My PSAT was like 1500 or 1510 I think but I wasn’t a finalist for the national merit scholarship.
What do you think of the schools mentioned earlier. Lots of suggestions made.
I will look at it sometime this weekend. I was just super super exhausted this week and was working on my commonapp essay, on top of schoolwork, getting a new car, and my sister’s birthday (School only just started like 2 weeks ago too, so I’m still getting back into it mentally), so I hadn’t the chance to thoroughly look through the suggestions.
Whew! I know that feeling. 
As a research method, you can gain a sense for the size of the classics communities at colleges of potential interest with IPEDS information. The numbers of first majors in classics, Ancient Greek, or Latin in a recent year appear under Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics. See, for example, College Navigator - Swarthmore College .
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I’m no expert but a 1500 or 1510 PSAT should get you at least NMSF status I would think.
Worst case for 1500 is Eng 740+Math 760, which is index 224.
NJ has a cut off of 225 this year for NMSF.
Yeah NJ is super competitive and my math score was better than English. Kinda sucks. But it is what it is
I talked to everyone about finances and all that. My grandma has 250,000 for me for college, so I should be set for most places (not that I want to spend so much money).
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Ok so you still have to run NPCs of places that are $100k ish a year.
If you think you might do a Masters, you have to factor that in too.
If your gps are giving $60k a year and your folks $40k, then short of not wanting to spend that much, you’d be good.
And this doesn’t mean you won’t qualify for need aid at the privates (why you run NPCs or merit aid at the publics) but it lets you know, depending on the NPC, is as an example Swat even worth bothering to apply to.
so now we know your grandparents, what are your parents contributing ? You need an available amount in its entirety.
Here’s an example of an NPC. Let your parents fill out.
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oh I did run everything through the net price calculators. None were impossibly high
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I just shared my grandma’s money because it is very exciting that I can use that much money haha. But yeah, all the net price calculators were fine. They might be slightly off since my dad’s information wasn’t on those calculators. But I don’t think he makes that much anyway, so it shouldn’t have that big of an impact.
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Ok. That’s good to know.
Now re look at your schools or rather look at no schools. Think about - what do I want in a school - size, environment (city, country), weather, diversity, sports, Greek life, religious affiliation, etc and build a list of schools that fit you vs solely big names.
You will be somewhere four years, day after day so you want to be at a place that works for you. Pedigree, in and of itself, doesn’t make one happy on a daily basis.
So let’s match names once we know what you seek.
Schools with merit might be Lafayette, Case, Rochester - in the acceptance range you seek. There are non NJ publics or easier ins that will def hit cost. You have to be open but that’s how smart kids with less money can attend college. Go where they are rock stars - and get bought in. Schools like Mary Washington, Juniata, Allegheny, etc.
The net price calculators will not be accurate at colleges that require both divorced parents unless you put both of their income and assets into them. If you put in zero for one of your parents whose income and/or assets is non-zero, the result will be overly optimistic, setting you up for an unpleasant surprise later.
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With respect to your interest in classics, this information was compiled for another topic. It may be of interest to you as you refine your own college list:
These are the numbers of graduating first majors in classics, Ancient Greek, or Latin at several universities for a recent year based on IPEDS information:
William & Mary: 14
UChicago: 14
Brown: 12
Harvard: 11
Princeton: 10
Stanford: 9
UPenn: 9
Georgetown: 8
Yale: 7
Columbia/Barnard: 6
Cornell: 6
Tufts: 4
Brandeis: 2
Johns Hopkins: 2
These are the numbers of graduating first majors in classics, Ancient Greek, or Latin at several liberal arts colleges for a recent year based on IPEDS information:
Oberlin: 12
Holy Cross: 9
Hamilton: 6
Haverford: 5
Kenyon: 4
Carleton: 3
Macalester: 2
Davidson: 1
Amherst: 0
Dang. Mixing up threads. Thought this was the engineer from Washington. Oops. Thx for the nod on classics. Edited my earlier posts.
that is of course true and I am prepared to deal with that. The best I can do is hope, however, my dad will not let me know his financials at all :/. Luckily, I’ve looked more into it and I do think I will really like Rutgers. I’m hoping for some merit there (I’m applying honors college), but I believe I can afford full pay otherwise. I am pretty confident I can get in (at least to normal rutgers, the honors college is probably a bit more up in the air). My stats are all above the middle 50% (arts and sciences), except for math SAT which I think will be once I retake, so it would be weird if they didn’t accept. So yeah, I think I’ll be okay. It will be quite expensive, but I believe no matter what happens I’ll be okay (unless I get rejected from literally every school which I find unlikely. But honestly, even then, community college is always there…)
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If your ACT is a 35, your math can’t be that low.
You will get into Rutgers. You may find some privates or OOS publics are less if that’s an issue….have you run the NPC on schools like Lafayette, F&M, Brandeis, Case Western or Rochester, etc. You asked for 20-40% acceptance rates
Good luck to you.
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You don’t need to retake the SAT if your ACT is a 35. It’s a fantastic, top 1% score. Focus on everything else now - writing good applications, doing well in class, enjoying your life as a senior.
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