<p>Hi guys, like many of you I fall into the Low GPA (albeit upward trend) and high SAT, coupled with unique and impressive ECs. I was recently rejected from my dream school and would like some reach schools to push for in the RD round. Which TOP 30 National U (no LACs) would be best for a candidate like myself. I understand that top schools have more than enough qualified applicants but I would still like to give it a shot.</p>
<p>What’s your intended major? Do you have financial constraints? Would you be ok with schools outside of the US News Top 30 rankings? Both Emory and CalTech are considered top thirty schools, but they could not be more different.</p>
<p>We need more info to suggest schools. ‘Top 30’ just isn’t enough to go on. What school was your ‘dream school’ and why? What are your selection criteria for a good school besides ranking/prestige?</p>
<p>Look toward colleges with acceptance rates in the 20-35% range, they can be a little more understanding of minor imperfections than those with acceptance rates under 15%.</p>
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<p>You should assume that nearly everyone who applies has letters of recommendation that are exceptional – how hard is it to select two teachers over 4 years who will say nice stuff about you if you’re largely an A student? Unless you mean a pair of “best student of my career” letters – that is exceptional.</p>
<p>Start from #30 and work backwards down the list and look at their data on </p>
<p>collegeboard.org. </p>
<p>Choose the ones with the highest out-of-state acceptance rate. People in the past have reported that CMU and Michigan don’t look at freshman grades.</p>
<p>Try using the college search tool here on CC with all of your data. [College</a> Search - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/)
Be sure to expand the number of results at the top (20 by default) and be sure to select “must have” for any important criteria, otherwise it may come up with some odd matches.
What’s good about this site is that it compares your GPA and test scores against the reported ones for the schools and tries to guess the “fit”. It represents the fit as percentage and when you click on the “why?” underneath the fit number it shows you how you compare.</p>
<p>More info:
Dream school was Wharton @ Penn, I am applying for econ, business, finance (depending on school offerings). I am a no fin aid applicant so that is not really a problem.</p>
<p>NYU Stern is known for valuing high test scores. A bunch of kids from my school get in every year with low GPA and high SAT. </p>
<p>CMU isn’t that hard to get into if you apply to Humanities and Social Sciences as an econ major (I’m assuming that’s what you want). The social scene there sucks though so I don’t know if you would like it much. </p>
<p>Vandy also seems to have a smaller emphasis on GPA. I had similar stats as you (lower GPA, slightly higher SAT, unique ECs, great essays) and I got in last year. A couple of my friends at Vandy also had less-than-stellar GPAs in high school.</p>