Confused! Need help.

Applying to College
1

<p>I am a rising senior from Florida, I am a legal Mexican-American immigrant who moved here at the age of seven.
Here are my stats:
Sat I(took only once but I am taking it again)-M-770-CR-630(low,i know)-W-770-2170
Sat II's-Math Lvl 2-790-Us Hist-710-Span-710 </p>

<p>GPA W-4.702
GPA UW-3.450(again low, i know)
Rank-not specifically given, but I know I am in the top 10% </p>

<p>AP's Taken-World History, Calc AB, Human Geography, Physics C AP, Calc BC, US Hist, Span Lang, Eng Lang, Comp Govt
AP's Taken by end of senior year-Euro Hist, Stat, Macroeconomics, US Govt, Chem, Literature, Comp A </p>

<p>Volunteer Work: Not much, helped out at an elementary school and T.A for a trig class, have around 400? </p>

<p>Clubs:
Mu Alpha Theta:4 years, member
J.E.T.S-4 years, vice president</p>

<p>Sports:
Track-5 years, one county championship for my own event, 3 state championships as team
Ice Hockey-9 years, captain of almsot every team, 3 state championships for travel team, two state championships for high school, one IIHF World Championship for country, it was U-18 and I was 15 and a starter. </p>

<p>Misc.
Alto Saxophone for 6 years
Dance for 3 </p>

<p>My top choices are:
M.I.T and Stanford(tied)
Caltech and Columbia(tied)
Berkely
Cornell
Princeton
Brown
Carnegie Mellon
U.N.C at C.H
U.F
U.M </p>

<p>Here is my question and where I am confused. My first two choices offer E.A(even though Stanford is restrictive), my second choices are E.A and E.D respectfully. I do not think that if I apply to M.I.T or Stanford E.A I will get in for my SAT I's nor my GPA is high enough yet, however I plan to take the SAT I again in Nov OR I could take the Physics subejct test, which would be required for MIT or Caltech. I feel like my best bet is Columbia ED, however I do not know whether or not I want to blow my chances at MIT or Stanford. WHat should i do?</p>

2

<p>Honestly, I would wait on MIT and Stanford, just to give yourself another semester to raise your GPA ans SAT. Or if your school is incredibly hard/well-known I’d say go for it. A good explanation for your UW GPA is a must. Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>Inebriation and an obession with facetious high school popularity would be my explanation, my grade trend though is superb. Freshmen year started off with 1 c, 5 b’s,1 A with 4 honors, one reg and one AP. Junior year, 5 A’s, 2 B’s with 6 AP’s and one honors</p>

4

<p>Get recruited for hockey.</p>

5

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<p>If Columbia is NOT your absolute, positive, not-gonna-change FIRST CHOICE for college, then do NOT apply ED to Columbia. ED is binding: If you get in, you are required to accept the offer of admission and withdraw all other applications immediately.</p>

6

<p>If you need to compare need based FA packages, you shouldn’t apply ED anywhere.</p>

<p>S tries to give either accept or deny decisions during EA, not many people are deferred to RD:</p>

<p>[Restrictive</a> Early Action : Stanford University](<a href=“http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/decision_process/restrictive.html]Restrictive”>http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/application/decision_process/restrictive.html)</p>

<p>Since you’re working on improving your grades and test scores, I’d recommend waiting for RD at S. Extremely selective EA schools like S & Y ONLY select the very top candidates that they would pick from ANY pool of candidates. See this from Y about EA:</p>

<p>[Yale</a> Daily News - Early admit rate rises slightly](<a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/12/15/early-admits/]Yale”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/12/15/early-admits/)</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>The difference is that Y defers about 50% of EA applicants to the RD round; S has a different philosophy about EA and denies relatively few applicants.</p>

7

<p>“ED is binding: If you get in, you are required to accept the offer of admission and withdraw all other applications immediately.”</p>

<p>Unless you applied for financial aid and they didn’t offer you enough to make attendance possible (imagine that they somehow forced you to attend and then had to expel you when you couldn’t pay your EFC–there’s a reason we never hear of such cases :wink: ).</p>

<p>But I agree, you shouldn’t apply ED anywhere (since you don’t have a dream school).</p>

8

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<p>While it’s true that you can back out of an ED admit * if * you applied for FA and * if * you believe the FA package is not sufficient for you to attend the school, you still have to make that decision * very shortly * after you receive the FA package, which is typically sent with or very shortly after the offer of ED admission.</p>

<p>In other words, you can’t wait to compare the ED school’s FA package until after you receive the FA packages from the other schools you apply to. So in turning down an ED school because of an insufficient FA package, you are running at at risk of turning down an FA package that in the long run turns out to be quite similar to (and perhaps as good or better than) other FA packages that you are offered from schools you applied to as EA/RD.</p>

9

<p>honestly all four of those schools are my “dream schools”</p>

10

<p>“you still have to make that decision very shortly after you receive the FA package”</p>

<p>The time frame seems to be somewhere around two weeks, typically.</p>

<p>ED shouldn’t be used by anyone who wants to compare FA offers. ED should be used only by those who have that one dream school above all others, and of those who need FA, when the only question is: can I afford it?</p>

11

<p>You should look into Yale, they have a great hockey team and if you’re truly talented they might give you a look in recruiting.</p>

12

<p>Thing is though, i don’t want to be that kid that got in cause of hockey, if I play in college, it’ll be as a walk on.</p>

13

<p>“i don’t want to be that kid that got in cause of hockey”</p>

<p>Why not? Everyone accepted by a college is chosen because of the sum of their attributes. Would you be eliminating one of your most attractive features? It could be a tipping point if you’re in competition with someone of identical features, except for hockey.</p>

14

<p>“i don’t want to be that kid that got in cause of hockey”</p>

<p>What about the kid who got in for piano or oboe or basket weaving? </p>

<p>Don’t throw away your hours of dedication because you’re worried that someone will think you only got in because of hockey. </p>

<p>Even without hockey, you’re a competitive applicant but this way you can try and make sure you get admitted.</p>