Chance me: Rising Senior in NY (98 UW, 105 W, 35 ACT, Undecided [Liberal Arts])

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic *
  • Long Island, NY
  • Non-Competitive Public High School (about 1,300 students)

Intended Major(s)

  • Undecided as of now. Considering Biology possibly, but I am still unsure — that’s why I am considering many Liberal-Arts schools.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 98.24
  • Weighted HS GPA: 105.4
  • I don’t have class rank yet, although I will most likely be top 5 in my grade.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 35 ACT superscore (36 reading & english; 34 on math and science)
    *All schools on my list SuperScore the ACT!!
  • IB/AP Scores: 4’s on AP Stat, Chem, and World; 5’s on AP Bio & APUSH (both self-studied); 6 on IB Math AA SL

List your HS coursework

I am currently an IB Diploma candidate, and have taken the most rigorous/highly weighted class schedule that my school offers.

  • English: IB English HL, Creative Writing
  • Math: Geometry (9), Algebra 2 (10), AP Stat (10) IB Math AA SL (11), Calc BC (12)
  • Science: Chemistry Honors (9), AP Chemistry (10), IB Biology HL (11 & 12), IB Physics SL (12)
  • History and social studies: AP World (10), IB HOTA HL (11, 12)
  • Language other than English: IB French SL (I took French every year)
  • Visual or performing arts: Photography, Ceramics, IB Film HL

Awards

  • 2 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Honorable Mentions (9th Grade)
  • AP Scholar with Distinction
  • National Merit Commended
  • 2 School “Student of the Quarter” awards (For English and Social Studies)

Extracurriculars

  • Editor in Chief of School’s Literary Magazine
  • Writer on School Newspaper
  • President of Math Team
  • Founder/President of History Club
  • Guitar: Played in multiple bands throughout Highschool, and taught lessons
  • Film Production (Writer, Director, Editor): Films made with friends outside of school and for IB Film
  • Summer Engineering Program at Columbia
  • CIT at Summer Camp

Essays/LORs/Other

  • LOR #1: Creative Writing Teacher/ Advisor for Literary Magazine
    *Should be pretty strong, we have a good relationship & I have shown good leadership in the class/club.
  • LOR #2: IB Math Teacher
    *Should also be fine. I was engaged and performed well in class, and had good relationship with teacher.
  • Personal Statement: I am writing a somewhat humorous essay about a creative, unique topic. It will be very strong hopefully…

Schools That I’m Considering:

  • Brown
  • Yale
  • Columbia
  • Cornell
  • Bowdoin
  • Colby
  • Amherst
  • Williams
  • Swarthmore
  • Tufts
  • Vassar (Legacy)
  • Colgate (Legacy)
  • Bates
  • William & Mary
  • Binghamton

*This is just a rough list of schools that I will probably apply to in the fall. I’m still fleshing it out! I know this list has a lot of Reach-y schools on it; I will definitely add to some safeties later on.

1 Like
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I would really appreciate any feedback that you might have!

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So before coming up with a list like this (or any), you need a budget.

Some of these schools are near $100K and growing in cost.

W&M is an OOS public so the odds of getting money are low - so today it’s near $70K just for tuition, room and board.

Why Bing vs. say Geneseo?

Great student - but you have to determine your budget (and if you have need - as the school’s show).

Here’s a net price calculator as an example - for your family to fill out.

Welcome | Net Price Calculator

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I agree with @tsbna44 that you need to figure out what your budget is. Then if your budget is less than $400,000 for four years then you need to run the NPCs, or have your parents run the NPCs, and see whether these schools will fit your budget.

Actually a few of the schools on your list are already up to about $99,000 (total cost of attendance) per year for the upcoming school year, and prices generally go up each year. Thus you could get to a total cost a bit more than $400,000 for four years.

Another important step is to identify at least one and preferably two solid safeties.
Contributors on this web site can help you pick out some. However, to get useful advice we would need to know as much as is reasonable about what you are looking for.

And you should think about what would make a school a good fit for you. Given your excellent stats you should be able to get accepted to some very good schools (and there are a lot of very good colleges and universities in the US, and more elsewhere).

I see that you are considering biology as an option. Do you have some sense what you might want to do with a degree in biology? Is medical school an option? Are you potentially interested in biomedical research?

I see that you did a summer program at Columbia. This would suggest that you have had the opportunity to spend some time at a large university in a large city. This can be useful to help you get some sense of whether this is for you, or if you would prefer somewhere like Amherst or Bowdoin which are very good small schools in a town and a small city respectively.