NY High School student with 3.6 GPA, 1550 SAT, great ecs for ethnomusicology

Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student
    US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities)
    New York
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers):
    Public Magnet School
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional):
    Asian
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):

Intended Major(s)
ethnomusicology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.6/4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):
  • College GPA (for transfers):
  • Class Rank: No ranking at my school
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1550 SAT

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
AP Music Theory: 4
AP Calculus AB: 5
AP Biology: 5
AP US Gov.: 5
IB History HL, IB Spanish HL, IB World Lit HL
4 years of math and 4 years of language

Awards
Scholastic National Gold Medal
Nonprofit National medal
National Radio feature for violin
National Chamber Music Award Winner

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  1. Founder of a national 501(c)(3) organization centered around music. Over 40 chapters around the world and over 100k people reached. Featured in local medias.
  2. Founder of a business where I aid other high school students in creating their own passion projects, after gaining numerous experiences by my own passion project. Helped over 200+ high school students.
  3. Student Government President. Helped raise 40k+. Led meetings, took notes, planned ideas. Worked on a weekly basis with the student body.
  4. National Organization New York Chapter Director. Helped promote to many young children about our mission’s cause.
  5. National Organization Vice President. Helped raise 200k+. Featured on numerous media sites.
  6. Ranked 3rd in the state for my state’s orchestra.
  7. Conducted research under an Ivy-League Professor. Got it published in a decently prestigious national student journal. Centered around cognitive science.
  8. Prestigious writing summer camp. <10% acceptance rate.
  9. Editor of a national journal. Edited on 2+ submissions weekly. 4 years.
  10. Internship at a famous museum

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
High school guidance counselor will write one of my LOR-- I had a pretty low GPA in sophomore year because of numerous absences because of health problems, and my guidance counselor was there for me as I grew as a person and got healthier

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
None

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
    University of Wyoming
    Iona College
    University of Kansas

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    Virginia Tech
    University of Kentucky
    Arizona State Uni

  • Match
    Uni of Florida
    UT Austin
    Syracuse Uni

  • Reach
    UPenn
    Columbia
    Harvard
    Princeton
    Yale
    Brown
    UCLA
    NYU

Hello! Thank you to everyone who will spend the time reading this. I am really lost on where to ED to, and I feel as if my GPA is my main thing holding me back. For some context, in my freshman and sophomore year, I had weak limbs so I went to physical therapy a lot-- resulting in me missing school. I had a good GPA freshman year, but sophomore year really plummeted (I even had a C+ in chemistry). Junior year I have a 4.0. I never knew about a 504 plan until this year-- sucks! I would really love to have advice on if I’m being too unrealistic and any ideas on which colleges would suit my application best? (Higher SAT score, lower GPA, decent EC’s)

The school I’m surprised not to see on your list is IU Bloomington.

Fantastic music school (with pretty good access for non-conservatory musicians), strong flagship university in general (with particular strength in foreign languages, if that’s going to figure into your ethnomusicology studies as well), and certainly within the broad Venn diagram of geographic and “vibe” parameters that your other schools imply. I believe it’s a match for your GPA (I’m seeing 3.76 as median but that is likely weighted), and your strong SAT would likely get you into the Hutton Honors College (they also look for a 4.0 weighted GPA, but you may have than when recalculating with all of the AP’s and IB’s). Apply early (before Nov 1) for Honors and the associated residential communities.

I understand the desire to “shoot the moon” with super-reaches, but I would use robust and more-accessible programs like IU as a yardstick and try to pare down the number of super-reach apps a bit by eliminating elite schools that don’t have the depth and breadth of opportunities in your area of interest that less-reachy schools like IU have.

Have you computed your UC GPA’s? I know UCLA has a strong program, but GPA is very important there, and your SAT won’t help you since they’re test-blind. They don’t count freshman grades in their GPA calculation, but it sounds like that wasn’t your weak year, so that may hurt rather than help. GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub If you compute your UC GPA’s, @gumbymom can help let you know where you stand vis-a-vis UCLA, but I suspect it will be a tough admit, and it’s a pretty onerous application for a single school if the odds aren’t with you.

Have you looked at Oberlin? They have a Musicology BM, and an Ethnomusicology minor. It’s smaller than most of your schools (a little under 3000 undergrads) but very strong in both music and academics.

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You have tagged this thread “first generation”. Can you confirm that neither of your parents have a college degree from anywhere? If yes, that’s a hook.

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UT Austin is never a match for out of state. It is actually quite unlikely.

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In most cases, the school counselor writes does the counselor letter, and yes, they should explain your challenges during the times you had them. BUT you will still need LORs …usually one from a STEM teacher and one from a humanities teacher. Have you figured out who those will be? Best to ask for these references before your junior year ends.

Please explain why you need to ED at all?

Your reach schools are just that. And if you are considering ED to them, please check because some don’t have an ED option at all.

.

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UCLA Freshman profile (25-75th percentile):
Unweighted UC GPA: 3.95-4.00
Capped weighted UC GPA: 4.20-4.31
Uncapped weighted UC GPA: 4.37-4.74

Out of state admit rate overall: 6.1%

For Ethnomusicology:
Applicants- 32
Admit rate: 50%
25th-75th percentile for Uncapped UC GPA: 3.95-4.23

UCLA should be considered a Reach school regardless of your qualifications. Good luck.

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Spend a lot of time on your PIQs for UCLA. Yes, GPA matters a lot, but they practice holistic admissions and you have some great ECs.

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And make sure your parents understand that UCLA will cost approx $70K/year (in general there is no aid for out of state students, so you should expect to pay the full ticket price - which is quite hefty). The UCs also use a totally separate application which can be time consuming. In other words, think hard whether UCLA is worth including - it will take extra work to apply and and if you do get accepted, likely will not be the best value for your money.

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Actually…about $75,000 a year for OOS students.

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With an admit rate by major of 50 percent, and its status as one of the largest ethnomusicology departments in the US, it may well be worth paying for.

My D goes to UCLA (in state) and while I agree that the OOS tuition is super steep, the specific major, the school of music, the location, and the experience of being in LA, makes me not want to write it off. Plus, the school is pretty incredible. Amazing food, guaranteed housing, fun social life with friendly people, great education with many professors at the top of their fields. Ethnomusicology does offer a graduate degree, so another thing to keep in mind if undergrad is not the time.

I’ll also note that one of D’s roommates is a OOS vocal performance major in the school of music and she’s already performing on stages in LA and is in one of the top acapella groups in the country. She’s super talented, for sure, and she’s in the right place to make a go of it.

Anyway, definitely requires a chunk of change, and of course there are other ways to get a terrific education if cost is a determining factor.

The OP says no cost constraints.

Sure, but no one here ever allows that to stand unchallenged. Just covering my bases :wink:

Your reaches are mostly too reachy.

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On the bright side Syracuse is likely and ASU is safe.

I will definitely check this school out! Thank you so much! This school sounds very interesting

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I think I misclicked-- I’m not a first generation, I’m second.

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I removed the first-generation tag.

Thank you for letting me know! I didn’t know that.

Yes absolutely, I have a teacher in mind for humanities. He is my AP Government teacher and my student council advisor at the same time. So, as someone who has seen my academic prowess, he has also seen me lead the council to represent the student body-- think he’s a pretty solid choice for an LOR. For STEM, I’m definitely going to ask my math teacher!

I wish to ED/REA because it is an admissions advantage. I don’t really want to go for the safe route when doing ED/REA, but want to really shoot high! (because you never know)

I think I did list it as a reach school! I didn’t know it got so little applicants.