Chance Me, please - trust me, I'm not a show-off and have a pretty varied list

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey, thanks for clicking to read this; I really do appreciate it. </p>

<p>Upcoming Junior
Male
Asian
New Jersey
Grades and Scores
GPA: 3.4 UW/4.0 W with hardest possible curriculum in my school
SAT: 2310 (800M, 750CR, 760W)
ACT: 35
SAT II's: 750 Biology; 790 US History; 800 Math Level 2</p>

<p>Possible Majors: Economics, Chemistry, Finance, Physics, Astronomy
Pre-Med possibly</p>

<p>I'm taking Macroeconomics and Microeconomics at Rutgers University this summer as well. </p>

<p>EC's:
- Varsity Cross Country 10th, 11th, will be for 12th <em>team captain for 12th grade as well for one of the top teams in the nation
- Varsity Indoor Track 10th, 11th, will be for 12th *probable team captain
- Varsity Outdoor Track 10th, 11th, will be for 12th *probable team captain
- Kumon Reading #1 Student in North America
- 100 hours of Community Service at Local Hospital, where I met a brilliant oncologist, who I'm doing a low-level (very low level) internship for this year *</em> super excited! haha, sorry just got really happy
- 70 hours of Community Service at Library
- Founder of Running for a Cure Club at my school
- Tae-kwon-do (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th)
- NHD (10th, 11th, 12th)
-- 10th: no major award
-- 11th: Regional Qualifier for States
- Intern for Local Assemblyman
- Research Coordinator at local nature perserve (biological assistant)</p>

<p>Recommendations: Expecting them to be pretty good; I love talking to my teachers about academic material and really taking learning to that next level. </p>

<p>Essays: I hope these will be good - I'm enlisting the help of my LA teacher, so hopefully they will be.</p>

<p>The "List":
- Boston College
- Emory
- Colgate
- The College of New Jersey
- Notre Dame
- University of St. Andrews (Scotland, UK)
- Cambridge University (Mega-Reach, I know)
- Rutgers University
- SUNY Binghamton
- Carnegie Mellon University
- University of Minnesota ** One of my top choices
- Wake Forest University
- University of Connecticut
- Brown University (Super-Reach, I know)</p>

<p>Yeah, so it's a pretty long list, which is why I need your guys' help; I need to cut it down. Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>You have good stats, the only problem i see is the u.w g.p.a. What is your rank, is there any type of reason for the g.p.a that your counselor will mention?</p>

3

<p>Yeah, that 3.4 isn’t too impressive for the schools I’m looking at, I suppose. Would it help though that my grades improved steadily from freshman year onwards? I was a new kid here freshman year, but I don’t like making excuses. I simply didn’t really man up until this year, when I did better - I believe around a 3.5 for this year. Also, it was a loaded curriculum: 9 honors classes and 3 AP’s in first three years. But yeah, 3.4 hurts pretty badly. So, with that in mind, how do my chances look at admission to these schools?</p>

4

<p>The “List”:

  • Boston College: Low match
  • Emory: High Match
  • Colgate: Match
  • The College of New Jersey: Safety
  • Notre Dame: High Match
  • University of St. Andrews (Scotland, UK): Can’t say, know nothing about it
  • Cambridge University (Mega-Reach, I know): Can’t say, probably like applying to HYPS though, a very high reach for all candidates
  • Rutgers University: Low Match
  • SUNY Binghamton: Low Match-Safety
  • Carnegie Mellon University: High Match
  • University of Minnesota ** One of my top choices: Know nothing about it
  • Wake Forest University: Match-high match
  • University of Connecticut: Low match
  • Brown University: Reach</p>

<p>I say cut off TCNJ, SUNY, and UConn. Also, maybe consider some liberal arts colleges like Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Vassar, Carleton (and some match LAC’s) and a couple more reaches including maybe a couple ivies or duke.</p>

<p>Hope that helped. Hope it wasn’t at all discouraging, my aim was to help you improve and I hope I accomplished that!</p>

<p>Make sure your essay is thoughtful, you have a while to work on it. The topic doesn’t HAVE to be unique (although that may help), but I think it should be composed in a way that tells both a cool perspective on a topic in addition to showing who you are as a person.</p>

<p>Try to give the teachers writing your recs as much info as you can and establish meaningful relationships with them as best you can over the next two years, keeping in touch over the summer (a lot of colleges want recs from 11th/12th grade teachers).</p>

<p>Send additional info you can’t fit on the common app.</p>

<p>Send ACT and SAT since they’re both great, and get your GPA up, which you still have time to do.</p>

5

<p>Woah, Boston College would be considered a “low match” for me? Sweet! It’s one of my top choices. I would have to disagree with you on one thing, though. TCNJ is much harder to get into than Rutgers, so I guess I’ll just switch the two around. I’m not too big on the LAC’s like Williams - they seem too preppy and snobby. I’ve also heard some things about Vassar about it’s very liberal climate, which doesn’t necessarily bother me, but it does raise questions as to how respected its Economics department is with employers, B-schools, and the like. But yeah, I think I’ll be cutting UConn and SUNY off the list. Thanks again for chancing - I truly appreciate it!</p>

6

<p>I mean, based on what you posted. I’ve read the decisions thread for BC, and it’s frequently hit or miss. But your test scores are very high. Maybe bring it up to a match.</p>

<p>But I should also include, if you are worried about a snobby/preppy environment, I strongly encourage you to visit **************.com and read some student reviews about the atmosphere there. It was one of the reasons I chose not to go there myself, because I was trying to escape just that.</p>

7

<p>ughhh.</p>

<p>c/o/l/l/e/g/e/p/r/o/w/l/e/r</p>

8

<p>Yeah, I’ve used College ******* before and I think it’s pretty good. I still think a campus visit is the best way to gage a school’s “preppiness”, though - as long as the visit happens during the school year… I still don’t get the point of Summer visits… lol Perhaps someone could enlighten me on why they’re so popular? I hope I’m not missing out on something.</p>

9

<p>So I guess p/r/o/w/l/e/r is now a curse word in the English language…</p>

10

<p>let me know if you didn’t get my pm response it says it didn’t send</p>

11

<p>yes i agree. don’t take my word for it, you should definitely form your own opinion.</p>

<p>but i haven’t found much contradicting my impression</p>

12

<p>Hmm, so what schools would you say are both chill and smart? In other words, an easier to get into/less “prestigious” Stanford?</p>

13

<p>honestly, I’d do some more reading about some other LACs. williams/amherst may have the reputation you said, but like universities, there are many types of different LACs and I’m sure if you looked at the US News and World Liberal Arts College rankings and looked at some of the college prow/cc/ student reviews on us news and world for those you could find one for you.</p>

<p>for universities, have you considered brandeis? uchicago has a rep for being extremely studious, but it seems like a good group of kids (although i havent done AS much research for them) and my friend likes notre dame, and he’s not preppy or snobby</p>

14

<p>I’ve looked at Brandeis a little bit, but I haven’t found much rave about their business/economics department. Their science programs, particularly biology, are awesome though. Yeah, UofChicago seems a bit too studious for me - scratch that, WAY too studious. “Where fun goes to die”… uh oh.</p>

15

<p>CORRECTION: I am an upcoming SENIOR, not an upcoming junior. I have no idea how that didn’t catch my eye… sorry haha.</p>