Don't Know Which College is Right for Me!!!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys, I'm a senior who is starting my college applications, but I have no idea what colleges I should apply too. </p>

<p>I'm looking for a decent college that would accept me (eg. Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, if I get lucky, an Ivy). I hope that my high school career has been decent enough to get me into a nice college. Please give me an honest opinion of where you think I should go.</p>

<p>Grades: </p>

<p>-97.05 average, which is a 3.88 GPA.</p>

<p>-Rank: 9th out of 150 students</p>

<p>-SAT Score: 1720 (May 2011). However, I am positive that the score of my October 2011 SAT will be a 2000 minimum (please use this figure).</p>

<p>-SAT Subject Tests: none at the moment</p>

<p>-AP Exams: AP Biology (3), AP European History (3), AP Physics B (4), AP Economics (?), AP Chemistry (?), AP Calculus BC (?)</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities:</p>

<p>-President of my class (1 year)</p>

<p>-Student Representative at BoE meetings (1 year)</p>

<p>-Mock Trial Witness and Lead Attorney (2 years)</p>

<p>-Track & Field (3 years)</p>

<p>-Babysitting my baby sister during the weekends and summers since 9th grade (4 years)</p>

<p>-Math Team (2 years)</p>

<p>-National Honor Society (1 year)</p>

<p>-French Honor Society (2 years)</p>

<p>-French Club (3 years) --> Vice President of French Club (2 years)</p>

<p>-Film Club (4 years)</p>

<p>-"Quiz Bowl" - a TV game show (sort of like Jeopardy) hosted by MSG Varsity (1 year)</p>

<p>-Volunteered at the YMCA daycare program for 4 years (about 40 hours)</p>

<p>-Worked at Dunkin Donuts from 06/2009 to 01/2011. Usually during summer vacation. Sometimes I worked during spring break, winter break, etc.</p>

<p>-Worked at Subway for the summer of 2011.</p>

<p>I know that I'm not the strongest student (damn SATs!!!), however, I feel that I have participated in a lot of other things that matter in my community.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time :)</p>

<p>-Parker2012</p>

2

<p>Your most important application is to a safety that you will definitely get admitted to, you will definitely be able to afford, and which will be a good enough fit for you and your academic goals.</p>

<p>Often, this is a public university in your state of residency, since many states have several universities of different levels of selectivity, many of them are fairly easy to determine whether they are safety, they tend not to care about “level of interest” (some private schools do not like being used as safeties and reject high stats applicants they believe are using them as safeties), their in-state tuition starts lower (less of a gap that needs to be bridged with financial aid, or may be affordable at list price), and they tend to offer a wide range of majors.</p>

<p>If you do not have a suitable safety, you could be one of the students next April writing about being “shut out” (no acceptances, or accepted only at schools that offered insufficient financial aid).</p>

3

<p>You are in the possible range for all those schools. But the only ones who can give you a realistic assessment of your chances are the members of the admissions committees at those schools, and then only when they have your complete application package in front of them.</p>

<p>In other words: nobody on CC or anywhere else on the Internet.</p>

<p>This message is MIT-specific, but the principle applies to all selective colleges:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/10581800-post1.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/10581800-post1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>As ucbalumnus says, make sure your college list includes some safeties - schools where your stats are well above the norm, that you can pay for under most pessimistic FA assumptions, and where you’d be happy.</p>