Competitiveness, grade deflation, and social scene? Help me refine my list! Thanks :)

<p>Hello CC! I'm trying to select the colleges that I will be applying to in the fall. The following is the list of reach/match schools I'm considering. I'm wondering if you can help me out by commenting on some of the follow factors:
A) competitiveness (I don't want to apply to a cut throat school-- a little competition is OK, not too much)
B) grade deflation (I may want to apply to med school, so not desirable...)
C) social scene (I need SOME semblance of a social scene...)</p>

<p>Boston College
Boston University
Wake Forest University
USC
UPenn
Columbia
Tufts
UCLA
UCB
UVA
Georgetown
Pomona
Northwestern
Rice
WashU
UWash
UCSD
Dartmouth
Duke</p>

<p>Oh, and my majors are linguistics and neuroscience :)</p>

<p>Bump </p>

<p>Socially - BC, Wake, USC, UCLA, UVA, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Penn, & Duke are all balanced (you might also like Vanderbilt, Michigan, Colgate, and Lehigh). </p>

<p>bump</p>

<p>your first consideration is whether or not your family can afford to send you there. run the “net price calculator” on five of these schools (you’ll find it on their webpages). You’ll need some info from your parents. Then show your parents what the schools say your parents are likely to need to provide. That will give you some idea of where you’re going to be able to apply. </p>

<p>the second is whether or not you can get into these schools. what are your GPA and SAT and ECs?</p>

<p>without this information, we’re spinning our wheels trying to help you.</p>

<p>@jkeil911 I can price message you stats. Cost is not an issue at this time.
Once I’ve messaged you, can you please advise? </p>

<p>Cost is always an issue, OP, unless your family is in the 2%.</p>

<p>You can pm me but I won’t be back to you for 12 hours or so because it’s after 1 here.</p>

<p>I think income is around 200k, and No matter how much I ask, I’m simply told not to worry. </p>

<p>Yeah I sent you my credentials. I feel like, excluding the top 20 schools I hAve on my list, I should probably have a decent shot at the rest. </p>

<p>Medical school is [url=&lt;a href=“https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/]expensive[/url”&gt;https://services.aamc.org/tsfreports/]expensive[/url</a>]. If you go to a lower net price undergraduate school, will your parents contribute the remainder to medical school costs so that you will finish medical school with less debt? Less debt may allow you to choose a medical specialty of your interest, rather then being pressured by high debt to seek the highest paying specialties.</p>

<p>Honestly, I don’t know for sure that I want to go to med school. So, I actually won’t take that into consideration right now. I get that it’s expensive, but I know that my parents would help out.
Still, I’m sure grades are just as important for any grad school, which is why I want to keep grade deflation in mind…
Given that, can you answer the question/offer up some insight? Thanks :slight_smile: @ucbalumnus</p>

<p>First of all, do you have a safety that you like? This is the first school you should find and put on your application list.</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus can you recommend any? I was thinking, maybe, University of WA, UCSC, UC Riverside? Here are my stats/credentials… It’s kind of long, sorry! Thanks for your help :slight_smile: I appreciate it. </p>

<p>GPA: UW 4.0 (academic)-- only As and A+s (no minuses thus far) This GPA includes, essentially, A-G courses (5 core classes + my elective, band)</p>

<p>I have received two B’s, but in PE my freshman year; how does this weigh in? Does it matter?</p>

<p>Classes I have taken considered “advanced”:
Advanced English (9 and 10)
Advanced History (9)
AP European History (10)
AP Biology (11)
AP Language and Composition (11)
AP US History (11)
Precalculus (11)</p>

<p>Senior prospective schedule:
AP Lit-- MAYBE not AP… would this hurt me?
AP Microeconomics
AP Macroeconomics
AP Gov
AP Calc AB
AP Physics
AP Italian
Adv. Band</p>

<p>Test Scores:
ACT: Composite 34 : M36, E35, R34, S30 (I’m retaking so that I can get my science score up!)
SAT II: Bio (M) and Math II and maybe USHist-- I’m taking these in May. What scores do you think I’ll need?
AP European History (5)
Hoping for either 4s or 5s in AP Bio, Lang, and USH! How important are AP scores in the admissions process?</p>

<p>Activities: *** denotes leadership position (required election)

  1. Italian Club President (9,10,11,12)***
    cultural activities coordinator in 9, VP in 10, President in 11, and 12</p>

<ol>
<li>American Cancer Society Club President (9,10,11,12)
President in 11,12
Secretary in 9,10</li>
</ol>

<p>Which goes hand in hand with…</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Event Chair of Relay for Life- essentially, the top position. (elected to lead committee of students for planning our community’s Relay for Life which raises approximately $50,000) (10,11,12) ***
This is pretty significant because we raise more money than Stanford, USC, UCLA, etc. Also, this event is typically run by adults, but has been taken over by students in my community.</p></li>
<li><p>Volunteer for many many hours at an organization in the urban area near me that houses cancer patients (children)-- I work on the living conditions for these patients and their families by making holiday cards, painting, cleaning, organizing, making the place a nice place for the brave kids! I also tutor the patient’s siblings. (I’m not sure how many hours, but I know the number should be pretty high…) (10,11,12)</p></li>
<li><p>Intern at my hospital’s cancer center, shadowed oncologist, volunteered, too! (I’m not sure how many hours, though, but a lot!) (10,11,12)</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve played piano for 11 years, numerous awards from my conservatory! Will submit arts supplement (9,10,11,12)</p></li>
<li><p>Flute and Piccolo which I play in my school’s band (first chair), my region’s orchestra (first), my school’s musicals, competitions (with some awards), and a flute “choir” of mostly professional flautists (9,10,11,12)</p></li>
<li><p>Mental Health Support Group (President and Founder) (10,11,12)-- founded after personal experience
While this is registered as a club, it is more of a support group for those suffering from depression, eating disorders, bipolar disorder, etc., or those whose family or friends are suffering from those illnesses. It’s a big part of my life and has over 50 members. We meet weekly at various locations and have created an outreach network with a local middle school. We’ve also organized events at school to raise awareness of mental illness. We also set up weeks throughout the year to help students de-stress. It’s all pretty great </p></li>
<li><p>Varsity Tennis (9,10,11,12)- Captain as a Senior
</p></li>
<li><p>Hopefully participating in a research program this summer, whether it be a paid program or research with a professor (I applied, but not so sure I’ll get in)</p></li>
<li><p>Robotics team member (though, no leadership position) (11,12)-- it was just founded this year</p></li>
<li><p>I’ve been in the band and marching band for every year and as I said above am the section leader and principal flute. Possibly next year’s band president, though I don’t know yet. (9,10,11,12)</p></li>
<li><p>Coding group that works with facebook and twitter engineers and university professor (11,12)</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Work experience. I am not sure which to include. Can you advise?

  1. Nordstrom Sales Associate (10,11)
  2. Tennis Instructor (Summer and School year–9,10,11,12)
  3. I teach piano to elementary and middle school students (11,12)
  4. Child care… lol
  5. Tutor (paid) for english, bio, etc.</p>

<p>Recommendations: Planning on getting these from my language and english teachers. However, I’m planning on studying neuroscience and linguistics. Should I also get one from my biology teacher? I know the ones from my language and english teachers will be AMAZING-- like 9-10/10-- while the biology teacher will probably write a 7-8/10… thoughts?</p>

<p>Additional info:
Prospective major: Neuroscience/cogsci (really interested in the crossover between science and language comprehension and understanding as well as mental illness and affects of stress-- physical and otherwise-- on the brain)
Prospective minor: depending on which school, either music or Italian</p>

<p>California resident
Income: It’s PRETTY high…
Middle Eastern female
Trilingual
Mom went to USC</p>

<p>Both parents with Bachelor’s, Dad has Master’s</p>

<p>I took a human biology class at a local community college, receiving an A. I will take a few classes over the summer if I’m not accepted into a research program.</p>

<p>I know Java and learning Bluejay (self-taught). This isn’t really a big deal, but I love it!</p>

<p>Will submit music supplement on the piano (Beethoven’s Sonata Pathetique Movement 3)-- Good idea or pointless?</p>

<p>With a 4.0 GPA in a-g courses and 34 ACT, you can sign up between June 16-July 31, 2014 for guaranteed admission at UCR, then include UCR in your UC application: <a href=“New Students | Apply | Undergraduate Admissions | UC Riverside”>http://admissions.ucr.edu/WhyUCR/ourGuarantee&lt;/a&gt; . There is a safety if you like it and can afford it.</p>

<p>More potential safeties with big automatic scholarships: <a href=“Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - #300 by BobWallace - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
More potential safeties for automatic admission: <a href=“Updated list of schools with auto-admit (guaranteed admission) criteria - Applying to College - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1562918-updated-list-of-schools-with-auto-admit-guaranteed-admission-criteria-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Once you have identified your safety school(s), you can prune your list by removing colleges which you would not choose over your safety school(s).</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus Thanks for that list :slight_smile: Can you comment on any of the factors (competitiveness, grade deflation, social scene) for any of the schools above, too? Thanks :)</p>

<p>A. There will be some competitiveness among pre-meds and in courses and majors popular with pre-meds, since, to a pre-med, the only acceptable grade is an A (B is bad, C is catastrophic, D is disastrous, and F is fubar).</p>

<p>B. <a href=“http://www.gradeinflation.com”>http://www.gradeinflation.com</a> (list of schools at the bottom) may help you. More selective schools tend to have higher average grades, but obviously stronger students competing for those grades.</p>

<p>C. Schools which are mainly residential (as opposed to commuter or non-traditional) tend to have a significant amount of campus social life, although the nature of such and what activities are common depend on the school. For example, at Dartmouth, the majority of students are in fraternities and sororities, so they (and drinking) tend to be prominent parts of the social life there. But some other schools have a relatively small percentage of students in fraternities and sororities, so activities not associated with them are common.</p>

<p>bump</p>

<p>Bububumpppp</p>

<p>okay, I’m going to give this a try, with the caveat that many people know more about these criteria in all these schools and many others know more about individual schools than I do. It’s hard for anyone to be well versed in so many schools, but I’ll take a stab at your questions and try to rank these schools according to your criteria. Others can provide corrections, but, please, no hating! Just one person’s subjective understanding.</p>

<p>COMPETITIVENESS OF PRE-MED STUDENTS WITH EACH OTHER most to least
UCB
Columbia
Northwestern
Rice
UWash
Dartmouth
Duke
Tufts
WashU
UVA
UPenn
UCLA
UCSD
Georgetown
Boston University
Boston College
Wake Forest University
USC
Pomona</p>

<p>GRADE DEFLATION IN STEM most to least
UCB
Columbia
Northwestern
Rice
WashU
Tufts
UVA
UPenn
UCLA
UCSD
Pomona
UWash
Dartmouth
Duke
Georgetown
USC
Boston College
Wake Forest University
Boston University</p>

<p>SOCIAL SCENE most social to least
USC
Boston College
UWash
UVA
Pomona
WashU
UCSD
Duke
Wake Forest University
Dartmouth
UCLA
Georgetown
Tufts
Rice
UPenn
Boston University
UCB
Columbia
Northwestern</p>