don't you dare click this thread

<p>...but you clicked it anyway, didn't you?</p>

<p>Hi everyone-</p>

<p>My little sister is just starting the college application process, and she's less of a go getter than I was when it came to the application process. I'm trying to help her out as much as I can, so I was wondering if you guys thought this seemed like a balanced list for her...</p>

<p>A little about her - she's a wonderful person (at least I think so!) who's VERY dedicated to community service - not just for college apps either! (She doesn't believe in recording her hours for this very purpose, but I'm sure she has well over 1000, just from freshman year on). She's very active in our school's YCS program, and has been an officer for the past two years. She's a great writer, and has been on the school magazine for the past two years (longest you can be on). Now she's the business editor, which entails a lot of work and dedication, and she always puts it in. She managed to sell 8 ads last year alone, making over $2000 for the magazine (the minimum students have to make is $600, most barely reach that). She's been a Girl Scout for the past year (to help a friends dwindling troop from disappearing into nothingness), and she's on her school's yearbook committee. In addition, since last summer, she's held down a steady 20hr/wk job at an ice cream parlor. Last summer, she was almost full time, while also taking Econ in summer school. She's very interested in Spanish (took the 4AP test last year, and received at 3 due to a poor teacher, almost no one in her class received a 4 or a 5), and spent a month in Spain two summers ago.</p>

<p>Now I know that to most of the incredible CC kids who won a Nobel prize at the age of 2 for their work in nuclear physics, but to me, it seems like she does a LOT. She has a very strong work ethic, and a lot of times when I would give up on my homework and crawl into bed, she would stay up til well past 3 finishing up those last problems. She has a strong 3.75UW GPA (her high school doesn't weight GPAs or rank), and SATs in the mid to high 600 range (she plans to retake and is confident she'll break that 700 mark; she's not much of a standardized test taker). She took the SATIIs, and received a 780 Spanish and 650 Math 2C, 660 Math 1C.</p>

<p>She's looking at some UCs (in state) and some schools on the East Coast, looking to possibly major in business and go into advertising eventually, or perhaps in psychology. She wants a bigger school, and isn't interested in anything rural. Ideally, she'd like to apply to 7 or 8 schools, and what she's looking at so far include:</p>

<p>UCLA
UCSD
UCSB
Tufts
NYU
Columbia (major reach, we know, but she really wants to go there - any advantage to applying ED? That's her plan now.)</p>

<p>The list is a bit top heavy, wondering if anyone can help me out with a few suggestions for her/evaluating her chances at these schools.</p>

<p>Forgot to add, nearly all her classes are honors/accelerated, and her schedule for senior year looks like:</p>

<p>Yearbook
Magazine Journalism
AP Environmental Science
AP Calculus AB
AP Psychology
World Classics 12H
Creative Writing
Work Experience</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>What's her SAT total. You just said 600s. Anyway, Tufts, Columbia, UCLA are probably going to be reaches pending how she does on the SATs again.</p>

<p>Given her stats, she has almost no chance of being accepted at Columbia, either ED or RD. Her SAT scores and GPA are too low. Tufts is also a pretty big reach. NYU is reasonable, as long as she isn't applying to Stern. Stern, like Columbia, would be a very big reach.</p>

<p>If she's interested in business, there's a whole bunch of big colleges with good B-schools that would be a better fit for her stats. Here's a few:</p>

<p>Boston University
George Washington University
Ohio State University (Columbus)
University of Maryland (College Park)
Penn State (University Park)
University of Pittsburgh
University of Indiana (Bloomington)</p>

<p>You pretty much listed the schools i'm applying to :P</p>

<p>UCLA--Slight Reach (she's really close to being a match here--just needs about another 100 points on the SAT and about a 3.80 UW GPA)--plus the ECs might get here in even without this.
UCSD--Match
UCSB--Match
Tufts--Slight Reach
NYU--Safe Match (although the business school is just a match)
Columbia --Reach
Boston University--Match
George Washington University--Match
Ohio State University (Columbus)--Safe Match
University of Maryland (College Park)--Match
Penn State (University Park)--Safe Match
University of Pittsburgh--Safety
University of Indiana (Bloomington)--Safety</p>

<p>I really don't know why people were so critical of your first list. In my view you had 1 reach, 2 slight reaches, 2 matches, and 1 safe match on this list--which is just about the kind of spread you should have (along with maybe one safety). Probably it was because none of them but NYU had undergraduate business schools.</p>

<p>Good luck to your sister.</p>

<p>P.S. Of all the UCs you listed, none have undergraduate business schools (they all have graduate business schools)--although you can major in Business Economics at them with an Accounting minor. The only UCs with undergraduate business schools are UC Berkeley and UC Merced. Also, neither Tufts nor Columbia have undergraduate business schools.</p>

<p>Here's a link showing some of the top undergraduate business schools:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2006/0619_top50b.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2006/0619_top50b.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also, USNW puts out their own list of top business schools--so subscribe to their website or get the list off the "business" section of college confidential.</p>

<p>becchalk:</p>

<p>UCLA: Slight Reach
UCSD: Match
UCSB: Safe Match</p>

<p>Why doesn't she look into the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor? It has an extremely strong undergraduate business program (ranked 3rd) and an extremely strong psych program (ranked 2nd). For OOS, she'll need a stronger SAT, but could probably get in. It's rolling admissions, so she'd have to apply ASAP.</p>

<p>Also, it's a large school and has a great college town.</p>

<p>Tufts is def a reach</p>