Which Schools are the best fit for my profile? [WI resident, 4.0 UW GPA, 34 ACT, class rank: 1/242, <$20k]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US Resident
  • Wisconsin
  • Public High School

Cost Constraints / Budget
Cost varies but I don’t want to spend more than $20,000 per year and my family makes less than 200k

Intended Major(s) Business Management, Human Development, Nutritional Sciences, Global Health, and Neurology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • 4.0
  • n/a
  • Class Rank: 1/242
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 34 on ACT

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: 5 on AP Language
  • Math: Taking AP Calculus this year
  • Science: Honors Chem, 5 on AP Chem, Dual credit Anatomy and Physiology, Health Science Academy
  • History and social studies: 5 on AP World, 5 on APUSH, 5 on AP Government, Dual Credit AP Psychology, Sociology,
  • Language other than English: Spanish 5 Visual or performing arts:
  • Other academic courses:

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work: Anatomy and Physiology, Psychology, and Personal Finance
  • Major preparation course work: Health Science Academy, AP Psychology, Sociology, AP Government

Awards

  • (Location edited out by moderator) Health Student of the Year 2024
  • Academic Achievement in Social Studies 2025
  • All-Conference MVC Sportsmanship 2025
  • Runner of the Year 2025 for my High School
  • Student and Athlete of the Month recognitions
  • 2nd in Wisconsin for HOSA Epidemiology

Extracurriculars
- Varsity Cross Country 2023-2026

  • Varsity Powerlifting 2023-2025
  • Varsity Track and Field 2024-2027
  • Organized Bake Sales that raised over $500 for Books for Africa
  • HOSA Historian and placed 2nd in Wisconsin
  • Student Senate all 4 years and Student Senate President most recent year
  • Youth Apprenticeship/Part-Time Job at Walmart
  • Part-time job at McDonald’s
  • Youth Apprenticeship marketing for a Local Gym
  • Started my own yard-work business with over 15 clients (9 weekly regulars)
  • NHS Secretary
  • Environmental Club Member
  • Badgers Boys State
  • Little League Youth Umpire
  • Probably going to be School Board Representative in the upcoming year
  • Advocated for school lunch nutrition reform and got nutritional information and allergen-free food added to school cafeteria

Essays/LORs/Other

  • Pretty Strong Personal Statement so far about how I loved to make games and that led to me working to improve school lunch nutrition.
  • I think my teachers like me really well so I think I’ll have good LORs

Schools
UPenn Wharton ED, Northwestern, UNC, University of Minnesota, and Cornell School of Human Ecology, but I want to know if I should adjust my list based on my stats

If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

Scholarship isn’t necessary but I prefer schools with good financial aid

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
  • Extremely Likely:
  • Likely:
  • Toss-up:
  • Lower Probability:
  • Low Probability:
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Your current profile indicates that you are a strong & competitive applicant. Your current list of colleges is a great start but you will need to expand to 10 or 12, including a few safeties. They are all reach schools except for Minnesota. What about colleges in Wisconsin? Are you interested in any colleges like University of Wisconsin-Madison or looking to get out of WI? You are planning to apply to UPenn ED. Why Wharton?

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This is of course a reason to avoid applying ED anywhere, and get your offers back and see what aid you get.

I would include an application to the University of Wisconsin. While I only know a few graduates from there, they have all been quite impressive and have made the university look very good.

I would run the NPCs on the private reach schools and see whether or not they are likely to be affordable.

Your profile is quite impressive. I expect that you are likely to do well wherever you end up. Best wishes.

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I would suggest you run the net price calculators for the schools you have listed. This should give you a decent estimate of your net costs at those colleges. If your parents aren’t divorced, don’t own a business, aren’t self employed, and don’t own real estate other than your primary residence, the NPCs give decent estimates of net costs. So start there.

You are fortunate that Minnesota has a tuition reciprocity agreement with Wisconsin…but make sure you apply for that! Even with that, you will need a merit scholarship from Minnesota to hit a $20,000 price point, in my opinion. But go for it.

UNC, Cornell, Northwestern and Penn are reaches, but you are a strong applicant, and could get accepted at these colleges.

Do you have any other sure things that are affordable that you like on your application list (beside Minnesota). Do you want suggestions?

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I don’t think you need to adjust based on stats. But you 100% need to adjust based on budget.

Making below $200k - what does that mean. $180k? $80k ? Applying to schools with no merit will make for disappointing acceptances - unless your folks raise the budget or they make let’s say under $125k.

So schools like C Mich, UAH, Alabama (a bit over), in state regionals, W Carolina and maybe some Midwest exchange may work. But many schools charge near $20k - $15k plus for room and board. An FSU could get close with out of state waiver.

When you build a list, you build by budget, not name - especially when your budget is small but so is likely your need profile. But I’m assuming they make near $200k if they don’t, the argument changes.

You can run the NPCs if yours - if your parents have no assets, you might get a lower cost even if they make $190k.

You might also apply for Hail Mary programs - the Johnson at W&L, Belk at Davidson and maybe a bit easier - Charleston Fellows at College of Charleston, Levine at UNCC, Brinkley Lane at E Carolina, etc.

Run some NPC or have them do so. Here is NU’s.

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They make close to 200k— around 190k.

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Yes! I would love some suggestions.

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If your parents have $190,000 incomes and some significant assets, you might not qualify for much need based aid…but run those Net Price Calculators and see what you get for results.

The important question to ask your parents is how much they can and will contribute annually to your college costs. If you haven’t had that conversation with them, I would suggest you do so.

Can you give us some guidance in terms of providing suggestions? Geographic area, size, secular vs religious, urban/suburban/rural…things like that.

Also, you mention “neurology” as a possible undergrad major…can you explain what you mean by that one?

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Exactly. This is important…

And running the Net Price Calculators can help to get your parents thinking accurately about what university is likely to cost. The NPCs will ask for enough financial information that your parents might need to run them.

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I mean neuroscience/psychology. I want an urban college but am willing to do suburban like Cornell. I would like my college to lean liberal. I would enjoy a live sporting atmosphere. I want a supportive culture but I’m not a big fan of Greek life. I’d enjoy whatever climates but would prefer Midwest or east coast. Finally, a good fitness center would be nice.

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I would suggest University of Pittsburgh. Apply as soon as the application is live…it’s possible you could get sufficient merit aid to make your price point. But do apply ASAP after that application goes up. You will have a decision with aid fairly quickly.

You might want to check University of Delaware. It’s possible you would get sufficient merit aid there also.

If you want to look further away…University of New Mexico flies under the radar screen just about always. You would be close to your price point there. @WayOutWestMom

Maybe University of Rochester? Not sure you can hit your price point there.

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OK - so my list stands.

You could also look at, for example, the Honors Tutorial at Ohio U - but I suspect your budget, to get into a name brand, will need to go up. Are they willing to expand to $30K? $40K? At $40K, you’d have a host of flagship or flagship types - from KU, Mizzou, maybe U of SC, maybe Miami of Ohio. At $25K, you’d have Bama. I imagine U Wisc at $40K would be in play and given reciprocity, maybe UMN - both fantastic STEM schools and fantastic b schools.

So you need to sit down with them, go over some costs of schools of interest - because at $20K, short of some I mentioned up front and they might go a little over, you might be better off living home and attending a regional or community college to save up. Many do it and do that successfully, even very well established kids like yourself.

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These are great schools - but there’s no realistic chance to get any of the three (Pitt, UD, UR) close to $20K - but UNM is a possiblitly.

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I want to learn from their healthcare administration program and get a good business management degree that I can pair with dietetics/nutrition. Therefore, I can get career where I manage and advocate for broader nutritional improvements. Do you have any other college recs that satisfy this goal?

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I’d be willing to go up a little bit to like 40k. I think Madison would work because my school offers specific scholarships to Madison.

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Put 100 schools out there and that sentence is relevant. That’s not only at U Penn or wherever else you are thinking.

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Check out Rice University in Houston, Texas as a potential “reach” option. They also offer a health sciences major. And they also offer merit scholarships to scholar-athletes.

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I can’t speak to the fitness centers at any of these schools. But some other colleges you may want to investigate include:

  • Case Western (OH): About 6500 undergrads at this school in an active part of Cleveland. Although it has D3 sports, it’s not the biggest sport-based school, but Cleveland is home to the Cavaliers (NBA), Browns (NFL), and Guardians (MLB). Cleveland is also home to the Cleveland Clinic, one of the country’s foremost medical operations. Case Western is among a limited number of selective schools that offers some pretty generous merit aid to strong students that have shown a lot of demonstrated interest, and it appears likely that merit aid is your best route to not paying sticker price. It’s also one of the few very selective schools that offers majors in nutrition, including Human Nutrition, Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism, as well as various minors such as Food as Medicine and Sports Nutrition. It’s also got plenty of business offerings, psychology, etc.

  • Drexel (PA ): If you’re looking at UPenn, also take a look at Drexel. It has a strong co-op culture, a history of basketball fandom, and Philly is also home to plenty of professional sports teams, too. Merit aid is possible here, unlike UPenn.

  • George Washington (D.C.): About 12k undergrads at this school in the nation’s capital. It is a very urban school, and if you’re interested in influencing nutritional policy, this is a fabulous place to be.

  • Howard (D.C.): HBCU of about 12k undergrads is also in D.C., and in addition to its own sports teams, there are several professional sports teams here, too.

  • Miami U. (OH): About 17k undergrads at this school that some consider a “public ivy.” It has a good business school (Farmer) in addition to its nutrition offerings. Its hockey program probably has the most fans. And Oxford is a small college town, but it’s not too far from Cincinnati when you want a bigger city experience.

  • Michigan State: About 41k undergrads, and if you want live sport spirit, this is a terrific school to attend. And it’s 4.3 miles (or less than a 10-minute drive) to the MI State Capitol, should you want to continue your efforts at influencing nutritional policy at the state level.

  • North Dakota State: About 10k undergrads attend this school that has lots of sports enthusiasm. You would get at least $3k/year in merit aid, but potentially up to $25k/year (source). And for a school whose costs ring up at $25,200/year for a WI resident this year (source), I suspect this school would be a serious contender to getting below the $20k threshold for you.

I’m running out of steam, but you may also want to check out:

  • Saint Louis (MO): About 10k undergrads at this Jesuit college

  • Syracuse (NY): About 16k undergrads; would need to show demonstrated interest if interested in an acceptance.

  • U. at Buffalo (NY): About 20k undergrads

  • U. of Arkansas: About 29k undergrads at this school in the upper northwestern part of the state. SEC sports.

  • U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 33k undergrads at this school that also has a lot of co-ops incorporated and some big sports fandom.

  • U. of Kentucky: About 25k undergrads

And don’t sleep on your in-state flagship, Madison. It’s a really great school. Also, all the schools I mentioned in this post have nutrition majors, offer merit aid, and probably have the possibility of meeting a $20k budget, though the likelihood for many of these is below 20% (i.e. low probability), but definitely not an impossibility.

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Is this your unweighted GPA?
Did you take the PSAT? If so, what score did you receive?

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Actually UD might, the act is a bit low but they do like Val’s and sals for the 100 invited to the additional scholarship weekend.

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