Special Chance Me

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hey, my name is Simon, and I’m a rising senior. When I see Chance Mes, I see a lot of people who want to go to Ivy League schools or as close to them as possible. Seeing as I probably don’t have a chance at them, I’m going to apply to state schools. Chance me for the following schools:
Worcester State University
Bridgewater State University
UMass Boston
UMass Amherst
University of Rhode Island
UConn
CU Boulder
Montana State
Northern Arizona University
UC Irvine
Washington State
UW Seattle
Western Washington University
University of Alaska Fairbanks

Here are my stats:
GPA: (it’s complicated. I moved between sophomore and junior years, so my schools graded differently. My old school did it on a 4.0 scale. The new school did it on a very weird scale. Considering the courses I’m taking, the max I could get is a 4.7)
Freshman and sophomore year GPA:
3.6 UW and W (they didn’t weigh honors courses)
Junior year GPA:
3.86, on track for 3.93 UW
4.3, on track for 4.4 W
SAT: 1280
700 math, 580 R&W. Plan to retake it fall of senior year.
Class rank: We don’t do class ranks, but I am on the highest tier of honor roll (one of sixty-nine students in my grade to have such a high GPA)

My schedule was light.
Freshman year: All normal
Sophomore year: Spanish II Honors
Junior year: Chamber Orchestra Honors (I wanted to take PreCalc Honors, Chem Honors, and maybe even AP Lang and APUSH, but my counselor made me do all honors as the high school has a very challenging curriculum)
Senior year plans: Physics Honors, English 12 Honors, Pop Culture Honors (semester), Family History Honors (semester), Chamber Orchestra Honors, AP Calc AB

ECs:
Chamber Orchestra 10-12
Pit Orchestra 10 (it wasn’t offered at my new school for strings)
Track and Field 9
Rock Club 11 (it got cancelled early because the leaders just used it as a way to put it onto their applications)
National Math Honor Society 11

For senior year, I plan on continuing to take Chamber Orchestra and National Math Honor Society. In addition, I plan on taking Nationals Social Studies Honors Society. I also plan on taking one or two more ECs

Work service:
-Spent eight hours working various jobs at a community pool the summer before sophomore year. This counted towards community service hours.
-Worked at McDonald’s for three months, working 11 hours a week.

Leadership positions:
-Member at large for orchestra council sophomore year.
Plan on having another orchestra officer position senior year.

If you have any other questions to help determine my chances better, feel free to ask them.

2

If you are not a California resident, UCI will be full pay and little to no financial aid so around $65K/year.

UC’s only use 10-11th grades for their GPA calculation and will give you extra honors points for AP/IB or DE courses (8 semesters for the capped weighted) taken 10-11th grades only.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Intended major?

UCI 2017 Freshmen profile, 2018 data should be available in August:

GPA and test scores of middle 25%-75% students

High School GPA UC capped weighted: 4.00 - 4.25
ACT Composite Score: 26 - 32
ACT English Language Arts : 24 - 30
SAT Evidence Based Reading & Writing: 590 - 680
SAT Mathematics: 600 - 740
SAT Essay: 15 - 18

The more competitive the major, the higher your stats are needed for an acceptance.

3

@Gumbymom It depends on how competitive the schools are. For the ones I have no problem getting into, probably Computer Science. However, for the more competitive schools, probably Mathematics or something along those lines. In addition, I’m considering minoring in music.

4

Also, I apologize for an incorrect fact I mentioned. For whatever reason, I said my counselor made me do all honors junior year. Meant to say all normal courses. My bad.

5

CS will be a tough admit at UCI but Mathematics might be possible but you would still need to get that SAT score upt into the 1350+ range and UC GPA capped weighted in the 4.0+ range for a solid chance. UCI admits into the University first than into the major so it is possible to get into UCI as Undeclared and then take screening classes with a required GPA to switch majors. UCI does consider alternate majors, so you could apply with CS as your first choice major and then Math as an alternate. Again, if you are not a California resident, UCI will be very expensive.

6

@Gumbymom Ah. Given my stats and all that, are there any colleges in California you’d recommend for me? I know I can pretty much get into any school in the Cal State system, but I hear that those colleges don’t have amazing academics. I don’t really care where in California.

7

Actually several Cal States along with some specific programs at these schools are on par with the UC’s. I highly recommend Cal State Long Beach, San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona, San Jose State and Cal Poly SLO (ultra competitive for CS/Engineering).

You have not answered if you are a CA resident and if finances are an issue since UC’s and CSU’s offer little to no financial aid if you are not a resident.

Run the Net Price Calculator on all schools of interest.

UC Santa Cruz, Riverside and Merced are still UC options.

Unless you bump up your SAT scores, merit aid is not possible at many of the California privates but some worth looking into such as University of San Diego (USD), University of San Francisco (USF), Occidental, Chapman, Point Loma and University of Redlands.

8

@Gumbymom I am not a Cali resident. However, I hear that some Cal State campuses are really cheap for out of state compared to other colleges. I do worry a bit about finances, but not too much. $30 a year would be nice since I don’t have too much debt. My parents would cover 10k a year, so at my ideal location, I’d have at most around 80k. Not saying $80,001 is going to stop me from going to a school, but I don’t want to be $100,000 in debt after four years.

9

As a student, you cannot take out more than $27K in loans over 4 years so at a UC, you are looking at $65K/year -$10K from your parents so where is the additional $55K coming from? Cal states for OOS students is around $40K/year but still where is the diffetence coming from if your parents will only pay $10K? Find some afforadable safety schools first, then expand your list.

10

@Gumbymom Actually, I managed to check out the Cal State campuses and most of them are cheap enough that if I got 10k taken out each year, I’d end up below the 27k in loans.

11

You still can only take out $27K total for 4 years not $27K each year. $5500 Freshman year, $6500 Sophomore year and $7500 Junior and Senior year. Your parents would have to take out the rest of the loans. Are they willing to do that?

12

It sounds like you’re a California resident. I would stick with an in-state university. There’s really no need for a prestigious school if you plan to do computers. Also check out the schools on the WUE program. You can get near in-state tuition for some schools in the region. Since most employers hire locally and regionally, it may be worth your while to go to UNLV, ASU, or Utah where there’s a fast growing tech market.

13

Your chances are good at Boulder. Can you can afford the out of state tuition? ($55,000/year) Your chances are also very good at Montana State, where your stats will get you some scholarship money.

14

@coolguy40 I’m actually a Massachusetts resident. However, I have grown up in the western US (I’m only spending two of my twelve main years of school in Mass, while the other ten were in the western US).

15

@simberry2 I know this is a chances thread, but your casual mention of $80k in loans sends up a red flag.
I’m no expert, but it seems to me that if your parents are willing to contribute $10 and you can take a loan out for $5,500 then your budget for tuition is $15,500. You may be able to supplement that a bit with personal earnings. Before you go any further you should run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for each school on your list to see how viable they are. If you input the information the school will provide an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) which can be a helpful starting point. This may be a bit of a reality check (and sticker shock), but perhaps your parents qualify for some need-based aid or grants depending on their income.

A quick online check shows Cal State Long Beach OOS tuition at about $16,200 plus room and board of about 13,000, so cost is about $29k not including books and other expenses like travel, so it’s double your budget. Even UMass instate is about $29k next year. Perhaps you can bring up your SAT score a bit and qualify for merit-based aid at some of the schools, but this may not be likely at many state schools (and definitely not at the CA schools).

I strongly recommend that you do not take on debt outside of the small ($5,500) annual student loans - and even that should focus on subsidized federal loans. You may think that $80,000 in loans is “doable” or NBD, but interest on private loans begins accruing from the moment you take out the loan so your repayment amount will be much more. Final note, sometimes private regional schools end up less than state schools because the offer generous merit. Perhaps check out University of Hartford (also strong in music), Springfield College and University of New Haven.