IMO, you have great credentials and could get in anywhere. But you should definitely try to visit any schools you’re considering for an ED application. And double check the NPC and discuss budget with your family.
2 Likes
I think we are trying to tell you with your stats you have a chance pretty much anywhere. What we can’t say (nobody can) is whether you will actually get in.
The key is to raise some awareness on:
- how you word things on app
- finding a place you can be happy and do well
- cost may be a factor
- contingency if you don’t get into ED school (which is actually significant percentage of ED applicants).
6 Likes
A lot will depend on how schools value your ECs - sports, awards etc. Maybe a niche sport like fencing or squash will be extremely valuable in your application or your awards/essays/recs may resonate.
Just from our competitive suburban school, this is our usual results (others can vary greatly)
We have multiple kids who attend T10-15 schools every year and most are super competitive in sports and/or have won awards in music/science/art.
The average excellent kids with high GPAs, SAT scores, with great essays/recs and some solid ECs usually get into the next tier schools T15-25.
Kids with slightly lower class rank, GPA/SATs, or average ECs get into Tufts/BU or strong merit to non T30 colleges.
That’s a typical distribution for our school. Wanted to share some specifics and not the usual general statements that it’s a complete wildcard (although it is).
Alright thank you so much!! Haha sorry if I was being annoying and repetitive! I appreciate your thorough response!!
Please explain why you need to apply ED. Really…ED should be for a college that is your tippy top choice, bar none (and is affordable). Until you have that tippy top choice, you shouldn’t be considering ED, in my opinion.
Also, I don’t see anything about what your family can afford for costs, if you qualify for need based aid, or what?
3 Likes
OP has addressed all this above.
3 Likes
my family can afford up to 30k per year. on NU’s net price calc, my estimated cost of attendance is around 17k, which is within my family’s budget for college.
6 Likes
There are quite a few people here on CC who have gone through the process. Many of us are parents who went through the process once for ourselves then again once each for our children. Some of us even went through it again for graduate schools. Hopefully we can help you.
You have essentially perfect grades, a very high SAT score, great ECs, and a long list of AP classes. You are competitive at any university (possibly not including a few specialty schools such as music or dance conservatories or marine academies). Top ranked schools (Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, …) are reaches for nearly all students. However, you do have a chance at these schools. There should be lots of schools where your chances are very good. Given your great stats and California residence I am hoping that some of the Universities of California may be among the list.
One big issue is cost of attendance. I see you preferring to keep the cost down to $25,000-$30,000 per year. There will most likely be some very good universities that fit this budget, but there will be lots of universities that cost more than this, in some cases a LOT more. You should be able to keep the cost within budget, but you will have to pay attention to cost.
As others have mentioned you or your parents should run the Net Price Calculator to get an estimate of what any particular university is likely to cost you. If your parents are divorced or separated, or if they own a small business or rental property or farm the NPCs may be wrong and may be too optimistic. Otherwise at least in our experience they are usually accurate. In rare occasions we have been offered merit based financial aid that the NPC did not predict, so in some cases reality might be a little bit better than what the NPC predicts, but you cannot count on this. Edit: I see that you have run the NPC for Northwestern and that it predicts that it will be well within budget, which is a very good sign.
Another big issue is to find a good fit. Some students are more comfortable with larger universities. Some students are more comfortable with smaller schools such as a liberal arts college. Some prefer a city, some prefer a small town or rural location. You can get a great education at any of the above. You can get into excellent graduate programs with a degree from any of the above.
I see quite a few medical related activities on your list of ECs. Are you thinking about whether to be a premed student? Is medical school a possibility? Almost any good (perhaps “top 200” or so) university will be good for premed students (with the same caveat about “except perhaps music and dance conservatories”). Premed classes are academically challenging but based on your stats up to now it looks like you would be going into them well prepared.
Psychology and neuroscience are examples of majors where some form of graduate school is a possibility. PhD’s are usually fully funded, but can take a long time. Master’s degrees are usually not funded. Depending upon where you go they can be expensive, although typically a master’s degree only takes between one and two years. Medical school is of course very expensive.
As others have said you do not need to ED anywhere. IMHO you should not ED anywhere unless it is clearly your first choice, and you have run the NPC and the NPC predicts that the school will be affordable. Between me, my wife, and both daughters, none of us applied ED anywhere. This meant that we were able to see where we got in and see what the financial costs was going to be be at each school before we decided where to attend.
It is very important that you pick at least one and preferably two safeties. These are schools that you are pretty much certain to get accepted to, and that has a good program in your major (which for psychology is almost anywhere), and that you would be happy to attend, and that you know that you will be able to afford to attend. Safeties are often, but not always, in-state public schools. If you do not apply ED anywhere, then your safeties may be the most important schools to pick carefully. If you apply ED to a school, then your choice of ED is also very important.
1 Like
So…since you clearly have financial need…do you really want to apply ED…and not be able to compare net costs amongst acceptances?
If you do decide to apply ED someplace…and you are considering other colleges with great merit awards, please make sure you get those other applications submitted in time to meet the earlier deadlines some colleges have for merit consideration.
Any chance your PSAT score was high enough for national merit consideration?
It sounds like medical school is a possibility for you. That being the case, you want an undergrad degree with no debt. Medical school will be funded with loans , loans and more loans.
You taught people how to draw blood and suture? Please don’t exaggerate. This isn’t something high school students teach others to do.
Please explain. The medical professionals in this family say…no.
So…this is how much your parents can and will contribute. But what is more important is how much the colleges think they can contribute. It’s good that you did the NPC for Northwestern. Do it for other colleges as well. And remember, these are estimate, plus the NPCs are set for THIS fall starts, and that is not you.
1 Like
For the suturing thing, its not meant to be like a placeholder for like real training, its just something that my friend and I do to immerse our members into various healthcare fields & for like a fun interactive activity. we practice on dummies & our supervisor is a former doctor, and she makes sure everything is accurate and that we arent doing anything dangerous at school. I’m not trying to say that I taught them the exact thing, so I’m sorry if it was phrased poorly. also i’m almost certain I’ll get close to the aid that was on the calc or even lower because of the change in income of my family this year. I’ll fix all the wording and stuff so its accurate, and im sorry if it sounds like I’m a red flag applicant, im trying to improve.
Is this part of a formal club? HS internship?
we do premed club, im going to fix the wording of a lot of it, i understand that it raised a lot of red flags
For the 2025-2026 academic year (will that be your first year of college?), the financial aid forms will use income information from your 2023 taxes. Any income change in 2024 will either require you to request a special circumstances consideration, OR will just be used for the 2026-2027 academic year.
If you have financial situation that will require a special circumstances consideration, please think carefully about ED.
Ok so it’s a premed club. Yes, you need to fix the wording and make the various roles/activities within the club crystal clear.
1 Like
Okay thank you & yes I am eventually hoping to go to med school! I hope that I would be able to find a school that supports students well for med school
1 Like
Yeah I understand. Even with my special financial circumstance I would be able to afford college using my parents 2023 tax info, which is why I’m comfortable applying ED.
You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at almost every four year college in this country…arts conservatories excluded. Choose a college where you think you will thrive, and be happy. Getting a high GPA and sGPA, plus a high MCAT score are actually more important than the name of your undergrad school.
You also don’t want your parents to need to co-sign or take any loans for your undergrad school.
You are a CA resident. Are you looking at your instate publics? It’s unclear to me if you qualify for the Calgrant. Do you?
4 Likes
Yeah I understand completely! a part of me just want to go to a good school because I’m the first person in my family to go to college and I want to make my parents proud. I won’t need to take out any loans for college so thats not a worry. I qualify for calgrant.
1 Like
You can make your parents proud by doing well wherever you attend college!
5 Likes
yeah I get it. I know i seem stubborn over it but i guess a part of it is because my parents are immigrants as well and they have high hopes for me & they want me to receive opportunities that they never got to have so it means a lot to me to go to a good school