Need advice about adding more schools & SATs

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I’m a rising senior and I was just wondering if my list looked good. I’m not the academic superstar but I’m hoping for some merit aid as financial aid looks to be unlikely. I don’t know if I should apply to more schools (namely Hollins and Sweet Briar) to maximize my chances at merit aid or if my list is okay.</p>

<p>I also was wondering what it means when a college will use the writing portion of the SAT as a validity check on the essay. I only got an 8 which was quite surprising to me as I thought that I had written a decent essay. I got 4s on the AP English, Euro History, and US History exams as well as decent scores on the CR/W portions of the SAT so I’m not sure what happened there.</p>

<p>Anyway, the stats:
CA public high school
Asian female, first generation college student</p>

<p>GPA: 3.6UW, 3.8W
Rank: Top 10% (roughly 47/600ish)
SATs: 1300/1950 (670CR, 650W, 630M)
SAT IIs: 670 US History, 610 Literature, probably will take Math Level 2 in October
AP Scores: European History 4, English Language & Composition 4, US History 4, Chemistry 2
Sr. Year APs: English Literature & Composition, Government, Economics, and Spanish Language</p>

<p>Mock Trial Team - 2003-2007
Team MVP
2005-2006, 2006-2007 Team VP</p>

<p>Theatre - 2003-2007
Stage Manager (4 years) - huge leadership EC that’ll require a resume
6 shows in 4 years</p>

<p>Girl Scouts - 2001-2007
Gold Award (2007)
Various leadership and community service awards</p>

<p>School/Rec Swim teams: 2005, 2007</p>

<p>Work Experience: Food service since 06/2005 (15-20 hours per week)</p>

<p>Schools on my list right now:
Birmingham Southern College
Beloit College
Earlham College
Knox College
Saint Olaf College (iffy)
Smith College</p>

2

<p>Your list looks good to me. Smith is a bit of a reach, though. You have an interesting mix of colleges- Knox and Smith are sort of artsy, but St. Olaf and Earlham are more conservative. I have two friends at Hollins, and they absolutely LOVE it. The community is really tight-knit, and even the president mingles a lot with the students. Like most women’s colleges, the lack of males isn’t a problem (VMI is very close by). You’d stand a pretty good chance at merit aid there (not sure about Sweet Briar). Beloit is a much underrated school with a great track record of getting students into grad/prof schools. Carolyn’s daughter will be a freshman there this year, so you might want to PM her. TheDad and mini have daughters at Smith, so they’d be a good source for info too. You also might consider Kenyon and Vassar as reachy-matches.</p>

3

<p>Not trying to nitpick, but while St. Olaf may be more conservative, Earlham is very liberal.</p>

4

<p>Do you need need-based aid?
I notice you’re asknig about merit aid, and am wondering why. Is it because your parents make too much $ for you to qualify for need-based aid or are your asking because you are low income and assume that merit aid is the way to fund your education?</p>

<p>If you are low income, it will be very important to apply to colleges that either guarantee to meet 100% of students’ documented financial need (keep in mind that “financial need” is what the college thinks you need, not what your parents are willing to pay. Typically, too, financial aid includes loans and work study as well as some scholarships) or have tuitions and other policies that you know would guarantee that you could afford to attend them.</p>

<p>Typically the colleges that students know that they can afford are either local community colleges that they can commute to from home or 4 year public institutions that guarantee scholarships for students with their stats.</p>

<p>Colleges still are figuring out how to use the SAT writing section, so I don’t think that your 8 will hurt you.</p>

<p>California has one of the country’s best and most affordable public college systems. I strongly suggest that you apply to public colleges in your home state, too.</p>

<p>I notice that you have posted elsewhere that your parents have been hands off when it comes to your education. Make sure you have them run their financial info through a financial aid calculator like College Confidentials’. Seems you’re assuming they’ll pay for your education, but once they see the hard figures, they may not be willing to pay or may be willing to pay far less than what colleges think they should pay.</p>

<p>I have seen students with similar parents who were devastated when after they were admitted to their dream schools, their parents were shocked by the cost and refused to pay. Make sure that doesn’t happen to you. Pin your parents down about what they’re willing to pay, then select the places to apply to accordingly. Don’t fall in love with some school that you won’t be able to afford. And do make sure to apply to your in-state publics, because parents like yours often aren’t willing to pay the cost of out of state schools.</p>

5

<p>I need merit aid because my parents make too much and we have a lot in assets. They’ve given me their tax returns and whatnot and I’ve run it through the finaid calculuator at finaid.org. With FM, it’s 20k and with IM it’s 32k. Either way, it’s unreasonable for us and my parents can only put forth about 25k over four years. I also have a lot of assets in my name so that hurts us greatly. I understand that the total cost of the UCs are cheaper but no one from my school ever gets anything other than scholarships so I’m hoping for merit schollies to bring the price down. I think the most I’m willing to graduate with is 40k in loans.</p>

<p>The CC and local CSU don’t really work for me as I want to study Chinese and Latin, neither of which are offered. I guess I could go there and just pick something else but I’m hoping that I won’t have to go that route.</p>

6

<p>A school you may want to add to your list is Denison. It’s very generous with merit aid, has a beautiful campus, and offers courses in Chinese and Latin.</p>