<p>My counselor blatantly told me that I had no chance of getting into a highly selective college. But I knew that i would have done better in october SAT's. Chances for RD:</p>
<p>UPENN
MIT
Stanford
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
U Mich
Georgia Tech
Princeton
Rutgers (Safety)</p>
<p>Black male (Haitian)
Been here 4 yrs
Single parent home
salary under 40K
GPA: 3.56 unweighted; 4.325 weighted
Rank: 36/441
3 AP's last yr. all 4's
5 AP's this yr. (3 A's and two B's so far)
SAT: march 700M 550V 710W
October 800M 690V 670W (not taking toefl)
SAT II's: 800 IIC 790 French 650 Physics (retaking)
Sports: Soccer, winter and spring Track
Good EC's and volunteering
Essays good enough
Great teacher recs.</p>
<p>Your counselor is wrong. You do have chances for highly selective colleges. Right now, however, your list is very top heavy with reaches. I suggest that you add some match colleges. If $ is a consideration, I also suggest that you add some more colleges that are generous with merit aid. </p>
<p>If you're planning on engineering or a similar career, add Cal Tech to your list -- and make sure you take and do well on the SAT IIs that they require. They have a very hard time finding black students with the stats that they require. Your 800 m is wonderful, and could help you gain acceptance and major merit aid.</p>
<p>Also consider RPI (? spelling Rensaller) and Union College, both in NY State. RPI has wonderful merit aid, and I think that Union may, too. Lehigh is another to consider.</p>
<p>well although i wanna do engineering! I dont wanna go to a hardcore engineering school unless it's MIT. I like stanford better than caltech and way too many essays. Im just hoping i get into one of those cuz i dont mind rutgers if i get rejected from all of them.</p>
<p>we bypassed our counselor. we went in over the summer and met with the principal. the school report indicated it could be completed by the principal or gc. we chose the principal. our gc is a wonderful person, but often promotes the local community college. earlier last spring, the gc expressed concern when i asked a question about ncaa clearing house and seemed to be so surprised that he was thinking of playing a sport in college. so, we just kind of left the gc out of the loop. i notice that she was copied on the likely letter, so i guess she knows now!</p>
<p>I am a believer that one should be as informed as possible in the college process so have you thought about the following?</p>
<p>Are you a U.S. permanent resident? If not you are going to be placed in the international pool of applicants. In addition with the exception of Princeton, most of your schools are not need blind to international students so your ability to pay will be a factor in the admissions process.</p>
<p>I agree with NSM that your list is kind of top heavy and while you have some great chances, most of your schools are still going to be a reach because they just are. </p>
<p>A lot is also going to depend on the pool of applicants because if you are being evaluated against a AA male with similar stats who is a U.S. citizen or has roots in the south, you are going to get knocked out of the box. One of the latest controversies with Black URMs is who is being admitted as children of african and carribean immigrants are bing admitted at a higher rate than students who have roots in the U.S. and this is the group that AA was intended for. Amherst has already changed their application by asking all students who are permanent residents where are they citizens of? Do not be suprised as other colleges follow suit.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is going to be a very interesting admissions cycle as there you may have many students from the gulf coast states and florida applying to schoolsin the north east because of damage to the schools or just to get out of "the line of fire". This imho is going to place a whole different spin on the process, because if these students apply, some are coming from some of the poorest areas of the county, and would be adding geographic diversity (a major bonus for the adcoms at many of the schools which you are interested in). The process in an of it self can be very capricious an arbitrary and no one can give you a definite answer as to how the process is going to play out.</p>
<p>Make sure that you keep a balanced list of match and safety schools including places where you would be inline to get some merit aid
(U of R, Union, RPI)</p>
<p>Your counselor is wrong and should be fired, especially if there are many low income blacks at your school. Have a chat with the head of school about this, he's doing tremendous harm!!!</p>
<p>I believe you have a solid chance, but you are not a shoo-in as lot depends on the the schools insitutional mission . will bing a permanent resident be held against you ? For most purposes no.</p>
<p>I don't really see you getting into your reaches (from cornell up). I mean, these are HUGE reaches for anyone, and it seems like you're an international to me, I just think you need some matches unless you love the idea of Rutgers</p>
<p>A permanent resident is not an international last time I checked! It clearly says on all the apps that if you're not a citizen or a permanent resident/refugee then you're international. so how am I international? I've been living here since 2001. I know they're reaches, but i hope im not like an automatic "NO"</p>
<p>You are NOT an international, if you are a permanent resident; don't know where he got that from. I have no idea about your chances, but good luck!</p>
<p>If 2 applicants are equally good, would it make a difference if one got recs from the college counselor and another from the principal? Would the principal's rec have more power?</p>
<p>are you a u.s. citizen or an international?...if you're a u.s. citizen, you have solid chances with urm status...if you're an international, you have worse chances than the average american white/asian applicant</p>
<p>big on engineering?
look into the small "liberal arts colleges" of claremont, california, although liberal arts colleges is a misnomer
harvey mudd in particular, pomona and claremont mckenna are also fantastic schools that are connected with it</p>
<p>in usnews, harvey mudd had the second best engineering undergrad program among schools without post-graduate programs... meaning not only is their undergrad program really strong, but the professors will probably help you a lot along the way</p>
<p>when you factor in the southern california weather, it sounds really appealing</p>
<p>Swarthmore has a great engineering dept (not school) in Philly if you are interested in more of a liberal arts beginning. They are also heavily endowed from great investments many moons ago. Outcomes from there are quite good for grad schools or jobs. I have great respect for what smaller colleges can do in terms of intimacy with the faculty, and your being fluent in French is also going to be an asset.</p>
<p>"We would also like to mention diversity in the context of our engineering program. Swarthmore has many international students and students of virtually every background and ethnicity, and our engineering program reflects that diversity. It is extremely important to have many cultural differences among engineers, so that the solutions they produce are culturally appropriate for the end users. This is especially important in a global economy. We are living in an international world and are lucky that everyone doesn't look and think just like we do."
<a href="http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/spec/why.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/spec/why.htm</a>
Congrats on earning so many fine scores. Hope doors open where you will be happy.
Georgia Tech is a Match school for you in my opinion.</p>