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College Search & Lists
1

Hey guys, I’m currently a rising senior who wants to possibly get a masters and Ph.D. in economics or go into Wall Street and make some bank one day.

College List:

Safeties: Occidental, Syracuse

Matches: Colgate, Babson, University of Miami

Reaches: Dartmouth (ED), Vanderbilt, Pomona, Amherst, Duke, Cornell, & Northwestern
Academic Stats:

3.84 UW (with a great upward trend, all A’s since 2nd trim. of 10th grade)

4.25 W

Very demanding course load. (I also go to an extremely elite private school in California which allows a maximum of 1 AP in 10th grade and none in 9th. The most people take is 7-8 AP/college level classes)

9th:
Spanish 2
Honors Biology
Honors Geometry
English 9
History 9
10th:
Spanish 3
Honors Chemistry
Honors Algebra 2
English 10
History 10
11th:
Spanish 4
AP Chemistry - 5
Honors Pre-Calc
Honors English
AP United States History - 5
12th:
AP Calc BC
Number Theory (college-level class involving proofs)
AP Human Geo.
AP U.S. Gov.
AP Lang
Honors Physics with Calculus

  • Total of 7 APs/College Level Classes

Have also taken 1 online coursera class in microeconomics and took a special topic with a teacher at school about microecon. I plan on taking a gender studies and philosphy special topics senior year. Special Topics are classes that meet informally and don’t have a grade

33 Composite (34 E, 32 M, 34 R, 30 Sc.) & (35 E, 36 M, 30 R, 29 Sc.)

34 Superscore (35 E, 36 M, 34 R, 30 Sc.)

760 on Chem. Subject Test

770 on Math 2 Subject Test

Extra Curriculurs:

African American Affinity Group (Member 11th, Leader 12th). This club meets once every two weeks and discusses any issues for African American students on campus and is a place where a minority on campus feels like a majority for once.

Admission Ambassador (Member 11th, Chair 12th; Chair is an incredibly selective process in which around 20 kids apply for 6 positions). This past year, I gave tours to prospective students about my school and helped at almost every single admissions event. The chairs meet once a week and coordinate with the admissions office to make the experience great for prospective students.

Students for Equality and Justice (Member 11th, Organizing Committee 12th). This club meets once a week to discuss any social issues ranging from gun control in the United States to Affirmative Action. The organizing committee meets once a trimester and plans out what the topics will be for each week in the trimester.

Business Club (Co-Founder 11th/12th). The Business Club attempts to inform students about the fundamentals of starting a business, how to be effective in creating a business plan, and helps fund young entrepreneurs in their pursuits after a Shark Tank-like trial.

Varsity Soccer (9th, 10th, 11th) (Captain 12th)

Mock Trial (9th, 11th, 12th) (Captain 12th). We didn’t have enough members in 10th grade to field a team.

Film Analysis Blog (10th, 11th, 12th). I write two-three editions every week, ranging from film reviews, previews, and analyses of classics. I do this out of pure enjoyment, but it is quite time-consuming.

Kumon Worker (11th, 12th). I work part-time at Kumon for around 2-3 hours every Saturday and help correct children’s work. I plan on gaining more hours and hopefully to around 8-10 hours per week at the beginning of my senior year.

Science for Kids (11th, 12th). Every Wednesday, for the last two trimesters, we welcome kids from neighboring schools and teach them about science in a fun and interactive way. This program is reserved to only 10th-12th.

Love for the Glove (11th, 12th). This AIDS prevention event happens every year at our school and attempts to raise awareness about STDs, while fundraising money. I was able to raise around $100, helped decorate the event, created bracelets for the first time in the event’s history, and also created the laptop stickers.

Film Appreciation Club (11th possibly, 12th). I’m currently attempting to restart a film appreciation club that would meet once a week for all film lovers to discuss films and would have a monthly screening with special speakers

90’s Hip-Hop Battle Radio Show (12th possibly). I’m thinking about possibly creating a radio show that will analyze the cultural divide in history in the 90’s battle, and where it stemmed from and how it affected the whole African-American population.

11th Grade Summer: Carnegie Mellon Pre-College Summer Program on a full scholarship.

Hooks:

African American

First-Gen

Low Socioeconomic Status.

2

With your statistics and hooks, you should be competitive for admission at most if not all of the schools that you mention, IMO.

Think about money, especially if you might want to get an M.B.A. or another professional degree; that may involve some serious expenses, in which case you should not go into debt much (if at all) for your undergraduate degree.

3

I would look into the affordability of your safeties and reaches. I think Occidental and Colgate are the only ones of those that say they meet full need. You should be able to find at least another school that is easier to get into than your reaches (which would be any school that accepts at least 25% of applicants) and that is also affordable. Run Net Price Calculators to make sure you have at least a few schools that are likely admits and likely affordable.

4

Have you checked the net price calculator at each college?

No in-state UCs?

5

People avoid the race issure but its relevant. Being black and first generation and low income class helps greatly.

I would also recommend Tepper school of business if you already attended their camp. If you apply ED I think you get in.

Good luck. I would recommend visiting as many as you can, to get a feel for the campus vibe. You can tell alot from those tours. I know I did.

6

Check affordability. I would definitely add a group of UCs into your mix.