East Coast Tour

Parents Forum
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<p>I'll probably be on a college tour in the East Coast during my Spring Break (leaving the Friday afternoon that I get out of school and coming back the Friday after; I live in California, but spent five years back east as a kid). I'm pretty strong (2370 SATI, 800s for SATIIs, 4.857 GPA last semester weighted, unweighted 4.0 all 3 yrs, KEY Club president, lacrosse coach for youth, Breaking Down the Walls leader, run a public charity, etc.) and I'm looking at the top schools. I'm most likely applying to Stanford SCEA next year, but going east is probably my second option as I have a personal hatred for UCs (especially UCB, which is overcrowded with cutthroat grade-mongers). </p>

<p>Here's what I have on my list so far:
YALE (must see as it's currently my second choice)
Princeton (father's favorite)
Harvard
MIT
Dartmouth (love love LOVE the study abroad program, but not sure if I could adjust to the "party school of the Ivies")
Cornell</p>

<p>I'm not sure I'll even have the time to see all of these. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear them! I basically have six days to visit colleges. I was also considering Columbia, Brown, and Johns Hopkins, but I refuse to live in NYC and supposedly it's a long drive to JHU. Brown I'm just not too passionate about at the moment because I don't know much about it.</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I'll probably be on a college tour in the East Coast during my Spring Break (leaving the Friday afternoon that I get out of school and coming back the Friday after; I live in California, but spent five years back east as a kid). I'm pretty strong (2370 SATI, 800s for SATIIs, 4.857 GPA last semester weighted, unweighted 4.0 all 3 yrs, KEY Club president, lacrosse coach for youth, Breaking Down the Walls leader, run a public charity, etc.) and I'm looking at the top schools. I'm most likely applying to Stanford SCEA next year, but going east is probably my second option as I have a personal hatred for UCs (especially UCB, which is overcrowded with cutthroat grade-mongers).

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Oh? how old are you now?</p>

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<ol>
<li>I lived there from when I was 3 to 8 years old.</li>
</ol>

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<p>OP, was there a question in there somewhere?</p>

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<p>You're list is top heavy. Check out some schools in the match and safety categories. When you get a little further down on the totem pole, visiting helps in admissions. It's hard to figure out what you want---other than prestige. Stop and visit some schools like Wesleyan, Colgate, Brandeis, Tufts, Boston College. In other words, very good schools that are a bit easier to get into than Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth. </p>

<p>From what you've said about yourself, you're far from a "lock" at any of the others on your list, especially as you will be applying in the regular round, when the percentage of acceptances is low. (Princeton usually fills half the class ED.) It sounds as if you'll go to Stanford if you get in early. If you do NOT get into Stanford early, I wouldn't bet the ranch on getting into any of the others in the regular round. </p>

<p>If you don't get into Stanford early, somebody is going to sit you down for a heart to heart talk and suggest you add some safeties to your list, especially if you aren't willing to attend UCs. (It's a different story if you are.) At that point, it may well be too late to visit. So, look forward a bit and add the safeties now. </p>

<p>Your instant reaction may be "what does that old ***** know?" but believe me I do know. If you don't get into Stanford early, you're going to have to add matches and safeties. You don't want to have to begin that process when you get a Stanford rejection or deferral. Better to be prepared and to give your apps the boost they will get from a visit.</p>

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<p>Chillaxin, I have to agree with with jonri. My daughter, now at Princeton, had stats and activities sort of on par with you, except that objectively speaking her activities were a little bit higher level due to national level recognition for ballet. But pretty much equal. Except, key difference, she's a legacy at Princeton, unless of course it's your dad's favorite because he went there:).</p>

<p>Anyway, we used the UCs as her safeties, which was dumb, because she liked Princeton because of its size and the UCs are not like Princeton. It worked out for us, but we could have done a way better job and the advice I am giving you now will help you to have a much better experience come April of 2007.</p>

<p>You need to figure out which of the super selectives you like best and why. If it's Stanford, and you like it best because it is in California, well that's a little tricky, you might want to look at the Claremont Colleges. If it's Stanford and you like it because you like the outwardly laid back thing, then what about Vanderbilt/Emory/Tulane...If it's Harvard, well, then you might actually like UCB and the Regent's program you would probably qualify for.</p>

<p>On our East Coast trip we saw Williams, Yale, Wesleyan, Brown, Harvard, Tufts, Columbia, NYU, Princeton, Northwestern. To get a sense of large v. small, rural v. urban, etc. That part we did well. After we got hailed on in New Haven, she decided that if she didn't get into the East Coast school she liked best, she'd rather stay in California. And given that at that point I had not yet found cc, I said fine. That part we did not so well.</p>

<p>Looking back, we would have had her choose between Wash U and UChicago and Rice and the Claremont Colleges for additional applications. They are somewhat less selective, but with similarities to what she liked at Princeton.</p>

<p>It's not that you have no chance. You have a good chance. It's just that for better or for worse there are lots of kids with records like yours out there and you might be lucky or you might not be lucky. Go and Google Andi to see the story of her son. She has done us the great good service of leaving that cautionary history up.</p>

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<p>Definitely Google andi's Picking up the Pieces thread. If JHU interests you and the only reason you're not visiting it is the drive, I would drop Dartmouth for visiting purposes (you can still apply) and drive to JHU from Princeton. It's about 3 hours or so (someone else will chime in whose memory of the drive time is better than mine). Dartmouth, otoh, will be a few hours drive from Cambridge - so same difference. If you get into Dartmouth, you can visit then to weigh and balance your love for the program vs your worry about the party atmosphere. You'll pick up on those things much better with an overnight than the half-day tour/info session thing.</p>

<p>Definitely, definitely, definitely... add some less selectives to your list for visits. Being able to say on the app that you have visited (they will have check-offs) is v important for those schools. In addition to what has been suggested, Trinity, Boston College, Villanova, Brandeis, Haverford.... and there are many more.</p>

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<p>Just as a comparison we did a loop of Wesleyan, Vassar, Cornell, RPI, Amherst, Mount Holyoke and MIT last May. This was more than enough for one seven day trip. It only worked because drive time was reasonable on each leg of the trip. More driving or more schools would have overloaded us all. The reality is, one or two less schools would have made the visits we did make more enjoyable and memorable. There is a tremendous amount to see and process from each visit. My ultimate advice is pick schools that are S/D's top choices and downplay the visits to schools that are just different ( ie. urban/rural, big/small, etc.). These comparisons came better be made at schools closer to home.</p>

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<p>from new york city it's a 4-5 hour drive to johns hopkins, so since all your schools are north of new york, it'll be even longer. however i think it would be worth visiting jhu since it's a bit easier to get into than your other schools, and like everyone else said, you need some matches and safeties. i disagree with the other poster about not visiting dartmouth; since you're not sure if you'll like the atmosphere you definitely should visit.
what do you want in a college, besides prestige? stanford and harvard are both prestigious but they're very different schools. it doesnt seem like you've done that much research, which is bound to look bad to the schools - everyone applies to harvard because it's harvard, but not everyone applies because they like the research possibilities and a particular oak tree on the lawn and the new england environment.
just curious, why do you "refuse" to live in nyc? have you ever even been?</p>

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<p>It's a personal thing with NYC.</p>

<p>I am applying to a bunch of less selective colleges (Northwestern, Rice, I AM applying to the UCs - SD, LA, Cal, Irvine, Davis, it's just that I would REALLY prefer to go to a private school, except for UCSD if I get into their med program). I don't want to do liberal arts; they're completely out of the question except for Middlebury simply because it's practically home. That was my East Coast list so please don't assume that I don't have any other colleges on my list, especially safeties. I simply don't see the reason to go back east for a safety, when it's so much more expensive.</p>

<p>And my stats go a lot more in-depth than those, including being an RPI medalist; that was basically the Sparknotes version. From people who know ALL of my stats and familiar with admissions there, I am supposedly a match for Cornell and Columbia.</p>

<p>Oh, and with Stanford, I live basically an hour way and I used to live even closer so I've been there quite a lot, including living there for a few days and eating at a residential dining hall and sampling some classes. It's far from a prestige thing with me. I know quite a few people who attend, too, so I know what really goes on underneath the pretty viewbook pictures.</p>

<p>And again, that list isn't where I'm applying to. It IS to see where I'd fit in. Chances are that I'm not applying to Harvard and MIT, and possibly not Dartmouth. I guess what I mean is that this tour is to narrow down my list.</p>