Chances for an Out-of-state Student

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
1

<p>About me:
I'm a white, middle-class male from suburban Philly attending a relatively prestigious private college prep school.</p>

<p>Non-standard Courseload:
Honors Bio, Chem, and Physics
Honors Algebra II and Geo/Trig
AP English Lang (junior)
AP Comp Sci AB (junior)
AP English Lit (senior)
AP Calc AB (senior)
AP Physics (senior)</p>

<p>Rank:
School does not rank but I believe I'm roughly top 25% cumulative GPA, top 10% junior GPA.</p>

<p>GPA: (weighting: .5 for honors, 1.0 for AP)
Freshman: 3.4 (Honors math and science)
Sophmore: 3.467 (Honors math and science)
Junior: 4.0 (Honors science, AP compsci and english)</p>

<p>SAT:
2230 (CR: 760, Math: 780, Writing: 690)</p>

<p>SAT IIs:
Physics: 760
Planning to take English</p>

<p>APs:
English Language: 5
Computer Science AB: 5
English Lit: ?
Calc AB: ?
Physics: ?</p>

<p>ECs:
Lab Manager 9, 10, 11, 12 (System Administrator/Head Lab Manager @ 12) (6+hrs/week all school year)
People to People (Summer '06, Australia/New Zealand/Fiji)
System Administrator at my high school (30hrs/week, all summer '07)
Microsoft Certified Professional
Soccer for 11+ years (Community, not varsity)
30 hours community service (tech work for poor intercity school)
National Merit Commended (possibly semifinalist/finalist)
National Honor Society (once next year begins and I join...)
Took drum lessons a while, now self-teaching guitar</p>

<p>Schools:
Carnegie Mellon
Purdue
Cornell
UMichigan (Ann Arbor)
Johns Hopkins
Northwestern
Penn State (University Park)
Rensselaer Polytech
UChicago
Bucknell
Columbia (Fu Foundation)
UPenn
Brown
Lehigh
Drexel
UPitt</p>

<p>Frosh and Soph year really killed me... Slacked off big-time. A lot of reach schools on the list, only put a couple safeties up there, but hey - we don't make chances threads for the safeties :P. I'm looking to study engineering, physics, or maaaaybe some sort of IT in college. Not entirely sure yet. Anyone have any recommendations for strong physics programs? I've found great engineering rankings and whatnot, but little on physics. Also any general recommendations for other schools I should apply to are very welcome.</p>

<p>Gracias. \o/</p>

<hr>

<p>Most of that is a direct copy from the general What Are My Chances forum; I kept the other schools besides CMU in there for reference. I'm curious about how much being out of state (I'm from suburban Philly) would hurt my admission chances.</p>

2

<p>Cornell, UPenn, Brown, UChicago, Northwestern (?), Purdue (?) = reaches</p>

<p>RPI, Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, UPitt you could probably get into.</p>

<p>I can't really say much on the others. </p>

<p>I'm studying physics at RPI. They have a fairly strong undergrad program overall, and there physics program is quite good, but not as funded for research as other programs like Biotech, Nuclear or Mech. Engineering. I recommend looking into it.</p>

<p>Yeah the <em>TOP</em> physics schools are usually called the "golden circle": MIT, Caltech, Stanford, UChicago, Cornell, and UMich.. my guidance councilor explained it is because they have national research labs and thus lots of funding and faculty. Hopefully I can go to grad school at one of those schools.</p>

3

<p>It depends on the school you attend. Assuming you attend the Hill School in Pottstown (or a school of similar calibre), then I'd say Michigan is a safe match. Otherwise, I'd say Michigan is a slight reach.</p>

4

<p>the hill school sucks. it's a second tier boarding school</p>

5

<p>Whats considered a first tier boarding school then? I think the Hill School is a really good school and so do colleges...:/</p>

6

<p>SecondNature, Bearcats is a warmblooded Hotchkiss alum! hehe!!! In all honesty, I don't know much about "the 10 schools admissions organization" (of which both the Hill school and Hotchkiss are members). I assume all 10 are very good and very wealthy, but there are some that are better than others. Perhaps there is a rivalry between the schools, and if that's the case, he isn't going to think highly of the Hill School. Last year, out of a class of 100 or so graduating Hill seniors, students enrolled at the following schools:</p>

<p>Barnard College
Bates College
Brown University
Carnegie Mellon University
Colgate University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Rice University
University of Chicago
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas-Austin
University of Virginia
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Vanderbilt University
Washington University-St Louis
Wesleyan University
Yale University</p>

<p>Even if only one student enrolled into each of those universities, that;s already 30% of the class. However, I would venture to guess that on average, 2-3 students enrolled into each of those schools, which means that 15% enroll into Ivy League schools and another 50% or so enroll into the remaining universities on the list above. That's nothing to sneeze at.</p>

7

<p>QUOTE</p>

<p>Best Prep Schools are the schools which are members of and overlap across these three groups:</p>

<p>1) The Ten School Admissions Organization: <a href="http://www.tenschools.org/members/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.tenschools.org/members/&lt;/a>
2) The Eight School Association:
<a href="http://thenews.choate.edu/2007/04/20...st_Step_in.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://thenews.choate.edu/2007/04/20...st_Step_in.php&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.lawrenceville.org/about/n...rchive&id=5756%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lawrenceville.org/about/n...rchive&id=5756&lt;/a>
3) Prep 9: <a href="http://www.prepforprep.org/prepforprep/prep9.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.prepforprep.org/prepforprep/prep9.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Which are the following 7 schools:</p>

<ul>
<li>Choate Rosemary Hall</li>
<li>Deerfield Academy</li>
<li>The Hotchkiss School</li>
<li>The Lawrenceville School</li>
<li>Phillips Andover Academy</li>
<li>Phillips Exeter Academy</li>
<li>St. Paul's School (TSAO and Eight School Association member but not in Prep 9)</li>
</ul>

<p>The above 7 schools are widely recognized as the nation's elite / most prestigious / "best" prep schools / "Little Ivies"</p>

<p>UNQUOTE</p>

8

<p>but i correct myself. The Hill is a darn good school to get a good education, and it gives its grad a unique experience</p>

<p>oh and to clarify it, there's almost no rivalry between the hill and hotchkiss. they are too far apart.</p>

9

<p>I definitely agree that of the TSAO, Hill is one of the weakest, but that's like saying that among the Ivies, Brown is the lowest ranked! LOL! </p>

<p>Thanks for the clarification and the information provided in post #7. It is very informative.</p>

10

<p>I don't know much about boarding schools or those top-tier prep schools; my school is not quite to that calibre I'd assume but it's among the best in the area.</p>

<p>Delton, I've heard very good things about the education at RPI but very meh things about student life at RPI (RIBS?); what do you think?</p>

<p>Also more takes on chances are always welcome. =D</p>

11

<p>Personally, the ratio aspect hasn't been much of a problem for me. However, I do hear a lot of other people complaining about it. It is getting a little better each year, like this years freshman class has a ratio of 2:1.. overall I guess its close to 3:1. Also, a lot of people say that since a lot of guys just play video games or use the computer all day, if you want to get a girlfriend it really isn't that hard. </p>

<p>Otherwise, student life is pretty good. There are plenty of clubs and stuff to do on campus. I only ended up leaving campus 2 times after orientation my whole year there. So being in Troy wasn't a big problem for me either, since I was happy on campus the whole time. I guess its probably a different story if you join a frat.</p>