12 colleges.. please help me narrow down to 6-7

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So yeah these are 12 colleges that interest me:
UVA
UNC - Chapel Hill
Duke
Johns Hopkins
William and Mary
VCU
NYU
Rutgers
VT
Cornell
Princeton
UPenn</p>

<p>and my stats:
Basic:
Male; Asian (Indian); from Forest, VA.
College Class Year: 2013
High School: Public (JF)
High School Type: sends 8-12 to top schools
High School: Private (Central Virginia Governor's)
High School Type: sends 20 (of 60) to top schools </p>

<p>Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.88 ;GPA - Weighted: 4.00
Class Rank: 20th of 360, 5.55%
<em>after Junior Year I will be around 10th</em></p>

<p>Scores:
SAT: Oct. 07(600 CR, 670 M, 640 W) - 9 essay
SAT: Jan. 08(630 CR, 690 M, 720 W) - 10 essay
goal for June is 2200
AP European History: 5
taking AP English Language: expect 4-5
taking AP US History: expect 3-4 (self-studying)
taking AP Psychology: expect 5
next yearAP Biology:
next yearAP Calculus (AB or BC):
neaxt yearAP Statistics:
Taking:
SATII US History:
SATII Physics:
SATII Math II:</p>

<p>Extra Curricular:
-NHS -will probably be officer at our school
-Varsity Club - those with Athletic and academic varsity letter
-Key Club, Spanish Club, Latin Club</p>

<p>Leaderships Positions:
-Governor’s School SAB
-JF SCA
-Head trainee at hospital
-NHS</p>

<p>Sports: (20 hrs/week - all year round, including summer)
-Indoor Track - Varsity Letter
-Outdoor Track - Varsity Letter
-Cross Country - Varsity Letter
-Rec. Basketball</p>

<p>Volunteer/Service Work:
-Volunteering at the Lynchburg General Hospital (200 hours)
-Relay for Life - Made my own team that has over 30 people.. organized entire event and all fundraisers.. raised a lot of money
-Various races for charity: 9th Annual Central Virginia Kidney Association Race, Turkey trot (cancer), etc.</p>

<p>Honors/Awards:
-Accepted to Central Virginia's Governor's School - a school for Science and Technology. For more info: Central Virginia Governor's School
-International High IQ Society as 9th grader
-Participated at annual school trig-star tournament (trigonometry) - placed 3rd
-Chosen to be one of four ambassadors to represent CVGS at NCSSMST conference - an association of Specialized Secondary School
-Participated in Research Symposium (top 10) and Regional Science and Engineering Fair.
-Accepted to VJAS (state science fair)
-will be after this year AP Scholar with Distinction and aiming for National AP Scholar</p>

<p>College/ Summer Programs:
-Taking classes at local community college (CVCC)
-Principles of Psychology </p>

<p>Extra (academic):
-Research project about memory and perception because I'm interested incognitive science and neuroscience.. reserached neuroscience program at UVA
-My only two B's were in 9th grade year in easy classes and have improved and gotten straight A's since</p>

<p>P.S. My essays and reccomendations will probably be really good but not amazing
So..........
Before I start thinking about applying to colleges I want you guys to tell me my chances at each of those colleges and the ones I'll probably not got in.. I wnat around 6-8colleges so I can focus my essays/etc. on them. My favorite one by far is UVA... </p>

<p>most of my stats will be made around May with me re-taking SATI, taking 3 SATII's and 3 AP exams, and my rank changing after this year...</p>

<p>but just want a realistic picture of my chances and how hard it is to get accepted at the colleges</p>

2

<p>just apply to all these schools, since they all interest you, and see which ones you get into. Then, go from there.</p>

3

<p>Not sure how in-state UVA works, but if you know its a safety, drop all those other VA schools. Ivy is obviously high reach due to SAT</p>

4

<p>I don't think UVA is much of a safety. I'd say VT and VCU are though.</p>

<p>Drop 2 of the following: Rutgers, VCU, and VT. If you can't bring your SAT up much more, I'd say drop at least Princeton.</p>

<p>Why are you applying to NYU? It seems much different from all the other schools you are applying to. NYU is pricey and doesn't give much finaid; something to think about.</p>

<p>What major are you applying for?</p>

5

<p>yeah uva's not a safety for me...</p>

<p>Okay yeah I agree.. Rutgers is off the list... I am applying to VCU and VT as safeties though and i'm applying to VCU's honor school as well (very very hard to get in.. but just applying anyway)</p>

<p>haha NYU is just a random school.. i dont really know about much of these colleges except the VA ones and UNC.. (btw price is defintely important)</p>

<p>I think i will get my SAT scores around 2150 and ill post here in a couple of months wat I got on my subject tests and later wat i got on my June SAT and 3 ap tests</p>

<p>I want to do neuroscience/ cognitive science/ psychology type of major and then go in to medical school.. I'm not to sure about what type of major in undergrad but im pretty sure im gonna do medical school (uva's perfect for that b/c its only 2 hours away.. but I wanna apply to other schools anyway)</p>

<p>So can you guys order the colleges (except Rutgers) from hardest to get in to easiest based on my "stats" so far and my predictions</p>

<p>p.s. forgot to put i was born in india and speak hindi fluently</p>

6

<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>UNC (very difficult OOS)</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins</li>
<li>NYU</li>
<li>UVA</li>
<li>William and Mary</li>
<li>VaTech</li>
<li>VCU (I don't know anything about their honors program)</li>
</ol>

<p>It seems to me that youy have 2 safeties (10,11) and then two targets (UVA, W&M). Other than that the rest are reaches or high targets. I suggest reading into the schools that I listed (1-7) and seeing which appeals to your aspirations more. NYU and Penn are in then middle of huge cities, Cornell is in the middle of nowhere. Visiting helps etc. It is a good list and I don't think 11 is too much, but if you want to take it down, eliminate some of the reaches/high targets.</p>

7

<p>Do you have any other criteria for your schools? For example, if you wanted a big sports school, then you can knock off Princeton, JHU, NYU and William and Mary. (I know nothing about VT and VCU) If you really don't want one, then Duke, UNC and UVA can go off the list.</p>

<p>If you want more of a city life, then Princeton and Cornell can be excluded. etc etc</p>

<p>Your list as it is looks okay, but if you want to narrow it down by 4-6 schools, you might want to go by some different criteria.</p>

8

<p>Pton
Penn
Duke
NYU
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
Rutgers</p>

9

<p>Even with that list, your SAT score is going to bottleneck you.</p>

10

<p>Rutgers is not everyone's cup of tea...but you can't beat their programs in medical fields. UNC-CH is a better school overall than Rutgers, but harder to get into and not as biomed-centric. (Rutgers is in the New Jersey Turnpike Corridor that houses LOADS of biomed companies, not to mention good ol' Johnson & Johnson). If Rutgers's atmosphere turns you off, go w/ UNC-CH; otherwise, go w/ Rutgers.</p>

<p>Go w/ Va. Tech or VCU as your in-state safety and apply to UVA because it's an awesome school and you'll get in-state tuition if you make it. William and Mary...don't know much about it...other than it is a great school w/ in-state tuition...but I personally wouldn't apply when UVA is already on the list.</p>

<p>Johns Hopkins is a MAD reach for the fields in which you are interested, but it's so good, you might as well apply.</p>

<p>Duke, Princeton, Penn, Cornell are all RIDICULOUSLY competitive schools. It might be wasting your time applying to all of these. Apply to your two favorites of these four and cross your fingers.</p>

<p>NYU is kinda random...don't apply...just doesn't seem to fit.</p>

<p>So...
1. Rutgers or UNC...if you are willing to put RU back on the list
2. UVA (over W&M)
3. Johns Hopkins
4. VT or VCU
5. and 6. choose from Duke, Pton, Penn, Cornell
7. You could use an out-of-state safety if you didn't make any of the "reaches" (Duke, Cornell, JHU, etc) and you didn't apply to Rutgers, but you wanted to get out of Virginia. Maybe Stony Brook or University of Pittsburgh, a real up-and-coming school.</p>

11

<p>"Duke, Princeton, Penn, Cornell are all RIDICULOUSLY competitive schools. "</p>

<p>Cornell is not ridiculously competitive and should not even be mentioned in the same breath in terms of competitiveness as Duke, Princeton, and Penn.</p>

<p>That said, a 2200 SAT score would definitely help your chances at those four schools, although there are obviously no guarantees. </p>

<p>hardest to get into:
1. Princeton
2. Penn
3. Duke
4. Johns Hopkins
5. UNC (difficult out of state)
6. Cornell
7. NYU
8. UVA (in state helps)
9. William and Mary
10. VaTech
11. VCU</p>

<p>definitely look into these schools more and consider what you want to major in...the top 7 seem like reaches as of now</p>

12

<p>William and Mary is a very competitive school. I'd place it tied with JHU.</p>

13

<p>Well I hate to burst your balloon so early...but its better to tell you the truth than fill your head with hot air and gas. </p>

<p>Your SAT scores are low for almost all of those schools which are highly selective, even in state.</p>

<p>You need at LEAST a 1450 CR/Math combination (out of 2400) to even have a shot at it. You are two hundred points below that almost.</p>

<p>Being Asian/Indian wont help you. Chapel Hill is incredibly hard to get into...even in state your stats are low for them by a long shot. I know kids with 1400 SATs who got waitlisted or rejected.</p>

<p>So get those scores up this summer or fall, or refocus your thoughts on more practical schools. You are fine for VaTech, JMU, maybe even URichmond. </p>

<p>There are LOTs of schools who would LOVE to have you with your present scores. Look at American, Maryland, Goucher, Lehigh, Lafayette, Villanova, Syracuse, Clemson, College of Charleston, NCState, University of South Carolina, Georgia, etc.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

14

<p>
[quote]
Cornell is not ridiculously competitive and should not even be mentioned in the same breath in terms of competitiveness as Duke, Princeton, and Penn.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>This is laughable. I see that you clearly have a personal bias against Cornell, judging from your ridiculous assertions against Cornell from your last 2 posts.</p>

<p>Last year admit rate results:</p>

<p>UNC: 35%
Johns Hopkins: 24%
Duke: 23%
Cornell: 21%
Penn: 16%
Princeton: 10% </p>

<p>As someone who got into Duke, Cornell, NU, and Dartmouth last year, let me tell you that college admissions at Cornell's level isn't so obvious, as you would like. Cornell's selectivity, it seems like, isn't that far down compared to duke or penn. Only Princeton is noticeably more selective. And, Cornell is more selective than UNC. Do some research b4 posting.</p>

<p>As a note, my friend got waitlisted at Cornell last year, while getting into Stanford RD.</p>

15

<p>Well I hate to tell you but seeing as you are a junior, you will be amongst the largest senior class in the history of college applicants. Duke's acceptance rate this year was 8% and is expected to drop. I hate to say it too but your SAT will have to improve. I have a friend that got waitlisted that had:</p>

<p>2200 sat, 4th in class (out of 500), varsity tennis, math team, science olympiad, all 5s on ap exams, an all around great student. colleges are just getting harder and harder to get into. my school is one of the top 5 public schools in the state and its only sending 1 person to duke. i would focus on uva if i was you. it's a very notable public university to that you have an extreme advantage in getting into seeing as you're from va. I have friends with higher stats than you that got rejected because we dont live in va, but you would most likely get in - take advantage of that.</p>

16

<p>Duke's acceptance rate was 18.8% not 8% (down from 21% last year).</p>

<p>Yes, you do have reaches on this list but that shouldn't keep you from applying. Keeping VT and VCU as safeties. UVA and WM are decent shots instate. Other than that, wait until this year is over, look at your stats and narrow down your reaches. good luck.</p>

17

<p>oh my friend's rejection letter said they accepted 8% RD. ED would clearly make all the difference in the world if u decided it was your dream school of course</p>

18

<p>oh and yeah cornell isn't that hard to get into compared to duke. some girl in my school got in with like an 18-something SAT out of 2400. know idea how that happened..</p>

19

<p>Did she apply early? The acceptance rates for early are nearly 50%.</p>

20

<p>@lauren8320</p>

<p>They have spot for 8%. So they accepted 18.8%. Duke has a yield rate in the mid 40's, so 18.8 * .45 ~= 8.5%</p>