Chance / Match Me: aiming for schools in TX [international who may have TX residency, 3.4 GPA, top 50% rank, 1350 SAT (1380 super), no parent contribution; marketing]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics
Canadian citizen waiting on permanent residency in the US
Currently in Texas
Current junior in public high school
I’m a hispanic female (born in LAAM)

Intended major: Marketing

Academics
3.9 weighted (5.0 scale), 3.4 unweighted (4.0 scale)
Top 50% in class rank (class size 875, very competitive school)
ACT / SAT: 740ebrw, 640m, but 1350 highest score, planning on taking ACT

  • one note: GPA is tanked by freshman year (had just moved to the US) and there is a whole point of improvement from 9th through 10th grade

Coursework
12 AP classes, 6 honors classes, 1 dual credit class, electives have been reg
all AP scores have been 4s or 5s so far
Only have 2 foreign language credits because I speak Spanish & English fluently

Awards
6th place at TSA State Competition
State qualifier for FBLA (waiting on results)
Multiple overall awards at Dance competitions

Extracurriculars
Competitive dance from 2010-2023, 15hrs a week (including performances internationally)
English tutor for 2 years, 2hrs a week
Study group facilitator for 1 year, 4hrs a week
Video editor for non-profit for 1 year, 2hrs a week
Competition based clubs: TSA, FBLA, both < 1hr a week
Interest clubs: book club, < 1hr a week
Center Assistant at Kumon for 1 month now, 7hrs a week

Essays/LORs/Other
Haven’t begun writing, but planning to write an essay on my contrasting interests in math and english and how I’ve become okay w/ being a walking oxymoron
&
Planning on asking Counselor, AP Lang & either honors English 2 or APHUG teachers for LORs

Cost Constraints / Budget
No parent contributions expected, difficulties getting financial aid because of no green card :((

Schools
*Applying to scholarships where possible

Safety / Likely
• University of St. Thomas
• UTSA
• University of Houston

Target
• Texas A&M
• UBC
• UCalgary
• York University

Reach
• UT Austin
• UT Dallas
• McMaster University
• UPenn
• New York University

Note - my parents told me to apply to places where I have a low chance, I know I probably won’t get into t20s

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So this is going to be the first issue - because how can you pay for anywhere or anything?

Are there local community colleges where you could get in state tuition and live at home?

You could run the net price calculator for a meets need college - l put one below that is more likely for you than the top 20s- just to see how much they say you’d have to contribute.

Parents not contributing and the is not the same as a school saying they can’t afford to contribute - so find out what the school says by filling in an NPC.

Welcome | Net Price Calculator (collegeboard.org)

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Are you in a major metro area? If so you might be able to live at home and attend a public 4 yr to save some $. More expensive than a CC (which would also be a good option if price is prohibitive). If you’re in DFW, UT Arlington, U North Texas, in addition to UT Dallas, and would be likely/safety in terms of acceptance. (Though it looks like UNT % have been dropping). Sam Houston State?

Do you want to go back to Canada for college? I have no idea about costs for Canadian citizens for Canadian colleges, but look into that to see if it would be less expensive.
Small private US colleges might have better aid to bring them down in cost, but this will depend on your residency status and whether you’re considered international.
I also get the sense from friends with kids who’ve been applying to some of the top Texas schools that A&M has also gotten more challenging to get into recently.
You can get a great education, save $$ and set yourself up for transfer at a community college (and increase your chances of getting in to UT or other top schools – just make sure you look into what is required for transfer before you register for classes and keep tabs on what courses the 4-yr schools want for their transfer students)

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This means that you are currently an international student for most colleges (typically the least favorable category for admission and financial aid / scholarships), but Texas residency for tuition purposes through high school graduation in Texas after 36 months of living in Texas may be extended to international students (see Texas Residency - UTSA One Stop and https://www.uh.edu/academics/forms/residency-questionnaire.pdf ). You may want to check carefully on the rules regarding this.

Freshman Admissions Requirements - UTSA Admissions indicates that top 25-50% rank with 1170 SAT gives automatic admission to UTSA. If you qualify for Texas residency, the same criteria also give assured admission to University of Houston: Freshman Admissions Process - University of Houston

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No real shot at A&M or Texas if you go Marketing. The B Schools at both essentially require Top 10/6% or crazy stats. Same as Engineering. Both will likely offer you a System Admit where you go to a System school for a year, make grades, then can transfer in. Business is really tough though and they care a lot about Class Rank. A&M’s stats are almost meaningless because they don’t care at all about rankings. For instance it says they have a 60% Admit rate but that includes all the System Admits and Blinn Team. Regular Freshman Admit is about 25% or lower. Business or Engineering is more like 15%. That’s In State.

You actually have a much better shot at UTD than A&M. May want to look at UTSA or UT Arlington as well. The other best kept secret is A&M Galveston. It’s actually an adjunct of CS so you get football tickets and an Aggie Ring. Most of all you can simply change majors after a year (not transfer) and go to College Station. The Maritime Business Program is also excellent there and their grads make bank. Though if you want to change majors into Mays in CS you better have a 4.0 to have a shot and even then have a backup plan, it’s just really tough to do.

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You may want to check out https://www.thedream.us/ (in particular, TheDream.US National Scholarship for Immigrant Students) which has programs with:

  • San Antonio College
  • Texas A&M - San Antonio
  • U. of Houston
  • U. of North Texas at Dallas
  • U. of St. Thomas
  • U. of Texas - El Paso
  • U. of Texas - Rio Grande Valley
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@yeeyloo I’d say zero chance for A&M and UT, UTD will be a hard reach also-50% rank and SAT just won’t cut it. Even UT CAP and A&M Blinn TEAM aren’t possibilities.
UH should be safety tho.
What about A&M Corpus Christi, UTSA, UT Tyler,
Sam Houston, SFA, maybe Texas Tech (tho getting into Rawls Business could be tough).

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Any idea when your permanent residency might go through? I don’t think Canada is an especially backed-up country (unlike, say, India) but I know the system is very slow.

Since you’re a Canadian citizen, defintely apply to a few universities in Canada, your freshman year won’t be factored in and you will pay the Canadian price. If you’re from Quebec and apply to Québec universities tuition should be about 6k in USD, if you’re from Nova Scotia Dalhousie would be the same, etc - you get the idea: Canadian tuition is much cheaper than US tuition.

Private colleges, especially smaller ones, will care about your ECs much more than large public universities (which receive tens of thousands of applications so must be more stats-focused or it’d take them too long.)
How much would you pay at Southwestern, Hendrix, Agnes Scott, Susquehanna, Muhlenberg, m
Mount Holyoke, St Olaf? Run the Npc.

Definitely apply to UHouston (Honors? Due to rigor), perhaps UTD, UNT? You should qualify for instate tuition since you arrived 4 years ago.

Do you have a job currently ?
What’s your Sai?
Are your parents low income or are they able to but unwilling to pay for uS colleges ?

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