Macaulay Honors at Baruch - what are my chances?

GermanGirl · January 10, 2010, 6:38pm

Hey,
I am an international student (from Germany) and I applied to the Macaulay Honors College at Baruch.
So I was wondering what you think my chances are because I really don't have a lot of more options - financial aid is very rare for internationals and I couldn't afford paying a lot of money for college. Besides that I really want to go to college in NYC since I've been there quite a few times and really really love it.

My SAT scores aren't really that great, I realize that but I wasn't able to put much time into studying, actually none at all.
CR: 570
M: 640
CW: 510

SAT IIs:
Math II: 610
French w Listening: 600

In my past 4 years in school, I had mostly As and some Bs.

Besides that, I spent one year in the U.S. as an exchange student (11th grade).
There I joined the National Honor Society, played Saxophone in the band and received some awards for that (not very impressive ones though I think) and one semester I had a GPA of 4.0 and the second semester one of 3.85 (out of 4)

My extracurriculars:
I play piano for 11 years, I am editor in chief for the senior yearbook, I am tutoring 5th and 6th graders, I am member of the politics club, I play saxophone and I've played both saxophone and piano in the school's bigband.

So what are the chances for me to get in Macaulay?
And if I'm not accepted there, I'm automatically considered for Baruch honors, right? Do I get free tuition there as well?
Is it more of an advantage or a disadvantage to be from Germany, or generally international?
Do you have any other suggestions of colleges for me?

Thanks for your answers!

miktau · January 11, 2010, 10:03pm

I'm a current freshman in the MHC program at Hunter so I think I can help. Here's the thing with Macaulay, yes they have money from the private endowment they maintain but they also get NYS and federal funding depending on the students eligibility. As an international you do not qualify for any government aid at all so they loose some money there. In addition the program is very NY centric. There are only a handful of OOS students and no internationals that I know of at least. Additionally Baruch has become quite selective on its own. They boasted a sub 30% acceptance rate this year and your SAT's aren't too high. You're actually below the 75% percentile in terms of scores, quite low for both honors and Macaulay. I say you stand a good chance of getting in for regular admissions but for Macaulay it's a high reach. They might take you on the grounds they don't get many apps from abroad if at all but it could easily go the other way. Not trying to get you down but you have some things working against you. Let me know if you have any other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Cheers,
Mike

walter0103 · January 11, 2010, 10:07pm

you numbers are low so id say reach

chance me
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/845309-chance-me-por-favor-urm-d.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/845309-chance-me-por-favor-urm-d.html</a>

GermanGirl · January 14, 2010, 4:21pm

Thank you very very much!
That's kinda what I thought. I know my SATs aren't good and I'm mad at myself for not studying but it's too late now.
I do have another question: do you know if once I applied to Macaulay at Baruch I can still apply for general admission at the CUNYs? I'm not sure about that...
Or do you maybe have any other suggestions for what I could do, where I could apply that I have good chances of admission in the NY area.. ?
Thanks again!

desi_chick · January 14, 2010, 6:34pm

if you apply for Macaulay you cannot apply for the regular cunys, but you will be considered for admission there. If you really like NYC, look for other schools in NYC that aren't as highly competitive. If you're majoring in business lets say i'm sure there are many schools out there for you. best of luck!

mgm91 · January 21, 2010, 11:58pm

desi_chick, what do you mean you cannot apply for the regular CUNYs? that is not true. applying for Macaulay at Baruch means you also apply for Baruch College. You can also apply to any of the other CUNY colleges. It is a separate application but I believe it covers up to 6 CUNYs you can apply for.

GermanGirl, it is definitely a reach for you. However, they will take into consideration that you are an international student and value that. What miktau says is true but if you fit what they are looking for in a macaulay student, they will accept you regardless of where you are from. The average stats of students that are accepted are absurdly high (higher than what they should be) with SATs around 1400/1600 and 2100/2400. GPAs are in the mid to high 90s (3.5-4.0)

HOWEVER, you realize that most kids with these stats probably applied to better schools and better programs and are most likely to take those. (two of my friends made Macaulay Hunter but chose Cornell U)

I hope you wrote an absolutely stellar essay showing how enthusiastic you are about learning at Baruch and being in NYC. My stats weren't TOO high 1260/1600, 1920/2400 and 3.6 GPA but I'd like to think I wrote 3 mind-blowing essays. Needless to say, I am a Macaulay scholar at Baruch College right now.

I wish you the best of luck and make sure you update us when you find your results!

oh and i saw that you asked for recommendations for other business schools in new york? don't forget, there is also normal Baruch College in which you can study business! there is also NYU Stern but it is EXTREMELY competitive and unless you can bring your SATs up to the mid 700s, it is improbable.

GermanGirl · January 23, 2010, 9:07am

Thanks!!
I actually don't really remember the exact application for Macaulay but what I remember is that they hardly give you a chance there to say how much you would like to go to Macaulay in particular. I think my essays were quite good (at least I hope so but I can't tell since I didn't grow up speaking English). My recommendations were very good except that the one teacher that wrote one for me doesn't speak English very well so it sounds a little weird but the things she wrote couldn't be better (considering the content not the sentence structure). The other one's from my English teacher so it's perfect English and it's not really my fault anyway that the other one isn't and I hope and think they will know this at Macaulay.
For a while it said that my transcripts aren't complete but now they are and I got 2 e-mails confirming that (one from an admission officer I talked to before and one general notice). I don't really think this tells me anything about my status but it's good to know I didn't get lost at least.
So I can still file an additional application for the other CUNYs? That's great!
NYU is too expensive for me and they don't have any financial aid for internationals :/

mgm91 · January 25, 2010, 5:10pm

yes, you can definitely apply for the other CUNYs and if you have your heart set on studying in NYC, i can confidently say you will be accepted into any CUNY with your stats.

good luck, hopefully i'll see you around next year!

strdust · February 1, 2011, 5:06pm

Hi I applied to the Macaulay Honors Program at baruch
SAT SCORE math plus reading: 1440
GPA: 4.002
high extracurricular actives
do i have a chance?

collegestandard · June 11, 2011, 5:50pm

Macaulay is pretty unpredictable when it comes to admissions. According to the person who wrote the article, Baruch is easier to get into than Hunter. However, it's still competitive. Your stats seem pretty good but it's hard to say. You're definitely up there with the other Macaulay applicants though.

Source (read under Macaulay): Cheap</a> and Free Colleges in New York City: Pace, Macaulay, Cooper Union

polandsprings · August 13, 2011, 10:37am

I see that this post is from 2010, so my answer is probably not helpful to the poster.

However, for those internationals, don't worry FA. I am an international student at the MHC @ CCNY, and I was given aid. Therefore, don't worry and apply.