<p>I don't mind whether the school is private or public. I'll be an international student so wherever I go it would cost "out of state" tuition :( poo.</p>
<p>Right now I'm looking at Uva, Berkeley, Cornell (I DOUBT it haha), JHU, CMU, Michigan... Any schools with a name value. I know it sounds lame, but name value does quite matter for me :(</p>
<p>-Race: Asian (Korean)
-Gender: Female
-Region: Northern Virginia
-GPA: 3.827/4 unweighted, 4.096 weighted (+.5 for honors, +1 for AP)
-SAT: 2200 (aiming to get around 2300 in oct. and nov.)
-SATIIs: Korean w/listening 800, Math Level 1 730 (retaking?), Math Level 2 (don't know yet)
-Sports: JV Track&Field sophomore year, could not continue due to knee injury
-EC: Tutoring (3.5+ hrs per week), Hospital (3+ hrs per week), 4 honor societies, Model UN, founder/prez. of Habitat for Humanity club, church youth group leader.
-Awards: 1st place school science fair->2nd place regional science fair</p>
<p>Courses:</p>
<p>-Freshman
Biology Honors B+
English 9 A
Algebra 2 A
World History 1 A
PE 9 A
Photography1 A
Spanish 1 A</p>
<p>-Sophomore
Chemistry Honors B+
English 10 Honors A
Trig/Math Analysis A
AP World History B+
PE 10 A
Photography2 A
Spanish 2 B+</p>
<p>-Junior
AP Biology B+
Senior Science Investigation (AP Biology part 2) A
AP English Lang B
AP Calculus AB A
AP US History B?B+?
Photography3 A
Spanish 3 A</p>
<p>What other criteria do you have in selecting an ideal university for yourself? Does it have to urban/suburban/rural? What do you plan to major in?</p>
<p>any particular reason why the name value is very important to you? is it because you are planning to go work in your home country after college?</p>
<p>my ideal campus would be suburban/rural. I enjoyed the settings of Uva a LOT. (quite historical-looking places )</p>
<p>for the second question, it’s not just for jobs and stuff (i’m planning to stay in the States), but i’ve always thought name value was important and something to consider. NOT because of any other factors such as parents’ pressure. it’s just that i believe name value make some kind of difference. (of course, i do understand that others might thing i’m wrong.)</p>
<p>i wasn’t being sarcastic! i really DID appreciate it though! haha.
i’m thinking of biology or engineering (60% biology) as a major, spanish as minor.</p>
<p>Cornell’s not that much harder, and maybe even easier to get into than some of the schools the OP listed (Berkeley comes to mind as a harder one). Ivy League doesn’t stand for impossible to get into lol.</p>
<p>well forget about the biology part, but since ive been through the whole process of applying to engineering schools, I can help you out with that.</p>
<p>The “name value” of an engineering degree is much different from the “name value” of a college overall. For example, an engineering degree from a college such as Illinois or Purdue is more reputable than an engineering degree from Harvard, Dartmouth or Yale.</p>
<p>As for engineering schools that are reputable but also in the top 50 schools overall, I like the picks of Cornell, Carnegie Mellon and Michigan. UC-Berkeley might in this case be harder to get into than Cornell because UC-Berkeley takes very few out of state applicants. You might as well apply to Stanford because that’s how hard UC-Berkeley might be.</p>
<p>Since you won’t get in-state anywhere, I would consider replacing UVA for engineering since it isn’t really too great of an engineering school (Virginia Tech is much better in the state of Virginia), maybe replace UVA with a school like Illinois or Georgia Tech, top 50 schools but much better for engineering.</p>
<p>If you weren’t too caught up in the “top 50” national university schools, I would recommend Purdue because the engineering program there is just as good as Cornell or Carnegie Mellon’s.</p>
<p>actually purdue was one of the schools i have considered but scared out by my mom saying “I NEARLY DIED THERE.” haha. i guess the rural setting wasn’t for her!</p>
<p>but thank you SOOOOO much for your considerate suggestions. i got encouraged a lot!</p>
<p>one last question, for the engineering program you got accepted to, (or any biology majors out there) what do you think was the most important factor that got you in? i kinda want to know what the colleges prioritize the most–of course GPA, but i feel like i don’t have any outstanding remarks in EC.</p>
<p>i once had a dream of ivy (cornell) but considering my grades and weak EC, …nah. haha</p>
<p>for the public schools, extracurriculars don’t really matter, an interview isn’t required and the essay is just something they put on their application to make it look complicated. Public schools mostly accept students based on their grades and SAT scores (a couple of schools didn’t even ask me to list EC’s!) so if you have weak EC’s then don’t worry at the public schools, focus on getting the GPA and SAT as high as you can because that’s basically all they look at.</p>
<p>For private colleges, they look at “the whole package” so extracurriculars and the essay are factored more into the admissions decision. </p>
<p>Did your mom go to Purdue? I visited last August, it’s actually just as rural as Cornell. West Lafayette at least is big enough to have everything you’ll need though but it is in the middle of cornfields haha</p>
<p>yeah, she did. haha. my mom said something similar to what you said, the setting being almost the same (out of nowhere!). i’ve visited cornell before and i fell in LOVE with it (the antique-looking buildings and quiet studying environment) but then my mom was said something like “beautiful campus and nice-looking dorms last for about 1 semester to a year at most, and the rest is you’re begging for life.”</p>
<p>she’s definitely a city person even now, so i can’t really trust her comment. haha!</p>
<p>well I had a 6 colleges to choose from in the end, I ruled 2 out because they were within 1 hour of me and I wanted to go and have a new experience, Purdue and another school was ruled out because of the “cold and miserable” weather (I live in Boston so I’ve had enough of the cold and snowy weather)</p>
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