Chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>Can people please evaluate my friend's chances?</p>

<p>Background: White female, California
Large competitive public school
GPA: 3.91, 4.28
Rank: 8/512
SAT: 730 Math, 760 Critical Reading, 760 Writing
SAT II: 780 Math IIC, 800 Chemistry, 770 Biology
AP's: 5 Macroeconomics, 5 Microeconomics, 5 Chemistry, 5 Biology, 5 Calculus BC, 4 English Language, 3 Statistics</p>

<p>AP Scholar with Distinction
National Merit Semifinalist
President of Girls for Math and Science
Founder and President of March of Dimes Club
Social Manager of ASB Student Council
Treasurer of National Honor Society
Varsity Track and Field
Member of FBLA</p>

<p>Schools:
Caltech EA, Georgetown EA, MIT EA, UChicago EA
Williams, Amherst
Northwestern
Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale
UC Berkeley, UCLA</p>

<p>Her main interest/major is Mathetmatics and Economics. It may seem like she's applying to a lot of schools, but I think she said she wants to narrow her list down later.</p>

2

<p>Her classes look good. Her stats don't matter so much. If she wants to come to Chicago make sure she knows why and can articulate it well in an essay.</p>

<p>The End.</p>

3

<p>Good-like.</p>

4

<p>I see, so her enthusiasm is what is important, along with her essays.</p>

5

<p>Pretty much.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for the responses so far :).</p>

7

<p>If she doesn't know already, and I assume she does, Chicago is probably the best school for economics in the US, and one of the top five for mathematics. I got a BS in mathematics while I was there and I knew a ton of people who were math/econ double-majors.</p>

8

<p>Were they half as neat-o as you?</p>

9

<p>Yep. It was the grad students that were a little questionable.</p>

10

<p>Yeah, I think that's one of the reasons why she chose Chicago (econ).</p>

11

<p>Might have problems with the tech schools with the math scores. She looks set for Chicago if she writes good essays.</p>

12

<p>Essays essays essays at Chicago. But honestly, what is anyone doing with Amherst and Williams on their college list with UCLA and UCB. Those are completely opposite ends of the spectrum.</p>

13

<p>As a female, she has a real good shot at CalTech and MIT. EC's a little weak for some of the Ivy's, but still in the running. Excellent shot at Chicago if it is a place she would truly like to attend and her essays are well written. </p>

<p>Has she visited any of the schools on her list? I highly recommend it, they are quite different.</p>

14

<p>Yeah, I too think she should narrow down her list. Right now, she's just picking based on strong math/econ departments.</p>

15

<p>Not even that. Stanford is one of the top five schools for an econ/math undergrad combo (MIT-Harvard-UChicago-Princeton-Stanford in no particular order), but is not on the list for some reason. Cornell is nothing special in math/econ. I can't fathom the presence of Georgetown, which is pretty terrible in both subjects. Caltech is good at math but not econ. Northwestern and Penn are good in econ but not math. Columbia and UCLA are pretty decent at both, but, considering their similarities to, respectively, UChicago and Berkeley, it's hard to see what advantages they present.</p>

<p>It just looks like a list of prestigious schools without much regard to actual programs to me.</p>

16

<p>okay....I don't know, I think you can like UCLA and both Williams at the same time, but that's just my opinion. Her list does have its ranges.</p>

17

<p>i dont see anything wrong with wanting to go to a good school. any of those schools would provide an excellent education, whereas if she went to a school only good at math she could be in trouble should she change her mind. also, perhaps ucla and ucb are safeties, which is why theyre on the same list as williams and amherst...</p>

18

<p>I agree, but there are schools that are good at math/econ that are also good at just about everything else (of these, Berkeley, Chicago, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale are on her list.) Williams and Amherst may make sense, I wouldn't know as I didn't familiarize myself with the LAC's. I'm suspicious that her two top LAC choices happen to be rated #1 and #2 among LAC's. Georgetown, to take the worst example, is a great school that happens to suck at her interests. I wouldn't tell anybody to come to Chicago for Psych, just as no one ought to be steered towards Georgetown for math/econ.</p>

<p>UCLA and UCB are almost certainly there because they're free. Of course, Berkeley would be an excellent choice regardless given her interests. I'd have had a tough decision between Chicago and Berkeley if the latter hadn't royally screwed me on financial aid (I'm doing math/econ).</p>

<p>A list based on programs rather than general prestigiousness would look something like this:</p>

<p>Reach: Princeton, Stanford, MIT
Match: Chicago, Penn, Northwestern
Safety: Berkeley, Michigan-Ann Arbor, UCLA</p>

<p>with Chicago, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, and MIT as the preferred choices.</p>

19

<p>Is there something wrong with applying to highly rated LAC's?</p>

20

<p>Not necessarily. Do Amherst and Williams have particularly good math and econ departments?</p>

<p>I'm suspicious because the whole of the list gives the impression that she chose prestigious schools regardless of their quality in the area of her interest. It seems statistically unlikely to me that the two best LAC's for math/economics happen to be ranked #1 and 2 in USNews. Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd would intuitively seem to be the LAC's that would best match her interests (though, not knowing much about the LAC's, I could be wrong). Just a suspicion.</p>

<p>If that suspicion is correct, then yes, there is something wrong with applying to schools based on rank rather than quality.</p>