College Suggestions for current senior

<p>For RD applications - cousin's daughter just wants to get input on her list and make sure she has enough matches and safeties.</p>

<p>Applied ED to Northwestern so I think a big reach, right?</p>

<p>3.8 weighted GPA - school does not provide unweighted
32 ACT
Good rigor (lots of honors and APs, but not every single thing offered - not sure anyone does that at her school though if it's anything like our school)
Very competitive public school in Westchester County, NY
Decent ECs (no sports, but runs a couple of things, works, plays an instrument in band, and volunteers)</p>

<p>Wants medium to very large school - nothing too small
Might want to be a high school history teacher
Money not an issue (lucky her)</p>

<p>Other schools on her list (some seem like too much of a reach to me?): </p>

<p>Vanderbilt
Wash U
Cornell
UVA
U Michigan
U Texas Austin
U Maryland
U Connecticut
Syracuse (she isn't wild about this one but parent went there and they think it's a safety?)
Tulane</p>

<p>She is really not interested in any of the SUNYs - she feels that she doesn't need to have one on her list as a safety because she has other safeties on her list.</p>

<p>Input appreciated!</p>

<p>Decent mix. NW, Vandy, WashU, Cornell, UM OOS, and UVA OOS are all reaches, but being full pay doesn’t hurt!</p>

<p>Good luck to her.</p>

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<p>Better would be for her to find a safety that she actually likes.</p>

<p>If she wants the big state university experience, Alabama and Temple would be safeties with automatic scholarships (but watch the deadlines).</p>

<p>Thanks to both of you! I’ll suggest Temple - I don’t think she wants Alabama because she is Jewish and wants a good Jewish population (should have added that above).</p>

<p>I think she will get into at least 3 of these, U Conn, U of MD, Syracuse or Tulane, but if she wants to add another what about University of Delaware?</p>

<p>Alabama actually has a really nice Jewish population, though I don’t know if there is a Jewish sorority. UT Austin, if she is really interested, she should have applied by now. They fill up very quickly.</p>

<p>Brandeis? It’s about 50% Jewish.</p>

<p>Muehlenberg too.</p>

<p>Thanks - I suggested Brandeis and was told that was <em>too</em> Jewish - haha! She may have already applied to some of the rolling schools - I wrote down her whole list. I think she saw Muehlenberg and didn’t like it - is it a school with spirit? Also, what about Lehigh? Any thoughts? A friend just suggested it.</p>

<p>College of Charleston. </p>

<p>Tulane is picky about interest even for full pay - my neighbor with amazing stats and he is an amazing kid was wait listed. They do track early interest and how active your portal is. Their first wave of applications is over. She can still apply but if she is interested at all have her really show it. It was very peripherally in the early mix for DS so we played the interest game for a few months. He still gets urgent messages to access his portal and get his app in. I think their EA deadline was yesterday.</p>

<p>Yes, Tulane’s EA deadline was 12/3. Tulane also offers SCEA as a way for the applicant to show a higher level of interest.</p>

<p>Syracuse seems pretty safe and not too different from the others. It was one of my younger son’s safeties (he thought it was too big). He ended up dropping it when he got into Chicago EA. A lot of his friends ended up at Temple.</p>

<p>Agree about Syracuse. </p>

<p>Maybe American or GW if she isn’t crazy about Syracuse. </p>

<p>University of Miami fits the bill.</p>

<p>If she wants to be a high school history teacher, she would be wise to choose a college in the state in which she intends to teach.</p>

<p>University of Rochester would be a safety or match, in my opinion. </p>

<p>I know 2 young ladies who went to Lehigh and really enjoyed it. Both of them joined a sorority. The school has more men than women, so it is a good school for a woman to apply to (a possible hook). With her stats she shouldn’t have a problem getting in, unless they think it is a backup school for her.</p>

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<p>I find it interesting she’s willing to put Syracuse on the list and not list some higher end SUNYs like Bing or Stonybrook.</p>

<p>Interesting as when I was applying to colleges in the mid-'90s, the higher-end SUNYs were actually harder to gain admission to on basis of GPA/Stats than Syracuse. Most classmates who went off to Syracuse were either kids who received full-ride scholarships or upper/upper-middle class kids whose stats got them rejected from Bing and/or Stonybrook. </p>

<p>The only reason to consider Syracuse is if they offer a 4 year near full/full ride without onerous GPA or other conditions. If it is between full-pay Syracuse and a SUNY…especially Bing or Stonybrook, I’d chose the SUNYs. </p>

<p>Incidentally, Brandeis was one of my college choices precisely because it has a good history department for the areas I was interested in pursuing. </p>

<p>However, Oberlin offered me more money and was actually stronger in those areas at the time so that’s where I ended up attending/graduating. </p>

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<p>Not necessarily, especially if she plans to teach in NY state where many teachers pick up an M.Ed to fulfill public school hiring requirements and to get higher salaries. </p>

<p>Plenty of college classmates ended up becoming K-12 public school teachers all over the nation/world. A few of them are teaching in the NY state/NYC public schools. </p>

<p>One thing that IS IMPORTANT is to keep undergrad costs as low as possible due to the need for further post-college education and the lower starting salaries and out-of-pocket expenses. </p>

<p>Regarding Alabama-Tuscaloosa; the father of one my university classmates is a Jewish fellow from the New York suburbs whom is a exceedingly devoted alumnus and fan of 'Bama. So much so that at the time his son and I were classmates at our own alma mater (not Bama), the dad was famous for attending EVERY home game of the football Crimson Tide in the twenty-some years after his graduation. You Bama fans might have seen him interviewed on national TV on occasion during Bama’s games.</p>

<p>My point is, don’t dismiss Alabama so perfunctorily. And check with Momof2CollegeKids here on CC to find out more about UA’s good points.</p>

<p>Thanks so much for the input - I am passing all this info along. What I’ve noticed, though, in talking to her is that she seems to want “prestige.” She says that she feels like she worked so hard in high school that she doesn’t want to end up at a college where the kid next to her who may not have worked at all ends up. (Obviously there are honors programs and she is applying to them - but I think the reason Penn State isn’t on her list is because their honors program is impossible to get into if you’re out of state.) I can understand her point - although you are going to find all types of kids at public schools. I think there is a lot of pressure in her school to go to a “prestigious” college given where she is located. </p>