Chances of admission to top 50 university with excellent grades but few extracurriculars [WI resident, 4.0 GPA, 1520 SAT, 34 ACT, <$40k; social sciences]

Chance Me / Match Me
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I’m aware that a lot of the ‘chance me’ posts are essentially [long lists of AP/IB coursework and extracurriculars] and [please tell me that this is enough to get into the ivies]. I hope I’m not contributing to that!

My particular situation is that I’ve succeeded in several AP classes and maintained a good GPA without having participated in any extracurriculars. This is mainly due to my parents not having the time to ferry me to and from practices and meetings.

Demographics

  • American citizen
  • Wisconsin
  • Public High School
  • Middle-class student of South Asian origin

Intended Major(s)
Not sure: Economics, Political Science, History, International Studies

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 34 composite on ACT; 1520 on SAT

Coursework

AP exams taken along with courses: World History, US History, German Language & Culture, Statistics, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Environmental Science, US Government & Politics

AP exams taken: English Language & Composition, English Language & Literature, Human Geography, Spanish Language & Culture, French Language & Culture, Psychology

(earned 5s on all of these)

Extracurriculars

  • Week-long summer linguistics program (from OSU)
  • 60+ hours volunteering at school library
  • 60+ hours volunteering at public library
  • 30+ hours of peer tutoring
  • 8+ years of Spanish

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Excellent LORs from World History, English, and German teachers
  • Personal essays/statements are thoughtful and very nicely composed; writing is my strong suit
    *Fluent in six languages: English, Urdu, Telugu, Spanish, French, and German

Cost Constraints / Budget

  • Less than $40,000 yearly would be ideal, really. Mod edit: Per OP, the NPCs show that all schools are within budget except Berkeley.

Schools

As is evident from the short list of activities under the “Extracurriculars” section, I haven’t participated in many out-of-class activities. I’ve heard that international colleges in Asia and Europe don’t care as much about extracurriculars, which is one reason why I’m hoping to go to college abroad; another reason is that I (like practically everyone else) enjoy travel and foreign culture. Besides that, international colleges seem to have less exorbitant tuition fees, especially compared to the out-of-state tuition for colleges here. That said, I’m not averse to studying in the US, and am wondering what my chances of getting into the colleges I’ve been considering, which are a mix of foreign and domestic ones, as well as some insight into which ones appear to be the best fits (and perhaps suggestions of others). Even if I stay in the country, I’d like to go to a college that’s fairly highly ranked (in my field) and has a sizable international community. I’m trying to keep the list short so as to not leech your time further.

  • UW-Madison
  • Princeton
  • University of Hong Kong
  • HKUST
  • Rutgers
  • National University of Singapore
  • Nanyang Technological University
  • London School of Economics
  • Imperial College London
  • UC Berkeley

Thoughts?

Thank you!

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UC Berkeley will be unaffordable

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Ask your family to run the Net Price Calculator at Princeton. If it does not come back as affordable, then it (and any other school that does not offer merit aid and costs more than $40k) should be eliminated.

If you’re looking at international colleges, you may also want to look at Canadian schools like McGill or U. of Toronto. @DadTwoGirls might have some suggestions.

I’m not familiar enough with the foreign colleges, but perhaps @Twoin18 might have some insight on the English colleges?

I think that UW-Madison and Rutgers are likely admits for you. Princeton is a reach for all.

Did you take the PSAT? If so, was your Selection Index Score higher than about 214? That is currently the estimate for the National Merit Semi-Finalist (NMSF) cutoff for Wisconsin for this upcoming year (source). If you qualify as a NMSF, and especially if you move on to be a finalist, there are a lot of scholarship opportunities that open up.

For right now, I’m going to assume that you will need merit aid to get schools to the $40k point or below. (If that ends up not being the case, please let us know.) These schools either have sticker prices that will get you within budget (CUNY), or you would have a shot at merit aid (good shot to Binghamton and Seton Hall within budget), or the school offers (competitive) big awards. USC has half-tuition scholarships for NMFs, I believe, and Fordham offers some NMFs full tuition scholarships.

  • George Washington (D.C.)
  • Fordham (NY)
  • Seton Hall (NJ)
  • CUNY Hunter or CUNY City College…with Macaulay honors
  • Binghamton (NY)
  • Occidental
  • U. of Southern California
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Also Rutgers, unless you get substantial merit aid (they’re not very generous).

@aq496, do you qualify for financial aid? If not, you should take Princeton off the list as well.

(Edit: cross posted with @AustenNut)

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Have you considered Middlebury which provides good need based aid? If Princeton’s estimate is in budget try Middlebury’s net price calculator, too.

What about UMN? Won’t it be in budget with reciprocity for WI? Reciprocity programs | Twin Cities One Stop Student Services

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Have you run the net price calculator on the web site of each US school?

Have you considered international universities in places where your language skills may help in daily life? Your international universities all seem to be in places that speak English or languages outside of your list of those known.

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First regarding extracurricular activities. Pretty much any constructive activity that you do outside of the classroom counts. ECs specifically do not need to be connected to clubs at your high school. Volunteer activities are good ECs. Tutoring is a good EC.

ECs are more important for the very top ranked universities in the US (such as Princeton) that have a long, long list of applicants with nearly perfect GPAs in demanding classes. For most universities they are less important. Some international universities (outside the US) won’t even care. Students can frequently get accepted to their in-state public universities without much in the way of ECs. You happen to have a very good in-state public university (which I do see on your list) and I was under the impression that your state also has a reciprocal agreement with UMN, although you might know the details better than I do.

Several relatives applied to universities in Canada (my daughters and I have dual citizenship) and I do not think that any of us even told them about our ECs. This will however depend upon the university.

Regarding your list.

UW-Madison is excellent. Your great stats and being in-state should help. UMN might also be worth an application. You guidance counselor would know better than I whether these are safeties. If they are, then you have a great start on a list.

Princeton is a reach for essentially every strong student. You should run the NPC to see whether it is likely to be affordable. If you Google “net price calculator princeton university” then you will find the NPC for Princeton.

I have no idea whether Rutgers will fit your budget. Otherwise it looks likely to me.

UC Berkeley will be way over budget. I would just forget about it.

The other schools on your list I do not know very well.

Whether various schools in Canada will fit your budget I am not sure, and it might depend upon where you apply. The more famous ones (Toronto, UBC) are likely to be more expensive compared to other Canadian universities. Toronto does have a very good merit scholarship for a very small number of international students (the Lester B Pearson scholarship) but it is very competitive and you need to be nominated by your high school. I am assuming that this probably pretty nearly always means that the student gets their high school to nominate them.

Politicians in Quebec are currently debating how much to increase prices for international students for McGill and other universities in Quebec. They also are likely to introduce requirements to be conversationally capable of speaking French to graduate, but this looks like it will be easy for you. The University of Ottawa is officially bilingual, and the last time that I looked (which was a while ago) there was a tuition break for bilingual students who take some classes in English and also take some classes in French, and this break even applied to International students. If you are interested in smaller universities, Mount Allison is very good and should fit your budget, probably with some to spare. Please note that all prices will be listed in Canadian dollars, and the exchange rate is very favorable for those of us who are paying using American dollars.

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Colleges in London won’t come in below $40K per year and probably not even $160K total for a three year degree. You have a good chance of getting below $160K total outside London at colleges like Durham, Warwick or Manchester that offer 3 year courses. Oxford would also be fairly close to $160K total for a non-STEM degree (you can look at the pricing differences by course).

But your lack of certainty about what you want to study probably makes you ill suited to top UK universities which want to hear about your obsession with (and depth of focus on) your chosen subject.

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Would St. Andrews be a possibility? I’ve heard that the Scottish universities are more open to exploration than the English ones. @NiceUnparticularMan’s son had a visit there recently, I believe. I don’t know whether the cost would fall within a $40k budget, but others do.

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Can you get into a top 50 university at $40K.

Yes.

How are you determining top 50 - and I’m not sure it matters for your majors and there is little difference between a #35 WIsconsin, #53 Minnesota, #115 Arizona, #124 Mizzou, and #170 Alabama. All - and many others are solid flagships - but at different prices and admission criteria - and the three last ones would all easily make budget with your stats. And not every school looks at ECs or even cares about them.

That said, since you want top 50 at $40K or less, that leaves you with #43 Purdue and I believe you’d get in.

Is it the best or right school for you - I don’t know.

You should find the right school for you - not the highest ranked.

Your stats will get you sub $40K at a lot of fine schools - of varying size and environments.

I don’t know about the foreign schools but Wisconsin may be tough, UCB and likely Rutgers are not affordable.

But Purdue - you’d get in and it would be top 50 (not necessarily in your interests) and it would be affordable at your budget. UGA is another that “might” get you there and then FSU is #53 and would work. So close.

But top 50 is a silly criteria quite honestly (IMHO).

Good luck.

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Thanks for the thorough response! This is really useful. Re: “If that ends up not being the case, please let us know,” is there a way to edit the original post to make that clear?

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Take a look at the bottom right of your original post.

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If you see a pencil-looking icon among your options, then click that and edit your post. If it is not there, then it’s been too long since you originally posted to edit yourself, but you can flag the post (icon to the left of the one I circled in the picture) and ask a moderator to make an edit for you.

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Overseas cost of attendance is now over $60K (and increasing) at St Andrews. Not bad compared to US private full pay, but obviously way over the stated budget.

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Seconding all Canadian universities.

Look into Sciences Po Reims or Le Havre (respectively, Transatlantic relations focus, Asian focus). Topnotch, taught in English, environment in French, $16,000 tuition.
There’s also a Sciences po Columbia program (though you’d need to look at the FA situation from Columbia).

University College Dublin and Trinity Dublin both look at grades/scores only, are excellent for your chosen subjects, and cost about $25,000 for tuition. Living expenses are quite high, especially housing.

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Sciences Po looks very interesting, thanks—I’ve looked around their website, and it turns out they have dual degree programs with NUS and HKU, which are both on my list! Have you any idea as to my chance of acceptance (to Sciences Po)?

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Yes, I ran the NPCs. (See the edit to the original post; I was told that I should notify people that I did.) I hadn’t really considered any other international universities, but having seen the French and Canadian universities suggested on this thread, I am now…

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I’d suggest McGill. You can see the cutoffs for the various programs right on their web-site. Admission is based only on stats (grades & tests) - no essay, no recommendations, no ECs. It’s a vibrant campus in a vibrant city with strong academics - if you come in with enough AP credits you could possibly finish there in 3 years (if that is something that interests you). In terms of US schools, it is really the top tier that looks closely at ECs. S22 had very minimal ECs but was still admitted to the following: Syracuse, American, Pitt, U Mass and U Conn (and he was not as strong a student as you are). All that to say, is that your ECs will be just fine at most schools, but most likely won’t put you in the running at places like Princeton (although it is definitely worth a shot if it’s affordable).

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Don’t know if you would get enough fin aid to bring cost to <40K, but you should look into Georgetown, because of your interest in poli sci and int’l studies. Your application could be very intriguing - all those APs with 5’s, and fluent in SIX languages? Wow.

If you’re interested in linguistics, you should add UMass Amherst to your list. You’ll probably get honors and max OOS merit money, bringing your cost to about just over 40K plus health insurance (which you probably already have through your parents’ employment).

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Pretty high because they’re mostly about grades and rigor, but the interview (an oral exam with lots of questions about current events&politics in your geographical area of interest, ie., France, Europe, the US, and/or South East Asia, China, etc. +the mire typical “why us” question) Throws an element of uncertainty into the mix.

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With respect to your search within the U.S., if you would like to emphasize top-50 colleges, you may enhance your list by considering a broad ranking, rather than one limited to a particular category of schools. WalletHub offers one example of a generally inclusive ranking: