Evaluate a stressed jr's college list?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Along with the advice of some of you guys (thanks!) + counselors/guidebooks, I recently came up with a preliminary selection of colleges.</p>

<p>Wash U in St Louis
Rice
Wesleyan
Brown
Amherst
NU
Stanford
Cal
OOKla
SD</p>

<p>How do they look, + how they match up with each other, or if they're all over the place, etc. It feels kind of awkward, like I should add 20 more schools up there like everyone else, but whatever. Still have time, so we'll see. Basically I want to make sure my list is homogenous to at least some extent, since it's improbable that I'll be able to visit all these guys.</p>

<p>This isn't a chances thread, and most of those pretty much ick me out, but with a 3.8-9ish UW (it dropped since last post), 2320, ok IIs and minimally varied but dedicated ECs, it'd be cool if you guys could just tell me if any of these are, like, straight up impossible or highly unlikely.</p>

2

<p>I'm assuming you're a California resident? I don't know enough about you to say anything, but you have a good list. Nice, even distribution between SD and Stanford. You have any hooks or highlights?</p>

3

<p>Is NU Northwestern? Is SD UC San Diego? Is OOOkla U Oklahoma?</p>

4

<p>I have a 3.0 GPA and I want to go Pre Med. I'm a junior in high school, what colleges should i be looking at</p>

5

<p>I think those are all realistic, there is nothing wrong with your list at all! If you like those schools check out Dartmouth and Vassar also. Don't let Dartmouth's frats scare you, there's a huge non frat scene and having been to both Vassar and Wesleyan I think Vassar's much friendlier.</p>

6

<p>I second the Dartmouth rec. I looked at many of these schools, loved some of them, and now am happier than ever at Dartmouth.</p>

7

<p>"Is NU Northwestern? Is SD UC San Diego? Is OOOkla U Oklahoma?"</p>

<p>I believe he meens:
NU: Northwestern
SD: UCSD
OOOkla: UCLA</p>

8

<p>You need a for sure safety. I would add one for sure UC or one for sure LAC/Uni.</p>

<p>Maybe add UCSC, or a school like Syracuse? </p>

<p>Not knowing your stats I don't have a clear picture of the level school that would be a sure bet for you, but the schools you name are not sure bets for anybody, with the possible exception of UCSD if you fit their formula.</p>

9

<p>Yeah Dartmouth is amazing for many reasons, its a special place.</p>

10

<p>yea deff add a few safetys just in case, although i doubt youll need them, better to be safe than sorry. I wouldnt call any of the schools on your list a safety. Not one of them is a guarenteed admission, even to top students such as yourself, not even ucla or ucsd.</p>

11

<p>Well, I figure if I don'[t make any of those I'm jsut going to go to a local community college for 2 years and then transfer into LA or Cal.</p>

<p>To those who suggested Dartmouth: I'm not sure if it fits me, as in, people are into sports, they drink, it's kind of a nature-y area, and they don't have a great music program. </p>

<p>Also,
I'll probably apply as an economics major, will this be a problem for any of the schools listed above?</p>

12

<p>There's a huge contingent of non-sports/drinking people. That's just a stereotype. Dartmouth is funny, some think of it as jock conservative, others as way too liberal, the truth is its like most colleges...i.e. none of those extremes at all.</p>

13

<p>I don't drink, I'm not outdoorsy, and I don't play any sports.</p>

<p>Then again, I'm not into music either.</p>

<p>If its not for you, its not for you, but dont base whether it is or not on stereotypes. :)</p>

14

<p>Wash U in St Louis, Rice, Wesleyan, Brown, Amherst, NU, and Stanford are all excellent schools, but they're all also very difficult to get into, even for kids with 2300+ SATs and 3.8+ GPAs. Really. None of them admit more than 20% of the kids that apply, and even a kid with your stats has no more than a 45% chance at any one of these schools. Now, I'm not saying that it's likely you'll be rejected by all these schools. In fact, I bet you'll get into at least a couple. But, it seems to me that you have a list of very selective schools and relatively easy schools, and nothing in between. This means that if you have a run of bad luck and don't get into any of the hard schools, you'll only have the relatively easy ones to choose from. I suggest you add some good, but selective (as opposed to very selective) schools to your list. Here's a few you might consider: Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, Brandeis, William and Mary, University of Virginia, Georgetown. There's many others, but this could be a start.</p>

15

<p>"But, it seems to me that you have a list of very selective schools and relatively easy schools, and nothing in between."</p>

<p>Im confused, i dont see a single easy school on his list? what do you meen?... I believe they are all litterely top 30 or so schools with stats all over 4.0 and 1300 sat's. some with well over 4.0 and 1400 stats.</p>

16

<p>ookla was not supposed to be u of oklahoma, i believe it was meant to be ucla. And im guessing the lowest ranked of the schools on this list are ucsd ucla and uc berkeley, and i sure as hell wouldnt look at them as easy to get into.</p>

17

<p>you need some safeties</p>

18

<p>UCSD - median M+V SAT 1245
UCLA - median M+V SAT 1295
USC (Cal?) - median M+V SAT 1350</p>

<p>For some one with a 2320 SAT score and a 3.8/3.9 GPA, these schools are relatively easy to get into. All the others on the list are very selective and very difficult for anybody to get into, no matter what their SAT scores and GPA are. I think my original comment still stands. Zoidberg needs to add a few good, selective schools to his or her list.</p>

19

<p>Yeah I would say with these stats there is very little chance of any UC rejecting him. Its a stat based selection with them and he has the stats, how are these not safeties?</p>

20

<p>amptron2x, the official average admission profile for ucsd, ucla, berkely:</p>

<p>UCSD: 1306 sat, 4.01 weighted capped gpa, 39.3% accept. rate
<a href="http://universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucsd.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucsd.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>UCLA: 1353 sat, 4.17 weighted capped gpa, 23% accept. rate
<a href="http://universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucla.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucla.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>BERKELEY: 1359 sat, 4.17 weighted capped gpa, 24.7% accept. rate
<a href="http://universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucb.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucb.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Admission into top tier uc's (ucsd, ucla, uc berkeley) is rarely assured, even with top stats as the poster has. I agree he is likely to get into 2 or even all three of these uc's, it is not guarenteed, hence i would not refer to them as his safety's. Possibly his safe matches or matches. I still feel he should have a lower level safety, not that it is likely that he will need it, but just in case.</p>

<p>"But, it seems to me that you have a list of very selective schools and relatively easy schools, and nothing in between. This means that if you have a run of bad luck and don't get into any of the hard schools, you'll only have the relatively easy ones to choose from. I suggest you add some good, but selective (as opposed to very selective) schools to your list. Here's a few you might consider: Cornell, Vanderbilt, Emory, Brandeis, William and Mary, University of Virginia, Georgetown."</p>

<p>And since you stated that ucsd ucla and berkeley were the easy ones to gain admittance too, </p>

<p>"some one with a 2320 SAT score and a 3.8/3.9 GPA, these schools (ucsd, ucla, cal) are relatively easy to get into. All the others on the list are very selective and very difficult for anybody to get into, no matter what their SAT scores and GPA are."</p>

<p>and since they are lowest rated schools the poster was applying to, how could you make the argument that schools such as william and marry and virginia were selective (yet refering to schools such as berkeley ucla and ucsd as "relatively easy"). ucsd ucla and berkeley and virginia and william and marry are all clustered together at the top of the public school heirarchy.<br>
1. berkeley
2. Virginia
3. michigan
ucla
5. university of north carolina
6. william and marry
7. ucsd</p>

<p>Clearly berkeley ucla and ucsd could not be "relatively easy" if william and marry and virginia are rated by you as "good" and "selective". That makes no sense.</p>

<p>...... also just for your knowledge amptron2x, cal is not usc, cal is berkeley.</p>