@mamaedefamilia Yeah I was hesitant to categorize UC Davis as a safety school. According to Niche, its acceptance rate is 42%, its SAT range is 1050-1330 and I am a California resident so I thought it would be alot more likely that I would get into Davis than any other school on my list.
Yes, my school only offers 6 periods and I checked in with my counselor who said that I can’t take PE over the summertime but I could take Physics over the summer if I wanted to. I told her that I want to apply to Columbia and am worried that not taking physics would hurt my chances but she said that she doesn’t think it would. She said that I already do so much and that if I explain in my personal statement why I had to make the decision not to take physics that it would be alright. I have no intention of pursuing science in my future and she thinks that should determine whether or not I take it. Based off of the advice I have been reading here, that does not seem to be the case.
My current GPA is a 4.67 weighted and 4.0 unweighted. I am in AP English, AP enviro sci, Honors Pre Calc, and Honors French. I am currently planning on taking the the English, French, Enviro Sci and US History AP Exams. I have also been studying Art History with my sophomore year AP Euro teacher and may take that AP exam as well.
I will start researching all the financial related questions I have with my parents. Thank you for your help.
One trap many students fall into with UCs is judging their chances by SAT/ACT score ranges. The trap is that UCs heavily emphasize HS GPA over SAT/ACT, so “test score heavy” applicants with HS GPA a bit below the range are often disappointed with UC results.
However, the good news is that, since you have an unweighted 4.0 HS GPA and hard courses (probably 4.3-4.4 UC recalculated weighted-capped HS GPA), that should improve your chances at UCs, assuming that you do not bomb the SAT/ACT or write poor essays (for 2016, 91% of UCD applicants with UC recalculated weighted-capped HS GPA >= 4.2 were admitted).
Boston University and New York University are known for poor financial aid, so you may want to move them into the high reach category (for large merit scholarships, not just admission).
You may want to apply more widely among the UCs, although if your GPA is 4.0 unweighted in hard courses, your chances look good at most of them (but UCB would still be a high match at best).
Some non-UC schools do emphasize test scores more, so you may want to try the ACT, and/or do more targeted prep on the parts of the SAT you did not do well on and retry the SAT.
You have an interesting mix of schools on your list. You clearly like LACs. There are a lot of other excellent LACs you might consider, some of which could try to lure you with merit aid if you can get the test score. You have Bowdoin and Berkeley. Those are night and day. If you are interested in a quality school that might give you merit money, consider Kenyon. I think you’d have a pretty good shot there. Carleton is also top notch, but is a true reach that offers merit aid for some outstanding applicants.
I still think you need physics. You seem to be in AP ES right now, and physics is a more weighty class. I can imagine a scenario where adcom might wonder why you took APES when you might have taken physics. I am erring on the side of caution though. There are only so many class periods, so you can only do so much. If you are determined to be a stronger applicant, I would take physics this summer. No offense to your guidance cousnelor, but when you are talking single-digit acceptance rates, everything matters.
If by “realistic”, you mean that there’s a plausible “rhyme or reason” for seeing yourself there, yeah, I think it makes total sense to apply to Wesleyan; it’s a destination school for social justice warriors (along with Brown, Vassar, Swarthmore, Oberlin, UC-Berkeley, and to a certain extent - Columbia) and its downtown location in Middletown CT, is an interesting, multi-ethnic, hodge-podge in the southern New England port city tradition. You may want to examine a few more former Seven Sister colleges (you’ve already included Barnard) like Smith, Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr for their vibes, good need-based financial aid (agree with everyone who advised running net price calculators for all of them) and relatively higher admission rates.
@katerpillarca Thanks for your responses to the people who have been offering suggestions. It sounds like you are open minded and willing to listen to advice. With all due respect to your GC, I think he/she is wrong about Physics. You currently have two years of lab science (or is AP Environmental also a lab?) If you want to be that complete package for competitive schools, physics would really help. You already have two foreign languages, leadership, and a high GPA.
Regarding test scores, I agree with @UCBalumnus - try the ACT. The science section, BTW, is not about memorizing science facts per se. It’s more about how well you interpret graphs and tables of data presented in scientific format. My D is an excellent student but despite dedicated prep, she hit a threshold on the SAT she could not pass. She did extremely well on the ACT and that made a big difference in her admissions and scholarship outcomes.
If you decide to go with the ACT, the on line prep that ACT offers is not expensive and is well worth it.
Do run those numbers. If your parents’ EFC is similar to what they are willing to pay, then that opens up a whole universe of schools that offer need-based aid. If their EFC comes in higher, then you should focus on schools that offer merit-based aid. Typically, to get that aid, you want to be in the top 25% of their applicant pool, and that generally means a higher test score. A 1450+ on the SAT or a 32+ on the ACT will get you consideration that your current SAT score will not.
Finally, you mentioned that you would like a dynamic urban environment. There are MANY fine options in NYC and Chicago that are not NYU or U Chicago that are less competitive for admissions and might also offer better financial aid.
Good luck! I hope your dedication to your studies gets you the results you want.
I agree, you’ve been responding thoughtfully to all posts on your thread and it’s rare enough that we must not forget to commend you for that!
Since you like LACs, add a couple for safeties. Run the NPC on UPuget Sound, Lewis&Clark, Occidental ? Add Scripps, Bryn Mawr, and Mount Holyoke perhaps?
Look into UC’s with special honors programs to make the large university feel more personal (I know UCSC has one, and UCSB has CCS). Do run the NPCs on each college, since the results will be different for all colleges.
I think you’re burning the candle at too many ends. Did you look at what your targets want for courses? Barnard, Bowdoin and BU, to pick 3, all ask for 3+ years of lab sci. APES isn’t considered a lab sci, isn’t on the order of bio, chem, physics.
For an Ivy, where they want to see rigor, I don’t think the answer is Biology, Honors Chemistry and AP Environmental Science, then to stuff low level physics into a short summer course. Nor online. Those folks are serious. They’ll know if your hs offers AP sci and you skipped it.
In this case, decide if your chances are worth the risk. Read up on what they ask for. The competition is fierce.
@lookingforward I understand what you are saying. Science is a valued and important subject that looks really good on applications. And yes, fierce may even be an understatement. But actually, I looked it up and at least the UCs consider APES a lab science. Yes, Ivys do expect rigor but from my understanding, they also want to see passion and curiosity. There are students that get into schools like Harvard and Columbia simply because they pursued their curiosity everyday, both inside and outside of school. Not to say that I will be one of those people…Realistically, I will most likely get rejected from Columbia. But I do know that if I choose to take physics, it will only be over the summer or online. I am not going to cut out classes I am truly passionate about and activities outside of school to demonstrate to an Ivy League that I have taken AP Physics. Looking back, I do not regret taking AP Enviro Science, or spending 3 years in Leadership instead of completing my PE credit sophomore year, studying abroad last summer instead of taking another science at a community college, or working a part time job instead of playing a sport. Those experiences have shaped me into who I am and have allowed me to learn lessons I know I cannot not find in AP Physics. Life does not look like a classroom.
Yes, for UC. My comments are about Ivies and other privates. This is your choice. Be sure you checked. Becsuse following your own interests is important, but so is understanding what makes one competitive for “Columbia/Princeton/Yale” and others. Make sure you have the right balance of safeties and matches. And that they’re affordable.
Everyone here definitely thinks you should take classes you are interested in. But you asked us a question, and we gave our opinions. If it’s Ivy or bust, try to take physics. If you primarily care about studying what interests you, definitly do that. Be aware though that it might lessen your chances at the tippy tops.
@Lindagaf I know and I am very grateful for your responses. This is just a very tough decision to make for me. I’m having a hard time both accepting uncertainty and also understanding what my priorities are a little better. I will figure this out though using both the advice I have been given over the course of the week and my own intuition. Again, thank you for taking the time to write these insightful comments.
@katerpillarca , I think you’re on the right track as far as utilizing the summer to round out your senior year academics. I’m going to chime in and suggest that French be the subject you offload to the summer, so that you can take a science class at the normal pace during the year. Your commitment to foreign languages is well-established already; there’s no way in which it would look bad to get the FL credit over the summer to make room for an AP science. In fact, it could be to your advantage, because an actual college class is more likely to nail down transfer credit, whereas it varies how AP language credit is applied. Plus, an accelerated/immersion model of language learning can be an improvement rather than a compromise.
My D is at Scripps; she took French 3 (plus an art class) in the summer at BU. It was a great experience as far as experiencing life on an urban campus. (The language instruction was weaker than Scripps’ very strong French department, though; she ended up in French 3 again after placement testing, and most of it was not review.) This was particularly a win for her, because she wasn’t on track to take AP French, and wouldn’t have gotten college credit at all for third-year HS French, whereas she did for the college version. In your case, it’s more “six of one, half-dozen of the other”… but I still think French could be a better subject to push into the summer than physics. Definitely don’t try to do physics online. That’s a worst-of-both-worlds compromise - a lot of trouble for a manifestly inferior option to an in-person lab science. If you do a summer science class, do it in a brick-and-mortar setting.
Regarding the comment about four academics not being enough… it’s true that a lot of applicants to the most competitive schools have been taking 5-6 academics. Between rigor and test scores, I think others’ assessments that Columbia/Yale/UChicago will be a reach are accurate, although the first-gen hook should help. (You’d have a better shot at Barnard than Columbia, but as you’ve noted, you’ll be in better shape for either if you can boost your SAT a bit more and/or get a relatively-better score on the ACT - some people test better on one or the other, so giving the ACT a shot could be well worth your time.) However, taking four academics is reasonable given your extracurricular commitments, and I’m not a believer in the academic-overload arms race. (Personally, I think the trend of making student government a class is unfortunate… but shockingly nobody asked me ) My D who’s at Scripps took two performing arts classes and four academics every year, and she got the top merit award at Scripps with an under-1500 SAT score. You are absolutely right that you have been spending your time productively on things that genuinely reflect your interests and goals, and that is far more important than jumping through real or perceived hoops. Better to “do you,” and get into colleges that value the same things you value (which will give you plenty of excellent options!), than to tie yourself in knots and compromise your real interests in the effort to artificially “package” yourself. You are doing great - just make your best call re: the logistics of what you can fit in, and go with it.
) My D who’s at Scripps took two performing arts classes and four academics every year, and she got the top merit award at Scripps with an under-1500 SAT score. You are absolutely right that you have been spending your time productively on things that genuinely reflect your interests and goals, and that is far more important than jumping through real or perceived hoops. Better to “do you,” and get into colleges that value the same things you value (which will give you plenty of excellent options!), than to tie yourself in knots and compromise your real interests in the effort to artificially “package” yourself. You are doing great - just make your best call re: the logistics of what you can fit in, and go with it. 