Hispanic Aspiring Astrophysicist Feeling Imposter Syndrome [CA resident, 3.94 GPA (4.0/4.38/4.43 for UC), 1460 SAT, <$200k total until graduation, less for low rank schools]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Please chance me mainly for upper UC’s and UCSC!!

Demographics: Gender, race/ethnicity, state, type of school, and hooks (URM, first generation, legacy, athlete, etc.) Male URM (Hispanic) at not-very-competitive public school in Southern California

Intended Major(s): Astrophysics/Physics/AstronomyACT/SAT/SAT II: 1460 rn, minimal studying so hoping to get that up after studyingUW/W GPA and Rank: 3.94/4.71 UW/W, Top 10%

Coursework: AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores, etc

1 AP Sophomore Year (Euro, 5), 4 Junior Year (Pre-calc, taking for AP Scholar with distinction lol, Spanish Lang, Chem, and APUSH) 5 Planned for Senior Year (AP Calc BC, AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Lit, AP Macroecon/AP Gov)

3 Honors Freshman Year (Bio, Geometry, English), 3 Honors Sophomore Year (Chem, Alg II, English), 2 Honors Junior Year (Physics, English) (Anything honors wasn’t offered in AP)

Awards:

  1. Hopefully AP Scholar w Distinction??
  2. NASA associated writing contest
  3. Water Polo Team MVP
  4. Varsity Letter for swim
  5. Tri-M, CSF, NHS

Extracurriculars: Include leadership & summer activities

  1. Accepted to COSMOS, attending this summer
  2. Water Polo, Captain last season (4 yrs)
  3. Swimming (4 yrs) varsity
  4. Orchestra (4 yrs) Concertmaster
  5. Science Olympiads, did Astronomy
  6. Rice Space class (1 month this year) led to NASA associated award
  7. Volunteer at local lake for supervising and teaching little kids ab lifeguarding, 50 hrs service summer after freshman year
  8. Private violin tutoring (1 hr/week Junior Year)

Essays/LORs/Other: Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.

Don’t know yet, I think I’m a decent writer, I have a rly strong relationship w one teacher so hopefully good rec from her.

Schools: List of colleges, ED/EA/RD, etc

Safety: Cal Lutheran, University of Arizona, ASU, lower ranked CSU’s, University of Oregon

Target: UCSC, Emrby-Riddle, CSULB,

Reach: UCSB, UCSD, UCI, UCD, CPP, CPSLO

Super Reach: Rice, CalTech, Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, UCLA, UCB, Harvey Mudd

I’m just really nervous rn for college apps bc everyone with insane research is getting rejected everywhere and I’m basically only involved in my high school :sob: pls tell me if I’m delusional

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I’m not an expert, but you look like a strong candidate with broad interests. I think you have the schools categorized correctly, for the ones I know. Calculate your capped-weighted UC GPA and take a look at how students from your high school do at the UCs you’re considering - it’ll give you better guidance (tho no promises) than the overall admit rates and stats: Admissions by source school | University of California

From what I’ve seen, I think you’re likely to get into UCSC; the reaches are reaches - but I’d guess you’ll get into at least a few of them. As long as you like and could afford your safeties, you have nothing to worry about. One piece of advice: keep at least one safety with rolling admissions on your list and apply early so you know by November/December that you have an option.

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Well - you’d have Arizona at a huge discount - so why apply to schools like ERAU unless you want to go there. It pretty much trumps your list but UCSC is a fine UC (different environment) and would work.

Unless you want small, I don’t get a Cal Lutheran or ERAU (or then Harvey Mudd).

Frankly, you have zero concern - because you’re not going to get rejected everywhere but if you like Arizona (go visit) you can reduce your list - a lot!! It’s one of the top programs in the country given your interests. And the Honors dorm is pretty great. ASU is surprisingly strong in the area as well and has the Barrett Honors College.

In other words, your list can be as zany as you want and maybe you get rejected - but U of A and UCSC - you’re not losing much if you lose elsewhere - they’re arguably (especially u of A) as strong to begin with and you have zero chance of not being admitted. And if their merit structure doesn’t adjust (much) with big merit.

Good luck.

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What are your recalculated-for-UC GPAs?

See GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub to calculate.

Do you have cost constraints? If so, have you used the net price calculator on each college’s web site?

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My unweighted UC is 4.0, 4.38 capped and 4.43 uncapped. I dont have any money restrictions, my family’s pretty well off.

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Ig I was just looking for more targets so I did kinda throw ERAU in there. Thanks for the advice, ill make sure to take it out :slight_smile: and I will def check Arizona unis out more, the climate is nice year round too so I’d love to go there!

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Ive been looking into biola university and some selective programs there, and its not too far from home as well. How do u think the financial aid would be there?

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Biola is very religious.

Let’s step back.

Forget rank for a minute.

What do you seek in a university? You want to be an astrophysicist - ok.

But do you seek a large or small school? What type of environment? Religious or otherwise?

You say cost is no issue but be sure your parents are willing to pay any cost then - up to $95K a year today.

It’s odd to go from talking about a UC to Biola, etc.

Maybe forget a physics rank and figure out the type of school you want.

Your list is a bit all over.

If you’ve not visited any schools, maybe near home go visit a large, mid size and small - to see what kind of campus you like.

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I honestly dont think I have a preference between large and small schools (visited both CalTech and UCLA, loved both vibes) moreso the ability to work and interact with others - even if its other students. I learn best by working on problems with others as well, and I also really want some good research opportunities (good at the UCs because they are research unis). Biola university has this one program for 20 undergraduates a year for guaranteed stem research and high level classes along with some money, so thats really the only reason im considering it. Im not sure if theres really any other rolling admissions universities here in cali, so this was all I came up with. Also maybe a little less on the religious side, so I may take Biola out.

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So - most universities on your list are research universities and you’re likely to find research opportunities at every school on your list. In my son’s program (large flagship), anyone who wanted to research could - so I wouldn’t worry about that.

Above you said - I dont have any money restrictions, my family’s pretty well off…

Now you are saying - Biola (very religious) works because it comes with aid.

Again, U of Arizona is, in some ranks, top 10 for Physics. It and ASU are both strong in the earth / space exploration arenas - and both will come with big aid, U of A moreso do to your 3.94.

If you really want cheap, you can head to schools in the Southeast - fine for many majors but they won’t be near as well reputed as Arizona or Santa Cruz - in your area of interest. I’m talking a U of Alabama or MS State - like schools overall but not in your major.

So you have safeties that are top notch - if you like the big flagship schools.

If you like the smaller schools, you might look at RPI and its medal program. It would be solid too for your major. The medal would get you $40K off. It’s an MIT alternative (kids who don’t get into MIT would go there) and you’d be likely.

Honestly, and you need to go do some visits, but you could really reduce your list - and thus your application strain.

Best Astrophysics and Astronomy colleges in the US [Rankings] (edurank.org)

The Rensselaer Medal | Admissions (rpi.edu)

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My S23 is doing astrophysics and had a much lower GPA than you (about 3.7UW). He committed to Arizona until he got off the waitlist at UCSC (instate, fairly close to home). It’s going well there, he’s particularly pleased that there are only a few GEs and he can spend his time on math, physics and astronomy courses.

So I agree with the suggestions above that UCSC and U of AZ should be your main safeties. ASU has Earth and Space Science but is a bit more oriented to the engineering side (building spacecraft) rather than observational astronomy. Amongst the other UCs, Berkeley and UCLA are very strong in astrophysics but it’s more difficult to judge if the mid-ranking UCs would outshine UCSC for this specific subject. Likewise CPSLO is physics rather than astrophysics.

Apply to Arizona in August and you’ll know in a couple of weeks and can drop most of the other safeties.

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Check out Penn State, UMD and Colorado. All have excellent astrophysics programs and should be target (UMD) or safeties (the other two) for you.

You said:

That implies you don’t qualify for need based aid anywhere. Have you run the net price calculator on Princeton’s website? They are the most generous with financial aid, even for families with relatively higher income. If they indicate you won’t get any it’s highly likely you won’t get aid from anywhere else. But you might get merit scholarships from schools that offer them. You’ll have to go lower down the selectivity/prestige list if you want merit money.

Have your parents given you a firm budget? If not, please ask and let us know what they said.

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UA and ASU in Arizona are auto admit for unweighted 3.0 HS GPA and specified HS courses completed, so if they are affordable, they should be safeties. Both also have some scholarships for stats and honors programs.

If you like them and they are safeties, then you can trim the application list by removing any school you would not choose over them.

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You tagged “first generation” in your title. Are you the first in your family to go to college or was that tag a mistake?

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I believe that was a mistake, I do not know how to remove it though.

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Ok, thank you! Less stress definitely seems a lot better.

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Theyre generally willing to pay more for a higher ranked school, and have told me they will pay around 200K for that - the rest would be loans. I was asking about the financial aid in merit scholarships as I know my parents wouldnt love paying much for a low ranked school.

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Alright, will do. And the flexible GE requirements sound nice, I may weigh that more in my decisions next year.

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Well you’re in luck.

You can only borrow $27K - over four years. That’s it - the feds smartly don’t want you strangled with death.

They would have to borrow the rest - would they - and pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars - thousands of dollars a month - when you can go to a top school in your major for less than $200K?

So do the Princeton and MIT NPCs. If they show full pay - then you can safely take them off the list (unless your parents can cash flow them each year without a loan payment).

Making a list of high level schools is nice - but it’s not realistic if not affordable - and in your major, there are high level schools that don’t necessarily match with overall rankings.

You have safeties - both public - and a private RPI that is a notch below the top privates with great placement - and if you get the RPI medal (read what I posted) it can come in budget as well.

It doesn’t matter where someone goes - debt is strangling and removes choice and flexibility from your life.

Have your parents fill these out and see what they say:

Financial Aid Estimator: Country of Residency (princeton.edu)

Welcome | Net Price Calculator (collegeboard.org)

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Where do they draw the line? How highly ranked does a school need to be, and by which ranking system? If they can pay $200k total, i.e. $50k per year - that will not cover the cost at schools like Princeton. You cannot take loans more than $27k total over four years yourself, and these private schools cost over $85k per year.

How much are they willing to pay for (in their view) “lower ranked” schools?
You need to have clarity on all this.

Ok, I get what you’re saying. But just to avoid confusion: “financial aid” refers to money given based on financial need. “Merit scholarship” typically refers to money (discounts) given without regard to financial need.

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