Chances?!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey everyone. I have talked to guidance counselors, school staff, and others, but can't really find someone who knows how to talk to me about college choices in a way I can relate to them, so I came here. I have a list of several schools I wouldn't mind going to and need some help narrowing it down to about 9 (3 reach, 3 target, 3 safety) to apply to. I would like to stay in the mid atlantic or go into the northeast/New England, but I would go to more southern states if the financial aid was right. Here is some info about myself:</p>

<p>Live in the suburbs of Philadelphia
White male (eek, i know)
Low income family (parents make less than $60,000 combined per year)
Somewhere between number 4 and 7 in class ranking (out of 300, definitely in top 10%)
SAT: 700 CR, 730 Math, 720 writing (8 on essay)
SAT II: Taking them next year, probably Math 2 and US History, maybe something else.
AP's: Psych, Calc, Spanish, English, Physics, Bio
AP Scores: Psych-5, Calc-3
GPA: 103 weighted (100 scale)
EC: Bowling Team, Key Club, Student Council, National Honor Society, Film Club, Academic Decathlon, Student Newspaper, volunteered for a State Representative's campaign (Republican) and Barack Obama's campaign (Democrat)
I work as a Quality Assurance Associate Engineer in the QA/Tech department of AirClic (AirClic</a> Mobile Business Process Solutions)
Affiliated with Lutheran Church
Liberal/Democrat beliefs
Parents divorced, live with my dad.
I am told I am very good at verbal communication, so I would probably do very well on interviews.
Probable Major: I really don't know, but I would like either something premed or mathematics (or even something pre law)</p>

<p>Schools I would like to go to (please help me qualify as never gonna get in, reach, target, or safety, feel free to suggest others):
Princeton
Brown
Harvard
Dartmouth
Boston College
Cornell
Ithaca
NYU
UPenn
Penn State
Temple
Drexel
Franklin & Marshall
Johns Hopkins
Rutgers</p>

<p>Any help that you guys could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot!</p>

<p>Pat</p>

2

<p>You can definately aim for the TOP Ivies i.e. Harvard, Princeton etc. You have a VERY GOOD shot at UPenn. </p>

<p>Try Penn State as your safety lol
:)
Don't worry - you're AMAZING</p>

3

<p>Thaanks a lot =D</p>

<p>Any other opinions?</p>

4

<p>"You can definately aim for the TOP Ivies i.e. Harvard, Princeton etc. You have a VERY GOOD shot at UPenn. </p>

<p>Try Penn State as your safety lol</p>

<p>Don't worry - you're AMAZING"</p>

<p>Never take college advice from someone that does not even know how to spell definitely...</p>

<p>Penn State University Park is a great place. It should be put above Temple, Drexel, Rutgers, Ithaca, and Franklin & Marshall. I would also suggest you look into applying to Penn State's Schreyer Honor's College. Best of luck.</p>

5

<p>HYPMS are always far reach</p>

6

<p>"You can definately aim for the TOP Ivies i.e. Harvard, Princeton etc. You have a VERY GOOD shot at UPenn.</p>

<p>Try Penn State as your safety lol</p>

<p>Don't worry - you're AMAZING"</p>

<p>Please take this advice with a grain of salt. I'm not saying ilovebabypink is lying or anything, but this advice can be misleading. UPenn has a 16% admission rate, just a couple percentage points higher than HYP (add in cross-admits, athletes, legacies, and the chances go down alot more). </p>

<p>Furthermore, you're not exactly the definition of "amazing" (sorry, just pointing this out). A 2150 is good, but not great for the schools you want to go to. Your ECs, although great, are not "above average" for HYP applicants. </p>

<p>I would say you're a high reach for HYP and reach for Upenn (and other ivies)</p>

7

<p>where do you go to high school? (i also live in the suburbs of Philly) </p>

<p>Anyways, I'm looking at a lot of the schools you are and I have very similar stats. So... of course all of the Ivys are competitive. you can't really say your chances there, but you're competitive for them.
Safeties
Drexel - in, honors college, possibly free ride, Co-op
Temple - same as Drexel, in
Rutgers - in
Penn State - in, look into Honors College! (one of the best in the nation) </p>

<p>Johns Hopkins - low reach, definitely competitive, depends on major
Cornell - low reach </p>

<p>I also think there is a good possibility of admission at NYU, BC, Ithaca, F & M (good matches i guess)... you never know though. </p>

<p>I think financial aid is a given at this point for you. I also think you could get near full costs covered; however, i'm not an expert with financial aid. </p>

<p>I think you have a great list. To cut your list down though, I would take out some Ivys unless you really like all of them. You can probably throw away a few of your safeties, unless you like them all too. </p>

<p>good luck!</p>

8

<p>Princeton-high reach
Brown-reach
Harvard-high reach
Dartmouth-reach
Boston College-high match
Cornell-reach
NYU-match
UPenn-high reach
Penn State-match
Johns Hopkins-reach</p>