college search help

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a typical high school junior girl from Long Island, New York. I'm planning on doing college visits soon and I'm not exactly sure on what colleges I would be most interested in and I would like to stay realistic. I'm looking to go South and/or West, the only reason I would stay in the Northeast would be if I were to decide to go to NYU or Brown (reach, but hey I can dream) Anyways, my stats:</p>

<p>unweighted GPA: 3.8
SAT (taken 1 time):
CR- 700
Math- 620 (bad day)
Writing- 660
I'm looking to get a 2100 the next time I take, and I'm confident I'll reach that goal
I'm currently taking 4 APs: APUSH, AP Lang & Comp, AP Environmental, AP Bio
and I plan on taking 5 APs next year: AP Gov, AP Euro, AP Calc, AP Physics, AP Lit</p>

<p>ECs:
- captain of girls varsity basketball team
- Habitat for Humanity
- NHS
- Volunteer Tutoring
- service trip this summer to Thailand
- plan on starting volunteer work at hospital </p>

<p>What I'm Looking For:
- as I said somewhere preferably South or on the West Coast, but depending on the school I would be ok with the Northeast too
- anywhere from 4,000-15,000 people
- interested in a variety of different majors: International Relations, Political Science, Creative Writing, English Literature, Film/Cinema Studies
- MUST have a great college town, near a city if not in one, I want to have fun in college- not stuck with the only activity being cow tipping
- a good athletic program would be nice, I do enjoy watching (especially in men's football and basketball)
- on the liberal side I guess, I'm not really interested in a college that has any religious affiliation </p>

<p>Colleges I've looked at and considered:
Brown, UCLA, USC, George Washington, NYU, UNC-Chapel Hill, UCSD, Tulane, University of Virginia</p>

<p>Are these realistic, do they fit?
Thanks for all your help</p>

<p>btw financial aid is not a problem</p>

2

<p>Brown is an Ivy League; I don’t know if you’re SATs are up to par. Most people I know who have been accepted have 2300+ and are amazing at life.</p>

<p>UNC-CH, UVA, and UCLA are in the same boat since you’re out of state; competition is INTENSE because they have to fill the majority of their classes with in-staters (UNC has a requirement of like 82% or something insane like that that are required to be from in-state). A lot of people say that applying OOS is like applying to the Ivies.</p>

<p>I’m not sure about GW, although one of my friends is dying to go there and her stats are pretty much the same as yours. Tulane I think would be a decent bet.</p>

<p>I don’t know much about the others, besides the fact that NYU doesn’t give a lot of financial aid (but you’ve already got this covered).</p>

3

<p>Your list is ok, but you don’t seem to have any match/safeties for your stats.</p>

<p>Once you’ve taken the SAT again, you’ll have a better idea. ALSO…take the ACT!!! Many girls do a lot better on the ACT, and colleges will accept either.</p>

<p>UCLA, UNC-CH, and UVa are hard to get into OOS.</p>

4

<p>The situation for OOS might be a bit different for UCLA and UCSD, because of their huge budget crisis. Since OOS pays much more, the rumor is they are actually favoring OOS. Not sure to what extent that is actually true, but I have had 4 or 5 of my SoCal friends (I do a lot of business there) tell me the same thing. Does have a certain logic to it in the absence of a law like in NC. Not sure why you call that insane, btw. Since it is paid for by the taxpayers of NC, I think the insane part is when other states DON’T have such a rule.</p>

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<p>Maybe Miami also.</p>

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<p>I’m curious, what makes you say that?</p>

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<p>You have a point, I never really thought about it like that. I just knew that 82% was a very, very big number and the OOS acceptance rate is very small. o.O</p>

7

<p>^^^</p>

<p>Because many parents of girls on CC have said so. I believe them. Either way, it’s best to take both tests anyway, since schools will accept, either.</p>

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<p>*Since it is paid for by the taxpayers of NC, I think the insane part is when other states DON’T have such a rule. *</p>

<p>Are you complaining that other states don’t have a rule that limits OOS kids? </p>

<p>If a school has empty seats, then what is the issue? Would you rather that a school shrink enrollment and layoff faculty and staff? </p>

<p>Schools like UVa and UNC-CH have to limit their OOS students because they have plenty of in-state students with sufficient stats to fill those seats.</p>

9

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<p>While I certainly agree with the advice to take both tests, there is no evidence that girls do better on the ACT than on the SAT. According to statistics provided by the ACT, the average female ACT composite score was 20.9 (here’s the link <a href=“http://www.act.org/news/data/09/pdf/National2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.act.org/news/data/09/pdf/National2009.pdf&lt;/a&gt;). The average SAT score for females was 1496 (here’s a link to the USA-Today story). According to conversion charts, these two numbers (20.9 and 1496) are pretty much identical.</p>

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<p>^^^</p>

<p>Good to know… I only have boys (one did better on the ACT and the other did better on the SAT). It’s the parents of girls on CC that report that their D’s did better. </p>

<p>I don’t know if looking at averages reveals what happens to individiuals, though. If one girl does a bit worse on the SAT and a bit better on the ACT, and another girl does a bit worse on the ACT and a bit better on the SAT, then the avgs may end up the same. However, for the individual girl (or boy) who does better on the ACT, it can make a difference.</p>

<p>So…in the end…we both agree that taking both exams is best. :)</p>

11

<p>mom2collegekids - First of all I think characterizing it as complaining is not correct. Second, if state schools are turning down in-state students in favor of OOS ones, which was the situation being postulated for UC schools, then yes, I think that is wrong. I don’t think most state schools are having trouble getting enough qualified in-state students applying. The context, if you read my post carefully, was that in the absence of some law stating otherwise, California schools (for example) are free to pick the higher paying OOS student over the equally or even better qualified in-state student, which I see now is widely held to be the case after looking at some other threads. If I were a taxpayer in California, I would be outraged. But I am not, so I am not complaining, just observing/commenting.</p>

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<p>Of course it doesn’t. Which is a wonderful example of the danger of using anecdotal evidence to try and state a statistical “fact”. You could have just as easily said that many boys do better on the ACT also.</p>

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<p>I do plan on taking the ACT in the fall; I would in the spring, but I just have too much on plate at that time with APs, SAT, and SAT subject tests. Also, what do you recommend for safety/match schools</p>

<p>thanks for everyones input</p>

14

<p>Since OOS pays much more, the rumor is they are actually favoring OOS. Not sure to what extent that is actually true, but I have had 4 or 5 of my SoCal friends (I do a lot of business there) tell me the same thing.</p>

<p>Sounds worse than anecdotal; sounds like pure rumor mill…</p>

<p>I think the insane part is when other states DON’T have such a rule.</p>

<p>Sounds like complaining to me.</p>

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<p>Wow. I said it was a rumor. I clearly stated I wasn’t sure and that I had heard it anecdotally. There is nothing wrong with that, I was perfectly clear as to the status. You stated girls do better on the ACT as a fact but as it turns out you only heard some stories. Huge difference.</p>

<p>Complaining would be if I had suffered from it. What I said is more of an op-ed. Having an opinion is far from the same thing as complaining. If it was, you would be one of the biggest complainers on here. Learn the difference, please.</p>

16

<p>mom2collegekids</p>

<p>Since fallenchemist was quite clear about his sources, I’m not sure why you would characterize his statements about California potentially accepting more OOS students as “worse than anecdotal” and “pure rumor mill”. Moreover, there is evidence that his statements might well be more than the thoughts of several SoCal friends. Here’s a quote from a Washington Post story that appeared in Nov. 2009 (here’s the link to the story [State</a> colleges accepting more nonresidents to keep up revenue - washingtonpost.com](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111301940.html]State”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/13/AR2009111301940.html)) :</p>

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<p>In addition, a story in SFgate is even more direct ([UC</a> Berkeley to admit more out-of-state students - SFGate](<a href=“http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-10-21/bay-area/17185901_1_students-admissions]UC”>http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-10-21/bay-area/17185901_1_students-admissions)). Here’s the quote:</p>

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<p>While the story is talking about UCB, the sentence at the end suggests that all University of California colleges with large numbers of OOS applicants will be looking into doing the same thing.</p>

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<p>Thank you midatlmom. I appreciate the support. I actually knew it was more than a rumor, but I was soft-pedaling it a bit because I wasn’t sure if the newspapers were also just speculating (sad that we have to be so careful about that too). Your finding of direct quotes certainly confirms it though. 14% to 23%. That is huge. I see lawsuits coming.</p>

<p>It was rather amusing to see something clearly stated as anecdotal called “worse than anecdotal”, though. I am not sure how that is possible, LOL. Oh well. I suppose anyone that has posted 7500 times since September(!) is bound to make a mistake every now and then.</p>