Chance me: Rural midwestern applicant, poor ECs, 3.9UW, 33 ACT [MN resident, accounting or economics, $200k total ($50k per year) from parents]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US domestic
  • State/Location of residency: Minnesota
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Rural HS with ~850 students

Intended Major(s): Accounting, Economics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.94 (School average 3.2)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 33 (Top 15% at my HS get 29 on average)

List your HS coursework

  • English: Honors all 3 years
  • Math: In AP Calc AB hoping to get into UMN PSEO and take Calc II next year, also in AP Stats
  • Science: AP Bio
  • Language other than English: Spanish 4
  • Visual or performing arts: Film studies
  • Other academic courses: AP World History

Awards

  1. 2x 3rd place at DECA regionals for 20 page research papers and 1x 1st in accounting event
    Extracurriculars
  2. DECA: Qualified for internationals once, state finals 2x, and state 3x in 5 events.
  3. Work experience: I work as a barista before school at 5AM almost everyday at a local coffee shop.
  4. Student fellow at a nonprofit: I’m working on fundraising at my school by myself for a global nonprofit along with 60 other students around the world at their schools.
  5. NHS Junior officer (5 total at my school)
  6. Link Crew Leader
  7. Rice university pre-college for economics in my sophomore summer
  8. Member of my schools math league
  9. 1000 day Duolingo streak

Schools

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability): Local CC
  • Extremely Likely: SJSU
  • Likely: SDSU, UH Manoa
  • Toss-up: UMN
  • Lower Probability: UMiami, UF, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO
  • Low Probability: USC, UT Austin, UCLA, UCB, Rice
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I assume you’ll have a 4th year of English and you had 3 sciences + social sciences?

What is your budget?

If you want accounting, you can do it from most any program that offers and be successful.

SJSU - I’m assuming it’s safe - it would be as a California resident.

SDSU - likely a target - it’s not an easy admit.

UH - safe

UMN - highly likely

Lower probability is that - lower probability.

Low probability - yes - and UCLA doesn’t have an accounting major…not sure UCB does either.

If you think you want accounting and you want warm - why not an ASU or U of A - they’ll get the same recruitment as the top schools.

You’ll also be an auto admit for IU Kelley - if you are seeking “rank” although in accounting it is not needed.

If you want warm - Miami, UF - you might add in Alabama and UGA - both find b schools.

Good luck.

But make sure first thing, all are affordable.

PS - surprised, Wisconsin didn’t make your list with reciprocity although it seems other than UM that your list is warm - and maybe that’s why.

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Thanks for the response! Budget-wise, my parents have set aside 200k for my college, I also have done net price calculators on some schools on my list and have found my family income seems to be too high to receive need-based aid. For classes, I am going to take English next year as well as either AP Gov or Economics (Depending on whether or not I get into UMN PSEO) and I have gotten 4 credits of science. You were right about your weather assumption as I’m not a big fan of winter here in the midwest. ASU is a great suggestion and your methodology seems similar to how I decided on SJSU and UH Manoa because of their big 4 recruitment, OOS tuition prices, and location. The ability to get your masters there while you are in undergrad is also something I’ve been looking for so I will definitely look at that as an option. Thanks again for your advice!

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My nephew dropped out of HS, ended up at a CC and then UNLV. Guess who hired from UNLV - the Big 4. He wasn’t interested but they were there hiring for SF, Denver, LA, and more.

OOS tuition - Alabama, as an example, will be $20-22K ish all in four years - imagine what your folks could do with the rest of the money.

If you were studying econ, it’s different - but accounting, find the schools that would work.

UF is a great school - will it do better in accounting than other places? I don’t think so but.

But the Arizona schools might be good for you, Bama, UGA, U of SC…and how about FSU?

UH - gonna be pricey to live and get there. SJSU likely will have a more local population. The beauty of a Bama - as an example - is 60% are OOS - so you have tons from Illinois (over 1500), Texas, CA, 2K from NY/NJ/CT - you’re not alone and you save $$.

I think the Arizona schools, while mostly local, also attract big OOS crowds.

UT has a top accounting school. I don’t think you can get in but you can try but it will cost more than savings.

Best of luck.

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First, your ECs are not “poor” by any measure. The majority of high school students don’t have ECs, and the majority of those who do have done less than you. So you are definitely have more than solid ECs.

That rules out any of the UCs. $200K wouldn’t even cover OOS tuition, and living expenses and healthcare and travel would add another $150K or so. There is no point in having them on your list.

SDSU would be slightly over budget, while SJSU and Cal Poly would be well within budget.

UT Austin would go over this budget by between $40K and $70K, and should not be on your list.

UH Manoa would stay within this budget, however, the cost of travel may put it over budget by a bit. UF will also come in a below this budget, and travel will be cheaper.

For UMiami, USC, and Rice, you’d have to see what your EFC is. If your parents can put aside $200K, they may be considered full pay, in which case, you’d be above budget by more than you would be for the UCs.

So you should run the EFC for the private colleges.

Since your requirements seem to be a good accounting and business program and warm weather (I see the attraction, I’m also from the Midwest), I would recommend that you add, from private schools, Santa Clara, and from public schools, U Arizona and AU, both which have merit aid for applicants with your academic records that can bring down costs to well under your budget.

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Welcome to CC! Congrats on your accomplishments in high school; I definitely wouldn’t consider your ECs poor. I am particularly impressed that you’re at work every day at 5AM and love the 1000 day Duolingo streak. Which language(s) were you learning?

Even though both of those majors involve money, they are very different majors. I would look at the course descriptions and also the types of jobs that are available upon graduation to see which you prefer.

It appears as though you prefer mid-sized to large schools in warm climates. Is that correct? Anything else you want to share in terms of what kind of college experience you’re hoping for?

You may want to talk with your family and see whether stock market changes are impacting the amount that they have put aside/can afford for your college.

Assuming for now that the answer is no, I would call this a $50k/year budget. I would eliminate all of the UCs because they generally offer very little merit aid, and certainly not enough to bring the price within budget. UT is unlikely to hit budget. Rice, USC, and UMiami have the potential to hit budget, but realize that they are low probability to hit budget.

I will think of some other possibilities that might be of interest and be back. (And I was obviously on the same wavelength as @MWolf who posted while I was writing!)

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This post is just some research I’ve done that may be helpful. For people who are interested in accounting, I think that one way to gauge the strength of a program is by the percentage of students who pass the CPA exam on their first try. Now, there can be some selection bias, as in schools with lower admit rates that accepted students with higher standardized test scores often perform better. But there are schools where that is not the case, and thus, it can be a way to see the strength of the instruction being provided.

I did not find a more recent data set that shared the results for pretty much all colleges, so the data set I am using is from 2018. Things can change over time, but this is the best I have available. If others have a more recent resource source, please share! I looked for schools that had a path to affordability that were residential campuses in southern states and chose an arbitrary 60% as a cutoff point. These were the schools, sorted by size and, within each category, by state:

Larger Schools (9k+ undergrads)

  • Florida Gulf Coast: 63.2%, about 14k undergrads

  • U. of Central Florida: 64.0%, about 60k undergrads

  • Florida State: 67.7%, about 32k undergrads

  • Georgia Institute of Technology: 60.6%, about 20k undergrads

  • U. of Georgia: 72.8%, about 32k undergrads

  • Louisiana State: 63.3%, about 33k undergrads

  • U. of Mississippi: 63.5%, about 19k undergrads

  • U. of North Carolina – Chapel Hill: 74.3%, about 21k undergrads

  • U. of North Carolina – Charlotte: 63.3%; about 24k undergrads

  • Clemson (SC): 60.8%, about 23k undergrads

  • College of Charleston (SC): 63.4%, about 11k undergrads

  • U. of South Carolina: 63.3%, about 28k undergrads

  • U. of Tennessee: 70.4%, about 29k undergrads

  • Baylor (TX): 66.8%, about 15k undergrads

  • Texas A&M: 72.8%, about 60k undergrads

  • Texas Christian: 72.5%, about 11k undergrads

Medium Schools (3-9k undergrads)

  • Pepperdine (CA): 76.2%, about 3600 undergrads

  • Santa Clara (CA): 63.0%, about 6200 undergrads

  • U. of San Diego (CA): 61.6%, about 5700 undergrads

  • Tulane (LA): 68.3%, about 7300 undergrads

  • Wake Forest (NC): 78.9%, about 5500 undergrads

  • Lee U. (TN): 63.2%, about 3300 undergrads

  • Abilene Christian (TX): 63.8%, about 3200 undergrads

  • Southern Methodist (TX): 63.3%, about 7100 undergrads

Smaller Schools (below 3k undergrads)

  • Stetson (FL): 69.0%, about 2300 undergrads

  • Covenant College (GA): 93.8%, about 900 undergrads

  • Wesleyan College (GA): 66.7%, about 600 undergrads at this women’s college

  • Barton College (NC): 66.7%, about 1200 undergrads

  • Davidson (NC): 94.1%, about 1900 undergrads

  • U. of North Carolina – Asheville: 80.8%, about 2900 undergrads

  • U. of Tulsa (OK): 61.4%, about 2500 undergrads

  • Furman (SC): 77.4%, about 2300 undergrads

  • North Greenville U. (SC): 77.1%, about 1900 undergrads

  • Freed-Hardeman U. (TN): 65.1%, about 1900 undergrads

  • King U. (TN): 60.9%, about 1100 undergrads

  • Trevecca Nazarene (TN): 65.0%, about 1800 undergrads

  • Southwestern (TX): 60.0%, about 1500 undergrads

  • Trinity U. (TX): 81.3%, about 2500 undergrads

If you share more about what kind of a college experience you would like, I can sort some of these into some chancing categories, or at least categories as to their overall admissions rates.

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UC list price is much more than $50k per year for non-California residents, so you would need a large merit scholarship to attend. Meaning UCSD, UCLA, UCB are extremely low probability at best. CSUs like CPSLO, SJSU, SDSU are in the $50k-57k per year range for non-California residents.

California public universities do not consider ACT or SAT for admission purposes.

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What we don’t know is the budget. $200k may be supplemented by yearly cash flow ?

Or alternatively $200k may be less depending on market conditions ….

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Have you considered UIUC? It is #2 in accounting and top 30 in econ. OOS tuition is around $37K.

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FYI if you want to be a CPA you’ll need graduate education of some sort, or a 5th year as 150 credit hours take 5 years to obtain, so budget for that

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Easy answer is go to U of MN, or WI (tougher admit). Save your money! MN, being in the middle of a major city with a thriving business environment will have plenty of opportunities for internships, which is key to a good early start in your career. My understanding of Accounting is that it doesn’t matter too much where you go… a guy down the street with vg marks was admitted to MN, as well as other B10 schools, but went with St. Thomas, as he got close to afree ride with them. 10 years later he is doing VERY well. Just take a vacation down south during the very long Christmas break if you want sun. Your bank account will thank you later.

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The 200k is just what’s in my college fund for me but my grandparents have said they can give enough to cover full four years tuition depending on the situation (basically if I’m going to a school that they deem worth the price like UCLA). The overall fund is 400k but half is for my brother who is going to college in four years so I don’t know if that also factors in.

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Thanks for the recommendation! One of my senior friends is going there so when I go through my application process I will definitely ask them how they like it and most likely apply there.

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If I get into their PSEO program I will be able to test run UMN for a little bit by going to in person classes which will give me a better perspective on it. However, I did tour it earlier in the year and it didn’t feel like the best fit for me. I don’t know much about UW so I will do some research on that one as well. Thanks for the feedback!

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Along those lines, as you evaluate schools, you should look at whether they offer 3-2 or five year combined undergrad/masters programs.

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