Chances please !! Virginia Colleges !!

<p>Applying to:
UVA
William & Mary University (EA)
Carnegie Mellon
Washington & Lee University
Virginia Tech
JMU
(add more if you want to suggest)</p>

<p>Jewish White Male
Virginia resident</p>

<p>**Intended major: **Medicine or Business (have interest in both)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.67 (weighted) Fresh: 3.3 Soph: 3.88 Junior: 3.8125
Class rank: No rank, top 10% probably
SAT: **2160 (Math 800 CR 640 Writing 720)
**SAT II:
2180 (760 U.S. History, Chemistry 740, Math II 680) took recently but due to questions being out, around this…
AP:
World History, U.S. History, Chemistry, Statistics, Psychology, (Taking Senior Year: Computer Science AB, Calculus BC, Physics BC, Government)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities (in the order of how much time/how important I feel they are)
Created an online business over summer (not functioning anymore)
Self-taught:
AP Calculus BC (how can I prove this? I want this to appear, I think it looks good)
Web design (Dreamweaver, Photoshop)
Editing (Sony Vegas)
HTML
Java
C++

Job over summer (restaurant)
Jewish Youth Group- Treasurer
Habitat for Humanity- Treasurer
Varsity Math Team
Science Olympiad
Steer Club- President
Economics Club- Treasurer
Member of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
Baby-sit on weekends at local synagogue
Art Club
Key Club</p>

<p>APs: 9: World History, U.S. History, Chemistry, Statistics, Psychology, Computer Science AB, Calculus BC, Physics BC, Government (1 soph, 4 junior, 4 senior)</p>

<p>You want to check to see if you need to interview at Washington & Lee. A friend of mine learned that her son was waitlisted there because he did not interview -- he's going to UVA instead.</p>

<p>As for the others, VA Tech looks good. As does JMU. Send that application in early, though. William & Mary does not have EA. It has early decision only.</p>

<p>Also, you might consider the U. of Richmond. Lots of merit money. Great business program. The science building is new and the program is growing.</p>

<p>UVA - Match/Reach
William & Mary -Match/Reach
Washington & Lee University
Virginia Tech - Match/Safety
JMU - Match/Safety</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon - Reach (Which school are you applying to? If you are doing business, Tepper is quite hard to get into).</p>

<p>I'd say good chances at all except for maybe CMU, which would probably be a slight reach since they're very selective unless you're an engineer. I know people who have much lower scores and GPA than you that got into UVA and W&M. Tech and JMU would probably be safties. I'm don't know a lot about W&L. (i'm from VA btw)</p>

<p>UVA--Match (in-state)
William & Mary University (EA)--Match to Slight Reach (closer to match)
Carnegie Mellon--Match, except Tepper (Slight Reach to REach)
Washington & Lee University--Match
Virginia Tech--Safe Match
JMU--Safety</p>

<p>You should get into all of these, except maybe Tepper at CMU. Since there are many schools that don't count freshman year grades as much as sophomore or junior grades, you should consider applying to a few "reaches" also. Schools like John Hopkins, Georgetown, or USC would fall into this category. </p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Don't forget about the University of Richmond. It's a great school and definitely one worth looking at as it fits your Virginia criteria. By the way, why are you looking at only Virginia schools?</p>

<p>I would agree with Calcruzer and lfecollegeguy.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone
momreads, do you know how much merit money a guy like me would get? I don't want to take out a loan
ifecollegeguy, how much of a reach do you think it is for UVA/W&M? (anyone can answer that)</p>

<p>Lonewolf64, in-state schools in VA are a pretty good bargain, and that's why I'm only looking at them at the moment, but if you have any suggestions I would love to take a look.</p>

<p>also, what school do you suggest I apply to for Carnegie Mellon?
Do you really think that it is only a slight reach? I was thinking it was a FAR reach...</p>

<p>I suggest Tepper. It is now the most selective school within CMU (a tad more than the School of Comp. Science). It would be easy to transfer from Tepper to MCS (medicine/premed) whereas the reverse is not as easy. This is what I always tell people who are deciding between Business or Econ. Transferring from Tepper to HSS is almost guaranteed so if you are unsure, just go with Tepper.</p>

<p>it looks good except for CMU</p>

<p>Ifecollegeguy, so you still suggest Tepper, even though my stats probably aren't good enough?
Also, I am kind of worried about UVA, I feel like my GPA is really low, how come I feel like none of you see that?</p>

<p>The great thing about CMU is you can apply to MORE than one school! You can check Tepper as your first choice and if you get rejected from there and you have MCS checked, they will send your application to MCS and consider your application for that school too.</p>

<p>Where are you in Virginia? Northern Virginians have a bit of a harder time getting into UVA/William and Mary than Southern Virginians. This is because the public school system in NOVA is so much better and our flagships want to maintain diversity. </p>

<p>Also, I think most people take your GPA as is because you don't list the unweighted AND because you still say you are in the top 10%. If you were top 25%, it would be a different story. You also took 9 APs and the average kid who got into UVA from my high school only took 3-5 (I'm from the Fairfax County area).</p>

<p>Also, your upward trend helps a lot and here's another good thing, Tepper/CMU does not COUNT freshmen GPA! That means your GPA is actually higher than it is! I already counted that into my initial assessment so Tepper (being as competitive as it is) is still a reach but UVA does not weigh freshman year much either.</p>

<p>I don't know if other posters considered this in their assessments but you should give us your unweighted. However, without this information, your top 10%, 9 APs, and rising trend (with your freshman GPA almost unaccounted) answers your "I feel like my GPA is really low, how come I feel like none of you see that?"</p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>

<p>PS: I would check on that Top 10% thing if you are only "probably" sure. However, a classmate from my HS was told by our guidance counselor and career lady that UVA was his match (he got in) with a 3.6 and 7 APs and a 1460 SAT.</p>

<p>That sounds great about CMU.
I'm in NOVA also. Glad to hear the colleges don't look at freshman gpa as much. How do I find out whether I'm in the top 10%?</p>

<p>Ask your guidance counselor. A lot of NOVA schools don't rank so don't worry about it if he/she says so.</p>

<p>Tepper????</p>

<p>Monkeyaone,</p>

<p>I cannot give you an exact figure on merit money, but do take a look at the U. of Richmond admissions site. There are 50 full-tuition rides given yearly, and the school caps your loan amount at $4,000 a year. I had a student land one of those rides this year -- she has elected to turn down Richmond for a full ride to another school. Two more of my students will apply to Richmond next year -- one is definitely seeking merit money.</p>

<p>Roanoke College has great merit money -- if you want to stay small in terms of colleges. One of my students got all kinds of offers from there, but turned it down to attend another VA public school.</p>

<p>Also, JMU has six full rides -- the Bluestone scholarships. </p>

<p>Take a look at Davidson. It would be a reach, but again, that no-loan policy should be of some interest. The U. of Georgia has an excellent business school and good merit money for those in the honors program.</p>

<p>Hope that will help you.</p>

<p>University of Richmond is considered on par but much more expensive than Vtech and JMU. It is also a private university so why go to an expensive private when its reputation is on par or even less than those of the cheaper in-state Vtech and JMU. With the Op's stats, I am pretty sure he can get into at least one of Vtech/JMU/GMU if not all 3. </p>

<p>For safeties, look at GMU and VCU and for reaches you can consider other schools in the Top 25 or even a lower Ivy or two. There is no reason to look at safeties out of state such as UGA when VA has plenty of safeties for him with great Bschools such as JMU/Vtech/GMU/etc.</p>

<p>momreads, alright yeah well the in-state tuition is nice and I wouldn't have to worry about scholarship money, so yeah JMU and Vtech = safeties probably
lfecollegeguy, I don't think I'm going to app to GMU at all. I'm just really shooting for UVA/W&M, and if I'm lucky, Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>Yeah, I was just listing an in-state safety (George Mason) that is just as good as U. Georgia. However, I would advise on those top schools like you mentioned.</p>

<p>lfecollegeguy, I'm really interested to find out who you associate with that considers JMU or VT to be on par with UR's overall education. I'm sure there are some programs that are available at either institution that are ranked higher than UR in that respective field, but general reputation, UR is far ahead of either of those two schools and quite frankly, it's not even close.</p>