<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I have a problem.
I just finished applying to all my schools--Stanford, USC, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Williams, Pomona--and I dont feel like i prepared a good college list--like i picked too many reaches and i submitted all the wrong essays.
Do you think its too late for me to be applying to more collegse now?</p>
<p>I would appreciate your response,
Happy holidays</p>
<p>You don't say what your stats are, so I may be off base, but it does seem to me that your list is a little top heavy with reach schools. If there are any schools that interest you that are slightly less selective, but which have later application deadlines, I'd say it wouldn't hurt to send in another application or two. Good luck!</p>
<p>thanks for the advice--I'll look into that
But off the top of your head, do you have any?</p>
<p>BTW here's a link to my stats: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=128571&highlight=sonyvaio%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=128571&highlight=sonyvaio</a></p>
<p>Thanks again</p>
<p>Yeah. Some Matches and a Safety or two ASAP. </p>
<p>Again, if your stats are high, USC won't be a problem and they'll throw money at you. But the rest of that list...gleep!!! I don't care if you have a 3.97uw and a 2350 SAT. You'd <em>probably</em> get into 1-3, but is <em>probably</em> good enough?</p>
<p>I agree that your list is a bit "scary." Since you are a very strong applicant, first generation, etc. I don't want you to panic. I <em>do</em> want you to add some safer schools. Without knowing more about what you are seeking it's hard to suggest but here are 3 examples with 1/15 deadlines:
American U
McGill U
Santa Clara U
From your other posts, it seems you applied to the UC's. Did you apply to others beyond UCB and UCSD? Tell us more about your wants and we may have other suggestions. Or go to the College Board (am I allowed to say this?) website and search for "schools whose deadlines have not passed" along with your other criteria. You want schools which accept over 50% of their applicants, to qualify as Safety. You've got plenty of the wonderful but non-safe kind.</p>
<p>You have time to give yourself some peace of mind and should easily be able to add some apps via commonapp or simply transcribing what you've already done.</p>
<p>You do have a lot of reaches...I hope that you did indeed apply to the UC's you mentioned in your other thread. </p>
<p>I wouldn't panic. If you did apply you should be relatively safe with UCSD, UCB might (almost) be a match because of your high numbers. You have to think USC will be OK but you can't be 100% sure there. As far as the others you can't make any predictions since you know they're tough.</p>
<p>But I would take jmmom's advice and start working on a couple safer schools...just make sure you can see yourself going there if all else doesn't work out. </p>
<p>Not really sure what you mean by "I submitted all the wrong essays"? It's easy to second guess yourself once everything's in the mail. Trying to figure out what a school wants to hear in an essay is impossible, and your essays may be much better than you think. Plus it's done and you can't change anything so try not to worry about it.</p>
<p>Another good school with a 1/15 deadline is Carleton College. Granted, it's in Minnesota with deadly winters, but I think you'll have a good chance getting in there. :)</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Add UCSB, which was on your original list and you will we good to go.</p>
<p>sony, are you from California? (This will affect your chances at the California colleges). What majors interest you? How did you develop the list you currently have? What were you looking for in a college? Did you work with your guidance counselor? I see that you visited Amherst and Williams, which is good, but the list has a mix of big/small/medium and really the only common denominator that I see is the prestige factor and perhaps intellectual rigor. Your statistics are certainly strong and, as they say, buy you a ticket for consideration for admission at each of the schools on your list. But, let's take a realistic look at the numbers for each of the schools on your list (remember that 25% of admitted students will have SATs HIGHER than the highest one listed):</p>
<p>School RD Acceptance UW GPA/SAT(M+V)25-50%ile
Stanford 11% 3.9/1370-1550
USC 27% 3.9/1260-1440
JHU 28% 3.7/1300-1490
Harvard 8% 1400-1580
Yale 8% 1400-1560
Princeton 10% 3.9/1370-1560
Amherst 19% 1360-1550
Williams 17% 1330-1520
Pomona 19% 1370-1530</p>
<p>I realize that schools don't look at just this info to decide on an individual student's admission, BUT these numbers are sobering. I hope by looking at them, you move QUICKLY to add at least one REAL safety and a couple of matches to your list with deadlines of January 15 or later. Do as has been suggested below and go to the collegeboard.com to locate schools with later deadlines. If you let us know your likes/dislikes, we can help you more. I would hate to see you disappointed next April if all the envelopes from these schools turn out to be thin.</p>
<p>Do you have a financial safety in there? What if you get accepted to Yale (or - fill in the blank) and they run their numbers and they offer you financial aid but they say you need to kick in a mere $20k per year?</p>
<p>(I see TheDad expects USC to throw money at you, but will they throw enough money at you??)</p>
<p>You have a list filled with reaches, so are right to be concerned. You also will be competing against the many Asian Americans (including other first generation college students) with higher stats.</p>
<p>Yes, there are still colleges that you can apply to. Since you are low income, I strongly suggest that you apply to a couple of in-state colleges where you know that you'll be accepted to and know that you can afford.</p>
<p>If you did apply to the UC's you listed on your other thread, you probably are fine and don't need to add other schools unless you want more non-UC options. If you didn't apply to the UC's, well, as you know the deadline for the UC's passed on November 30, so you should consider adding a few good schools a rung or two down the line in terms of selectivity just as a safety net. I do think that USC is probably a pretty safe match for you as well. </p>
<p>I would not recommend the Cal States as safeties for someone with your stats, unless one or two like Long Beach or SDSU truly appeal. They would be radically different from the other choices on your list. </p>
<p>Although I don't know your major interests, I'll suggest a few other schools that are probably going to fall into the safe bet to solid match range for you - you'll have to check when their deadlines are as I'm not in the office today so don't have my reference materials handy:</p>
<p>Universities:</p>
<p>University of Rochester (match)
Case Western Reserve (match)
Boston U (safe match)
University of Oregon (safety)
University of Washington (safety)
University of Wisconsin (match at this point)
University of San Diego (safety with strong possiblity of merit)
Santa Clara (ditto)</p>
<h2>Tulane (safe match)</h2>
<p>Liberal Arts Colleges:
Colby (match)
Bates (match)
Hamilton (match)
Skidmore (match/safe bet)
Oberlin (match)
Reed (match/safe bet)
Hobart and William Smith (safe bet)
Grinnell (match)
Beloit (safe bet)
Earlham (safe bet)
Occidental (match/safe bet)
St. Olaf (safe bet)
Carleton (reachy match)</p>
<p>Get a hold of the Fiske Guide and read through the descriptions of these schools, paying attention to deadlines. I would add at least one from the university list and one from the LAC list if you didn't apply to the UC's. If you did apply to the UC's, then focus on adding one or two good LAC choices. </p>
<p>Best of luck --- don't panic, just add a solid safety net --- you should do fine and hopefully will be coming back to tell us we were all crazy urging you to add a few safe bets because you got into all of your reaches, but, in the meantime, you'll sleep better at night knowing you have that safety net!</p>
<p>FIrst I just want to say THanks so much for your posts!
I have shown this list on the "what are my chances" forum and even my guidance counselor and friends, and I haven't really heard much caution about my list--I should have posted here in the beginning. </p>
<p>Second, I did apply to the UC berkeley and UCSD and I am from california.</p>
<p>To answer jmmom's and guilt guru's questions: I'm really looking into a good undergraduate learning experience with sufficient resources for extracurricular activities. I'm looking for a small to medium sized body and a school that will prepare me well and give me a good chance for graduate school (I hate to say this, but I am trying to avoid grade deflation schools)-but I put Pomona on because I heard it was a fantastic LAC.
Although I want to go to medical school in the future (its not certain), I am more interested in pragmatic things like international relations--I dont want to major in biology. I developed the list partially as a result of my research on college confidential, visits to colleges (Amherst and williams gave me a free trip to their colleges), and a program called Questbridge that told me about many of the LACs on the list. I'm applying to Princeton and JHU because of the wonderful Financial aid and the other Ivy's because of parental pressure. I did work with my guidance counselor, but coming from a large public school, its hard to work with her and when I do her chances have not gone beyond "crapshoot" at UC schools. I'll definitely check out Collegeboard and post a new list up later (my main worry is not getting the rec's in on time), and yes, I have realized my SATs suck.</p>
<p>To 2331clk: thanks for the advice. What I meant by not sending the right essays was that for many of the college's supplementals, they had vague questions where they simply wanted to "know about you". I just had a lot of college essays I had previously written and did not know which was my best work.</p>
<p>To izzy: Thanks for the advice--I was considering Carleton but the location drove me off.</p>
<p>To Northstarmom: yes I realize my stats are avg or low compared to other asian americans. I did apply to the UC system. Can i hear the list you have in mind? </p>
<p>TO carolyn: I really appreciate your reply! I will look into all those colleges and I appreciate your sense of cautious optimism haha.</p>
<p>Many schools will take recs, transcripts, etc within a week after the stated deadline, but your application should be in by the deadline.</p>
<p>No your SATs don't suck, don't be ridiculous - those kinds of comments will annoy people and then they won't want to help you.</p>
<p>thx
I was saying that to the chart of acceptances someone posted earlier with SAT scores much better than mine--I guess what i meant then was that my SATs suck comparatively.</p>
<p>Carolyn has given you a good list, which I agree with. Best of luck!</p>
<p>I want to place another vote for Carolyn's list. Note, however, that some of these schools have very individual and often "quirky" atmospheres and student bodies with which the "right" student will be comfortable and challenged, but which for the "not right" student could be downright painful. Unfortunately, you will not have time to visit the schools so will not be able to sort this by personal experience. E.g., Oberlin is VERY liberal, very artistic with very strong sciences, has a more open drug culture (small), a supportive and open gay community, and grades are NOT deflated. You will earn your A's. Carolyn can tell you more about Earlham, but the campus culture is VERY different from Oberlin. You need to get cracking on figuring this out with CC, a Fiske Guide or the US News on-line premium edition, and asking questions to the various colleges and to students who post on the respective college threads. </p>
<p>Colleges are flexible with deadlines for submitted materials from the high school, teachers, etc., but are NOT very flexible with the deadline for the student portion of the application. One school not mentioned for your interest and stats, a match would probably be Brandeis with a deadline of January 15th. Unfortunately, you missed the Jan 1 deadline for Wesleyan which has a special scholarship program for Asian students (the Freeman Asian Scholars Program) and would have been a reachy match for you.</p>
<p>One more thing, since you did apply to the UCs you listed, you DON'T need to add a whole slew of colleges to your list, one or two well-chosen ones will be fine. Good luck!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I haven't really heard much caution about my list
[/quote]
And, sony, it may turn out that the caution you are hearing from us parents is unwarranted. We tend to be quite cautious here, because we don't want to see one single one of "our" kids have disappointing results come April. Where you were experiencing worries and nagging thoughts, we could see how that might happen with such a reach-y (not reach for you in particular, but for everyone) list. Second thoughts seem to occur at this time - the waiting in limbo time - for most everyone. In your case, there is a way to damp down some of the anxiety by adding some safer schools with later deadlines.</p>
<p>I think that between carolyn's list and your own search for later deadline schools on collegeboard.com, you can give yourself that extra peace of mind with not too much effort. And, as others have said, the recommendations can trail in so long as you file your own application by the stated deadline.</p>
<p>Best of luck and keep us posted. We care about every one of you who venture over here to consult us parents.</p>
<p>Unless you are ELC (Eligible in the local context) for either UCSD or UCB, or have some edge in the comprehensive review process, I would not consider them safety schools -- they are no less competitive than any of the other schools on your list. While some might say I'm being overly cautious, I would have urged you to add UCSB or perhaps UCI to your UC list as truer safeties for you, especially if there are financial considerations to take into account.</p>
<p>But, what's done is done. As I said, chances are you will do just fine with your current list --- but I always encourage kids to have a safety net. I've seen too many cases where kids didn't have a safety net and ended up having to make some tough decisions come April. Add in one or two good match/safe bet schools, and then you can come back in April and tell me that I was crazy after you get into all of the schools you've already applied to --- but at least you'll have that safety net under you just in case.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>What Carolyn said about UCB & UCSD. The profile of some students rejected from Berkeley would stun you and I still recall a 3.9/1540 rejected from UCSD last year. It's better to take a probabilistic rather than a deterministic view.</p>