College Recommendations?

College Search & Lists
1

Hi everyone, I am a rising senior!

Can you guys give me some reach, match, and safety college recommendations? Since I don’t know what I want to study yet, I would like a college that is well balanced in all subject areas. I also do not have many preferences in regards to size and location; I want to be open-minded. Thank you!

Here is more info about me:

Female, Chinese

GPA: 3.92
WGPA: 4.71

I attend a public magnet school, in the science program
Class rank: top ~10%

SAT: 2230 (superscored)
SAT subject tests: Math II 750, Biology M 770
AP: Computer Science(5), Gov(5)

Classes:
Freshman: Net sports, Magnet precal, Honors US history, Spanish 2, Adv physics, Adv chem, Computer sci 1, Design and engineering 1, Honors english 9
Sophomore: AP gov, AP comp sci, Honors spanish 3, Magnet functions, Honors english 10, Adv bio, Adv earth sciences, Engineering 2
Junior: AP lang, AP econ, AP statistics, AP calc BC, AP biology, Research and design 1, Computer sci 3, Health

Volunteer:
Page at local library(40 hrs, 2 years ago), homeless shelter for deliverer(100 hrs), chinese school teacher(100 hrs), senior residence(30 hrs, 2 summers ago)

Summer Experience:
Summer Internship Program at NIH- working in a lab(this summer)
Navy Academy Summer Seminar
Internship at National Institute in programming and networking(400 hrs, summer after sophomore year)
Biomedical summer program at UMD

ECS:
Cancer fundraising club(President and Co-founder)
X-STEM ambassador(Fellow)
Navy sea cadet(Seaman)
Save the children club(Treasurer)
National Honor Society
National Science Honor Society
Science Olympiad(placed second at state competitions)
Track and field team(All 4 years of HS)
Golf team(3 years)
Business club
Water project club

Awards:
International ISWEEP finalist: Created a sustainable water filter out of recycled materials, was shown to be very effective
National SourceAmerica Design Challenge Second Place: created technology to help people with disabilities, received contract for the nonprofit we were working with, created jobs for 50 people with disabilities
NCWIT Affliate Award: for various computer science accomplishments
SciOly regional and state medals
Stockholm junior water prize: for the water filter project mentioned above
Princeton Chinese music festival honorable mention

Schools I am looking at right now:
Yale
Wellesley
Georgetown
UPenn
UChicago
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Berkeley
UVA

Thanks everyone for helping me out! ANY ADVICE IS WELCOME!

2

But what type of school do you want? You could put Stanford, Harvard, or Princeton on the list and be pretty good. I know some people will say it’s a toss up at those schools, but your internships and accomplishments outside of the classroom would put you in top running. But if you don’t want to go to a big school or a small school or a secluded school or whatever, those factors need to be decided. Major isn’t important and colleges know that it changes. They look for students who a passion in a field and who will be good candidates to succeed at college. If you’re interested in science and language (or history, math, economics, etc) then sell yourself that way and pick any school that fits your desires.

3

This seems like a very great list, full of great ambition, regardless of what people say about the relatively low acceptance rates. That being said, you may want to round out your list with some admission and financial safeties, as I am unsure about whether or not cost is a significant factor. Or your location, and preferred school size. Great schools include Wesleyan, Lehigh, Colgate and Boston College, for a start.

4

What has your own guidance counselor advised? You need at least one rock-bottom safety in case everything goes wrong.

What can your family afford to pay? Have your parents run the Net Price Calculators for each of the places on your list and told you that the results are affordable?

Since you have so many internship hours at the NIH and UMD, my guess is that you live in MD. If so, why isn’t UM-CP or UM-BC on your list?

5

Based on your background, you might find Tufts’ approach to engineering/applied science interesting. It is both interdisciplinary and humanistic. If you are interested in this area, and can express that interest in your essays, then there is a good chance that it would resonate with the admissions committee.

http://engineering.tufts.edu/research/labscenters.htm

Your water filter project is also both unusual and interesting, as clean water is a growing global problem where Tufts is very active.

http://sites.tufts.edu/ewb/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzENicp06-M

https://www.edx.org/course/biology-water-health-part-1-oecx-ph241x-0

http://engineering.tufts.edu/chbe/asatekin/research/

http://heyevent.com/event/nqirsxt5n3ex2a/sunday-at-2pm-wish-granted-tufts-campus-water-balloon-fight

Good Luck

6

“I would like a college that is well balanced in all subject areas.”

Balance is a fairly specific concept, but in terms of larger private schools, I think of Cornell as being the best represented in all subject areas.

7

@biochemgirl67 Thanks for your response! I really don’t have a preference in school size, but I would prefer to go to a school on the east or west coast. I don’t want to limit myself by saying I have to go to a school with a certain size or location. I just want to go to a school that has a good name, will give me career opportunities, and is easy to switch majors in.

@BoyAtWilliams Cost is quite a significant factor, but it’s really hard to tell the cost based on my situation. I come from a single-parent family, so I’m not sure which colleges will not look at the non-custodial parent’s income. If they only look at my mom’s income, all the colleges would be affordable.

@happymomof1 My guidance counselor has advised that UM-CP be my safety school. I will definitely apply there.

@Mastadon Thanks for the recommendation! I will look into that.

@merc81 Thanks! I’ve looked into Cornell and I feel like I’d only apply for the prestige. Nothing really stands out to me.

8

Cost is quite a significant factor, but it’s really hard to tell the cost based on my situation. I come from a single-parent family, so I’m not sure which colleges will not look at the non-custodial parent’s income. If they only look at my mom’s income, all the colleges would be affordable.

well then - research each one of those schools - that seems critical - I thought almost all schools will include the other parent - depends on what you/they mean by non-custodial

Have you visited any colleges yet? and what did you think?

9

If you are applying from Montgomery Blair, doesn’t UMD offer a full-ride (or at least free tuition) to top students? That used to be the case several years ago. And the Gemstone honors program is a treasure. It will be hard to justify spending the money on any of these other schools without a significant scholarship unless your family is quite well off.

Not saying you shouldn’t apply to these other schools - but you might want to check out the scholarship options if money matters to you.

10

UM-CP is reasonably safe for you, but sometimes there are horrible surprises with UM-CP. So you might want to find a guaranteed admit place to use as your rock-bottom back-up. Check these threads for ideas:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1562918-updated-list-of-schools-with-auto-admit-guaranteed-admission-criteria-p1.html

Any place that only uses the FAFSA for financial aid won’t need the NCP info. If the place also uses the CSS Profile and/or its own financial aid forms, the NCP info. may be necessary. So find out whether or not your NCP will cooperate with this process, and whether or not your NCP will contribute toward your college expenses. Each college and university has a Net Price Calculator right on its website. These calculators will indicate whether or not your NCP’s info. is necessary. Sit down with your mom and run a few of the calculators. As long as you are not an international student, your mom doesn’t have a business, and she doesn’t own any property other than the home where you live, they should be accurate.

If it looks like money is going to be an issue, spend some time in the Financial Aid Forum. Start with this thread and check out all of the links:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

11

The vast majority of colleges that use FAFSA only do not meet need and will gap the student.

12

Might look at Holy Cross in Massachusetts. Holy Cross meets 100% demonstrated financial need and HC HAS STRONG SCIENCE programs.