Chances !!! Any remarks would be awsome

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey, if you could give me an idea of what my chances would be at any of these schools i would be happier than michael moore in a Hersheys Candy Factory!</p>

<p>Middlebury,Duke, Brown, Georgetown, George Washington, USC, Emory, Vanderbilt, George Mason, Southern Methodist, UCLA, UM Ann Arbor, UC Berkeley(Father Alum), UVA, UNC,UI Urbana-Champaign, UC San Diego, UC Davis(Father Alum), UW Madison, UI Bloomingdale, UT Austin, Texas A&M, UC Santa Barbara, Ohio State University</p>

<p>I know what you are thinking, but i am most certainly not attending to all of these schools! I am still a junior and this list was given to me by a college advisor because they all fit my profile(I want to major IR/IS/Poli Sci).</p>

<p>My Creds are:</p>

<p>16, Caucasian
Dutch American
Lived in England, Switzerland and the Netherlands(i reside here now)
Dutch School System is pretty bad ass so subjects are many(14) and GPA is rarely above 3.5 because then you are a freak of nature.</p>

<p>PSAT = 1200 (1600) 2000(2400)
GPA 3.3
4 Years Percussion
7 Years Club Soccer (including small sessions at Ajax Amsterdam and AZ which are Dutch Pro Teams)
2 Years Sailing
3 Years Voice over Job Exp.
2 Years Greenhouse work Exp.
Norwich U FLC Summer Program
Class President</p>

<p>4 possibly 5 letters of recommendation (all supurb and written by harvard and cambridge scholars etc)</p>

<p>Our school does not have any clubs or sports or anything of that nature but academics are stellar and these are the subjects i am taking (mandatory as you cannot chose classes)</p>

<p>English
Dutch
French
German
Latin (finished 2 year program)
Economics
Social Studies
History
Geography
Home Economics
Maths
General Sciences
Lab(finished 3 year program = 3 years of General Sciences, Chemistry and Physics all as different subjects)
Art
Art Studies
Physical Education</p>

<p>This is alot of information and i hope you haven't died of boredom yet but i am pretty nervous (as a junior yikes) about all this and so any words of wisdom would be most generous. Thanks</p>

2

<p>I'm shocked a counselor gave you this list. The first 8 schools would be pretty much impossible with your stats. Ditto UNC, UVA and Texas. Your GPA is also very low for all UCs other than SC, Riverside and Merced. UCs can not give legacy preference.</p>

<p>If your school offers no ECs, do some outside of school.</p>

3

<p>It depends on your class rank. Approximately what percentile would a 3.3 place you?</p>

4

<p>A 3.3 would probobly place me about in the top 10% of my grade and maybe the top 5% of my class.</p>

<p>Do you have any suggestions or tips to spike up my stats ?</p>

5

<p>Or any suggestions on good IR schools that i could make ?</p>

6

<p>michael moore in a Hersheys Candy Factory!
^ for a minute, i thought it said happier than Michael JACKSON in Never-never land.</p>

7

<p>That list is too long. You have no chance at many of them (Duke, Vandy, Gtown, Brown, Berkeley, etc.) -- or, rather, you're a "clear reject" at them. Few of those colleges fit your profile; your counselor lied to you. When you want chances, come to CC with a small list of colleges (1-10) that you have considered and researched and would want to attend -- not a list of colleges that your unlearned counselor "recommended" to you.</p>

<p>Further:</p>

<p>"i would be happier than michael moore in a Hersheys Candy Factory!"</p>

<p>You're not funny.</p>

8

<p>At most,you have a strong chance of admission to 6 of the 24 schools on your list. Your strengths are that you are a leader,class president,speak several languages and your class rank. SMU,George Mason,GWU, Ohio State,Univ.Indiana & Texas A&M (for IR?) are your best bets. Concentrate on George Mason and GWU for the best fit. Indiana University at Bloomington will like your linguistic ability and seems like a good fit also. Ohio State & Texas A&M just do not appear to be appropriate for you based on the information given. Stick with GWU & George Mason. SMU might also be of interest,but most of the students come from wealthy,fashion conscious backgrounds.</p>

9

<p>Thanks to all of these honest comments and an apology from my counselor i have come back with 5 colleges:</p>

<p>UT Austin
UM Ann Arbor
GWU
George Mason
Ohio State</p>

<p>Thanks for all the honest answers and sorry for all the cardiac arrests i may have incurred by putting most of those colleges on my list!!</p>

<p>I am taking the SAT's in march and SAT II in World History hopefully shortly after.</p>

<p>Comments, suggestions and rants are ever welcome.
Cheers</p>

10

<p>Btw do you think the classes(subjects) i am taking would give me an advantage over students at American High Schools ?</p>

11

<p>I would be a bit more hopeful. SATs--if you practice a lot --may be considerably higher than PSATs. Many colleges understand European grading is harder. If you will not need financial aid, consider applying ED to a top choice. Also look at Tufts (reach) and American U. An American citizen with an international background + languages has some advantages.</p>

12

<p>Groenveld9, i'm sure you have chances at the universities you pointed out. the goes for you as for everyone else - ivies are a reach for everyone and you're sure to find many matching schools.</p>

<p>i've been going through this site just a few times for half a year and every time i come on, i seriously do not like a lot of the people here. for example:</p>

<p>"That list is too long. You have no chance at many of them (Duke, Vandy, Gtown, Brown, Berkeley, etc.) -- or, rather, you're a "clear reject" at them. Few of those colleges fit your profile; your counselor lied to you. When you want chances, come to CC with a small list of colleges (1-10) that you have considered and researched and would want to attend -- not a list of colleges that your unlearned counselor "recommended" to you.</p>

<p>Further:</p>

<p>"i would be happier than michael moore in a Hersheys Candy Factory!"</p>

<p>You're not funny. " -posted by kyledavid80</p>

<p>ok, so what kind of person are you? you are meaning to saying something about the counselor and that some of the schools are hard to get into. but why the criticism? people log on to college confidential because they are concerned or want to help others to deal with college related subjects. i'm just glad not everyone's like kyledavid80. why the extra comment that you didn't think the Michael Moore in a factory statement was funny? i admire groenveld9 for his thankfulness and not being ticked off by someone like him.</p>

<p>just an added note...i've seen so many entries on college confidential that are like this:</p>

<p>What are many chances at (some top schools)?
i'm a blah blah blah with perfect stats, 2350 SAT 780+ SAT II's, AP scores of 5s (oh no! i have one 4! i'll go kill myself now because i'm not worthy!) i help out in hospitals, the family business, a restaurant, adoption agency, environmental protection, blah blah blah blah blah, numerous interns with famous people, i spend my summers finding a cure for AIDS and Alzheimer's, and making money. 5000+hrs of service. captain of basketball, soccer, tennis, and swim teams and won nationals for each of them. i composed a twenty minute orchestra with my team of 30 people and was chosen top 1 at several international conventions and won first place at a Biology olympiads competition and so on and so forth. oh i forgot to mention that i'm just a sophomore, age 14, at some public school with 800 other people in my grade, and i'm rank 2. oh my family's got low income, and i'm half african, half hispanic. my parents never went to college.</p>

<p>other people's comments:
oh you can't get into those schools. think of a community college and then transferring.
no i think you should try harder. good luck.
pretty nice stats, but those schools you want to get into are all reaches. are you adopted? maybe you'll get into Harvard if you say you're adopted and you explain the hardships of persevering without ever meeting your real parents!</p>

<p>groenveld9, good luck. be more specific the next time you mention your profile.</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
What are many chances at (some top schools)?
i'm a blah blah blah with perfect stats, 2350 SAT 780+ SAT II's, AP scores of 5s (oh no! i have one 4! i'll go kill myself now because i'm not worthy!) i help out in hospitals, the family business, a restaurant, adoption agency, environmental protection, blah blah blah blah blah, numerous interns with famous people, i spend my summers finding a cure for AIDS and Alzheimer's, and making money. 5000+hrs of service. captain of basketball, soccer, tennis, and swim teams and won nationals for each of them. i composed a twenty minute orchestra with my team of 30 people and was chosen top 1 at several international conventions and won first place at a Biology olympiads competition and so on and so forth. oh i forgot to mention that i'm just a sophomore, age 14, at some public school with 800 other people in my grade, and i'm rank 2. oh my family's got low income, and i'm half african, half hispanic. my parents never went to college.</p>

<p>other people's comments:
oh you can't get into those schools. think of a community college and then transferring.
no i think you should try harder. good luck.
pretty nice stats, but those schools you want to get into are all reaches. are you adopted? maybe you'll get into Harvard if you say you're adopted and you explain the hardships of persevering without ever meeting your real parents!

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Hehe. :D</p>

<p>
[quote]
Btw do you think the classes(subjects) i am taking would give me an advantage over students at American High Schools ?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>International students, but their very nature, are at a bit of a disadvantage because the admissions counselors are not quite as familiar with high school/educational practices in other countries as they are with American universities. <--- That sentence was a mouthful but I'm too lazy to re-write it. :)</p>

<p>As for your schools, I'll provide the following comments:</p>

<p>UT Austin: If you are paying out of state tuition, why go to a ginormous public schools such as this? Don't get me wrong, UT is a great school, but if you are paying full-freight, might as well go to a private school where you will get more individualized attention/support.
UM Ann Arbor: This school is rather numbers based, so the 3.3 GPA will hurt you even though your class rank is good. You have a pretty slim chance of being admitted
GWU: Good choice, but it is a bit of a reach.
George Mason: Don't know enough about this school to give any comments
Ohio State: If you are studying IR, why go to huge public school which is in the Middle of Nowhere (relatively speaking)? There is a large American football subculture and it will be a pretty severe cultural adjustment coming from Europe.</p>

<p>I would highly highly recommend that you add American University to your list. It is within your range and it is known for its IR program. Another suggestion in this mold is Syracuse University.</p>

<p>I'll also list some other suggestions for you to consider, but I do not know about the specific strength of their IR/PoliSci programs. They are listed in rough order of difficulty to get into.</p>

<p>-University of Rochester
-Boston University
-University of Miami
-Lehigh University
-Pitzer College
-Northeastern University
-Santa Clara University</p>

<p>You might also want to check out this thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=56589&%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=56589&&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<h2>Best of luck!</h2>

14

<p>Your best matches remain George Washington University (GWU) and George Mason. To that list add American University which is in Washington,D.C. Boston University is also a match. I would avoid Lehigh Univ. unless you want to study engineering,join a fraternity and drink a lot of alcohol. Four great matches-GWU,AU,BU and George Mason-should be enough to keep you very busy researching and applying based on your proffered information.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I would avoid Lehigh Univ. unless you want to study engineering,join a fraternity and drink a lot of alcohol.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Nothing wrong with that! It is college, after all. :p</p>

<p>Also, my list was purposefully broad so that the OP can narrow the list based on his interests.</p>

16

<p>FellowCCViewer:</p>

<p>"but why the criticism?" </p>

<p>The OP came across as a bit asinine (and was trying to be funny, and failed).</p>

<p>"people log on to college confidential because they are concerned or want to help others to deal with college related subjects."</p>

<p>Indeed, but if people come on here and list 24 colleges and say "chance me!", it just wastes people's time. Which do you want to go to? Have you even considered them? CC is for advice, etc. but when asking for chances, you put schools that you've explored and would actually want to go to, not just a list of colleges that your counselor gave you.</p>

<p>"i'm just glad not everyone's like kyledavid80."</p>

<p>Ooh, 2 posts on the site and you're already launching personal attacks? Good move.</p>

<p>"why the extra comment that you didn't think the Michael Moore in a factory statement was funny?"</p>

<p>Because I found it unnecessary and asinine?</p>

<p>I also notice that the OP narrowed down the list as I said -- obviously I wasn't too harsh.</p>

17

<p>wow thanks for all the comments again they were pretty helpful especially the list of IR schools, and fellowccviewer i am all over fellowccviewers comment lol. SF thanks for the list and by chance i was just looking at BU and BC this morning.
Also although i live in Europe i have been brought in American fashion and therefor love football, lime chips and anything anti french and so a big football scene could not do harm.
Ohio State for example has a very good poli sci/ir dept. i hear and so does UT, even though Austin and Columbus are no way near international cities(btw UW Madison also has a good one). But it is true the whole NY/DC location does give you a slight advantage over a midwest school.
It just seems that LAC's with amazing IR programs like Colgate and Middlebury(just to name a few) are very selective and so my GPA would basically rule me out in the beginning.
I have heard alot about Richmond and plan to look into it soon and from what i hear about American is that it has a good rep. but once you are there it isn't what it says it is. But then again no ranking/review is ever really true.
Cheers</p>

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<p>Groenveld9:</p>

<p>UCB/UCLA: Super Reach (out of state)
UCSD: Reach (out of state)
UCD/UCSB: Slight Reach (out of state)</p>

19

<p>Hey thanks for the advice and please keep it coming if you can, SFgiants you mentioned northeastern and Umiami in you post which was very helpful by the way, but i haven't heard anything about their programs in IR and miami doesn't seem to even have one (only IS and Poli Sci ,, close enough though). If you could describe those 2 choices to me it would be great because both schools look pretty nice.
Cheers</p>