Chance/recommend me schools! Junior; terrible ECs; into cognitive neuroscience!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm finally compromising my integrity and making a chances thread! Eek! As much research as I do on here, it'll be refreshing to hear some objective opinions on my personal chances and potential goals. Feels kinda masturbatory, though. </p>

<p>I hate to describe myself as having "terrible extracurriculars," because <em>I</em> like my ECs. But I know that they're unexceptional at best: all I do is join groups in my areas of interest. Sue me for not living my life in order to look good on paper. </p>

<p>--- Vital info ---</p>

<p>Female; Caucasian; random public school in MD that sends a few kids per year to Ivies</p>

<p>--- Stats (I'm good here) ---</p>

<p>SAT I: 2390 (800 CR, 800 M, 790 W)
I'm going to take Math IIC in January, and English Literature and French Language in April or May. I'm going to study for them and hopefully get 750+ (800 on Math pleaseee!)</p>

<p>APs: Computer Science A (5), US Govt & Politics (4)
Taking English Language, World History, Computer Science B, and Calculus AB this year
(And six more next year -- see course list)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 UW, somewhere around 4.8 or 4.9 W (I'm too lazy to calculate)
I'm tied with like 40 other people for #1 UW, since our school has a really lax way of calculating GPA.
I think I'm tied with two others for #2 W (and obviously only by hundredths of a point.) This is out of 400ish students.</p>

<p>--- Classes ---</p>

<p>Probably most rigorous courseload available. </p>

<p>This year's schedule is:</p>

<p>Art 2 GT
Calculus AB APGT
French 4 Honors
Physics GT
Computer Science 4 APGT
English 11 GT (but geared toward preparing us for the Language AP test)
World History APGT</p>

<p>I <em>could</em> get a B in World, but I'm pretty sure I won't. (I got one first quarter, but our GPAs are weird; we get a year-long grade for every class.)</p>

<p>My senior schedule, if everything works out, will be:</p>

<p>AP Biology
AP Calculus BC
AP English 12 (Basically AP Lit)
AP Chemistry
AP Psychology
AP French 5
GT Intern/Mentorship. My school offers a mentorship program; basically, you just have to have good grades and they hook you up with a mentor in your area of interest. Sweet deal. Hopefully, I'll get a mentorship with someone involved in some kind of neuroscience. </p>

<p>--- Extracurriculars ---</p>

<p>11 & 12: National Honor Society (4+ volunteer hours per month; inducted this year because it's only open to juniors and seniors)
11 & 12: National French Honor Society (no set amount of volunteer hours, but we do tutoring and work with pre-schoolers)
11 & 12: National Art Honor Society (also no set amount of volunteer hours but we do art projects in the community)
11 & 12: PCs4Kids (we give computers to kids in the community that can't afford them and teach them how to use them. I love this, but we've only had one mentoring session so far; i.e., I don't contribute a lot of time to it.)
10, 11, & 12: Art Club (we do fundraisers and art projects in the community)
10, 11, & 12: Math Team (one hour/week plus a three-ish hour meet per month. I'm not ranked or anything.)
10, 11, & 12: Model United Nations (but we haven't actually done anything yet; hopefully we'll go to at least one conference this year)
9 & 10: Literary Magazine (compiled a magazine of artwork, poetry, and prose by students in our school)
9 & 10: Photography Club (experimented with photography and developing)
ACSL (American Computer Science League) competition in 9th grade. ACSL is actually an international competition, despite what the name implies; all of the winners came from, like, Romania and Croatia. Lmao.
I'll be doing some more computer science competitions this year and next year
I may participate in some local debate circuits; it sounds like fun and my friend thinks I should do it haha</p>

<p>No leadership positions whatsoever. Well, I might be a presiding officer in MUN...? And I'll try to get a position in Art NHS next year. </p>

<p>But I hate how "leadership" is such a big deal. Don't we need competent followers in the world? And extracurriculars are supposed to be about doing things you enjoy. Why isn't it okay that I joined clubs in my areas of interest instead of founding a random one just so I could say "lolz I'm a leader"?! Rrrrgh. </p>

<p>--- Awards ---</p>

<p>Um, like, none.</p>

<p>Honor roll? lol
I'll get NMSF and hopefully NMF
I won an individual award for my performance on the multiple choice portion of ACSL freshman year
I won English student of the year for my grade last year? lol</p>

<p>Yeah, that's basically all.</p>

<p>--- Schools in which I'm interested ---</p>

<p>MIT (a crapshoot for everyone, so why not?)
Johns Hopkins University
Maybe Brown?</p>

<p>~~~</p>

<p>I'm really interested in neuropsychology. But I'm not sure what I want to do with my life or anything.</p>

<p>So what do you guys think of the three schools I listed (obviously MIT and Brown are reaches; JHU might be a high match)? Any chance? And more importantly, what would you recommend as matches? </p>

<p>SORRY SO MUCH WRITING EEKKKKK</p>

2

<p>if you realy want good neurscience, look into northwestern, cornell instead of maybe brown</p>

<p>other college to consider: Uchicago, amherst, swarthmore</p>

3

<p>cornell doesn't have a neuroscience major (according to a rep. I spoke with).</p>

<p>I also plan to major in neuroscience, and to my understanding, MIT and JHU both have excellent neuroscience majors/programs. </p>

<p>Great chances at all the schools, because of your awesome SAT, GPA, and class rank. </p>

<p>ps: do you plan to participate in the IBB this year? PM me if you don't know what IBB and want to know more about it...</p>

4

<p>Brown is fantastic for undergrad neuroscience...by no means dismiss it! Check out Amherst, WashU, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Pomona, Oberlin, CMU and, if you want safeties, URochester, BU and Ohio Wesleyan.</p>

5

<p>Good chances except obviously your unpassionate EC's will hurt you, but I think you will still get into half of the top schools u apply to and rejected from the other half.</p>

6

<p>great sat score, </p>

<p>some colleges that I know have a good program for neuroscience are NYU and Saint Peter's College.</p>

<p>But wow I am very impressed with your profile.</p>

<p>cheers</p>

7

<p>Thank you guys for the suggestions! I didn't even mention that I'm mostly looking at the east coast, but most of these schools work out perfectly geographically. :] Ooh, and my grandma went to NYU and my aunt to Oberlin -- so I've got legacy at NYU and someone to talk to about both! </p>

<p>As for my lack of... erm... accomplishing anything outside of school... I hope to make up for that with mentorship next year. I'm psyched, because it's something in which I'm interested AND it'll show my commitment. </p>

<p>Speaking of things that could make me look good on paper without compromising my values (i.e. doing something for the SOLE PURPOSE of looking good on paper), I just got nominated for the NCTE Achievement Awards today. I enjoy writing and I'm superexcited that this opportunity just... fell into my lap! Haha, and even if I don't win or anything, I'm happy that my teacher nominated me. (I kinda think she hates me. Long story.)</p>

8

<p>Hey Poseur, if you don't mind me asking, which school do you attend?
I go to Centennial, dunno if that rings a bell.</p>

9

<p>By the way, those are some pretty intense stats!
I'm pretty sure you'll end up at a really decent school.</p>

10

<p>Thank you! And whoa, really?! I'm at... I'll PM you.</p>

11

<p>Trying to come up with a final list of schools, so bump! </p>

<p>I've got a great, interactive list of schools with good neuroscience programs @ [url=<a href="http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/neuroscience/priorities%5DNeuroscience"&gt;http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/neuroscience/priorities]Neuroscience&lt;/a> Rankings — PhDs.org Graduate School Guide<a href="except%20that's%20for%20Grad%20programs">/url</a> and some other lists, but I want to hear from people who know stuff first-hand. </p>

<hr>

<p>Updates to stats and stuff: </p>

<p>-- SAT IIs: 750 Math IIC (but hopefully my AP score and grades in math will make up for it -- apparently Precalc just isn't my thing); terrible score in French (retaking next year); awaiting Lit score (think I did well); gonna self-study Chem, probably Physics, and maybe World History over the summer. I'm kinda disappointed in how the SAT IIs are going so far... I guess I just got cocky after my Reasoning test, lol. Will scores in the mid 700s affect my chances negatively? </p>

<p>-- Won the Princeton book award (one of six students in the greater Baltimore area); at the reception a few nights ago, we were all (of course) encouraged to apply there (apparently each year one of the six applies, gets accepted, and chooses to matriculate), so hey, why not? </p>

<p>-- Confirmed tied for number 2 in my class with two others; my class is actually 333 students (and we don't officially rank anyways.) Oh, my weighted GPA freshman & soph year is 4.71; after this year it'll be 4.75, I think (unless Art II GT is weighted, in which case it'll be in the 4.8s.)</p>

<p>-- Got everything I wanted for my next year's schedule!!! I was SO scared I'd have scheduling conflict. I don't have my mentor lined up, yet, but that should be confirmed by the end of summer.</p>

<p>-- Going to Brown for two weeks over the summer to take a course on the nervous system. </p>

<p>I think Northwestern is gonna make my final list, and I'm in the process of researching other ones that have been suggested. Oh, and I've got University of Delaware as a safety -- I did a program there last year for five weeks and lovedddd it, so I already know I'd be happy there. I'll apply to the Honors program, too.</p>

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<p>Glad to hear :)</p>

13

<p>First of all, you are a beast.
Secondly, Brown is fantastic for neuroscience...by no means dismiss it! </p>

<p>Despite what your friends say, JHU is a really good school for neuroscience undergrad. And since you want to stay in the eastern part of the U.S check out Amherst and Darthmouth too.</p>

14

<p>Why would you need more than 3 SAT IIs? Just to increase your chances of a good score? Mid 700s are fine with the SAT I score you have.</p>

15

<p>I want to demonstrate competence in a wide range of subjects... and, yeah, increase my chances of a good score. Lol.</p>

16

<p>Stats are good, I think you'll have a good chance at all those schools. Sorry for my attitude.</p>

17

<p>Sigh, I'll reply to you here: </p>

<p>Sorry, mang; I didn't mean to be hostile to you in particular. It was more of an attack on the CC mindset of "I need to rack up as many awards as I can so that colleges will see how dedicated/intelligent/whatever I am!"</p>

<p>It's like, if you're a capable student (and I'm sure you are) and you participate in activities that you enjoy (and I'm sure you do), these things should speak for themselves; you shouldn't have to post a thread asking for "awards" that you can look into. Y'know?</p>

18

<p>You making me feel bad now, I didn't mean to insult you either. I understand what you were saying now, and sorry. I edited my other post.</p>

19

<p>I seeee you'll do fine.</p>

20

<p>Obnoxious bumpinggg! Trying to finalize my list! Right now my 'definite' list is EXTREMELY top-heavy. Here's my list, based on what I've seen about undergrad neuroscience programs (I've obviously got a lot of narrowing-down to do.)</p>

<p>**DEFINITE</p>

<hr>

<p>Brown
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Northwestern
Princeton<a href="I%20feel%20silly%20enough%20admitting%20that%20I'm%20gonna%20apply%20to%20MIT%20and%20Brown,%20let%20alone%20%5Bi%5DPrinceton%5B/i%5D,%20but%20see%20previous%20page:%20%20the%20alumni%20committee%20strongly%20urged%20us%20all%20to%20apply,%20so%20why%20not?">/b</a>
UDel (Honors)</p>

<p>OPTIONS</p>

<hr>

<p>Amherst
BU
Case Western
Columbia
Dartmouth
Emory
NYU
Ohio Wesleyan
Oberlin
RPI
Swarthmore
UChicago
UPenn
URochester
Vanderbilt
WashU</p>

<p>I've obviously got my 'reach' schools down; now I've got to find good matches. I'm guessing my final list will have 10-12 schools on it... I'm extremely indecisive. -___-</p>