Unweighted HS GPA: ~93 ( will likely increase after first semester senior year )
Weighted HS GPA: ~98
Class Rank: 35/190
SAT Scores: 1380 (750 Verbal 630 Math) in November; took in June with scores pending; will retake in September if not 1450+
I was sick with Lyme disease last school year and my grades suffered as a result; this is a circumstance my guidance counselor knows about and can vouch for. Ended last year with two C’s in Science and Math.
List your HS coursework
(I transferred into my school sophomore year from a very small alternative school, so my coursework is a little all over the place. For example, I took College Spanish and English freshman year through CC and then downgraded because of limited course opportunities at my current school.)
English: College Composition 1 (9th), English 10H, English 11H, College English (12th)
Math: Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra 2, College Precalc
Science: Living Environment, Earth Science, Forensics, College Bio and College Physics (12th) (I am not taking chemistry; I know this is not standard and it likely will look bad on transcripts, but I have four years of science and hope my rigorous coursework next year will make up for it somewhat)
History and social studies: Global I (no honors option offered at my old school), College World History, College US History, College Government & Economics
Language other than English: College Spanish I, Spanish II, Spanish III, College Spanish 5 (skipping Spanish 4 thanks to teacher recommendation)
Other academic courses: College Psychology, College Intro to Finance, Literature Through Film, Creative Writing, may take College Sociology and College Public Presentation next year
Awards and Achievements
Nothing special: Certificate of Outstanding Achievement for College US History & Psychology, English 11H, and Intro to Finance (I think this is specific to my school; each teacher picks one student to nominate out of all of their classes). High Honor Roll since 2025 and self studied for 4 AP exams: English LIt, World History, US History, and Psychology, projected 4-5. Accepted to NHS. Also earned an 100 on Global II Regents and a 99 on English Regents.
Extracurriculars: very mediocre
Mock Trial Club 10,11,12
Speech and Debate Club (founder and president) 9,11,12 (founded at both old & new school)
Middle Schooler Mentoring Club 11,12
NHS 11,12
Counselor in training at girl’s equestrian summer camp; returning as Junior Counselor this summer
Upcoming Stanford Law School Intensive Mock Trial Program this summer
Volunteer at local animal shelter (~50 hours)
Literacy Volunteer with local agency (currently inactive but waiting to be paired with a new student)
Sarah Lawrence College Writing Program
Worked as a marketing intern at small book publicity company
Reads 2+ hrs per day
Essays/LORs
Will likely be strong- writing is a strong suit, and both the teachers I’ve asked have spoken highly of me; my guidance counselor and I have a good relationship. I also plan on asking my principal, who offered when I approached him about starting Speech & Debate Club.
Reaches:
Kenyon (my #1 choice, I fell in love with it and will likely apply ED)
Skidmore
Connecticut College
Fordham
Lafayette
Matches/ Safeties:
SUNY Geneseo
Suny New Paltz
UVM
University of Delaware
University of Rhode Island
Salve Regina
Also interested in applying to UK schools, particularly Uni of Edinburgh and St. Andrews.
Super stressed out and worried about college, would love some honest insight!
I don’t know enough about most of your schools to comment but (assuming your gpa is on a 100 scale) looking at your stats and ECs, I’d consider Fordham a target rather than a reach. While 1380 is their 25th percentile of admits, only 1/3 of applicants submitted test scores so that very likely skews high, and of course your retake may raise your score.
Do you have any cost constraints? What is your budget?
A small LAC that should be on the list of a future humanities major interested in English Lit & History is the College of Wooster. The senior year Indepenent Study + Capstone, a combination which every Wooster student does, will make your learning experience different than almost any place else you might attend - except Princeton, the only other college where all students currently have the same culminating experience in senior year. Like Kenyon, Wooster is in Ohio, a little west of Akron.
I’m lucky enough not to have cost constraints. So maybe in the $45k range with local scholarships? My parents want me to prioritize the right fit over cost, which is a huge luxury.
Wooster sounds like a great fit, thank you so much! I’ll definitely add it to my list!
If you’re interested in LACs and don’t seem to have any particular regional preference, consider St. Olaf (target/hard target), Oberlin (hard target), Macalester (reach), Gustavus Adolphus (target/likely), Sarah Lawrence (likely), Lawrence University (soft target), Beloit (likely), and Dickinson (reach?). If you’re willing to consider women’s colleges, look at Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr,and Scripps (all are probably in the hard target range). All have the advantage of a multi-college consortium, so they balance a women’s college and co-ed experience and offer more resources than the average LAC (Scripps is the most integrated with its consortium and MHC is the least – Bryn Mawr is especially integrated with Haverford but also offers access to Swarthmore and Penn).
Will you qualify for need based aid? Run the NPCs with your parents, as $45K is less than half the full cost of some of the schools on your list. If a school’s NPC doesn’t give an affordable estimate, it doesn’t make sense to apply there…especially ED.
Also, some schools will reduce their aid packages to you if you do win any external scholarships, some schools also require the scholarship check to be cut to them, or turned over to them. Know each school’s policy on external scholarships before spending a lot of time on these apps. By far the most financial aid comes from the schools.
Thank you so much all of this is really helpful! I should clarify- my parents don’t want me to worry about costs at the moment, which is obviously a huge privilege. The flip side of that is that I don’t have access to any of our families’ financial information right now, so I was really just estimating my budget based on my future plans, which was probably too conservative. If it ends up being more, that’s something my parents prefer to discuss later, but we’re not financially needy in terms of cost.
I worry about the “don’t worry at the moment” comment. You should clarify with your parents whether they are able to fund potentially $400k for college. Many families fall into the bracket where they don’t qualify for need aid but can’t actually afford that. You don’t want to be in a situation where you put in all the work to apply and are accepted but can’t afford to attend. If they are able to fully fund it, great, but otherwise you do need an actual budget.
Yeah, I’m worried about that as well. Trying to work on them to include me in budget discussions. Unfortunately I don’t have a lot of control here at the moment; they’re pretty much not-letting-me-worry-about-it which is creating more anxiety.
Give them the link to Kenyon’s NPC that I shared above, and suggest they complete that…they can do it anonymously. Kenyon’s COA is around $90K for 2025/26. College costs can be surprising to parents, many of whom went to school for a much lower cost.
You could also show your parents the responses on this thread. Again, you don’t want to be bound to attend Kenyon, should you apply ED and be admitted, and your parents can’t/don’t want to pay the charges.
“Mom, dad… before I get to far along with college planning, why don’t we sit down to review a couple of things?
First is- how far away are you guys thinking about for college? I don’t want to be looking seriously at schools that are beyond your comfort range.
Second- let’s talk about a realistic visit schedule??? Were you thinking to visit after I’ve been accepted, should we schedule a few for the summer and early fall?
Third- Finances. I’ve been surprised that a lot of schools are close to $100K per year. And some of those schools require the most work in terms of essays, showing interest, etc. If that’s way out of range for us- let’s talk about what will work from a budget perspective. I don’t want to waste time applying to places we can’t afford- that just seems silly.”
Just to add to the reasons to have a conversation with your parents about budget, your profile and interests suggest that you might ultimately be interested in law school? If so, that’s another roughly $300,000 to add onto potentially $400,000 for undergrad. Even if your parents are prepared to spend $400k on undergrad, would they also be able to fund law school on top of that? If not, if you kept costs down for college (which is very doable) would they be willing to apply the extra funds towards law school? And, if they’re not able to spend $400,000 on undergrad, even more reason to keep costs down to limit the amount of loans you might need to take out later for grad school.
This is great thank you! My parents have been really involved in the process so far- we’ve toured several schools together and they’re on board with all my likes and dislikes for a school. Part of the cost thing is that they know Kenyon is expensive and they really want me to apply ED1 as they know it’s my dream school. They want to make sure I don’t end up going into debt, but I’m worried that a) they don’t know the actual cost of college, and b) they’re going to really have to strain financially to make that a possibility. It’s really well meant but it’s stressful for me.
Thank you! Right now my goal is to just get a master’s degree, but the cost of that alone will definitely be hefty on top of undergrad. Again, they’re not being stingy at all- they just really want me to go to my dream school and I’m worried that between an expensive private LAC for undergrad and a two-year masters I’m going to need to go into significant debt, even though they want to cover the costs at least for a BA. We’re definitely in a good place financially but I don’t think it’s good enough to support all the costs, and I don’t feel comfortable draining their resources for a super expensive degree without payoff in a high-paying field if that makes sense.
What do you hope to do with a Master’s degree? In what field? If in something like history/English, I would advise against it, as if a job requires more than a bachelor’s degree in those fields, it would likely require a doctorate. And if you go for a PhD, you shouldn’t enter a program unless it’s fully funded (i.e. they will pay you to attend). But that’s a long ways off, and there are probably a number of people (including your future professors) who will advise against going down that path unless you can’t see yourself doing anything else, as academia in the humanities/social sciences is a very hard row to hoe.
Also check whether the schools have any kind of tuition lock - I think this is mostly only public schools that do that? And it’s mostly only tuition and not other costs (I know of one that locks on-campus room and board as well). Many schools have been increasing fees rtc above 5% pa recently. A school whose cost of attendance is around $90k this year could be closer to $115k by year 4 at a 6% annual increase in COA, as an example.
Buidling on your college finance education , undergrads can take out a total of $27K in federal student loans by filing FAFSA ($5.5K the first year, then $6.5K/$7.5K/$7.5K).
Loans beyond that aren’t a great idea, especially if grad/law school is in the picture. And loans beyond that would generally be on your parents either directly or as co-signers.
, undergrads can take out a total of $27K in federal student loans by filing FAFSA ($5.5K the first year, then $6.5K/$7.5K/$7.5K).