chance me: georgetown, tufts, northwestern, GW, BU, NYU, UPenn, American, and more

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I'm a senior, and not so sure what my chances are at these schools. Advice appreciated--especially letting me know if a school is a match or safety! Thanks.</p>

<p>State: Maine
Gender: F
Race: Asian</p>

<p>GPA: 4.2 on a 4.33 scale
I take basically the hardest classes possible to take at my school, which is a average sized public school--sends one or two kids to top schools each year.<br>
SAT: 2300 (800 M, 780 R, 720 W) Only sitting
ACT: 35 Only sitting</p>

<p>AP: Calc BC (5) Eng Lit (5) US Gov (5) Bio (4) Macroecon (4) Taking 5 more APs as a senior. </p>

<p>ECs: Student Body Secretary, Debate team (2nd in state), Assistant director for local elementary school's drama program, editor of school newspaper, other miscellaneous things. A good amount of community service hours (~300)</p>

<p>I'm currently trying to narrow down my college list. I have about 20 schools on there now, hoping to get it down to 10-12. I know it's quite a motley collection of schools--I have reasons for each and every school on the list, I promise! Please do not ask me about financial aid, etc, that's not what this thread is about, and believe me, I've had enough discussions about it with my parents! The Ivies are obviously all reaches, so don't worry about those, I'm more interested in hearing what you think about the others. Thank you so much, CC!</p>

<p>Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Brown
UPenn (Wharton)</p>

<p>Northwestern (Medill)
Georgetown (SFS)
Tufts
UChicago
NYU (Stern)
URochester</p>

<p>George Washington
Boston University
American University
Northeastern University</p>

<p>Amherst College
Swarthmore College
Williams College
Middlebury College
Bowdoin College</p>

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<p>I dont know a lot about college admissions, but from what I’ve read up on you’re ECs so-so. You dont have any… ‘theme’ so to speak of ECs, its just like all different random stuff, and colleges like to see students who are passionate about something.</p>

<p>Okay I cant really say anything else about that due to lack of knowledge–but, I can help you out some with narrowing down your schools. </p>

<p>-What do you want to major in? Some of these schools have better/worse programs then others depending. Like if you wanted to be an engineer, Princeton has one of the top programs in the country, and the other Ivies are much lower down in the list in comparison. Maybe you want to go into medicine? I cant say much about the medicine programs but Yale owns its own Hospital (Yale hospital), which I’m guessing is where a lot of students intern, and the hospital probably has some jobs for its graduated students. Research the programs at the different schools for the major you’re looking into.</p>

<p>-Okay, so I’m guessing things like ‘Campus-life’ are going to pay a roll in which school you like, right? I would look up schools and different things they offer (I know Yale is supposed to have some of the nicest dorms in the US), maybe see which schools have the happiest students (Brown and Stanford are the top that I know of), or which schools have really generous financial aid if thats important to you. Consider the vacinity of the school, whether its close to a big city, or not (for some fun on your down time), or if its in a small town (maybe you want some peace and quiet). </p>

<p>-When it comes down to it, cost is a major factor. Look to see the estimated cost of school each year (tuition, room and board, food, etc. Most colleges have this available) and make sure all these schools are in your price range, and if all of them are, then consider the other factors of the schools (campus life, program quality) with the cost and see which one is the best deal. Whats the point in spending 10 extra grand at one school, when you might have a better experience at another?</p>

<p>All these components should really cut you list in half (or I would go through each group of schools and eliminate all but 1 or two). Realize that it costs 50-75 dollars to apply to any one of these schools and applying to more than a few can be a hefty sum.</p>

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<p>…for the advice. If you can believe it, I have done all of the things you’ve suggested and more, but something about each of the schools on this list has stopped me from deleting it, as of yet. Of course, I plan to do some more soul-searching, and get in contact with alumni from my high school at some of the schools on this list in order to shorten it further. </p>

<p>The purpose of this thread is to help me narrow my list down in terms of selectivity. I want to know how confident I can be about getting into the schools on this list, which will help me eliminate others I’m not as interested in. For example, is NYU a reach? A match? What about GW? Georgetown? Tufts? Is BU a safety? Those are the kinds of things I’m unsure about and which I am hoping CC can help me with. IE, if I know GW is a safety, I won’t be applying to American. </p>

<p>As far as your other questions: I agree, I don’t have a specific theme to my ECs, but I really don’t have one singular passion. I did what I was interested in in high school without really planning it out for admissions committees. Also, I haven’t listed everything on there because I don’t want to be identified by this post. But you’re right, you can consider my ECs as a weakness–I do. </p>

<p>I’m interested in International Relations, Business, Journalism/Communications, Political science, Law, medicine. As I said before, I don’t have a singular passion. I’m interested in so many things, and will probably apply to most schools as undecided. It’s the schools I’ve marked with specific schools (UPenn, NYU, Northwestern, Georgetown, etc.), that I am applying to for specific programs. As I said, I promise you I’ve done my research. This list isn’t arbitrary! </p>

<p>Thanks again for your advice!</p>

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<p>Help please??</p>

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<p>All your academics/scores look great. Some schools focus more on GPA and test scores than ECs, so that’s also a factor. I’m not sure if I’d count GW as a safety (since admissions are getting tougher) but American could definitely be a safety for you.</p>