If this parent is not in your life, and does not provide child support, colleges will approve your non-custodial parent (NCP) waiver (at the school’s that require the CSS Profile and both parents’ financials.)
Here is the list of CSS Profile schools. Column 6 shows whether they require NCP financials. If they do, you have to file the waiver which is typically on each school’s website.
So you have two years left - so you can adapt your schedule.
Your stats are already very low for most your list but when a school says they want 3 years or 4 years of something and you purposely take two, then you are sort of making your own bed.
Duke says this as an example: "we generally expect students to enroll in five academic courses per year, and if a student does not take four years in a particular subject area, it should be replaced with an academic course of equal rigor. "
So you dropping Spanish for Computer Science or Law is not going to help you. Your core comes before any electives. So while your stats aren’t there, you are also self eliminating based on course selection.
Just like your sciences should be bio, chem, and either APES or Physics. On this board, people suggest Physics over APES but mine did APES and did well with admissions. But you took a third altogether.
Choices have consequences. It doesn’t mean it’s bad - but just know, you haven’t prepared yourself academically to the needs of what schools say they require or recommend. So that means, you’re likely wasting time applying to those schools given how your transcript will look. But you have a choice - to change your transcript by re-designing your next two year curriculum - or continuing as you are.
Confident in UMBC is good - but you put assured. Some schools do have criteria that assures someone admission. And perhaps UMBC does but I missed it.
UMBC shows a 4.06 average GPA with 1320 SAT or 28 ACT on their webpage.
If I look in the Common Data Set, in 2025, they admitted 76% of in-state applicants. Their 25th percentile on the SAT was 1250.
Do I think you’d get in? Yes, as I noted it was likely. But you put it in the 100% bucket and unless I’m missing an automatic qualifier, I don’t think it is - was my point. You also listed Morgan State - I don’t see an admission profile for them but based on 3rd party info, it’s an easier admit.
Finally, the Academic Common Market. There are several geographical exchanges in the country that allow students to attend colleges in other markets at a discount. There a West Coast one (WUE), a mid west one (Midwest Student Exchange), a New England one (Tuition Break) and the Academic Common Market which is for Southern States - but in this case, Maryland is included.
The next few paragraphs are directly from the Academic Common Market website:
"### Study in a specialized field at an out-of-state college and pay in-state tuition rates.
*Looking for a college degree not offered by a public institution in your home state? The Academic Common Market may be able to help. Many students qualify for in-state tuition to study at out-of-state institutions. *
Not all colleges participate, not all programs are offered, and not every offered program is available to students in all states."
Now - this is me talking again:
Basically the ACM is a buying group of those 16 states where participating schools give you a discount on courses not offered at Maryland publics.
Our 16 states are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
So I searched through their offerings for Maryland students and tried to find something as close to your interests as I could and those two came up.
If it’s true that you get in-state tuition and if interested you can contact the schools, Coastal Carolina is a bit under $12K for in state tuition (this year) so you’d be under $30K all in, etc.
Hope I answered all your questions. If not, please let me know.
Best of luck.
Agree with your advice.
OP- drop the law classes going forward. They won’t help you with undergrad admissions, and certainly won’t help you down the road if you decide you are interested in going to law school. So they are just filler on your schedule- and you don’t need filler, you need to cover off the core academic requirements.
And I agree with JYM to take a look at Goucher.
Good luck!
Mwfan and MindofaChild, I found that to be true for my family situation also. I’m a single father receiving no child support. At my written request explaining the situation, every private college that accepted my son waived the non-custodial parent income requirement. Maybe I’m forgetting one or two that did not, but I remember being very satisfied with the outcome overall.
It should be noted I was low-income parent. It may be that a single parent with higher income and significant assets might trigger more stringent scrutiny to make sure they were not trying to cheat the system.
I suggest that you look into the following for scholarship possibilities:
Posse Foundation
Ron Brown Scholar Program
Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship
Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship
LEDA
Also, while the Supreme Court has disallowed the use of racial quotas in college admissions, they did did specifically allow for references to race, socio-economic status, and/or ethnicity in writing essays about overcoming obstacles or surpassing hurdles.
Foreign language is more of a core than elective.
Are you receiving any sort of academic advice from a school counselor??? What have they said about your lack of core classes for admission to the universities?
You had the UCs listed, and they’re too expensive for you, but when you go on their website, you’ll note the requirements and recommendations that they expect each applicant to have. The UCs use an A through G list of core requirements.
If you want a realistic chance to be admitted to a school like a UC, they expect you to challenge yourself and do more, not the minimum, in core classes.
If a university says “recommended”, that means they’re looking for you to do more than expected.
The schools have to reject minimally-prepared students because they have limited seats. Too many great students but not enough room for them.
At UCSD, the school received 160,000+ applications, in 2025, for the 2026 school year.
They admitted 27% of that number and most of those were in-state residents. Picture yourself being one of those 160,000 applicants. The admissions committee can easily eliminate anyone who hasn’t completed the core classes.
All of those law classes that you’ve taken, are electives. Guess what? Latin terminology is predominantly used when studying the law. It would have been beneficial for you to have done at least three years of Latin.
Foreign language is a core requirement. That’s why I’m wondering what your college counselor advised.
Agree with @aunt_bea . Does your rigorous magnet school have college counselors? I agree with the recommendation that you should have enough language courses to be have the minimal expected courses to be a potentially viable candidate for some of the schools on your list.
Thank you!!!
U Maryland is test optional so you can decide whether to send your scores based on how you do. I think U Maryland is a likely but Georgetown and USC are lower probability, as are your toss-ups.
Agree with this. Boston University is also lower probability as well, with an under 15% acceptance rate and middle 50% SAT scores ranging from 1420 - 1530.
Yeah, actually not sure what BU is doing with that low an acceptance rate, supposedly 5% in RD. As long as they get enough applicants ED, they can do this. Anyway for OP, I wouldn’t really even apply here, unless you wanted something near Boston.