<p>A friend's daughter was deferred at Dartmouth, and the only other schools on the list are UC's. I volunteered to help find some other potential schools knowing the extent of expertise here on CC.</p>
<p>Stats:</p>
<p>3.9 UW, top 4% of public
2300 SAT, SAT II's 790 Lit, 650 Hist, 670 Math II
35 ACT
EC's - decent; Hook - URM (1/2 hispanic)</p>
<p>City girl, likes nice things, her dad thinks the only non-UC school worth paying for is an Ivy so that might be an uphill battle. Potential on her radar are UChicago and Carleton.</p>
<p>Any other suggestions that might give her some great options in case she doesn't get into UCB, UCLA or UCSD?</p>
<p>What does she like about Dartmouth (other than it is an Ivy)? I don't often see Dartmouth compared to UChicago or to Carleton. What is she interested in?</p>
<p>Strange a city girl would be applying to Dartmouth...</p>
<p>Anyway with Ivy admissions being a crapshoot, she may as well just apply to the other Ivies that haven't yet been ruled out...Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Penn, Cornell...</p>
<p>It isn't strange for someone from a city to apply to Dartmouth. What is strange is someone looking at predominantly city schools applying to Dartmouth. I feel after the similarity of being Ivy that Dartmouth has little in common with Harvard or Columbia and to a lesser extent, Penn. If you're not getting into Dartmouth ED, I would say it's very unlikely without some extenuating circumstances that you're going to get into Harvard, Yale, Princeton RD.</p>
<p>"Any other suggestions that might give her some great options in case she doesn't get into UCB, UCLA or UCSD?"</p>
<p>As an ELC and with her stats, it's unlikely she won't get into those UCs.<br>
I agree however that she should apply to other Ivies as stated above.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments and suggestions so far. She wanted to apply ED to either Brown or Dartmouth, and decided upon D although she never visited, so I'm not sure what exactly she liked about it. </p>
<p>She is thinking engineering for her major as she was looking at medical school, but isn't sure as she's so strong in English and is now considering law school....she's 17 so who knows what she'll end up doing.</p>
<p>Yes, she's ELC, and accepted at UCI and UCD.</p>
<p>I'm not sure where UChicago came up - Carleton because I'd suggested it as a possibility to her mother who passed it on. Cornell is also on the radar, but her dad thinks of it as a "lesser ivy." Yes, honestly.</p>
<p>maybe I'm missing something here, but what is it in a college search that you can do that a young woman who things she is Dartmouth-level in ability can't do for herself?</p>
<p>bowdoin is not more selective than dartmouth. all of those schools listed by gellino are, in varying degrees, less selective, some far less selective.</p>
<p>Mikemac - I've been obsessed with DS's search, and have learned so much from the helpful posters on CC, so I offered to post as a favor to her mom with whom I've been commiserating for a year. Mom wants to encourage her to expand her options in the midst of the disappointment.</p>
<p>blueraindrop - thanks, but her mom's a UCLA alum so USC is out, and it's a definite no for women only college.</p>
<p>
[quote]
gellino I would say that Bowdoin is probably more selective than Dartmouth and a lot of the schools you listed are just as selective.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>None of those schools are as selective as Dartmouth. CAS at Cornell may only be a little less selective than Dartmouth. Otherwise, the average M + CR SAT at Dartmouth is ~ 80 points higher than Middlebury and Bowdoin, whose numbers are 20-30 points inflated by being SAT-optional schools and ~ 110 points higher than Colgate. Acceptance rate at Dartmouth last year was 13% vs 18% at Bowdoin, 19% at Middlebury, 24% at Colgate. I don't know what CAS at Cornell itself was; I think the school overall was 21%.</p>
<p>Cpeltz, It's hard to fathom someone stretched to choose between Dartmouth and Brown. They are on opposite ends of the college universe.</p>
<p>If, after doing some more research, she confirms that Dartmouth's culture is a good fit for her, then I'd recommend Cornell, Duke, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Trinity. Although varying in selectivity, these are all within reach for a high achieving URM.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the "city girl" who "likes nice things" realizes that Brown is more her cup of skinny latte then she should consider Barnard (the almost ivy), Chicago, Smith, Swarthmore, Wesleyan.</p>