<p>I want to become a corporate or a human rights lawyer eventually(entailing law school, eventually), but I don't have much of an idea of what to do for college. I really want to major in International Relations/Economics or Int'l Business or even Engineering (Patent law, you know?). Over the past couple of months I've compiled a list of these colleges</p>
<p>Columbia U - Really hard reach for me, no doubt near impossible
U Chicago - Another hard reach
NYU Stern undergrad
UT Business Honors Program
Tufts U
Northwestern U
U Mich - Ann Arbor
UC Berkeley</p>
<p>Here are my statistics:
SAT I (by section): I took it for the second time today, I'm feeling really good about it
Expected: CR: 720+ Math: 750+ Writing: 750+
SAT IIs: I've only taken World history so far (750), but I'm taking Literature, Math 2, Physics and US History in June and October
ACT: 33 (retake? I only did light studying for this)
APs: World History (4), Exams this week: US History, English Lang and Music Theory
I'm also stacking APs next year, not to look rigorous or beef up on gpa, but because I'm genuinely interested in them.
GPA: 4.13 right now, but it's going to jump up quite a bit after this semester
Rank: 93/1289 (7.2%) Also going to jump up
Other stats:
ECs listed on app: Teen Court, debate, student congress, NHS, FBLA, JWAC, French club/FNHS, formal training in Jazz guitar for four years. I'm most passionate about Teen court and debate and jazz guitar
Job/Work Experience: None (What do I do about this?
Essays (subject and responses): Obviously, I haven't started essays, but teachers tell me I have a passionate and clear voice
Teacher Recs: Several teachers who like me, I also plan on getting a rec from a Harvard professor over the summer
Counselor Rec: Most likely decent, but impersonal considering the amount of students he has to deal with
Applied on: Which school should I ED/EA to? I'm legitimately interested in all of them
Hook (if any): ?</p>
<p>State or Country: Texas
School Type, Average Stats of School (if available): Relatively competitive
Ethnicity: Indian
Gender: Male</p>
<p>I’ve seen admits in both Chicago and Columbia with stats like yours. What happens afterward hard numbers is anyone’s guess. If I were you, I’d ED Columbia and EA Chicago. If you’re not sure, then take out Columbia and ED Northwestern. EA Chicago under any circumstances. Just EA as many as you can.</p>
<p>How important is work experience?
How do I identify a hook of mine?
How does your gpa of first semester senior year factor into college admissions?</p>
<p>For your field, volunteering looks better than work experience (unless you’re working for a lawyer). Run for an office position in a club or something. You need to make your strengths known. Your senior year grades are important because they want to make sure that you’re not slacking off. So take challenging classes that you’ll do well in and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say it is. Considering I’m a resident of Texas, UT is my cheapest option. Not only that, but I have a good chance at National Merit (221 is above Texas’ cut-off for sure.) and a couple scholarships from competing in debate. My dad makes around $120,000 a year. Does that exclude me from financial aid?</p>
<p>What I meant to say is, will my cumulative GPA and rank at the end of the first semester be able to be submitted to a college instead of what I have at the end of Junior year? I’m almost positive that I can get in to the top 3 percent at the end of first semester.</p>
<p>Other good schools in California include most of the other UCs (e.g. UCLA) and Stanford.</p>
<p>However, it may be hard to beat University of Texas at Austin, since it is a very good school and inexpensive for you. There are some top schools like Harvard and Stanford that are generous enough with need-based aid (even from families with annual income of $120,000) that they may be competitive with or less expensive than Texas, but the hard part is getting admitted.</p>
<p>According to its [common</a> data set](<a href=“http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ima/cds]common”>http://www.utexas.edu/academic/ima/cds), Texas considers mostly whether you took the hardest courses available to you in high school and your rank in class. Test scores (which put you above the 75th percentile) and extracurriculars are also important. Surprisingly, actual academic GPA is listed as not important.</p>
<p>Remember that law school is expensive, so you want to minimize the undergraduate debt that you will be dragging through law school.</p>
<p>Not necessarily. Probably not, in fact. The devil is in the details (parents’ ages, other kids in college, savings and investments, unusual health or elder care expenses, etc., etc.) However, schools much less wealthy and selective than Harvard or Stanford do grant need-based aid to students at that income level. For example, at one moderately selective New England LAC (Trinity College / Hartford), the mean need-based aid at that income level would be about $30K-$35K. The remaining out-of-pocket costs would be a little higher than at many in-state flagships.
[Trinity</a> College: Financial Aid Facts](<a href=“http://www.trincoll.edu/orgs/planning/publicdata/FinancialAid.html]Trinity”>http://www.trincoll.edu/orgs/planning/publicdata/FinancialAid.html)</p>
<p>That’s interesting, I always thought that my parent’s income level excluded me from need-based aid. It’s hard for me to reconcile going to UT, because while it’s one of the best options I have, I’m relatively tired of Texas (Although I hear Austin is ironically the black sheep city of Texas. Marley Fest, anyone?)</p>
<p>When a college says it looks at your SAT and ACT essay for admission, does that mean they only look at the score, or do they actually read it?</p>
<p>How do I identify a hook of mine?
How does my cumulative gpa after the first semester senior year factor into college admissions?</p>
<p>If you are interested in law school, it doesn’t matter what you major in. However, you should definitely consider the liberal arts colleges where the smaller average class sizes means classes are 1) writing intensive 2) require persuasive class participation and 3) help you form close relationships with the faculty who can provide recs. It’s not as though the research facilities of the large universities are going to be of value to you: You’d be better off at a place where you can take leadership roles and demonstrate a high degree of engagement in the community.</p>
<p>I would add that as an Indian male, you have an advantage in applying to LACs - men tend to be under-represented (because many LACs don’t have engineering) and Asians are under-represented, especially in some parts of the country (notably the South and Midwest). And for geographic diversity, you will be attractive to schools in the NE. </p>
<p>At the schools on your list, you will be competing with many students (and many Indian males) who have top grades and test scores so differentiating yourself is going to be the challenge you face.</p>
<p>Your list has a good selection of reaches and matches. You should consider adding a safety to the list. Preferably a school that has rolling admissions and will give you a quick decision. Indiana is a good example. Your 33 will qualify you for a scholarship there. I think you have a chance at the reaches. Apply EA to Chicago and Michigan. Senior grades will be considered at schools that decide later and at EA schools only if deferred.</p>
<p>*Columbia U - Really hard reach for me, no doubt near impossible
U Chicago - Another hard reach
NYU Stern undergrad
UT Business Honors Program
Tufts U
Northwestern U
U Mich - Ann Arbor
UC Berkeley</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>***My dad makes around $120,000 a year. Does that exclude me from financial aid? ***</p>
<p>Your dad’s income will exclude you from getting much FA at many of those schools.</p>
<p>NYU, Berkeley, and UMich will not give you much (if any) FA at all. UT won’t give you any need-based aid. Most likely all those schools would give you is a 5500 student loan. </p>
<p>Out of state publics don’t typically give aid to OOS students…especially if their family income is that high. </p>
<p>Do you know how much your parents will pay? </p>
<p>A school like Northwestern would likely expect your parents to pay about $30k per year (perhaps more if your family has good savings/investments/equity). That doesn’t mean that NU would give you the rest in “free money”. They might give you some free money, but they would also likely expect you to take out a 5500 student loan and do about 2500 per year in work-study. </p>
<p>If you don’t know how much your parents will pay each year, then you need to ask them so that you’re all clear about the situation. Only schools like HYPS will give you “super aid” with that income (again, assuming that you don’t have a lot of assets). Other schools like NU will likely expect your family to pay (roughly) about 25% of income (again, assuming that you don’t have a lot of assets). </p>
<p>So, find out what your parents will pay. If the amount that they will pay is much less than what colleges will expect them to pay, then you need to carefully target schools that will be affordable because of scholarships, etc. You can still apply to a few of these schools “just to see,” but you need to assume that they won’t be affordable unless your parents will pay for the costs.</p>
<p>Aligning with the high prioritization on education, my parents have said that they are willing to pay any tuition so long as it means that I’m getting the best education that I can. That being said, a lower tuition cost through any means never hurt anybody. However, my parents are kind of biased against LACs, because they don’t offer solid fall-back jobs compared to Engineering or Business majors. They want me to have a back-up regardless of how deadset I am on the legal profession.</p>
<p>A good safety would probably be UTD, considering that I would not only be admitted, but with a full-ride.</p>
<p>You can major in anything as a pre-law student. And which university matters little compared to LSAT and GPA.</p>
<p>However, if you don’t get into a desired law school, your major and school can make a difference in your other academic and career prospects. Note that some liberal arts majors like math and economics have decent career prospects. Note also that some majors like engineering do require taking needed courses from your first semester, rather than waiting until your fourth or so semester to start the major.</p>
<p>I got a 2350 on the SAT. When applying for colleges, do I submit only that, considering that my ACT as a 33 is much lower on the conversion scale? It feels weird to prepare for both scores and then submit only one.</p>