Since you switched schools, you can ask your current college counselor to include your prior school profile along with your current school profile. This will help colleges understand the background for each. Good luck visiting schools and finding what you like. NC has great options plus you have excellent lacs on your list.
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An alternative is if the parents run the net price calculator on each school of interest and tell the student whether it is affordable.
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As others have said, you are considered a legacy for Harvard if a parent graduated from there. Yes certainly they like when alums are bigger donors, but nonetheless you are a legacy. If you can get a clearer answer about budget from your parents, that would be helpful for you. If your cap is really $60,000 a year then you will need to either eliminate some of these schools or hope for merit at those that offer it. I attended one of the liberal arts colleges on your list and had a wonderful education. I certainly support and applaud the desire to attend small schools and/or liberal arts colleges. Thereās not a need to add many more schools to your list and especially if you donāt want large schools, feel free to skip past recommendations for large universities that donāt fit your goal. keep us posted.
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Iām a mom in NC. Hereās my take:
Davidson is a Target for you. Itās possible you would not be admitted, but itās not a Reach. I think you sound like a great candidate.
As a UNC alum, I hate DUKE with heaping hunks of white-hot hate, but if you are at all interested you should add it to your list because they have some good scholarships now for NC residents depending on your income and other factors.
I think Elon is a Likely not a Target, same with UNC-W. And yes to Honors in both I still think they are both Likelies.
Agnes Scott is a Likely/Safety. My kid got in there with no problem and did not have near your record.
You might want to look at William & Mary with your major interests. It is not cheap for out of state (though less expensive than some on your list) and not a LAC, but it is a nice mid-size school with enrollment of about 7000 undergrads. It is good for āmath, physics, philosophy, or chemistry (and double major or minor).ā
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I agree that many of the schools on your ātargetā list are really likelies but itās wise to keep them as slightly greater reaches in your mind, in my opinion. Also, in the past, if you had been on the math team in HS, Duke automatically sent that to their math team folks. Donāt know if Duke still participates in any math tournaments, but that was a little tidbit.
I am a huge Agnes Scott Stan and am in 100% agreement with you on this. Not only is Agnes Scott a āVery Likelyā admit for this student (to the point of near certainty on this record), lots of merit money is assured as well. I donāt like the term Safety school as it implies one would only go there in an admissions emergency, which is often not the case for schools a student can easily get admitted to.
P.S. your Duke commentary cracked me up.
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Shamelessly stolen from an old Stiller & Meara routine.
Also, I really liked Agnes Scott when we toured and loved Decatur. It seems like a great school that really wants to lift students up. I would have been happy if my daughter had chosen to attend there.
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I do think that since CDS now breaks out international acceptance rates, it puts admission rates āhigherā at top schools.
Davidson admits 13.5%. But international is just 3.3%. Pull intl kids out and itās now 18.9% which is not great but the difference is meaningful.
As we chance, we likely need to look at rates to match where from - or at least domestic or international.
It appears to be blocked but if you google college transitions merit aid it should pop up.
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This site may help you further categorize your choices by difficulty of admission:
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Iād like to second (third?) the recommendation for a college with an open curriculum if you want to double major. It will make your planning a lot easier. Some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country which send large numbers to doctoral and other grad school programs offer an open curriculum. Hereās a list:
Brown
Amherst
Hamilton
Rochester
Trinity (CT)
Vassar
Colorado College
Wesleyan
Grinnell
Williams
Smith
Claremont-McKenna
One other point is that from my experience, being a legacy at Harvard does nothing for your application unless the alum is prominent in some way or a big donor. My GD is a legacy, straight A student, and had a perfect 36 ACT. She was not accepted at Harvard.
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I agree with this and would add that the Monroe Scholars program (which I think OP would be a strong candidate for) now comes with merit aid. Also, W&M got a gift last year intended to increase resources for OOS student recruiting, so I wouldnāt be surprised if more merit opportunities emerge in the near term: Expanding William & Maryās national reach ā W&M News
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I agree with others that you have a few schools on your list that might make sense to move into a ālikeliesā section, like Agnes Scott and a few others (I believe St. Olaf belongs solidly in the ālikeliesā as well, and that youād get merit money from them).
I also agree with the last few posters that W&M could make sense, and a drive up to tour William & Mary could be a good idea later this spring. I was thinking it would be a good fit, but wasnāt going to say anything, since you have so many schools listed already, but since others mentioned it, Iāll agree that itād be a great place to explore your interdisciplinary interests. As with many liberal arts colleges, W&M students donāt declare their major until the end of sophomore year, and so have time and space to take a variety of courses. My daughter went in to W&M (from OOS) as a bio major, and after a semester has started to think about double majoring (or double minoring?) in a few different areas, including philosophy, math, and geology, because she loved her professors so much. From what youāve described of yourself, I think youād find a lot of other students like you ā smart, kind kids who do things like volunteer at refugee centers. I also agree that youād be a good candidate for W&Mās Monroe Scholars program, which gets out-of-state students $10K off the normal OOS tuition. But if you donāt add it to your list, no worries; youāve got a great array of schools already.
A quick final note that Iām sure echoes advice your parents have given you, and you can totally āokay, dadā me, but Iād encourage you to find a club or two this spring that you can get more deeply involved in, purely for fun. (Maybe Model UN, if youāve already connected with some of the students there? Iāll note that W&M has a big MUN conference for high schoolers every year that people seem to really love. Though if itās a different club, thatās great, too!) The goal with that club isnāt really for college applications ā¦ it would really be for connecting with other students and simply having a good time. Moving to a new state is rough, period, but moving halfway through high school is ā¦ a lot. Finding a few friends through a common interest will help you enjoy the new place, and the rest of your time in high school, a lot more.
You are a bright student who engages thoughtfully and communicates well. Youāre going to have some great options in front of you. Donāt shy away from asking questions here, even if they strike you as ādumbā; nobody is born knowing any of this stuff. Everyone here is rooting for you.
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I havenāt read all the responses but the ones I looked at didnāt touch on this. I would recommend, at least for Harvard (thatās the only CDS off your list that I pulled up to check), to retake the SAT to see if you can up the score a bit.
My daughter had the same score as you (1520) but with her verbal higher than math. She took it two more times and ended up getting the math up 50 additional points. She did get into her highly selective top school. Who knows if that increase in score made any difference, but it felt like a good decision not leaving that to chance.
Focus on the verbal section to see if you can get it up a little. You are slightly below the 25% on Harvardās most recent CDS right now, I bet you could get it above that. Itās one data point only of course. You are a super strong candidate otherwise, so I donāt see why you shouldnāt give it a shot.
I think applying to Harvard REA if she doesnāt want to go there is a mistake; it precludes her from applying EA to several SLACs that could be good options.
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Thatās the unknown. OP seems focused on boosters like legacy and where from as opposed to fit which is what they should focus on, having to live somewhere four years. This is just the first batter of the first inning.
Hi! Thank you for the advice. Iāve heard good things about William & Mary, but I was reluctant to keep it on my list because I was OOS. Iāll look into their aid more.
Iāve been very frustrated lately because my school did something starting this year that made it really hard for clubs to meet. The two I mentioned were not my first choice. They were the only clubs I knew were meeting. Also, itās hard for me to feel comfortable in stuff like Model UN because Iām the only girl and I have a lot of social anxiety. Iād love to join more, but I ride the bus, so I canāt go before or after school most days. I donāt know when other clubs are meeting because they donāt post the times, so only people who already know each other can join really. I donāt know what do to because of that. Iām not involved, and I donāt have any friends here. Do you have any advice on that?
Thank you for your time.
I used to really want to retake the SAT because I took it before my junior year and I wanted a higher reading score. I thought it would be good to get a 1550 or above. Part of the problem is that NC focuses more on the ACT, and I wouldnāt have any time to retake it until my senior year begins. Do you think it would be worth the hassle to retake? I thought that once you got above a certain threshold the SAT doesnāt really matter anymore.
The colleges on my list are all places I would be okay living for four years. I know I donāt want to go anywhere west of MN, and anywhere farther south than GA or SC. I know I want to go somewhere with kind people who donāt do as many parties, and I want to go somewhere where I can find a small and good community. I donāt think I care about rural or urban places or anything. I think New England would be cool, but Iāve never been. I hope to visit soon. Iām not trying to focus on the wrong things, Iām just really anxious and I donāt know what to do. I was mostly just curious, and since I donāt have anyone where I live I can talk to I thought Iād ask here.
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You could try the ACT as well. My D26 took each once ā the ACT in Sept of junior year and SAT in Sept of senior year.