Chance me for colleges - WA resident looking for strong liberal arts education [3.4 GPA, 1330 SAT, <$35k, history, linguistics, political science, anthropology]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics:
Current high school junior. United States citizen, WA state resident, goes to a rigorous and wealthy public school, ADHD (don’t know if that’s relevant here), LGBTQ+

Cost Constraints / Budget:

35k

Intended Major(s): History, language and linguistics, polysci, anthropology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores:

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.4
  • Weighted HS GPA: School doesn’t do weighted GPAs
  • College GPA: N/A
  • Class Rank: N/A
  • ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1330 (Retaking in March). 780 RW, 550 Math.

List your HS coursework:

  • English: 2 years of Honors, AP Lang. Taking AP Lit senior year.
  • Math: Had to repeat Algebra, behind one grade. Currently in Geometry.
  • Science: Chem 1, Phys 1, Horticulture, Bio (as of this year).
  • Language other than English: French 3, taking AP French senior year.
  • Visual or performing arts: Improv theatre (1 year), Drama (1 year), art (1 year).
  • Other academic courses: Taking AP Psych senior year. Taking health, PE, and a creative writing course that gives college credit over the summer to boost my GPA.

Extracurriculars:
1 year of roller derby, skater coach in my league, involved in school musicals, co-founder of roller skating club at my HS, head editor of school literary and art magazine, 1 year of work experience (small bookstore in my town).

Essays/LORs/Other: Haven’t started yet, thinking of writing about: ADHD, my writing process, the isolation of being LGBTQ+ in a conservative area, and derby. Have several teachers I have great relationships with in mind for letters of rec.

Schools:
(LMK if I should be applying EA/ED for any of these!) Interested in learning more about women’s colleges, and heavily considering one.
Safety: Evergreen State College, CWU
Likely: UPS, Whitman, UW, Hampshire
Match: Mt. Holyoke, Oberlin
Reach: Yale (I know it’s incredibly unlikely but it’s been my dream school for a while), Bowdoin, Reed, Lewis and Clark

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With Whitman, you can get a pre-read financially - so she can tell you if you can get to $35K.

Your biggest issue is your budget - you need to run the net price calculator to see if the schools meets your budget. If they don’t, you have to take them off.

Here’s Bowdoin’s - but your family needs to fill out to each.

If you want an LAC, you’ll need to look at schools like Kalamazoo and Beloit. There’s others - I hear Rhodes is going sub $40K.

Oberlin is highly unlikely - but it does meet need. I’m guessing Mt. Holyoke is unlikely too.

Your reaches are, in my opinion, highly out of reach. A reach school to me will be like Occidental. I don’t think Lewis and Clark is a reach…I think you have a chance.

But step one is finding out of the schools can make your budget…because if they show above $35K, you have to eliminate them (or expand your budget).

Getting Started | Net Price Calculator (collegeboard.org)

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Have you run the Net Price Calculators for all of the schools you list? Do you qualify for enough aid to make them affordable? (Particularly crucial to verify if you’re considering a binding ED application.)

Whitman may be a great option if the NPC is favorable, since they have full-need-met funding available for Washington students. Puget Sound doesn’t guarantee full-need-met aid, and neither does Hampshire. Your “match” schools, Mount Holyoke and Oberlin, do meet need, but they’re also need-aware. This combined with the fact that your stats are below median at both schools, makes me think that they may really be low-reaches for you.

Have you looked at Southern Oregon U? It’s a WUE school, so it would automatically be within budget at the reciprocity rate. It has fantastic performing arts, is very very LGBTQ+ friendly, and a similar vibe to many private LAC’s. I wonder whether this might not be a better-fit safety for you than Evergreen. (I don’t know much about CWU.) You might also look at Willamette U, which is quite generous with merit aid, and which has great poli sci opportunities by virtue of it’s state-capital location and academic strength in the social sciences.

If you are open to the midwest-adjacency of Oberlin, maybe also look at St. Olaf, in Minnesota, and Lawrence U and/or Beloit College, in Wisconsin.

It’s early in the process; I would say to look more closely at your safeties and make sure you have at least one that you’d be happy to attend and know you can afford… and then build upward from there.

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Hi, thanks for the replies! Thought I’d specify a few things here:
I’m looking at >35k per year with aid, not including other factors like room and board (thought I would specify just in case). It’s also a flexible budget, as I have family who would be able to chip in if needed for more expensive schools (if I get in, of course).
My projected GPA for fall of '25 (when I’ll be applying) is a 3.6 or 3.7, which I hope will boost my chances? I’m planning on addressing my subpar grades during my freshman year through my application, and I’m a strong writer in general.
I know everyone probably says this, but I do think I’m a unique candidate? I don’t care about prestige (Yale app. notwithstanding), I really just want to go somewhere small-ish where I can connect with other students and professors, and/or somewhere people love to learn, which is why I don’t have too many state schools on my list (too big and I hate the idea of Greek life). I have a lot of passion for my hobbies and my interests, and I’m hoping it’ll show in my application.
I’m also retaking my SAT after taking Algebra 2 this past summer, which I think will help.
I know my reaches are a bit unrealistic, but I feel like I won’t know until I try and I’ve budgeted enough money to apply to a few (very) stretch schools. I really don’t want to be in the Midwest or South (Oberlin being the exception) because I’m looking for LGBTQ+ friendly areas (not just the college, but the town in general). I like the small-town college vibe the most.

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Hi, thanks for the reply! Will definitely be checking out Beloit and Willamette as well as Southern Oregon. I’m touring Whitman and UPS soon, so we’ll see about those.

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HIghly, highly recommend that you check out St. Olaf. Northfield is a delightful small college town that has both St. Olaf as well as Carleton in the town limits. St. Olaf is very LQBTQ+ friendly (which I know from knowing LGBTQ+ students who attend the school). And Minnesota as a state is a much more LGBTQ friendlier place to be than Ohio. Gorgeous campus, and is great for music and the arts in general if that is something you’d still like to pursue. With your grades and scores, it might be a match or a slight reach, but a very reachable reach, and they do give out merit. We fell in love with it when we visited.

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Sorry. Rhodes may not even admit with 3.4 and no way under 40k with these stats. If student will ED and ready to be almost full pay there is a slight chance…Also I am not sure how happy student will be with 3 mandatory religious classes.

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New Haven is not a small town-- it is a city. Yale is the largest employer in CT. There are parts of New Haven that may feel like a small-ish town but the Yale campus itself is downtown, with a Colonial era town green with a federal court house, hotels, office buildings, museums, apartment buildings, etc. adjacent to a few interstate highways, and the HUGE main Yale hospital and parking garages which is next to the campus. Have you visited??? Yes, LGBTQ friendly-- but not a small town.

I’m also not sure I understand your budget- can you clarify? You need to be looking at total costs.

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Ithaca College is wonderful for artsy B students. Ithaca is considered a top college town. Try their calculator and see if it comes out on-budget.

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Fair enough -

my main point was schools like Bowdoin are so far off track for this student and likely Oberlin too.

They need to find reasonable schools to get into and that includes reasonable reaches.

At the same time, they want to be at $35K - so it needs to come from:

  1. Need - and don’t know their need profile, hence I put forth the Bowdoin NPC

  2. Merit

There’s many a school out there that needs butts in seat. They need revenue. They don’t have enough kids, etc. - and I was under the assumption Rhodes was one of them.

That said - and it needn’t be Rhodes, if I was this student - I’d pick an arbitrary rank - let’s say #50 of the US News schools - and Rhodes is 59. And yes, it’s a reach - but a far more reasonable one than Bowdoin.

And I’d start doing NPCs - or reading CC threads - and finding out - who is getting to $35K plus.

But a school like Rhodes becomes a reasonable reach and one person wrote they are going sub 30 and I know you noted they under enrolled. So these are the kind of schools with “a chance” - and that’s what the student needs to find or at least do the NPC for. That’s why I mentioned Kalamazoo and Beloit - both are known to give good merit. If they really want/need $35K and both are regional, but SUNY Geneseo and Christopher Newport would be worth a look too.

The easiest is Whitman since they’ll tell you before even applying.

But head down that ranking list - maybe it’s a Southwestern in Texas, a Linfield in Oregon, a Hendrix or Ogelthorpe that will match the home state in state tuition for many, or an Augustana in South Dakota.

These are the types of schools - and Rhodes too as a reach (vs. a Bowdoin, Yale that they’re not in the same hemisphere for) that the student should run the NPC on…that’s sort of the point.

Less about a specific school - and more about casting a net below US News 50 and maybe 80 and looking at NPCs of each. And by the way, there are very good schools at lower levels.

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Rhodes is extremely protective of its reputation. It does need butts in the seat, as every small private, but it would rather reduce enrollment or enroll capable to pay foreign students but will not lower its standards. The only exception is athletes. And they fly out of Rhodes very quickly after first semester or first year.

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You may want to take a look at the PA liberal arts schools (Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall, Gettysburg etc). They are all in charming towns and do provide merit- a little easier admits than the New England schools in general. Also Ohio schools like Kenyon, Denison- I see you have Oberlin already on your list.

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Dickinson, Franklin and Marshall and Gettysburg are all in top 60 LACS. They are not for 3.4 GPA students unless ED and full pay… Student needs to aim much lower. Sorry, Yale is not happening.

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F&M recently went back to merit - and it’s small. They were need only.

They do meet need.

I do agree with @momsearcheng - way too high a reach.

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I would consider schools like Juniata, Allegheny, College of St. Mary’s MD (public LAC), Ursinus… Aim at LACS over 80 in ranking.
And Muhlenberg maybe your ED school! They are very theater oriented and I believe heavy LGBTQ.

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Yay roller derby! (I played for a long time)

Have you considered Wheaton College in MA? Open curriculum, former Historically Women’s College, small and supportive, merit aid as well as need-based.

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What about Hobart?

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Sure run the NPC.

That’s gonna be the answer on every school.

Whether merit can get to $35k no clue.

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Do state laws and policies (as opposed to local area attitudes) matter? If so, you may want to consult Movement Advancement Project | Snapshot: LGBTQ Equality by State

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Love the idea, but my mom went to Carleton and they’re rival schools, lol. Will have to see!