Junior from public school in Illinois
Hispanic and Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander
Low-Income Family
First Generation
Major: Biology (maybe a minor in music)
GPA: 4.06 (W); 3.60 (UW) (I have extenuating circumstances specifically during sophomore year which is why my GPA dropped.)
Rank: n/a
AP’s: Freshman- Human Geography, Sophomore - Seminar and European History, Junior - Biology and Language, Senior - Chemistry, Stats, AB Calc, Psychology, French (10 APs total)
Honors: Been in all honors courses since freshman year
ACT: 33
Extracurricular activities:
WYSE Team (4 years)
NHS (Service Chair) (2 years)
Theatre (4 years) (Officer- 2 years)
All Bands (Wind Ensemble First Chair Clarinet for 4 years, Pep band, etc.) (4 years) (Band President Senior Year)
All Choirs (A Cappella, Jazz Choir, Madrigals, etc.) (4 years)
Scholastic bowl (4 years)
Class Representative (2 years)
Activist Club (founder) (2 years) (handle things like school walkouts and earn the school districts cooperation so we can support a cause plus take a group of students to chicago to take part in movements)
French Leadership Club and French Honors Society (4 years)
Achievements:
Selected by District to meet with Ndaba Mandela
Selected to perform in district (ILMEA) band freshman, sophomore and junior years
Selected to perform in district (ILMEA) chorus sophomore and junior years
Selected to perform in All-state choir for Illinois
All state pit orchestra
HSF Youth Leadership Institute?
I’m looking at Northwestern ED, Northeastern, USC, UCLA.
Things that worry you? Things that impress you? Any insight helps!
Take UCLA off your list. As an out of state student at a public university, you won’t get any need based aid.
Your GPA is on the low end for schools that meet need. Can you share any more about your extenuating circumstances? How do you plan to communicate those to colleges?
Being a URM will help a bit.
If you haven’t yet, run net price calculators on the school websites you are interested in.
Have you looked at any LACs? St. Olaf or Dickinson are a couple to consider.
@intparent Basically what happened was my parents who are divorced were getting back together but when they are around each other they literally go crazy. Like they would leave for a few days without telling me or my little brother. They also turned into substance abusers when around each other. This lead me to miss quite a few days of school to take care of my little brother to make sure he had food on the table. On top of this, I was also diagnosed with a rare disorder that has to do with physical activity and my grandma (who I was extremely close with) passed away during this time. I would just really emphasize how given these circumstances, I tried my hardest.
I have looked at net price calculators and I’m pretty comfortable with a lot of the numbers given, especially from northwestern and northeastern! (The only one I didn’t look at was UCLA)
Also I have looked into LACs a little bit. I guess I think I just crossed them out because I didn’t think they were right for me.
If your family income is low enough, also look at the Questbridge program https://www.questbridge.org/high-school-students
@evergreen5 yes, yes I have! My GPA is the thing that worries me about applying to that program. On top of that I wouldn’t be able to apply early decision to places like northwestern so I can raise my chances of getting in. I was thinking about applying to be a finalist and if I got it, I would not rank any schools so I can apply ED somewhere. Also I’m pretty comfortable with the financial aid numbers that these colleges predict they would give me.