<p>Hey guys, </p>
<p>I've been thinking about a college list and here is a first go at it. Just some quick Stats:</p>
<p>SAT: Not yet officially taken, but have taken lots of practice tests. Will be prepping over summer and take October, Let's say I get about 2220</p>
<p>SAT2:
Bio E (9th Grade): 740
Math 2: Taken June
World History: Taken June</p>
<p>All AP Honor Classes, 2 Sophomore year and will take 5 junior year<-- 5 is a lot at my school fyi</p>
<p>GPA is highest Possible, All A's</p>
<p>Junior Year Schedule:
AP Calc BC
AP Chem
AP Physics B
AP Lang
AP US History
Spanish 4
Advanced Compositon/Writing Center</p>
<p>Extra Circulars:</p>
<p>MUN (Secratary)
Debate (Varsity)
Mock Trial (Founder, President)
Math Honor/Mu Alpha Theta (Executive Council)
House Basketball (6 years, 5 championships)
Coach Rec League Basketball
Hospital Volunteer (App. 100 hours this year)
School Writing Center Tutor</p>
<p>One other thing I'm prod of is that I was accepted to VA Governor's School and will be attending this summer. Hopefully, that is good for Instate schools</p>
<p>I live in VA, so all VA public schools will be instate</p>
<p>So here is the list:</p>
<p>Columbia
Harvard
JHU
Georgetown
Duke
Wash U in St. Louis
UVA (instate)
William and Mary (instate)
Pitt Honors
VCU Honors (will also try for guaranteed med, but that has no bearing on Honors college accpetance)</p>
<p>So thoughts?
Thanks</p>
<p>GPA? Class Rank? Financial need?</p>
<p>What do you plan to study?</p>
<p>What other constraints, if any, do you have?</p>
<p>GPA: As I said, highest possible. School doesn’t do unweighted and doesn’t report. If I did thought:</p>
<p>Unweighted: 4.0
Weighted: 4.36 (this is highest Possible)</p>
<p>No class ranks either, would def. be in top 5/600</p>
<p>Want to study neuroscience and International Relations</p>
<p>Want to stay within driving distance of DC area, but if given lots of merit, would be willing to go farther</p>
<p>Isn’t it a bit early to be trying to make finalized lists of schools if you’re only a rising junior? Wait until later in junior year to be worrying about this… </p>
<p>For all you know, your interests/desired majors may change within the next year.</p>
<p>This definitely is not finalized. I just want to know whether to cut down on reaches, add more safeties, stuff like that. Also, suggestions on what others think could be good for me.</p>
<p>Columbia and Harvard are big reaches. JHU through Wash U are mid reaches. UVA and down looks pretty good. Are you from Nova? Do you attend a full-year governor’s school? I am from VA as well and was accepted into VCU Honors,and UVA Echols this year, so I think I can give a good opinion on those. Are you a minority? That would bump you up for your reach schools.</p>
<p>Sent from my VM670 using CC</p>
<p>Also, if you don’t need much aid, you could look at George Washington U and American U. Good for IR - but I don’t know about neuro.</p>
<p>Sent from my VM670 using CC</p>
<p>I am from Nova. No, I choose not to go to the full year gov. school (aka TJ) because I felt it didn’t meet what I wanted for a high school experience and I didn’t want a high school filled with cut throat over-competitiveness. The Gov. School I’m going to is the Summer residential one. I am a ORM, so no bump for me.</p>
<p>My parents would only be willing to shell out the 60k a year for schools with great name recognition, which to them is everything WashU and above on my list. Otherwise, they really want UVA</p>
<p>What was your PSAT score? Did you take it as a soph?</p>
<p>If not, practice for the PSAT…making NMF can mean merit money at some schools.com</p>
<p>What is your budget? How much will your parents pay? If you don’t know, ask them. That answer may largely determine where you should apply. </p>
<p>If you need aid, then you need to find out if you QUALIFY for the aid that you need.</p>
<p>We don’t qualify for aid. I’ve had the talk with my parents. They say right now, they can pay for all instate schools no problem. For private, they can pay about 2.5 years and the remainder would go on loans, so not entirely impossible. But, they would only pay full price for the private schools if it has some name recognition to it ie. Harvard, Columbia, Duke, etc.</p>
<p>Who would be responsible for the loans?</p>
<p>If you’re going to be pre-med, you shouldn’t have much in loans since med school is soooo expensive.</p>
<p>have you been to all these schools, or just base your list on “brand” appeal?</p>
<p>are you more interested in the name of the school or the all around education, growth and happiness you can get out of college?</p>
<p>Ask your parents to run the Net Price Calculators on the College Websites. Harvard, a huge reach school, has generous merit. Many families who do not qualify at other schools do qualify at Harvard.</p>
<p>Listen to mom2collegekids - take PSAT and try to get National Merit. Your SAT prep is PSAT prep.</p>
<p>With your interests, you should consider looking at schools that offer full tuition/full rides and using your parents college savings for graduate school/med school.</p>
<p>I have visited each of these schools except for JHU, Duke, Pitt, WashU, and VCU and I will be visiting JHU and Duke this summer. And zo, if I was just into brand appeal, why am i not asking about applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, etc?</p>
<p>I have done the PSAT, but I did not study (probably should have) and did not take seriously. I got a 196.</p>
<p>Do you guys have any suggestions of schools with full rides? I know that many people get full rides to VCU and Pitt.</p>
<p>As for loans, my parents would cosign and would help me pay them off, but I will still pay some of it. I’m sure my parents would want to pay all of them, but I’d feel really bad about putting that all on them</p>
<p>tommy
A 196 as a 10th grader is great! Be sure to take the PSAT this year. Go read about full rides/full tuition on the Financial Aid section of this forum. Most talked about here is Bama. I’d also suggest looking into Drexel is med school is a possibility. Drexel is within driving distance to DC (about 3 hours)</p>
<p>Visit VCU. The MOST important thing is to find a safety school (financially and admissions) that you would like to attend.</p>
<p>JHU has a very different feel than some of the other schools. </p>
<p>Spend some time in self reflection. What do you want out of college? Look at it from all angles – socially, physical living space, sport events.</p>
<p>My son balked at Bama. Doesn’t want big sports, doesn’t prefer huge size where he things it is all red tape to get into courses. He created a checklist of what he wants out of college. He was very surprised when he realized Bama hits 85% of what he wants. So, please keep an open mind.</p>
<p>You are off to a great start!</p>
<p>I’ll definitely think about adding Drexel.</p>
<p>Truthfully, all I want from a school is be in or near a pretty big metro area, yet doesn’t feel like I was plopped in the middle of a city (like Columbia’s Morningside Heights, when I was there, it didn’t feel like I was in NYC at all). Also, I want a pretty big school. Also, I would like it to be on the East Coast, but there can be exceptions (IE WashU b/c possibility of merit). And finally, good placement into grad school (either med or law, not entirely sure).</p>
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<p>That could add up to about $75K-$90K in loans. That is a big amount compared to the average debt at graduation from the USNWR top 20 national universities, which ranges from about $5K (Princeton) to $26K (Emory).</p>