Match/Chance Me: Econ/Environmental Studies Major, Oregon, 1450 SAT, 3.9 GPA

Chance Me / Match Me
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Hello! I’m a rising HS Senior looking to hopefully get some insight about schools, and to see if people have any recommendations for what to add/remove. Thank you for any input!

Demographics

  • US Domestic
  • State/Location of residency: OR
  • Type of high school: Large, competitive public
  • Other special factors: Potential D3 XC/TF recruit (4:40 mile, 16:00 5k, etc.)

Cost Constraints / Budget
I don’t have a named cost limit. I have about $100,000 in an active investment account that my parents want me to use for real estate post-college, but I will use it if I need to.

Intended Major(s): Economics, Public Policy, Environmental Studies, Political Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.9
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.06 (Normal classes out of 4.0, AP classes out of 5.0. Honors not offered)
  • Class Rank: School doesn’t disclose it.
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1450 (760 R&W, 690 Math). I’m planning to retake it in August.

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: 9th: Standard English 10th: Standard English 11th: AP Lit (school reverses Lit/Lang order for some reason) 12th: AP Lang
  • Math: 9th: Algebra 1, Geometry (summer) 10th: Algebra 2 11th: Precalculus 12th: AP Calc AB, DE Stats @ local state uni.
  • Science: 9th: Physics 10th: Chemistry 11th: Biology, AP Environmental Science 12th: AP Physics 1
  • History and social studies: 9th: World History 10th: AP Human Geo., AP European History 11th: US History, DE World History 12th: Constitutional Law
  • Language other than English: 9th: Spanish 1 10th: Spanish 2 11th: Spanish 3 12th: AP Spanish (skipping ahead)
  • Visual or performing arts: None, however taking AP Art History this summer via UC Scout to fulfill F Credit requirement

Awards

  1. Selected Presenter @ History Conference (published history paper)
  2. College Board National Recognition Award*
  3. AP Scholar with Distinction*
  4. Various Debate Awards from Small-Medium local tournaments (worth including?)*

*I understand that these last three don’t hold much weight

Extracurriculars

  1. Varsity XC (11, 12) JV (10, 9)
  2. Varsity TF (11, 12) JV (10, 9)
  3. School Board Member (11, 12) Helped organize major action items on particular sub-comm.
  4. Legislative Leader for School District (11, 12) Met with legislators to discuss educational policy (10)
  5. S&D Captain & Founder (11, 12) JV Mock Trial (10). These are technically a joint team but questioning whether to comment on Mock Trial at all since they’re effectively split
  6. Jewish Student Union Pres. (11, 12) member (10, 9)
  7. Finance Club Pres. (10, 11, 12) member (9)
  8. Climate Club Director (11, 12) Received $10,000 grant from local group
  9. Retail Job (12)
  10. Nationally Competitive Con. Law team member (12)

Essays/LORs/Other

Essays: I tend to perform better at writing than in STEM– not that this will directly translate to well-written essays, but I think they’ll be solid. I don’t exactly have a hook.

LORs: 2 from 11th grade teachers, probably ~7-8/10. My counselor manages ~350 students, though I try to meet with her semi-often, so I think that their letter may be decent.

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)

  • Assured: University of Oregon
  • Likely: OXY, LMU (CA)
  • Toss-up: Fordham, UCSB, Macalester, UW Madison, Oberlin
  • Lower Probability: Villanova, Middlebury (ED2), Pitzer
  • Low Probability: Dartmouth (ED), Pomona, CMC, UC Berkeley, Brown, Duke
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What is your UC GPA? I am not sure I would put UCSB in a tossup category for most applicants; and bear in mind over half their last entering class had a (UC) GPA of 4.3 or more.

Any reason these two UCs only and not others on your list?

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Overall, I think your list looks reasonable. You have a lot of reaches with a lot of supplementals, so you might think about prioritizing those schools to decide which ones you might stop at before applying if you run out of steam.

For your toss-ups, Mac and Oberlin are known as “fit” schools, and I would have guessed that a student that has colleges like LMU, Villanova, Middlebury, Dartmouth, CMC, and Duke among others might want a school that’s more preppy. For toss-ups, you might consider Franklin & Marshall or other PA liberal arts colleges as they tend to have alums and good connections in DC for the public policy side. They’re also a bit more mainstream. Econ, as well, will be pretty strong there.

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Does this mean no limit, or there is a limit that they won’t tell you, or they have not done the financial planning to figure out what they are willing to contribute?

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Toured UCLA and UCSD, didn’t like either. My aunt encouraged UC Santa Cruz so I’m considering that. I suppose I haven’t considered enough UCs.

Calculator says my UC GPA is 3.9, though I don’t know if APs are counted as honors courses or not.

UCSB being tossup is based upon pretty similar academic profiles to other students from my HS who have been admitted the last 2 years.

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I’d say that no limit is most accurate. However, I’m sure that all parties would appreciate if I received any aid, not that I think we’ll be eligible.

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APs are counted as honors courses (doesn’t the calculator say this?) Non-CA honors courses don’t count, but you don’t have those anyway. if the 3.9 includes APs (I suspect it doesn’t?) I would move UCSB to the reach category. Only 13% of their entering class have a GPA below 4 New Freshmen Profile | Office of Budget & Planning

UCSD is pretty strong in your majors afaik but if you didn’t like it, it doesn’t make sense to apply.

I don’t know about all your colleges but on your list I think Fordham is a good target - I wouldn’t quite have it as a “likely” but I’d think your chances are better than “toss-up”.

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AP, IB, and college courses are counted as honors. Other high school courses are counted as honors only if listed so at University of California A-G Course List

There should be three GPAs calculated for UC. Most UC web sites with high school GPA use the weighted capped version unless otherwise specified. This includes Freshman admission by discipline | University of California

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You’re right. Calculated it incorrectly the first time. New calculation says Capped WGPA is 4.06. I imagine that still makes UCSB a reach?

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Less of a reach but still a reach imo - but that doesn’t mean don’t apply. If you’re filling in a UC application anyway it makes sense to check the boxes for all the ones you’re interested in.

@Gumbymom may have more information about admit rates/GPA by major (for both ucsb and Cal).

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Congratulations on your competitive profile.

Although you do not state your exact budget, entry level positions in the Environmental fields are not high paying so you may not want to spend $80K+/year to attend a California UC. Graduate school would probably be a requirement for most of the Undergraduate programs you are considering so take those extra costs into consideration when forming your college list.

Here is some general admit rates based just on the Capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific for 2025 Freshman:

Campus UC Capped weighted GPA 4.00+
Berkeley 17%
Davis 64%
Irvine 42%
Los Angeles 14%
Merced 96%
Riverside 92%
San Diego 39%
Santa Barbara 46%
Santa Cruz 85%

2025 Freshman data for specific majors:

Campus Environmental Science/Public Policy
UC Berkeley 17% College of CNR
UC Davis 53% College of Agriculture Env Sci
UC Irvine 44.3% Environmental Science and Policy
UCLA 11% Env Science in College of L&S
UC Merced 90% Environmental Systems
UC Riverside 85.4% Env. Sci / 84.5% Pub Policy
UC San Diego Estimated 40% Environmental Systems
UC Santa Barbara 32% Env Studies College of L&S
UC Santa Cruz 70.8% Env Studies/ 71.4% Env Science

2025 Data:

Campus Political Science
UC Berkeley 15% Unweighted 3.89-4.00 UC Capped weighted GPA 4.14-4.29. Weighted uncapped 4.31-4.65
UC Davis 38% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.00-4.25
UC Irvine 28% UC Capped weighted GPA 4.03-4.26 Unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA 9% College of Letters and Sciences/Social Science major/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.18-4.30. Weighted uncapped 4.38-4.73 Unweighted 3.95-4.00
UC Merced 90% UC Capped weighted GPA 3.40-4.00
UC Riverside 90% UC Capped weighted GPA 3.70-4.12
UC San Diego 25% for Social Science majors/ UC Capped weighted GPA 4.08-4.28 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara 33% For College of Letters and Sciences/ Social Sciences UC Capped weighted GPA 4.12-4.29 Average Unweighted 3.91
UC Santa Cruz 70% UC Capped weighted 3.81-4.20
Campus Economics Overall UC GPA admit range (25th-75th percentile)
Berkeley 15% College of L&S Campus Weighted uncapped 4.32-4.68 Capped weighted 4.15-4.29. Weighted UW 3.90-4.00
Davis Admission by College: 37% for Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.00-4.27. Unweighted 3.79-4.00
Irvine 33.4% Economics/Business Economics 26.4% Campus Capped weighted 4.04-4.28. Unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA Admission by College: Economics - Social Sciences 9%/ Campus Unweighted 3.95-4.00 Capped weighted 4.20-4.31. Social Science Weighted uncapped 4.41-4.76
Merced 81% Campus Capped weighted 3.54-4.15
Riverside Economics 99%/Business Economics 96% Campus Capped weighted 3.65-4.16
San Diego Estimated 23% Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.11-4.28 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
Santa Barbara Admission by College: 37% for Economics (pre) or Economics and Accounting Campus Weighted Uncapped average 4.29 Capped weighted 4.09 Average Campus Unweighted 3.91
Santa Cruz 67% Economics Campus Capped weighted 3.83-4.20

Have you considered Cal Poly San Luis Obispo which has a very good Environmental program? Around $55K/year as an OOS applicant with a 35% projected admit rate and an SLO GPA admit range (9-11th grades with 8 semester Honors cap) of 3.88-4.23 for the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Science.

Good luck.

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Interesting list! It’s well-balanced in terms of competitiveness, but sort of an odd mix in terms of preferred environment. Questions that come to my mind:

  • If he likes Upper New England academicky-liberal-arts enough to ED1/ED2 at Dartmouth/Middlebury, why aren’t any of the Maine LAC’s (Colby/Bates/Bowdoin) on the list?
  • If he’s considering OOS publics and loves Upper New England environment-heavy, I’d consider adding UVM. (Would be cheaper than UCSC OOS, with a lot of the same positive attributes.)
  • If he wants affordable safeties but prefers to leave the PNW (which I’m inferring from the absence of any/all PNW schools on the list other than UofO), he might look at WUE schools like Colorado State and the U of Utah Honors College. https://www.wiche.edu/tuition-savings/wue/wue-list-of-schools/
  • Out of all the non-New-England LAC choices, he has only Mac and Oberlin, which are quite different from each other. Why those two? Has he considered Denison, Dickinson, Hamilton, Colorado College, Whitman…?
  • Pitzer could be an excellent choice - they particularly excel at the intersection of the environmental and political, with top-notch opportunities for community involvement.

Good luck with the search!

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Ok so on gumbymom’s data it looks a little less reachy than I’d thought for your majors - still a bit reachy but definitely worth a shot.

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My GS majored in Econ + Environ Studies minor at Rice. Now working for a consulting company. Not crazy about the work. My niece, also interested in environ studies, decided to do environmental engineering because she decided that this would give her a chance to have a direct impact on doing good for the environment. She’s now at Trinity College, Dublin & liking it very much even though she didn’t originally see herself as an engineer.

My point is that this is a complex field and there are a lot of different career directions you can go with your interests. Law school? Public policy/government? Private corporation? Science/technology? Journalism? It’s a good idea to give some thought now to the end game because that decision can have a lot to do with where you decide to go to college.

It might be a good idea to consider schools with an open curriculum or a mostly open curriculum to give yourself a chance to explore if you really are vague about your long term goals - and there’s nothing wrong with that at this take.

From your list, I see Brown and Berkeley as excellent places to pursue your interests and both offer the kind of curriculum flexibility to allow you to explore different options. BUT both are impossible places to get admitted (5% and 7% out of state respectively). You can apply, but either would be considered a high reach. However, the third one on your list that I like is Pitzer. With a 25% acceptance rate, I think that you would be a strong candidate there and they also offer a self-designed approach to curriculum. At Pitzer, there is no struct limit on the number of courses that you can take at the other Claremont colleges and you can even choose your major from one of the other colleges if it’s not offered at Pitzer.

Another college which is not on your list but I suggest that you consider is University of Rochester. This university is very well resourced with excellent faculty and small class sizes (9:1 student:faculty ratio). Their curriculum is extremely flexible with a lot of individual choice. They also have a wide breadth of majors & minors to choose from. In addition to Econ and Environmental Studies, they offer 7 other programs related to the environment, climate change, and sustainability as well as the option for a self-designed interdepartmental major. With a 40% acceptance rate, you would be a very strong applicant with a chance for scholarship merit aid.

Obviously, University of Oregon should rate highly as one of your options simply because it is your home state option and therefore your best financial option. However, enrollment shortfalls and a budget deficit are causing problems there right now, so there is no way of knowing where cut backs will come if any, and there’s no way of knowing if cuts will affect prigrams which are important to you.

I’ll leave my suggestions there and leave comments on the rest of your list to others. Best of luck! :slightly_smiling_face:

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What do you intend to do with a bachelor’s degree in any of these fields? Are you thinking law school? Is some form of graduate degree likely? To me these look like possible majors that might possibly lead to some form of graduate degree.

PhD’s are usually funded, at least in STEM fields, but can be exceptionally competitive for admissions. I do not know as much about PhD’s in non-stem fields. Law degrees, medical degrees, and master’s degrees are typically not funded. When budgeting, if any form of graduate degree is likely, keep the potential cost in mind.

You should figure out what your budget is. It would be valuable in the long run if you do not need to touch the $100,000 that you have in an investment account. However, schools that only have need based aid, assuming this is in your name, will take this into account and most likely think of it as college money (even if you would rather not).

The University of Oregon is very good, and is in-state for you. While one affordable safety may be enough (and one safety was all that I had many years ago), to me it feels safer to have two, which makes me wonder about adding Oregon State to your list.

Across the full range of schools that you have listed, there is likely to be an enormous difference in cost. You do not need to blow out all of your college money for a bachelor’s degree, particularly when your in-state options are quite good.

I agree with this. UVM is a very good university. One daughter went there, liked it, did well, and later (after some relevant work experience) did quite well in graduate school admissions. Her high school stats were pretty close to yours, the UVM NPC did predict pretty good merit aid, and turned out to be spot-on accurate. If cost matters at all then you might want to similarly run the NPC and see what it says. My guess is that it will be significantly more affordable for example compared to the Universities of California. Also admissions to UVM seems relatively likely with your stats. I do expect that it would probably take two flights to get from Oregon to Vermont.

UVM has a good environmental sciences program. To me environmental studies is not the same thing and I have not personally looked at this at all.

It did occur to me that Dartmouth College and UC Berkeley are somewhat different environments in multiple ways (although they both could end up being expensive).

For each student, finding a good fit is way more important compared to the ranking of which school you attend. @boiwth you should think about what would make a college or university a good fit for you. What school is a good fit for you, and what school is a good fit for someone else, are entirely different things.

You might want to also pay attention to how difficult it would be to get back and forth to / from each school on your list from where you live. Don’t forget that at least a few of your schools (eg, Dartmouth) are in areas where snow around about Christmas vacation is entirely possible.

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Based on your academic interests, these sites may help you further refine your list:

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Dartmouth breaks before Thanksgiving…no last-minute flights before Christmas (if poster celebrates). I am not sure that this matters anyway. 10s of thousands (at min) of students from CA study in New England or the upper Midwest each year?

UVM would be a GREAT addition to your list for your interests and list…. and a likely

I think Dartmouth, even ED is a long shot unless being recruited, but shoot your shot!

If you have a chance to be recruited D3 - I would look into that heavily - a lot of those LACs would have good econ/enviro!

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Welcome to College Confidential, @boiwth!

If you’re interested in being recruited, have you looked and/or posted in the athletic recruits subforum? I have no idea what the timeline is for XC/TF recruiting, but I’m going to tag @politeperson who is a great resource on this.

In terms of chancing, what have your AP scores been like so far? You have a couple from 10th grade, and this year’s results are starting to be released today, per a quick internet search.

Depending on how heavily you’re leaning in on the environmental studies front, one extremely likely admit for you would be SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. It has about 2400 undergrads which would offer the small school experience of some of the schools on your list, but students are also allowed to cross-register at neighboring Syracuse University which greatly expands the course offerings. In the Environmental Studies major there’s an option for a concentration in Environmental Policy, Planning, and Law which sounds like it could be right up your alley.

I’ll continue to think of additional options that you may want to consider.

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If you think you’re recruitable at the D3 level I’d make sure to email those coaches, and maybe add a few LACs in your region such as Willamette (just to see if there’s interest there).

But you could do a lot worse academically and athletically than UO and the running club there. Nice option.

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That’s $25,000 per year. Will your parents pay the remaining costs for you to attend college annually?