early: i was thinking between Northwestern or Brown ED *

*reach: stanford, yale, northwestern, cornell, washu, duke, brown, NYU, emory, UW madison, UCLA, UC Berkeley
target: idk
safeties: SUNYs!!!

[merc81]

Any reason you have not listed any LACs? You seem academically well-suited to the open curricula at schools such as Amherst College and Hamilton, for example, or perhaps to the notably broad visual arts and humanities offerings at, say, Vassar or Kenyon.

[gojo]

no specific reason, but i’ll take a deeper look into them! thank you for the feedback!! im kinda just using arts as a way to get into a more competitive school, so its not a career path for me. endgame, i would like to get into law, but since undergrad is flexible, im fine with any major related to humanities.

[merc81]

I see. Then perhaps think of those suggestions as simply undergraduate-focused alternatives to the schools you mentioned in your original post. You might like them on that basis.

[tsbna44]

I would find the right school for you. Not a more ‘competitive’ school. If you’re artsy, that might lean you to a different type of school.

Have you visited any schools! What interests you size wise, environment - rural, urban, suburban, etc.

It’s ok to ED but you should visit and ensure it’s the right school for you, not just a big name.

Btw SUNYs are great but with your stats you’d have access to many great schools, public and private, around the country.

[gojo]

idk if i feel like continuing art, unless its something on the side? i’m really only trying to use it to an advantage, if i have any the only school i visited was NYU because my dad thinks its not worth the time to travel… (if you count 5th grade, then princeton, MIT, harvard, ) but i did some research and brown seems like a solid pick maybe

[gojo]

thank you!!

[tsbna44]

I didn’t say to pursue art - I said if your personality is artsy, it might veer to a different type of school.

In your case, please don’t ED. It’s binding.

You should visit any school you plan to attend. Many kids show up to the dream school and feel put off by it. It’s why visiting is so important. We took many schools off our list after visiting.

Btw I’d call Wisconsin a target. Michigan would be its reach. Indiana it’s safety.

Given the schools on your list, you might add a Rochester, Case Western, U Miami, William & Mary types as back ups.

[Thorsmom66]

Budget? That is going to drive the conversation. Most of the schools on your list are $80k +per year (several are $90k+). Are your parents willing and able to spend that? Does your family qualify for need-based aid? UC schools (UCLA and Berkeley) don’t offer aid to out of state students so if the cost (around $75k) isn’t affordable I’d eliminate them from your list. You also need to add more likely/safety schools to your list - it is almost all reaches.

[tsbna44]

OP noted SUNYs as safeties although I’m guessing that it wasn’t well thought out. And we all know, the safeties are the most critical schools to truly put thought into…

[gojo]

ohh okay mbb i misinterpreted :(( thank you once again!!

[gojo]

my dad is willing, and we do not qualify for aid

[gojo]

i mean for safety schools, i would rather stay in state then go anywhere else, which is the reason why i generically put “SUNYs”

[tsbna44]

What would you get from a major in the “humanities” at a UC vs. a SUNY?

[Thorsmom66]

Ok. Good to know. Please make sure that he knows exactly how much this might entail because, often, parents are unpleasantly surprised when they learn how much it will really cost. If he says a $90k per year budget is fine that is fantastic. A budget of that size will give you many, many options. Still, you need to round out your list with more likely schools. Unless you are hooked, most reach schools are going to be long shots so unless you would be satisfied at one of the SUNY schools (and many are excellent) you might want to add some more targets. Skidmore comes to mind for an artsy student that is interested in the humanities

[gojo]

idk. my dad’s approval that i got into a good school it seems like its only the name that matters

[gojo]

thank you, i will do more research on LACs and add targets

[thumper1]

@tsbna44

You should visit any school you plan to attend.

At some point.

1. I would not suggest applying ED to a school you haven’t visited.

2. Many students don’t visit before they apply to colleges. They can’t either because of time commitments, or costs. Once accepted, they try to visit the top three or so colleges before making a matriculation decision.

3. I know times have changed, but when I was in high school in the Stone Age, most students didn’t visit colleges at all. They just showed up on move in day…and learned to love where they were. Perhaps that’s a good life skill…

At this point, I think students should try to visit colleges before they make a decision where to actually matriculate, if financially possible.

[gojo]

okay i will try and visit the ones im interested in thank you for responding + the advice!!!

[NiceUnparticularMan]

Off hand you definitely strike me as someone who might want to look closely at William & Mary and Rochester.

I also agree about the LACs. There are many strong in the Humanities with good law advising and also a good arts scene But Oberlin, Macalester, and Kenyon are natural fits to me. St Olaf and Kalamazoo would be likelier admits but could be very strong fits too. For reachier options I would check out at least Vassar, Wesleyan, and Carleton.