Chance me: FGLI in top schools? Help! [AZ Resident, 3.7 UW, 1420 SAT, Finance]

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Background

  • Citizenship: U.S. Citizen
  • State: Arizona
  • High School: One of the top 15 public high schools in Arizona
  • First-Generation, Low-Income (FGLI)

Budget Considerations

  • No specific cost constraints (Need based scholarships takes care of most of it right?)

Intended Major(s)

  • Finance, General
    Management, or Analyst

Academic Profile

  • Unweighted GPA: 3.7
  • Weighted GPA: 4.27
  • Class Rank: Estimated top 25%
  • SAT Scores: 2nd time: 1420 (Math: 790, Reading: 630), schools avg is 1370.
  • ACT: Taking soon; aiming for 32+, wish me luck! If I don’t retake the SAT :frowning:
  • AP Courses: Completed 3 (Bio: 3, Seminar: 3, Mandarin: 5); Enrolled in 3 more (APUSH, AP Lang, AP Research). 4-5 more in Senior year.

Coursework Overview

  • 9th Grade: Bio, PE, Geometry, Honors English 9, Honors World History/Geo, Mandarin 2

  • 10th Grade: AP Bio, AP Mandarin 4, AP Seminar, Culinary 1, Honors Algebra 2, Honors Chem

  • 11th Grade: AP Research, Marketing 1, Pre-Calc, APUSH, Culinary 2, AP Lang

  • 12th Grade (Projected): AP Lit, AP Psychology, AP Govt/Econ (does this count as 2 or 1?), AP Calc BC (big jump :(, nervous), 0.5 yr Health (req. for graduation at my school), 0.5 yr Teacher Assistant, Ceramics.
    I could have taken around like 4.5 classes, but I just filled the rest of the spots in.

  • General education course work:

  • English 4 yrs

  • Math 4 yrs

  • Science 3 yrs (took 2 sophomore yr)

  • Social Studies 3yr

  • Language 2yrs, finish the AP test got a 5 so I didn’t take anymore yrs

  • Fine Arts: 1, in senior yr (idk if colleges accept culinary as fine art, that’s why I need to take Ceramics)

  • CTE, a lot.

*Awards
*Basically 2 awards for maintaining 4.0+ Weighted GPA, idk if my school is doing one this year.
*Testing medal for DECA district.
*Some trophies and top 3 medals for Shaolin Kung Fu competitions
*Qualified to State mathleague (idk if this is worth something)
*2 PVSA Gold in my high school years, idk about this year since I would need 250+ hrs and I only have like 170ish rn. 2 more gold pvsa in middle school (do I add this in college apps to show my dedication?)

Extracurricular Activities
*Vice President of a branch in my state, my branch has around 20+ members, the organization itself is all across the US (Vice President, 11th)
*Volunteered over 400+ hours, including serving at food banks, tutoring, park cleanups, hospitals, etc. (7th-9th-now)
*Member of DECA, participated at State (11th)
*Shaolin Kung Fu, started in freshman year, now I am testing for my black belt, participated in many comps, went to China and went to the Shaolin Temple and trained with Shaolin monks (summer before 11th).
*YMCA basketball for a season, quit after that (we went 0-8, didnt even make it to playoffs) (10th)
*Worked as a waiter at a buffet, cashier of a store in a mall, (10-11th)
*Tutored, online tutored reading and writing for low-income need academic help students in California(10-11th), also tutored at a local daycare/small fine art school for math(11th). Tutored SAT math for students all across America who need help in the math portion of the SAT (11th).
*After I tutored for their winter program, they hired me to teach students at their school math of grades 1-7 (11th)

Essays and Recommendations

  • AP Research on a business-related topic.
  • International relations essay for HIR essay, but their applications were full so now I have a paper that isn’t submitted.
  • AP Seminar IRR

*No Recs yet, idk when to do it.
*Also, might do business related internships over this summer

Schools List

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): ASU (state school, obviously going to get in with my gpa and sat score), OSU, CWU, KSU, MTSU, Penn College, WSU, etc (out of state schools chances were from collegevine, said i have a 100% chance for them). (dont wanna go to these schools, if i get rejected from the good ones, stuck with asu :frowning:
  • Acceptance rate(>50%)
  • UT Austin (56%)
  • University of Rocheser (64%)
  • USC Aiken (97%)
  • Pepperdine (82%)
  • (according to collegvine)
  • Acceptance rate (20-50%)
  • USC (23%)
  • FSU (37%)
  • NYU (32%)
  • BU and BC (29%)
  • UC Davis (27%)
    *Acceptance rate (<20%)
  • CMU (17%)
  • U of Florida (15%)
  • UCSD (14%)
  • Vanderbilt (14%)
  • UPenn (9%) if ED
  • UChicago (9%) if ED
  • UC Berk (8%)
  • Cornell (8%) if ED
  • UCLA and Princeton (7%)
  • Harvard (6%)
  • Stanford, Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Columbia (6%)
  • Rice, Yale, Duke (5%)
  • MIT, CIT (4%)

(ALL OF THESE PULLED FROM COLLEGEVINES CHANCES) (IDK IF THESE ARE LIKE ACCURATE)

I really want to get into a prestigious high school, basically at least top 12. I want to ED to Cornell, UChicago, or UPenn. Since UChicago offers a round 2 of ED in case I get rejected from a different ED, I want to ED 2 to UChicago, but I don’t know whether to ED to Cornell or UPenn. So, I just want to hear yalls advice on which of those schools should I ED I to. Also, I just wanna ask if I actually have hope for top 10 schools and what are my actual chances. Thanks!

2

Not necessarily. You need a budget.

Let’s say your parents say they can spend $30k a year. You apply to a meets need school but they say your cost will be $90k ? No what.

So have your parents completed the net price calculator of any schools of interest.

When you say CWU - are you saying Central Washington? MTSU - Middle Tenn State, KSU Kennesaw State ? No need to apply since you don’t want to go - you have ASU but Eller at Arizona is great too. So no need to apply to others. It’s like USC Aiken ? Why ? Are you just picking random name ? No.

You need a focused list.

Which OSU. Ohio State - you don’t have a 100% chance.

So out of state schools, except UNC and UVA don’t assure to meet need. So again you need a budget.

But for chances -

UT is a reach for admission and a huge reach for business. So no

Rochester 50/50

Pepperdine - likely. It’s religious. Is that an issue ?

USC - no

FSU - toss up but I’d lean in

NYU - no

BU and BC No - apply ED for any BU chance

UC Davis - no. It’s $75k and you will not get a nickel. Can you afford that ?

CMU - no

UF no

Everything else hard no

If you are interested in business why Cal Tech etc.

If you want a top b school, Indiana should be on your list - you’ll auto qualify. But you need $250k for four years (maybe a tad less). Do you have ?

Find your budget. Then pick schools.

Good luck.

3

Thank you for providing this insight.

To begin, this is my first post, even though I looked at other posts, I was uncertain about what to include under the school section. Consequently, I listed universities I found sourced from collegevine. Currently, Arizona State University is the only safety school I am considering applying to.

Regarding financial matters, my parents have completed some financial assessments, and for institutions like Cornell, the anticipated tuition cost would be approximately $6,000 to $7,000 per semester due to need based scholarships. Other institutions estimate tuition ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 per semester.

To clarify, OSU refers to Oklahoma State University.

Furthermore, my parents are committed to covering my college expenses regardless of the amount. I have also been working to save money for college and am open to utilizing student loans if necessary. Also, I thought that UC Davis offers financial aid and scholarships. So in the end, I don’t really have a specific budget at this point.

Do you think if my letters of recommendations and my essays for the common app will improve my chances for UT Austin or UC Davis? These 2 schools are my secondary options in case if I can’t get into my dream school.

Once again, thanks for taking your time to write this out for me.

4

College can be $100k a year.

If your parents can pay $7k a semester, then there’s many you cannot afford.

You don’t want loans and fortunately the Feds only let you borrow $5500 the first year and $27k over four years.

That means, you don’t apply to schools like UT or UCs - you are out of state. If you got anything it’d be little.

You can try schools where your stats would get merit - like an Alabama or Ole Miss.

That you have ASU is a home run.

Have your parents fill out the attached. It’s a meets need school to see the cost estimate.

5

Sorry to tell you but College Vine is a terrible chancing tool. It doesn’t take into account things like extra curriculars, essays, letters of rec, course rigor, etc. Your chances at most of these schools is much lower than what College Vine has estimated for you.

Schools like UChicago, UPenn, Yale, Duke, MIT, JHU, and Cornell are generally looking for kids that have taken the highest rigor possible, as well as stellar grades and test scores. While you can of course still apply to these schools, your chances are very low.

UT Austin, Florida, UC Davis, Berkeley and FSU are likely unaffordable as you won’t get financial aid there.

My advice: find an affordable in state option and learn to love it. That is most likely where you’ll end up. Good luck to you!

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The vast majority of colleges in this country do NOT guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students. The ones that do are HIGHLY competitive for admissions.

You need to find out how much your parents can pay.

You need to run the Net Price Calculators on your colleges of interest to get an estimated net cost!

I think you mean college, not high school. Regardless…all of these are reaches for you.

How will your parents cover these costs?

The California public colleges don’t give aid to out of state students. Well…sometimes a small amount of merit aid, but I doubt you would be that.

I agree. I would immediately remove the CA publics from your list.

No. And they won’t be affordable for you anyway. These are public colleges and their first mission is to their own instate residents.

Make sure you have two affordable sure things for admission that you really would be happy attending. Find these FIRST.

I agree. College Vine isn’t a great chancing tool.

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Your first step in being college ready is to get a handle on your family’s finances and budget. Sit down with your parents and find out how much they can pay without taking parental loans…you in fact may be the one educating your parents. You, the student, can take $27K in total undergrad loans, starting with $5.5K the first year…that doesn’t go far. Any loans above that are on your parents and generally don’t make financial sense (of course each family’s financial situation is unique.) As suggested above, run the net price calculators with your parents.

Because of your GPA/class standing/relative rigor, it is highly unlikely that you will be competitive at meet full need/low acceptance colleges…even with a good test score and ECs. Generally, these schools are taking students from the top 10% of their high school class. Of course you can and should put in a few apps to a couple of reach schools, but you have to re-work your list. I also want to say that ASU is an outstanding in-state option to have for business, get your app in as soon as their application opens. Are you considering University of Arizona?

Regarding your senior classes…can you take physics senior year? You should have a science, your schedule is not rigorous enough in terms of core courses.

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Just some additional information:

The UC’s are test blind so your SAT score is not considered for admissions or scholarships but only course placement.

The UC’s have their own application and they do not use the common application.

The UC’s do not accept LOR’s except for UC Berkeley which invites a small percentage of students to submit LOR’s.

The UC’s do not give need-based financial aid to Non-residents so you will pay full cost of attendance to attend. Some UC’s do offer some merit scholarships to Non-residents which are highly competitive but these scholarships may only bring down the costs from $80K/year to around $55-70K/year to attend.

If you want to come to California then you should focus on the WUE schools which are mainly the Cal States and UC Merced or private universities such as Loyola Marymount, Chapman, Pepperdine, Occidental, Redlands, University of San Diego, University of San Francisco and Santa Clara where you have a better chance at need and merit aid. Be sure to run the Net Price Calculator on each school before applying.

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Your list of schools is unrealistic based on your class rank & SAT scores.

Start with ASU & the University of Arizona as affordable safety schools which offer lots of academic, extracurricular,and social opportunities.

Why USC (South Carolina) at Aiken ?

10

^ this student may be FGLI (it appears at the top of the first post though might be a mistake), so they likely don’t know colleges beside the big names everyone knows + their state’s universities. Hence the very weird Collegefine list.

Meet-need colleges estimate this student’s need to be 12-14k.

@richamiri: did either of your parents graduate from college or have a professional degree (MD, MBA, PHD…) from the US?
As far as you know, do your parents make less than 85k? Less than 125k? Less than 200k?
This will impact how your 1420 is perceived.

You need to take Physics, even regular is fine. Ceramics will count as a 0.5 u it of art. Culinary Arts is a great course but it’s not “art” as a field, which encompasses painting, sculpture, photography, dance, music..

Apply to ASU Barrett and U Arizona+Honors.

Then, run the NPC on every college you’re considering.

Public universities won’t work because they don’t offer need based financial aid to students from other states.
Some offer merit but wouldn’t be better than ASU Barrett.

Private universities MAY meet need, in whatever way THEY define it, which is why you must run the NPC on every single college website.

Are you interested in Finance as a specific field of study or are you interested in a job in Finance regardless of major?

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OP, the good news in all of this is that you found this community while you still have time to revise your college list. There are many knowledgeable people here that can offer great advice and help find schools that meet your criteria. Can you share what you are looking for in a school? Size, geographic region, weather, school spirit/sports, etc.

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Welcome to CC! You’ve done well in school, have a strong SAT score, and a number of ECs (don’t underestimate the value of having had a job for 2 years!). I especially like that you’ve taking culinary classes for two years…that is setting you up well for life!

To clarify, when the template is talking about essays, it’s referring to essays that you will end up writing as part of the college application process. Only rarely will a college ask for an essay that you’ve written for school. The Common App is used by many (most?) students to apply to up to 20 colleges. These are the prompts for next year:

In terms of teacher recommendations, I would ask your teachers now as some teachers will only write a certain number and turn away students once they’ve hit their limit. Most colleges prefer recommendations from a teacher who taught you in 11th or 12th grade, and for those that ask for 2 teacher recommendations, they usually want one from a humanities/social studies teacher and one from a STEM teacher. It is typically recommended to provide a brag sheet of your accomplishments and plans for the future to those teachers writing recommendations.

Strongly seconding this. Many colleges, particularly those with low admission rates, like to see that students have taken biology, chemistry, and physics as the core basic sciences.

Most out-of-state public schools will not offer any need-based aid to students outside of what the federal government provides (i.e. Pell grants and student loans). Public schools do, however, offer merit aid for which you may qualify. If you can let us know how much your family is willing and able to pay per year before any loans are considered, that will help us to to find schools where your academic background is likely to earn enough in merit aid to bring the school within budget for your family.

Seconding this! Also, if you can let us know what size classes you think you do best in, that would be great.

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You need to ask your parents what they will pay and then they need to use the net price calculator on the web site of each college of interest to check if financial aid from the college based on their financials will make that college affordable.

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If you are admitted to Barrett, you can forget everything else on your list. Barrett is a top honors college, and the undergraduate offerings through the W. P. Carey School of Business will provide you with an outstanding business/finance education at a bargain price.

With ASU in your pocket, you can relax, target your list based on the wisdom above and below, and let the chips fall where they may with no worries.

Good luck!

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None of my parents even went to college. Only my dad works and he makes around 50-60K a year.

Interested in Finance as a specific field.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated!

16

I just ran it.
It states: Estimated Gift Aid=
$52,075 - $53,724

Estimated Total Cost of Attendance

$95,454

Estimated Gift Aid *

  • $52,818

Estimated Net Price

$42,636

Estimated Total Other Aid and Resources

$8,250

ADJUSTED COSTS

Estimated Net Price

$42,636

Estimated Total Other Aid and Resources

$8,250

Estimated Remaining Costs

$34,386

Oh, and my parents says they will pay for my college, no matter the cost, I just have to put some of my own money into it too.

Thanks again for your help!

17

Alright, I appreciate your advice will think about it.
Thanks!

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Hello!
Size: Doesn’t matter
Geographic: East or West, it doesn’t matter as long as the weather is not too hot or too cold, like Arizona (it’s so hot).
School Spirit: I really want to be social throughout college, so I want like a really good social school where students actually engage with each other and participate in school events.

Thank you!

19

How will they afford $40k making $50-60k. And the $40k plus you were quoted includes loans.

ASU is solid for finance and has the IBIS program in investment banking is an interest.

20

Thanks for the welcoming!

thanks, I will definitely look into this.

I have a few I would be looking at!

I will talk to my counselor about this, the thing is, I really suck at science, I don’t know how I even passed Biology, AP Bio, and chem with A’s and B’s. I never studied for them and it is really hard knowing about the concepts. I would try though, thanks!

My parents won’t matter about the costs as long as it’s a good school.

Thanks again for your help!