Brown, Duke, Amherst, Northwestern, MIT; Need help finding a safety

<p>So ill try and make this as short as possible.. basically I am a sophomore who already attempted to transfer as a freshman and is now looking to try again. I would appreciate any school suggestions as I am trying to find just one reach school and one safety to apply to this time.</p>

<p>My first transfer attempt I was rejected from UChicago, Penn, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon, but I applied as an Econ/business major and that is not at all what I want to do (its also a pretty hard major to transfer into). My apps were also done last minute and my essays sounded way too elitest.</p>

<p>Now I have decided on a major and am interested in cognitive and computational neuroscience and am looking for top undergrad schools in this area (i plan to pursue a PhD). Im not looking specifically for ivies or prestige but im certainly open to any good program.</p>

<p>I'm currently looking at MIT, brown, northwestern, emory, duke, and amherst as the possible reach, but no safeties in mind yet.</p>

<p>My stats are pretty good with one exception, an F my 2nd semester fresh year in a honors topical course (I didnt finish a paper that was necessary to pass because i was stressed out about transfer stuff) I am currently retaking a course that will replace that grade (although a different topic) and have an A. my other stats are as follows:</p>

<p>High School
GPA: ~3.35 UW, ~3.65 W
ACT: 34 (not superscore)</p>

<p>Internship with a lawyer summer after graduation, turned into a paid position as a paralegal.</p>

<p>College:
GPA (with F replaced): 3.97
79 credit hours
public university, in honors program with 16 honors credit hours</p>

<p>ECs:
president and founder of a chinese club
honors council committee
SGA committee
a few international programs
honors current events discussion group
3 honors societies</p>

<p>Other:
studied abroad in China summer of fresh year for 10 credit hours in chinese
conversant in chinese
amazing rec letter from lawyer i worked for
tutor underprivileged elementary school kids 3 hours a week
50+ community service hours (not including above)</p>

<p>Negatives:
NO research experience
curriculum so far has been very diverse and liberal artsy, not a strong science focus, but next semester will be all science/math courses (although i have taken through calc 2)
F still appears on transcript even though not in GPA (working on getting it retroactively dropped)</p>

<p>SO, any suggestions on schools strong in cognitive neuroscience/mathematics that seem to be a fit for me? Both reach schools and safeties. Any input would be greatly appreciated. thanks.</p>

<p>hey, man. remember me? im transferring from U of M to some of these schools too. good luck</p>

<p>yeah hey whats going on? which ones are you applying to? i dunno which one im gonna pick yet but ill probably just apply to one of those. too bad we never got to meet up in beijing. maybe next time im there.</p>

<p>all except Duke, lol. so we are pretty much on the same road. btw, we can meet in america.</p>

<p>ha thats crazy. well yeah definitely i forgot you go to U of M so youre in the US. we should plan a college visit to the same school at the same time.</p>