<p>Background:
Location: New Jersey
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese) American
Gender: Male
School Type: Public, sends many grads to top schools (Montgomery High School)
Major: Finance/Accounting</p>
<p>Stats:
GPA: 3.49 UW, 3.98 W (so worried about this, downward trend with a C junior year)
SAT: 1490/2220 (800 math, 690 critical reading, 730 writing)
SAT IIs: Will take Math Level 2 and Chem in June
APs: Took Chem and Euro Hist in May, will take Calc AB, Stat, and Spanish next year
No Class Rank or Percentile</p>
<p>Extracurriculars/Volunteer/Work Experience:
1. Future Business Leaders of America (10-12)
2. Debate Club (10-12)
3. International Games Club (9-12) - Secretary, President
4. Economics Club (10-12) - Secretary
5. Red Cross Club (10-12)
6. Volunteer at library (Summers 2006-2009), Volunteer at Chinese School (10-12)
7. Business Internship (Summer 2009)
8. Teaching and Counselling at an orphanage in China (Summer 2009)
9. Part-time employment as a lifeguard (10-12)
10. Music - Piano (9-12), Trumpet for school band (9-12)</p>
<p>Honors/Awards:
Will get National Merit Commended (217 PSAT)</p>
<p>Essays/Recommendations:
Essays: Will work hard on them over the summer
Teachers Recs: Will be from teachers that know me well
Guidance Counselor Rec: Generic</p>
<p>You’re really impressive, however your c might pull you over to the waitlist (I speak from experience). You would probably be accepted eventually because of your impressive resume, but don’t count on any scholarships as waitlistees aren’t eligible.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>If you are positive on Villanova as a college and think you’ll be interested in finance as a career path, consider applying as an economics major (not VSB). VSB’s competitiveness in terms of admissions appears to be signficantly higher than other schools in the university. From my understanding in talking to people from the administration – it is very possible to transfer into VSB after being admitted (they noted that a percentage of the VSB class switches majors or transfers out – and that Villanova is highly committed to your success). In terms of prep for finance roles in business, economics is a suitable background as well. Advice I received (for my son) from a former dean at Villanova was “focus on getting into the university”. If you don’t want to go this path, just know VSB will be highly competitive (not the “average” competiitiveness at Villanova; note – Bucknell has a similar dynamic and posts admissions stats by major with management twice as difficult as other areas).</p></li>
<li><p>If you are serious abouting accounting as a career path, know that you have more options. The best step out of college will be at a big 4 firm – and they recruit regionally at all the good schools. In other words – you can go to Fairfield, St. Joe’s, Loyola and have the same option to great jobs in accounting as you would at Villanova (the firms want/need relationships at all these schools – no real advantage to going to Villanova).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Best of luck with your search. If you are set on finance at a highly rated school in the Norheast-- you may want to cast a broad net (Lehigh, Villanova, Bucknell, BC) as these schools are very competitive. I’d suggest Fairfield as an excellent “safety” as well. They have very good finance/accounting and strong alumni connections in the NY area. Up and coming school (with an endowment approaching Villanova’s and support from the Dolan family as a benefactor).</p>
<p>fyi DrPep, when I visited Villanova in Nov 08, they told me clearly that it is easier to get into VSB as a high school applicant than as a transfer within the college, and they strongly encourage applicants to apply directly to VSB. I would check up on your sources.</p>
<p>your SAT is especially high for villanova, even the school of business, so i think it will bring you over the top and you would get in; EC’s are very good too, you have a like 80% chance of acceptance… you can probably call villanova a low match</p>
<p>dbear, I am 99.9999% sure that my school does not have rank or percentile. Even my guidance counselor told me that my school does not have rank or percentile, and it says on my school’s website that there is no rank or percentile. In fact, we do not even have a valedictorian at graduation. The student council members give speeches and if a student wants to he/she may give a speech.</p>
<p>You just need to keep working hard on those grades and challenging yourself, especially in math courses. Also, it’s better to be heavily active in a few ECs than equally dispersed among many.</p>
<p>Actually, the VSB being more selective than the rest of the school is a myth. If you check the stats of the business school and the university in general they are almost identical. The only college with lower scores than average is the college of nursing.</p>
<p>We were told by a V. admission rep that average SATs for VSB accepted students were in the 1400 range. FYI, we were also told that engineering applications are up, as future trends indicate that engineering - particularly petroleum - is a growing field with good job placement and high earning potential. Chemical and mechanical engineering also showing good growth for next 10 years.</p>
<p>Average SAT of enrolled business student: 1318 (25% - 75% range was 1250-1390). For the University overall: 1295 (1200-1390).</p>
<p>Kelly: The average SAT for ACCEPTED students may have been 1400. That is true of the accepted students in the university overall (average SAT of accepted students overall - 1385).</p>
<p>Percentage of enrolled business students in top 10% of high school class: 68% (62% for the University overall).
Percentage of enrolled business students in top 25% of high school class: 91% (89% for the university overall).
Acceptance rate: 30% (39% for university overall).</p>
<p>Keep in mind, the comparison is between the business school and the averages for the entire university, not between business vs. engineering or business vs. nursing. Nursing is well known to have the lowest scores (but a low acceptance rate due to popularity of the program) because most people with a 1400 SAT that are interested in the medical field opt for pre-med. That accounts for the difference between the university as a whole and the business school. </p>
<p>The business school gets a lot of applications because there are less business school around than there are liberal arts programs. As a result the acceptance rate is lower but many of the applicants are not academically qualified. </p>
<p>According to a friend in the administration, the very best villanova students (i.e. test scores, etc.) are in the hard sciences. </p>
<p>I would like to see a head-to-head comparison between the colleges but I can’t find one. If anyone can, please post it. </p>
<p>I was actually able to get some information on the Engineering College. The average SAT of enrolled students in the College of Engineering is 1318 (the middle 25% range was 1235-1400). The SAT’s were somewhat lopsided favoring math (math range: 650-730; verbal range: 585-670) as you would expect. </p>
<p>For the College of Engineering 91% of freshmen were in the top 25% of their high school class (identical to the business school.</p>
<p>So the engineering stats are virtually identical to the business school. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the stats for the College of Nursing or the College of Liberal Arts and sciences.</p>
<p>Combined, business and engineering account for approximately 1/3 of the undergraduate student body.</p>
<p>If you had said that VSB being more selective than Engineering is a myth , you could be correct.</p>
<p>Engineering (25%) and Business (11%) are over 1/3 of enrollment and their selectivity data is included in the schools entire selectivity data , the remaing 64% enrollment woul be LOWER.
By data analysis , the A&S and Nursing selectivity would be below Business selectivity data.
This does not mean that A&S and Nursing are less qualified holistically!</p>
<p>enrolled data ---------------- Villanova <strong>vs</strong> Business</p>
<p>Mid 50% SAT Range ---- ----- 1210-1370 <strong>vs ** 1250/1390
Average ------------------------1286 **vs</strong> 1318<br>
Mid 50% ACT Range ------ — 28-31 <strong>vs ** 29/32
Median ---------------------- 29.5 **vs</strong> 30</p>
<p>Top 10% HS Class -----------58% <strong>vs</strong> 68%</p>
<p>SJUHawk:
Thanks for posting this information. I did realize the stat I cited was for “accepted” students, and not for those who eventually matriculate, which I assumed to be lower. However, I didn’t know what that number actually was so I’m glad to have the information.</p>
<p>BU: Engineering is made up of 920 students - 12.5%. Business is made up of 1627 sudents - 22.5% Therefore, those the two colleges combined make up about 1/3 of the University (35% actually). Since we don’t know the nursing stats or the liberal arts stats you cannot tell for sure whether it is the nursing stats or arts and science (or both) that bring the overall numbers down. </p>
<p>It is a pretty fair guess that nursing has the lowest stats. Since nursing is small (7%) their numbers would have to be pretty low to impact the whole university’s stats significantly. There is a reasonable probability that the liberal arts college has lower stats than business and engineering but you can’t say that with any certainty. Also, there will be varying stats depending on majors - for instance, the hard sciences are given a curriculum beginning in the first semester where they take calc, chemistry and either bio or physics. As a result, the major needs to be declared before beginning the first semester (same is true of engineering and business) or the student will be behind his class by 1 year (i.e. Chem 1 is offered in the fall and Chem 2 in the spring). Bio majors will generally have higher stats than the cupcake majors like communications, geography and sociology.</p>
<p>What this boils down to is that there may be a few majors that are easier to get in to than the others but there is no appreciable difference in difficulty in being accepted to the business school compared to most other majors. It is a myth that is perpetuated by business students since they happen to be the largest MAJOR(s) (accounting and marketing). Not the largest college but the largest majors.</p>
<p>If someone here knows how to find a breakdown of stats by major that would be great. I think it would put the myth to rest.</p>
<p>And BU, there is an obvious defect in your analysis. You group arts and sciences with nursing. You cant treat them as equivalents unless you know they are. They are both “unknowns” in this scenario. If you had stats for one or the other you could extrapolate but you can’t do it with 2 unknowns. (What if the average SAT for nurses is 1100?). You know as well as I do that the average SAT for nursing majors is not 1286 or a 75 percentile range of 1370, etc. However, even if you analysis were correct, there is not a significant difference.</p>
<p>If 100% (entire school)= 1286 avg SAT and 35% (business and engineering) = 1318 SAT , the remaining 65%(A&S is 58%of this) is roughly 1270 SAT.Almost 50 point difference.</p>
<p>You rational of of paragraph 2& 3 is bogus , you have to apply and declare Business before you enroll.Hard science majors can and do enter as undeclared.</p>
<p>Back to the original point VSB is more selective than Villanova A&S , no myth.
Ask the applicants, students get denied into VSB with stats that would get admitted into A&S.</p>