Chance Me finance Major very reach heavy. MA resident, 3.7 UW, 1470 SAT, first gen

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • Location/State: Massachusetts

  • Gender: Male

  • First-Gen: Yes

  • Race/Ethnicity: Hispanic (Bolivian)

Intended Major(s)

  • Finance / Economics / Business Administration

Academics

  • UW GPA: ~3.7

  • W GPA: 3.94

  • Class Rank: 2nd decile (16–20%) out of ~470

  • SAT: 1470 (710 EBRW, 760 Math)

Coursework (APs)

  • AP Calculus BC

  • AP Physics C: Mechanics

  • AP Statistics

  • AP Economics (Micro + Macro)

  • 9 honors classes

Extracurriculars

  • Global Entrepreneurship Program (Singapore)

  • Founder / Lead Organizer – Fundraising Event

  • Founder – Investment Club (Planning Phase)

  • Independent Market Analysis & E-Commerce

  • Work Experience (Retail + Labor)

  • National Honor Society

  • Volunteer – Food Pantry

  • Digital Media Editor & Creator

  • Strength Training & Fitness

  • Family Academic Mentor

Essays / LORs / Other

  • Essays: Strong

  • LORs: Solid / alright

School List

  • Colby College

  • NYU (Stern)

  • Notre Dame (Mendoza)

  • UCLA

  • USC (Marshall)

  • UC Berkeley

  • Washington University in St. Louis (Olin)

  • Boston College (Carroll)

  • Tulane

  • Bates College

  • Grinnell College

  • University of Miami (Herbert)

  • Carleton College

  • Villanova (School of Business)

  • UC San Diego (UCSD)

  • Bocconi

  • Bentley

  • SMU

  • Fordham (Gabelli)

  • UMass Amherst (Isenberg, Honors)

  • Indiana University Bloomington (Kelley)

  • Loyola University Chicago

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Congrats on your profile.
Are you a U.S. citizen ?
Any budget concerns ?

Given you want business or finance, why these that don’t have it ? It’s like you big names out of a magazine without knowing about them. Not saying you did but given how different these are, it makes me think it.

If you can afford all these, I don’t think your list is reach heavy as you’ll def get into SMU and likely Bentley and Fordham.

Please give me more info - on citizenship and budget. Thanks

Colby
UCLA - has bus econ
Carleton
Bates
Grinnell

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I am a U.S. citizen, and my parents are saying paying over 100k for college is not worth it, but idk the max per year I would say is 50-70k.

The reason that many of these don’t have specific finance majors is that 7 of them I just applied to because they had free applications like all those LACs, and then for the UCs, I just really want to go to Cali, so I wouldn’t mind just switching to econ for those.

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You will not get any money from California schools so those schools are most likely unaffordable for you.

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So finance is not econ. Not close. Major over school. You don’t want to spend four years, day after day studying the wrong thing (ie that you don’t want).

You say the max is $50-70k but they say $100k a year. You need to find exactly what they will spend. UCs can be $80k. Riverside is your best bet to study finance at a UC. Not sure if still open to apps.

If your budget is $70k, most these won’t work unless you qualify for need.

Grinnell if and only if you get money but it’s homogenous, rural Iowa.

SMU could hit. IU will be over $50k and under $70k but Kelley is iffy. UMass will hit. Bentley may hit.

Applying to schools because they are free is silly vs applying to schools that might work for you.

If I had to guess, no on your list through BC. Tulane unlikely but not impossible. People will say it is impossible but their#s say otherwise. Non ED admits were about 3400 which netted about 685 kids. It’s a mistake to say their ED part of the class is huge. Yes it is but they needed to admit 5 EA/RD per each student that actually enrolled.

The others b4 Bocconi are no - but Grinnell and Miami are unlikely but not a no. Grinnell makes zero sense and neither will hit budget unless it’s $70k - they give merit. I don’t know about Bocconi

SMU - hopeful you get enough merit and Loyola are yes as are UMASS and IU. So that’s 4 yes although Kelley is a ?

If you want to leave home, with your stats there are great schools in the $25-35k range with your stats - if your folks say it’s too much.

I don’t love your list or reasoning but it’s what you did.

If you want CA, the Cal State schools and not just the SDSU/Cal Poly would have been better bets with budget. You can still apply to some I believe. UCR would cost too much. Arizona or Nevada would still be open to you, budget depending.

Tie mom / dad down on a figure. Easy to say a # but hard to stroke that check and you mentioned $50k, 70k, $100k.

There’s a thread from the other day where a student who said his folks can pay full. Well he got offers at $70k and $50k and it turns out it’s not likely the case he can afford.

So avoid that trap up front. You’ve applied but if needed there’s more you can apply to. You can do it right this time - if needed. If UMASS is ok, then you’re in good shape even though I don’t love your process.

Good luck

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Thank you for this insight ill look into the cal schools and try to figure out things with cost.

Also I’m still interested in all Business I just mainly choose finance for IB and econ still interests me.

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I would agree with this - but with more caveats - if you just submitted an EA application and that was the entirety of your engagement with them (no tours - virtual or otherwise, no visit to a local admissions fair, etc etc) I would say it’s close to 0%.

But I would also suggest you run the NPC on their site. Unless you qualify for aid, the cost is going to be very close to that $100K and therefore unaffordable.

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Welcome to College Confidential and you are a competitive applicant. I will only address the 3 UC’s in this post.

The UC’s calculate out 3 UC GPA’s which are the Unweighted, Capped weighted and Weighted Uncapped using 10-11th a-g course grades. As a OOS applicant, only AP/IB classes are given the extra Honors points in the UC GPA calculations so please calculate out the GPA’s are repost with your results.

The UC’s are test blind so your SAT score will not be used for admissions or scholarships, only course placement. They are also race/ethnicity blind.

OOS admit rates overall for the 3 campuses are as follows:
UC Berkeley: 7.3% (29755 apps/2184 admits)
UCLA: 9.2% (31841 apps/2929 admits)
UC San Diego: 33.6% (24169 apps/8112 admits)

More statistical data about admit rates and admitted GPA ranges:

Campus Business admin or Business Ads. major Economics/Business Economics Overall UC GPA admit range (25th-75th percentile)
UC Berkeley 4% Business Admin HAAS// HAAS Average Unweighted 3.84. Campus Capped weighted 4.20-4.30. Weighted uncapped campus 4.32-4.68 15% For the College of Letters and Sciences. Campus Weighted uncapped 4.32-4.68 Capped weighted 4.15-4.29. Weighted UW 3.90-4.00
UCLA Admission by College: Economics - Social Sciences 9%/ Campus Unweighted 3.95-4.00 Capped weighted 4.20-4.31. Social Science Weighted uncapped 4.41-4.76 Admission by College/Social Science Discipline 9.3% Social science discipline Weighted uncapped 4.41-4.76 Capped weighted 4.20-4.30. Unweighted 3.95-4.00
UC Riverside Pre Business Admin 76%// UC Capped weighted 3.68-4.13 Economics 99%/Business Economics 96% Campus Capped weighted 3.65-4.16
UC San Diego Estimated 13% Business Econ // Unweighted 3.84-4.00 Capped weighted 4.04-4.28 Estimated 23% Economics/13% Business Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.11-4.28 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
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Given your background I would “chance” you as following:

Reach:
Colby
NYU
Notre Dame
UCLA
USC
UC Berkeley
Wash U
Boston College

Target:
Tulane
Grinnell
U Miami
Indiana
Bocconi

Safety:
Loyola
UMASS
Fordham
SMU
Bentley
UC San Diego
Villanova
Carleton

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Carleton? They have an acceptance rate below 20%. Villanova is 23%.

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Also… UC San Diego is no OOS student’s safety

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U Miami - 10,205 of 58,139 apps - so 18% - take out ED, will be lower. Carleton shows 20%. Obviously admit rate alone doesn’t say the story.

Not minimizing @LKLA as it’s their chancing - so i appreciate their perspective (we all have one).

Class of 2029 Profile

Class Profile | Undergraduate | University of Miami

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Sorry, no. Not only are these not all safeties, but some of them (notably UCSD and Carleton) are reaches for a student with a sub-4.0 weighted GPA and a 2nd decile class rank.

I think Loyola is a safety. Maybe Bentley. Not even sure UMass in-state is a safety but hopefully it’ll happen.

As already noted, UC’s won’t be affordable anyway.

Based on the pattern of schools seen here, I’d consider tossing an app at Miami Ohio. The priority merit deadline has passed but it would make budget even at OOS full-pay, has a true business school, and might still give some merit.

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I would’ve said to apply to Santa Clara in this case, but their RD deadline already passed. The deadline for both Loyola Marymount and U of San Diego is tomorrow.

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Your opinion is as valid as mine. You know what they say about opinions :slightly_smiling_face:

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Sure, but some opinions are more informed than others.

If a college counselor suggested a school with 20% or lower acceptance rate was a safety for OP, they would not stay in their job very long, or be able to get clients if they are an independent counselor.

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Everyone has the right to an opinion, but not all opinions are equally defensible.

And there’s a big difference between saying “My opinion is that you’ll get into Carleton,” and encouraging a student to consider Carleton a safety. One is just your own personal bet on the outcome. The other is declaring a level of certainty that the objective data do not support, and suggesting that a student bet their “safety net” on that assertion.

This student’s GPA and test score are both well below median for Carleton, which admits only 20% of applicants. A solid majority of Carleton admits (63%) rank in the top decile. Could a student with the OP’s stats still get in? Sure, it’s possible, but the basis for calling it likely, much less assured, eludes me.

My D13, with a 4.3W GPA, 34 ACT, top-decile rank, an in-person tour and interview, and an uncle who’s an alum, did not get into Carleton. She did get into Rice and UCLA, and got a Regents offer from UCSD, so it wasn’t a weak application. And it’s more competitive now than it was then. A student has to be well beyond “average excellent” for Carleton to be a slam-dunk admit.

All that said, I’m not sure why Carleton is on this student’s list anyway - it doesn’t seem to fit the pattern or the academic interests, and it would only be in budget if they qualified for significant need-based aid, which doesn’t seem to be the case.

For an excellent LAC with a true business school that offers a finance major, and a 2/1 RD deadline, Trinity U in San Antonio would be worth a look. Michael Neidorff School of Business | Trinity University It’s not coastal, but the hill country is lovely and the gulf beaches are driveable.

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As I said, everywhere has an opinion. In the end, that is what 90% of posts are, opinions. Yours, mine,…

There is a lot more than acceptance rate when it comes to college admissions. If it were only that simple. 20-25% acceptance rate for U Miami or Carleton is about triple that of schools on his list including Colby and NYU, and about double that of Boston College and Notre Dame (both at around 12%). Average SAT score for U Miami is around 1390, while average SAT scores for schools on his list such as NYU is 1520 and 1500 for both Boston College and Notre Dame.

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I think the back and forth is engaging but not helpful for the OP.

There will either be a few affordable acceptances in this pile or not. And THEN we can be helpful in coming up with plan B. Which will include an affordable college, a good place to study finance (which some of these just are not), a backup career option/good place to study THAT, etc.

OP- good luck and keep us posted. Does your guidance counselor think U Mass is a safety for you? If it’s affordable and you like it- great job, you’ve got a solid safety and don’t need to worry.

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How is 20% triple of 12%? And I think an acceptance rate of <30% is a reach for most and a safety to no one.

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