Chance Me

3.68 UW GPA .
Honors: U.S. History, Chemistry
AP: World History (3), European History (5), Biology (3), Microeconomics (3), US Government and Politics (5)
Next year I plan to take AP Physics, AP French, and AP English
I’ve taken the ACT twice and have a score 30, if superscored I have a 31
I started high school with a 3.2, and I’ve gotten 3.7 and 3.8’s since. I’m going to be a senior in the fall, I’m also poor, if that makes any difference. I’m also a dual citizen, and almost fluent in french

EC:
One year of high school soccer
Member of the French Honors Society and National Honors Society
I was elected into student government
I was the manager of the boys varsity soccer team
I’ve held the same part time job for two years

Also looking at:
Wake Forest
Rochester
UW Madison (in state)
UM Ann Harbor
UM Twin Cities (in state)
Macalester
Lehigh

If your awesome enough to chance me at Wake Forest, I’d love suggestions on what other schools to consider.

@mydaywasgreat
Emory- Reach
Wake Forest- Match/ High Match
Rochester- Match/ High Match
UW Madison (in state)- Low Match/ Match
UM Ann Harbor- Reach
UM Twin Cities (in state)- Low Match
Macalester- Low Reach
Lehigh- High Match/ Low Reach
Are you applying ED to Emory??

I’m relying on financial aid to get me through college as like I said, my financial situation isn’t the greatest. I’d consider applying to Emory ED. I was also thinking about applying to Oxford College in Emory. I forgot to mention I’m in the top 26% of my class.

Thanks so much for replying! Like seriously!!!

@VANDEMORY1342 I just realized that I never tagged you in my response. You’re comment has been super helpful, but if I apply ED 1 to Emory’s main campus would I have a good chance? Can’t thank you enough for the response, I hope you see this

@mydaywasgreat
You can apply ED1 to Emory and Oxford
If that’s the case then…
Emory- Low Reach
Oxford- Match/ High Match
Your GPA is a bit low.
I’ve heard Wake also has great fin aid (Emory does as well)
And no problem glad I can help.

@VANDEMORY1342 will not taking SAT II subject tests severely hurt my chances? I was hoping my 5 AP tests would be enough

be aware that it is Ann Arbor.

@mydaywasgreat
If you do well on them (700+) then it will help otherwise don’t send them (or take them for that matter) if you don’t (or think you won’t) do well.

@TomSrOfBoston I was talking about Emory, hence the thread being in Emory. I’m no longer considering Ann Arbor or Florida because of out of state tuition. Thoughts on my chances at Emory?

@mydaywasgreat : What are your possible academic interests (and if pre-professional, I need more than the pre-professional track. I am talking actual majors as hardly nowhere offers pre-prof majors) once in college? That could help us make other suggestions that could be matches or regular reaches (as opposed to very high reaches and stuff) that may be better for you than some reach schools.

@bernie12 Would you consider Emory a very high reach for me? I am ultimately wondering if applying to Emory ED1 would give me a good shot at admission. As far as possible academic interests, its really hard to say. I really like history, but I don’t see how that guarantees me a job anywhere. I have an interest in genetics, space, and science in general, I really enjoy asking questions and trying to find answers. My family has typically sold insurance, my dad and grandpa, so I wouldn’t be opposed to business. Finally, I really like law and being a lawyer has always seemed interesting. Anything international is very interesting to me also, considering I’m a dual citizen, something international related to my previous interests would be great. Right now, I’m in state at Wisconsin, but concerned that it might be a lot financially, thats why I’m looking at Emory and other private schools with good financial aid. Would my non custodial parent’s income affect my financial aid package?

Any suggestions I will legitimately consider. Right now my list is:

Emory, Rochester, Wisconsin Madison, Twin Cities Minnesota, and Occidental College

I really appreciate when people are honest so Mr. Bernie if you don’t think I have decent chances at Emory I’d like to know your opinion. From what I’ve heard on the website and from my school counselors, I have a decent shot of getting in on early decision. Sorry for the long post but I thot if you actually wanted a suggestion that you might want the whole story.

Thanks again!!!

@mydaywasgreat : Emory is only a reach. I am just trying to find some schools that ARE NOT high reaches (like Ivies and super stats sensitive schools like VU, WUSTL, and a couple of others)!

Also, no major GUARANTEES you a job. I would argue that “genetics” (typically not a major) usually will not get you a job as typically biology majors/curricula are too generic to lead into useful employment. History can lead to law, and if you are into STEM, you can easily couple it with something the QTM curriculum at Emory (http://quantitative.emory.edu/for-undergraduate/index.html). They teach you math and computing skills to complement your social science major. This opens the doors to internships and more faculty being interested in you conducting research. This is actually more likely to lead to employment (consulting, government, etc) than a generic biology major. To make the biology major less generic and more employable without graduate school, you will basically have to go through QTM for it as well to get a training in computational or quantitative biology. To be employable you will need a significant internship or long lasting research experience otherwise. If you have this AND the quantitative training through QTM, you may be able to land a high paying job.

“Space”, well that virtually requires you to be a physics major. That road ain’t easy. If you go to any pretty selective institution (which includes those less selective than Emory) the students majoring in physics will have very good preparation so you will need to work hard to do decently and even harder to stand out in a way that sometimes catches the attention of professors or puts you in a position to conduct research in the field.

You have been likely sold this myth that undergraduate majors stand alone in terms of emplpyment or lackthereof. This is primarily only true with engineering, CS (and CS related) majors, and better undergraduate business programs (like Emory’s). If you are banking on being employable by simply taking some classes and getting a degree in a field, your options for majors will be severely restricted. Generally, you will have to really engage the discipline to make it employable right out of undergrad. So taking a bunch of easy/medium classes in a major with little internship or research experiences will not cut it. Experience is everything. And if you get high demand skills (like those provided through a track like QTM) that supplement your major, even seemingly low paying majors yield a very wide array of options (some being directly related to the major and some not and this is life. A major is just meant to be a way to use a discipline you think you will enjoy to build relevant skills for whatever career path. This is whether we talk grad. school/academia, industry, consulting, whatever. If your major doesn’t teach you to write well, do research, or crunch data, then it may be hard to get employment. Often students at selective schools make a lot out of "low paying’ fields by going to grad. or professional school, or priming themselves for other solidly paid options that are not directly related). Employers ultimately look for evidence of relevant skills more so than specific degrees or even grades for that matter.

You can literally major in what you want. It is how you build the skills in the major and then how you use those skills while in college to make yourself marketable for post-grad opps. So, yes, unfortunately a history major who just takes a bunch of low skill courses (low reading and writing load, no major papers) will have less credibility than a STEM major who did something similar (if only because at least the lazier STEM majors can claim they learned certain lab techniques). There are also many extracurricular activities that will build students’ profile.

You should also be careful with law and business. Law is in decline so you need to get a good enough academic, co-curricular, and EC profile to land at a top law school or at those just outside the elite with a decent scholarship. Also, I am sorry, I generally do not recommend doing undergraduate business programs unless it is needed for a specific field (like…accounting). There are many other pathways to various fields in business that do not involve majoring in it. You can instead major in whatever and take the maximum amount of business school courses allowed for an ECAS student.

To be honest, since you do not really know, I need to go look for some great public schools for you as they usually do well in several areas and perhaps may more easily allow for specialization (like the genetics thing). If they are not too selective, perhaps you would land in their honors program which could be great.

@bernie12 Thanks for the advice, I realize that getting a degree from Emory will not guarantee me a job. The reason why I was staying away from public schools is because of the out of state tuition. I’m In State at UW Madison and have reciprocity with UM Twin Cities. I was hoping that Private Schools (like Emory) would cover most of my tuition because of my financial aid status. If you could recommend some private schools IN ADDITION to what you initially had in mind, that’d be wonderful. I completely agree that a public school (like Wisconsin Madison) would be safer if I want to change my major and because they are strong in several different areas. Do you think Wisconsin is a reach, target, or safety for me? Finally, private schools like Emory have smaller class sizes, and I really value being able to talk to the professor if I don’t understand something in class, so a class taught by a TA with 400 people in it isn’t ideal, but I should be fine regardless. Thanks again!

No classes of 400 are taught by a TA. The class would be taught by a professor and there would be a discussion session each week with maybe 30 students led by a TA.

@TomSrOfBoston Thanks for clearing that up for me, misconception I guess, I have friends attending a university math class that’s taught by a TA. Thoughts on the thread so far TomSrOfBoston? If you have any school suggestions, chance estimates, or advice I’d love to hear it!

@mydaywasgreat : Actually, you overestimate how small classes are at most private schools. If you did STEM (where usually introductory courses are the deciding factor for whether or not students continue) at Emory, it would be kind of exceptional for medium sized private schools as they usually even limit introductory courses (except physics I think) to something between like 70 and 120 per section. Instead of having a faculty member teach one section of 200+ (note that this range varies from 200-350 I guess) like at most of Emory’s peers (this is fairly close to many publics. Some publics have much larger sections though), they give key faculty members two section of 100ish (or less) so that they can do more than pure lecture when in class. Most privates in STEM are pretty classical (Emory isn’t because it was a regional teaching university until 1995 so tons of emphasis was put into maintaining size and quality of lower division courses. This exists today as well, albeit somewhat less than before). The primary difference is that in the first year, most privates give you access to small courses because they may require a seminar or writing course for freshmen. Also, most departments outside of STEM tend to be very flexible and have many smaller courses (you could be a freshmen that takes a seminar style course at the 200 or 300 level in some social sciences and humanities) with no pre-reqs whereas at publics, there are often rules that make access to such courses harder for freshmen (likely to restrict elective courses to majors).

Note that I said you should attempt to place into public school HONORS PROGRAMS. These will likely provide smaller classes, especially in STEM than most selective private universities. On the other hand, there is the option of LACs and LAC like universities. In addition, if you go to a public school with AP credit, even if you are not fully in honors program, you will be treated well and likely be able to use that AP credit to place into more advanced or honors sections which will probably be a similar level or better than the average class at a selective private, but just much smaller because a much smaller cohort of folks are pursuing that option. Furthermore, in most cases, even if you have to start with the large courses, the size will start dropping off at both privates and publics by sophomore year assuming all goes well and you begin intermediate and advanced courses in your area of interest.

I could go look for some schools at a similar caliber to Emory that are not super reaches, but I think most of the places I am thinking of are still harder to get into than Emory, just not super hard (I am thinking places like Brandeis, Tufts, USC, CMU).

*I want to make sure folks avoid painting this overly rosy view of education at privates vs. publics (it can be grossly exaggerated). Honestly some of the very top selective privates are really so good because they more so mimic the paradigm at publics. Lots of concentrations and specializations, and lots of advanced options for very ambitious students (like the tiering of introductory STEM courses at places like HYPSMCt, and Chicago looks more reminiscent to the amount of tiering seen at least decently resourced publics).

@bernie12 Yes I’d love some schools that would not be considered super reaches if you could recommend them! If you don’t mind what do you think my chances are at University of Wisconsin Madison, keeping in mind I’m an in-state student? Yes I have been looking at some LAC’s too, but Occidental is really the only one I’ve looked at. If you could recommend a list of non super reaches, and some LAC’s that’d be great! The only public schools I think I could afford to go to would be University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Minnesota Twin Cities because of in-state tuition and reciprocity, unless you think I can get a full ride or substantial scholarship somewhere but I don’t think my grades are high enough. I really worry about not getting into Wisconsin Madison, although I had thought Emory was a better choice, based on the points you’ve brought up about honors programs and the advantage of my 16 AP credits at wisconsin madison, I’m rethinking my list. Emory vs. UW Madison… I’d love to see the schools you’ve recommended.

I disagree with @bernie12 on the business major… having spent over 25 years in Finance, I can tell you most entry level jobs in finance look for those with majors in math, economics, finance, or accounting.

@nightstalker160 : Did that list you gave not include 2 majors NOT offered in the business school which suggests that there are other routes to various business careers? Also, finance is not the only business career. The point still stands that you do not need a BBA to get involved in business. In addition, even if one wants to pursue an MBA, there are many routes to that where a BBA is hardly necessary as a pre-cursor. I am not going to agree that the BBA is supreme even if it is the majority. A double major with it, I support, but I don’t know if I support single BBA majors when there are many other types of skills (skills often not as emphasized in certain BBA concentrations like serious writing and undergraduate research…independent research at that) to be gained in other departments usually belonging to arts and letters units. BBAs make certain things easier/more streamlined, especially at a place like Emory’s GBS, but adding (or even pursuing in lieu of) certain other majors could add an even broader skill-set that leads to more flexibility in post-grad. options.

It appears that these entry level positions you speak of look for strong quantitative skills (notice the two BBA concentrations you mentioned were accounting and finance which I also mentioned), which can be attained through various means including those 4 majors. Also, given the trend at MIT, seems some top finance firms like engineering majors. The key appears to be “majors in something that screams excellent quantitative skills” which I emphasized as the key to success in many hot fields in my post.

@mydaywasgreat
Emory is a better choice for academic prestige/ quality however it might not be the best for you, especially if finances are concerned. I will say Emory’s finaid is some of the best in the country.
When it comes to employability I would suggest looking into the QSS major/concentration. It combines humanities with analytics. But if you truly don’t know what to do with your life a BBA from Emory is really 2nd to none, it’s phenomenal. My good friend is going to Morgan Stanley and the other is going to City Bank, both finance and both NYC.