Thanks so much for coming back to let us know. It shows thoughtfulness on your part. Congrats on Dartmouth fly-in! There are others you might want to check out, as well. And…please keep us informed about your college search! It is always great to hear this kind of good news.
Congratulations on the Dartmouth fly-in!
I believe that Posse is tuition-only, whereas Questbridge is full ride. However I hadn’t heard you had to choose between them, since many colleges don’t overlap.
Fingers crossed on the SAT and AP scores. 
And thanks for updating us! It’s very much appreciated. Please update us about the coming months, your impressions after the fly-in…
@MYOS1634 @aquapt @momcinco @Lindagaf thank you all so much!
I searched older threads on CC about Dartmouth Bound, and many posters said that if one is accepted for the fly in, one has a 60-70% chance of being accepted to the college itself. Is that true, or am I getting my hopes up?
Don’t take anything for granted at a school like that. Ensure you have other apps ready to go. Cautious optimism is ok, but not at the expense of reality. Good luck and come back to update next year.
Big smiles to you @kelvin82 - wow the things you are learning and doing for yourself are amazing - so happy for you! The Dartmouth thing - certainly a positive toward future admission, but as wise @lindgaf said, don’t ever set sights on a single dream school to the point you are restricting/preventing other options. Be careful of teasers or signs that give you a false sense of security about getting into a school (Mailers, invitations, etc.) Some are real, some are just marketing, it is hard at your age to know the difference. So just stay on course and stay focused, try not to get overwhelmed by trying to get into everything and everywhere, but have a couple solid options in your pocket going into the process. The collective brain trust here on cc knows a lot about schools you will likely consider, so don’t hesitate to come back with questions about the schools themselves.
It is nice you updated. We always like to see how it all plays out and only want the best for the students. Good luck over next few months!
Unfortunately the advice above is right on, nothing is guaranteed (although YES it is a great sign). Can you apply to some other fly-ins? Keep that list active and as others point out, there is no such thing as a dream school!
Yes, I am definitely planning on applying to many more fly in programs. I submitted my application for Barnard Bound, and am in the process of finishing the ones for Mt Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr, and Wellesley, which are all due in June. After I am done with those, I plan on completing the ones due in July and August. Right now, I do not have a dream school, but my heart is leaning heavily to Wellesley. I know that is not a guaranteed option, so I am keeping my eyes wide open to all the other amazing colleges.
A big thank you to @aquapt for mentioning Carleton to me! I checked my mailbox, and found a travel voucher from their admissions office. I am super excited to check the campus out. I have heard that Carleton is amazing in the sciences and that their students are somewhat nerdy so I really hope that I’ll like the overall vibe and environment
As of now, for my California schools, I plan to apply to
the honors college in Cal State LA
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly SLO
my local junior college
4 UCs (the UCs will only allow me to have up to 4 fee waivers).
I plan on applying to
UCLA
UC Berkeley
UC Santa Barbara
UC San Diego
I am not exactly sure if I should swap out UCSB for another UC. I want to double major in economics and chemistry, if that makes any difference, and I am fine with any climate and location.
I also am applying to schools via the Questbridge College Match, and plan to rank around 8-9 colleges. I have not really thought about what colleges I want on my rankings list, but I know Wellesley will be on there. I’ll get that ironed out sometime later this month.
I am worried that I do not have enough safety or match schools on my list. Does anyone have any advice?
Thank you for reading!
Wait a minute, 2 cal poly’s, CSULA, comm college, four UCs, Dartmouth, Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, Carleton, Smith, Barnard, Mt. Holyoke. Yes, that’s a lot of colleges to apply to. You must be a great student and will surely get into the Cal schools and CSULA. I think this is a little overkill in numbers of apps. You don’t need to apply to comm college unless by some unlikely chance you don’t get into any of the other schools.
You have a lot of visits lined up with your fly ins. Be careful how you manage your time. Each of those is going to be a two day trip, minimum, as I assume you live in CA. Plus the time change. Fly-ins typically happen early in the school year, right? I don’t know how the fly-in programs work exactly, but if possible, you may want to combine Wellesely with Smith and Mt. Holyoke. Smith and Mt. Holyoke should be done at the same time, as they are near each other and are part of the same consortium. I am a little concerned that you are going to miss a lot of school with so many fly-ins, and that won’t be a good way to start senior year. Maybe you should visit the two or three you are most interested in, and visit some others after acceptance if possible. If you visit all, assuming one day will be a weekend, you will possibly miss six days or more of school. Plus, you will still have your own schoolwork to manage.
@Kelvin82 , cool about the Carleton travel voucher!! Does that make the arrangements flexible enough that you could visit more than just Carleton when you go? Because Macalester is a great college that you might really like if you had a look at it, and it’s also in the Twin Cities area (a more urban setting in St. Paul than the little town of Northfield, where Carleton and St. Olaf are)… and it has the highest acceptance rate of all the Questbridge schools. There are also some great potential safeties on the Posse list. Kalamazoo, Dickinson, & Syracuse would all be safeties for you, I would think; and Tulane would be a safety-ish match.
It’s a tough call about how many visits to attempt, because it’s true that they siphon off a lot of time and energy, but then again if you’re going to put a college on your Questbrige Match list, you need to be pretty sure that it’s someplace you’d be happy to attend. It sounds to me like you’re doing a great job of strategizing and narrowing things down. The important thing with safeties is to have at least one sure bet that you know you could happily attend (and afford) if it came down to that. Another thing to consider, safety-wise, is the admissions timeline. One of my D’s best friends, for example, fell in love with Portland State (in Oregon) when she visited. It’s a Western Undergraduate Exchange school, so CA students can attend at a reduced rate. And admissions are rolling, so she was able to apply in September and have an acceptance in hand a week later. All you really need for peace of mind is one school like that! One early acceptance from a school you genuinely like, and you no longer need to waste energy applying anywhere you don’t clearly love more than that ace-up-your-sleeve.
One other thing to point out - within UCSB, also check out the College of Creative Studies, which is a smaller sub-program with a fantastic reputation. The number of majors within CCS is limited, but chem is one of the choices, and it appears from the student handbook that it’s possible to also choose a second major from the College of Letters, (at least, the info states, “If you have a second major in the College of Letters and Science or Engineering, you must comply with the drop and change of grading option deadlines of that college”) so you could still get your econ major that way. https://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/
It might not be too bad since CP/CSUs is same app with no essays - most time consuming/a bit painful thing on it is listing your classes - but only have to do it once, and the UC app to four schools is just one as well. @lindagaf I don’t know the east coast schools enough to offer an opinion at all, are some of those redundant in nature or all very different? idk. It seems you should keep that across the country list manageable and not over apply and wear yourself out for the ones that matter the most. @kelvin82 - any west coast privates that seem interesting? They can offer some nice money in various forms. Do you prefer large or small school, urban or rural setting, or still figuring that out? That can help narrow your list. I saw you don’t care about climate, that is helpful. Don’t forget travel costs when planning for college expenses…or not coming home very often if at all during the school year.
You have to be aware. Double majoring was my goal for a long time. I wanted to double major in Meteorology and Chemistry. I decided not to pursue it anymore as the two majors required a lot of rigorous courses, especially in Meteorology. So now I’m going for Meteorology as major and Chemistry minor. I suggest you rethink about double majoring. My long term goal is to get a Masters in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Meteorology. Maybe a suggestion:
Option 1: Economics Major and Chemistry Minor.
Option 2: Chemistry and Economics Minor
Double Major requires a lot of work.
Double major being more work depends on the college and how close the majors are. There are science and technology degree programs out there, like this:
http://www.upenn.edu/fisher/about
Or this:
https://www.uq.edu.au/study/program.html?acad_prog=2098#international
And if you are female looking at STEM, that’s a hook. Let alone being lower income. You should do fine.
Regarding fly-ins: selection is very rigorous, so one must apply to 10-12 to have a shot at one.
They’re not “we pay you a plane ticket, go look around”. The student is supposed to come at a given time, is picked up at the airport, has set activities, often has to prepare for a class with a reading and is supposed to demonstrate how they participate/express themselves in front of others, there are activities, meeting with the president and/or dean, etc.
Each lasts about 3 days, transportation included. They can take place between August and November. You can’t just go of on your own to visit other colleges or other places in the area (although the college may take you somewhere as part of their tour.)
Doing at least 3 is a good idea, since it helps you compare them.
Being selected considerably ups your odds of admission, especially if you made a good impression.
Re: the title of the thread…
OP, do you feel better, less lost, not breaking down any more? I was reading another thread, and I just started hoping that you feel okay about the process. And I hope CC will help you feel better
@rhandco Yes I feel better about this whole process. I feel less anxious and more confident in myself. Thank you!
I received my AP scores. 5s in AP English Lang, AP Chem, and AP US History and a 3 in AP Biology. I really hope that one 3 won’t affect my chances too much…
SAT Subject test scores came back today. I received a 730 on SAT Chem and a 720 on Math 2. I feel pretty disappointed with my score, especially since conventional wisdom is to score 750+ in order to be a competitive applicant, so I’m thinking about retaking. Any advice?
I submitted more fly in apps, and Williams should notify me a response by the 17th and Wellesley will notify me on the 18th. Hoping for good news.
@kelvin82 - those are some great scores - congrats! 5s on those APs is fantastic, do not give a 3 in AP bio a second thought, particularly since you took all those at once, you handled them well. Your “package” is coming together nicely and you will come off as a very solid student. Yes, over 750 is great, but so is over 700 for many schools. You have such a long list of schools and I am not that familiar with the east coast schools (but plenty of others are on here) that I don’t want to compound things and make it more, but have you given thought to some of the Jesuit/Catholic/private west coast schools like Seattle U, Loyola Marymount or University of Portland? Not to pile more on, but they can be very generous.
Remember, your scores are just one part of who you are, your application (for other than CSUs where there is no essays) needs to show a full picture of who you are, what you value, how you have grown and your potential regarding all of these factors at that particular school going forward. If that sounds like gobbledeeguk, just ask questions - lots of helpful posters on here!
Keep us posted re, your fly-ins! Great options, Wellesley and Williams. Hard to believe it is already time to think about fall college visits.
I view the fly-ins as really good indicators of selectivity as well as a great way to see campuses. S #1 applied for four and got into one (Amherst DIVOH) but had a phone call from Williams telling why he was waitlisted (he had already been on campus). So that clued us in to his admissibility at those two schools. It can help you refine your QB match list, to know where your profile makes you a good candidate.
I think applying to four was a good idea, but others may think four is too few. You want to attend at least one! For S #1 it helped him decide on a larger school for a bigger feel environment, versus an intimate LAC, and that was important as well. S #2 is set on the small intimate LAC and I suspect that a fly-in (he has picked four to apply to) will only confirm that preference.
Great job on APs and SAT IIs!
And…did you see that the QB Match app already opened? Yikes. I hope you also find time to enjoy summer. Again…keep us posted!
Thank you @momcinco @CADREAMIN
Regarding my sat subject test scores, would it be wise to retake them? I want to major in chemistry, and I’m worried that my 730 will have a negative impact on my application. I’ve also heard that colleges will place more weight on SAT Subject Tests instead of AP tests. Also, my math score’s percentile is pretty low as well, so that concerns me.
Any insight would be appreciated! Thank you in advance.
Percentiles don’t matter since the test takers are self selected. You might want to try two new ones in the fall and retake chemistry if you wish.
Can you apply to a couple more fly ins? You want to maximize your odds of visiting campuses.
Generally fly-ins don’t let you put one with the other but Amherst will work with you if you are going to Williams after, or whatever. So if you are accepted to any that are close together in date/location, you can probably arrange something.