<p>is UoA a party school? :o I don’t know if I’ll like that.
UCSD seems so perfect for me! quiet place, lots of things to study hahah</p>
<p>The Italian to US grade translation is a mystery to me. I can only go by what you suggest and what seems likely. In the US, someone’s GPA does not go from 3.28 to 3.72 in two semesters of their junior and senior year no matter how well they do those two semesters. As for the SAT, which I didn’t really consider because sometimes colleges don’t pay much heed to the SAT scores of internationals, you tell us your practice test turned out a CR+M of 1050. I can’t know now that you will get a much higher score in the fall. So I’m trying to err on the side of caution. Besides, if you do get a 3.7 and a 1900, then the schools I’ve recommended can become matches and safeties. Hai capito?</p>
<p>any large school is a party school because there are so many people there’s always someone having a party of some kind, UA included, but that doesn’t mean you cannot find your balance between social life and a study life. there will be plenty of quiet places at UA or anywhere else. </p>
<p>I thought you didn’t like UCSD (#12)? UCSD is very good u/g and esp. grad. </p>
<p>I can see now that I shouldn’t have burdened you with all that info about choosing u/g courses with grad schools in mind. Getting your head around US u/g programs and colleges will be enough. My bad.</p>
<p>I’m here for suggestion, I really appreciate you are helping me! Really 
Yes, I do like UCSD very much! But, it is a top school, I do not have much chances of getting there, even if I get 3.7 and 1900.</p>
<p>I found this program at GaTech: [GT</a> Catalog : COC : School of Interactive Computing : BS Computational Media : Degree Requirements](<a href=“http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/colleges/coc/ic/ugrad/bscm/bscm-pidem.php]GT”>http://www.catalog.gatech.edu/colleges/coc/ic/ugrad/bscm/bscm-pidem.php)</p>
<p>Could this be a good for me (it seems like Cog Sci, but I’d like more opinion on that). And GaTech seems a match/safety for me, no? 1500 SAT average. </p>
<p>Looking at the matches I got from the application on CC, also UA seems pretty much match/safety, do you agree?</p>
<p>agreed on UCSD and UA as reach and match, respectively. </p>
<p>Georgia Tech is a distant reach for you. The average GPA is 3.9 and the SAT is 1350.</p>
<p>GT is a very good technology/engineering university, but, Dude, you’re driving me crazy:
this is an intensely compsci approach to cogsci. There’re only three required psych courses and no required neuroscience, linguistics, genetics, evolutionary bio, philosophy, aesthetics, or behavior. Little interdepartmental or interdisciplinary shape to the program. I thought this was what you wanted to AVOID in a cogsci program. I would have suggested different colleges if I thought this is what you wanted. Please clarify.</p>
<p>If you are like a lot of students, you want the best name school you can get. If you’re like a lot of internationals you might think there are only 50 good schools in the US with a good reputation. That simply isn’t true. Find a school where your interests and abilities fit the program, rather than a brand name to which you have to fit your interests and your abilities. Besides, when you go to grad school no one will ask you where you went to undergrad.</p>
<p>No no don’t get me wrong - I am not like that. It’s just I like lots of things and subject. Mostly psychology and comp sci, but others too. Cog sci is perfect for me - Gatech was only a thought. I like media and graphics - but I think I’ll integrate them with psychology and comp sci 
Also, that program used to be interdisciplinary, at least it was when I first looked up.</p>
<p>With a sat average of 1350 you think this is a reach? Is that really possible that the gpa is so high and the sat so low?</p>
<p>Mmh well, I’m a bit concerned about last thing you wrote there. Does this means I can enter in basically every school that it doesn’t matter? When I first decided to give US uni a try I decided also that I was gonna apply to best school - I thought about MIT, UCLA, UCB, UCSD, but as you see, I’m still searching. Now I think I’ll not apply to MIT (it impossible I get in and I have to do subject test…), but I think I’ll give a try to UCB and UCLA, and hope. UCSD is my first option - maybe I’ll do early action. And now I’m also considering UCSC as a almost match. Maybe also U of A.</p>
<p>The thing is that I think that If I want to get into a good grad school I have to be in a good undergrad, no? Just to prepare myself, since I’m not from us and I am (and I will be if I get in) a little lost.
Applying to safeties school that are not top school I think will not be very wise… I’m not going this far away for a school that’s not worth it. Another thing is that I like to be overwhelmed by school and study - that’s another reason I pay attention to rankings, maybe the most important reason.</p>
<p>I don’t know if I explained myself well enough. I do not want you to think bad about me, or to think I’m superficial - I’m just addicted to study I think.</p>
<p>okay, in the US, people, not necessarily undergraduates, however, know that most colleges don’t consider the writing portion of the SAT, so we old folks speak of one’s SAT as the sum of one’s critical reading and math scores. Often you’ll see it talked about as CR+M, but usually it’s just called the SAT. The maximum CR+M is of course 1600. So an SAT of 1600 would be great, right? A 1000 would be very low for any school we’re talking about (I think; I don’t actually deal much in schools where SATs of 1000 are common). For comparison only, parents and students here at College Confidential freak out if they have an SAT below 1200. For comparison only, your pre-test of the SAT is a 1050, but you’re an international student and schools have various SAT policies for internationals and, basically, no one knows what those policies are. Still, you can see that a 1050 at any of the schools we’re talking about is a concern. </p>
<p>Undergraduates like to talk about their CR+M+W score, however, because it sounds better, like a higher score, to many of them. You, for instance, said you intend to get a 1900. You were using the CR+M+W score. What we really want to know is how you do in CR and M, together and independently. Forget the CR+M+W.</p>
<p>So when I say GT’s SAT is 1350, I mean the CR+M score. You can see that’s much higher than your pre-test, and hence right now GT is a reach, a likely impossible reach.</p>
<p>Turning now to your response to “the last thing I wrote,” I would say that of course you wanted to apply to the best school. Everyone wants to go to the best school. But how do we define what is best? I suggested in my last post that you re-define what is best in terms of what is best for YOU, not what is best according to someone or some ranking that does not know you. However, if you are to come to the U.S you must have only one of the top schools, then I will tell you that you will not get into one of the top schools.</p>
<p>I’ve made some suggestions about schools for which you can reach and schools for you’re a match. Unless your GPA and SAT scores rise significantly, these are the schools you’ll have some chance of being admitted to. You could expand your climate range and thus expand your choices. Expanded choices mean better chance of including more schools that you’ve heard of, but it won’t include a Top 50 national brand school. No MIT, UCB, or UCLA. </p>
<p>Now I hope you’ll check me out and not take my word for any school you still hold out hope for. Each school is required by law to report their median 50% SAT scores. So you’ll hear people on CC saying and be able to read online something called the middle 50 for each school. For instance, for MIT the middle 50 is 1410-1570. That data can be re-phrased as 25% of the students admitted to MIT had an SAT below 1410, but most of those students were recruited athletes, underrepresented minorities (URMs), or legacies (people whose parents or grandparents gave the school millions of dollars); or it can be re-phrased as 1/4th of the admitted students had SATs over 1570!! (out of 1600–that’s higher than any other school in the world, probably); or it can be re-phrased in other ways. Those same high SAT students also had GPAs on average of 3.84. Any way you say it, MIT admissions is as tough as it gets; MIT has probably the highest average IQ of any square mile on the face of the earth. UCB’s middle 50 is 1250-1490, UCLA is 1170-1430, UCSD is 1110-1360, UCSB is 1100-1330, and UCSC is 1020-1260. Your 1050 would then put you in the bottom 30-35% of students admitted to UCSC. You would be a low reach for UCSD and UCSB (which has a wonderful neuroscience program) and a high reach for UCLA and an impossible reach for UCB. The one thing you have going for you is that you’re full pay, so schools will like that but it’s still not enough to get you into UCB.</p>
<p>In the US, it makes no difference where you go undergrad. It’s how you perform in undergrad that matters. To graduate admissions, a 3.9 at UCSB is worth more than a 3.3 from Harvard. When you get your PhD, only Harvard students will care where you went undergrad ;+) Nobody I work with knows where I went undergrad. Nor do they care much where I went to grad school. They care about what I do or don’t do, how productive I am, how much I contribute. This is not Europe where school names open a lot of doors.</p>
<p>You say you’re not going this far to a school that’s not worth it. That’s my point. You need to define what’s worth it and why and learn to think like an American student :+) At any of these schools you can be as overwhelmed as you want to be. There’s always another research opportunity out there you can take up, another volunteer opportunity, graduate student journal clubs to join, etc. You can work as hard as you want inside and outside the classroom. It has nothing to do with rankings. It has to do with what you want and what kind of person you are. If you’re bored as an undergraduate at any of these schools, you’re not telling the right people. Go to the Director of Undergraduate Studies of your department and say, “I’m bored. Can you suggest to me some more work to do?” He or she will tell you who needs help in their lab or research. </p>
<p>I think you’re delightful. I could use a few more students who are addicted to study, but I don’t teach cogsci. It is late and this note is too long to proofread well, so forgive my typos, please. Buona notte!</p>
<p>You’re right, I am thinking like a small-village student from nowhere in Europe, I should start thinking like a US student. </p>
<p>Now I need to concentrate on my SAT and GPA. I haven’t recived my first ‘pagella’ (the sheet with school score report) and maybe I can work on some classes before getting it (I have an accord with the science teacher to get an A).
I still have five more months till the end of the year to raise my official GPA (because here we don’t change classes and credit hours, so the official gpa is calculated at the end of the year.
As soon as I get my mid year score report and the first SAT score I’ll post here, just to confirm.</p>
<p>Now maybe I could open my option? Like to states where there’s mid season? Like there’s also spring… Where is gets little cold but not freezing? I really don’t know if this exists.</p>
<p>Moreover, I wanted to ask if you have suggestion on how to practice for the sat. Is Taking practice tests sufficient? </p>
<p>I am really sorry I’m this confusional and I change my mind this often - it’s just this is very important for me, it could be the time I get to leave my like behind and start a new one maybe and I have very scared and preoccupied and everything. I myself am freaking out.</p>
<p>I love your invention of “confusional.” It captures the state of mind so well and I’d never seen it before.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are developing a good plan for this semester. As an international, you could improve your critical reading score dramatically just by increasing your vocabulary by 100-200 words. You can improve your overall SAT by having a look at </p>
<p>[SAT</a> Preparation - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/]SAT”>SAT Preparation - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>for lots of practical advice. That you like to study provides you with an edge in preparing for the SAT. I recommend you set aside 15-30 minutes every day. Any longer and your learning efficiency decreases. Doing it every day leads to constant reinforcement. Don’t go to bed without doing it, but try to practice earlier in the day when you’re not tired. You should be good at this since you like to study.</p>
<p>Come back and let us know how you’re doing, okay?</p>
<p>Sorry for that error! Haha I was at school and I didn’t pay attention! In Italian we say ‘confusionale’ so :p</p>
<p>I’ll do my best! See ya and thank you!</p>
<p>ok, as promised here I am.
I just recived my SAT score. It’s ■■■■■■ and I know it. I felt bad during the test, and I think they didn’t undestand my essay because I cited an Italian novel.
I also recived first semester transcript. (for the first semester we have 2 grades for some subject. they are out of 10)</p>
<p>Italian: 7/7 - B/B
English: 7/8 - B/A
History: 6 - C
Philosophy: 7 B
Math 7/7 B/B
Physics: 7 B
Comp Sci 7/9 B/A+
Science (Biology, Chemestry, Geology): 8 A
Art (History&Drawning): 8 A
Physical Ed: 8 A</p>
<p>My SAT is
CR: 540
M: 620
W: 480</p>
<p>I think I’ll retake it in May, maybe I’ll also take the ACT. I don’t know.
This score is strange, though. At home I always scored 1700</p>
<p>Do some of you have some advice? some schools name?
It’s like I’m drowning.</p>
<p>Ah, I forgot. the GPA is like 2.45</p>
<p>I assume you’ve been studying for the SAT because your CR+M score is almost as high as your highest practice composite. That’s great! Keep studying. I think your estimate of the GPA is low, but as I said I don’t have much familiarity with Italian grading. Don’t consider the Writing score.</p>
<p>I’m going to recommend some warmer schools with cogsci programs or programs that are sufficiently broad so as to qualify even if they’re called something other than cogsci–and that will be happy to take your money. You will not have heard of them, but if you want to come to the US to study you will apply to several of these. Does that make sense to you? I cannot recommend many schools you’ve heard of because you just won’t get in there. Let me know if you want me to do this because it will take some time.</p>
<p>If there’s anyone else who can help the OP, please chime in.</p>
<p>I mistyped!! it’s 3.45 the GPA!!</p>
<p>yeah I really studied a lot. and I will re take it for sure. Maybe I’ll even take the ACT in April.
the writing part went bad only because in Italy the essay are very different… the multiple choiche went good I think (50/80). Even in English class we do not do this.</p>
<p>If you’d help me, it would be really great - but i need a good weather (like Cali, AZ, …). I really need it, because I have some difficulties in walking. (Does this help me get in.?)
Anyway, as I said, I would like to go to good school. Not necessairly high ranked, but good. Some school you would spend money on. Not party school. Schools that are known for lots of study. Absolutely NOT drugs.</p>
<p>I know I am asking for the moon, but it will change my life - I wanna make this worthy.</p>
<p>okay, warmer schools with programs, minors, or majors at the u/g level which the schools call “cognitive science” and to which you have a good chance at admission:</p>
<p>UTexas Dallas 3.9 1270
UMemphis 3.3 880-1160
UKentucky 3.46 1010-1250
UGeorgia 3.83 1243
UCentral Florida 3.78 1243
UC Santa Cruz 3.62 1092
UC Merced 3.47 1021
UArizona 3.42 983-1230
Oklahoma State 3.51 1109
Occidental College 3.67 1300
Cal State Fresno 3.3 810-1040
Cal State Stanislaus 3.26 924</p>
<p>The GPAs are on a 5.0 scale; the SATs include CR+M. Let me be clear. I’m not advocating for any of these schools. You’ll have to check them out as thoroughly as you can. Each of them will have some problem, probably, but you won’t know that until you research each. </p>
<p>My gpa on a scale of 5.0 is 4.4 I think. I’m not really sure, though, because we don’t have GPA.</p>
<p>Also UCSD has 3.8 gpa and 1235 SAT I think.
I really appreciate your help, really. Thank you.</p>
<p>I was also wondering…
What if we do not consider Cog Sci? Since I’m not that sure, maybe I expand the list of college and find another program I like (?)</p>
<p>Ok, again, sorry if I’m being dispersive and sorry if this is taking long to resolve.
I have found some interesting majors that could replace cog sci: behavioural science and computational science. I could double major, couldn’t i?
I am searching for colleges now - if someone knows something please, help!</p>