Help me find a school.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I am an international student in Italy, but I would really like to go to the USA for the university.</p>

<p>I thought I found the perfect school for me, but since I now have some problems, and my grades are going down, I am searching for other options.</p>

<p>I am a good student - really into school and learning. </p>

<p>I got lots of ECs (learning spanish by myself, I a photographer, I am a music journalist, I have my own website (I did it), I am in the math club, in the cinema club (in English), in the Conversational English club, I have the European Computer Driving License, etc..)</p>

<p>I go to a public school - I go to the Scientific Liceum with the option of Applied Science. That is a school with the most difficult schedule one can have. It should be like all AP/IB classes.
My grades are not that bad, I'm the 5th out of 21 in my class.</p>

<p>I got 3.45 GPA right now. I don't know if it will go up - as I said, I have some problems. But I'll try.
My SAT is 1640 - pretty low (again, I felt bad), I am retaking it in May and/or June
I have to take the TOEFL - but in a practice test I got 94/120</p>

<p>My dream school is UCSD and I'm searching for other schools.
I wanna live in California, or states with the same climate. If possible, on the Ocean.</p>

<p>I want to major in Cognitive Science (I like both Comp Sci and Psychology) or something like that (idk if there are different options..)</p>

<p>I know it is difficult, but I'd really appreciate some help.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

2

<p>University of South Florida, Florida International University, Florida Atlantic University…</p>

3

<p>I think they don’t have cog sci? </p>

4

<p>How much can you afford?</p>

<p>UCSD will expect you to pay $50,000 per year.
Considering salaries in Italy, unless your parents are very well-off, UCSD probably isn’t in the cards, so you need to think about other colleges. The first question to ask your parents is how much they can afford. If you are full-pay (=they can pay 50-60,000 each year), no problem of course; they can afford $35,000, many schools are possible; if they can afford $25,000, fewer schools; if you can afford $18,000 and under the number of schools becomes very small and all become very selective.</p>

<p>If you can get to a SAT 2100 there are many possibilities of merit, the lower you get the fewer the possibilities, and below 1900 I don’t think you can really find much in terms of merit aid except at 4th tier schools.</p>

<p>Feeling bad about GPA or test scores will not help. :slight_smile:
Register on number2.com, it’s free and it tailors the questions to your weaknesses so that you improve.</p>

<p>Is that 3.45 an actual American GPA or is it an estimation? Being 5th in your class and having a 3.45 don’t really make sense in US terms. Somone ranked 5th would likely have between 3.8 and 4.0.</p>

<ul>
<li>Note for people not used to this type of schools: it’s a little like a governor’s school for math&science, with selective entrance.</li>
</ul>

5

<p>How can you know this much about Italy? :open_mouth: are you from here?
Anyway, I don’t think money are a problem (my parents always said it).</p>

<p>The 3.45 is my gpa, calculated using the USA formula. In Italy we do not have a GPA.
I know it is strange… I don’t really know what to say! Remember I am 5th out of 21!</p>

<p>Also, I think my SAT will go up, I will be taking private lessons and everything.
What if it goes like 1700-1800? I will be rejected?</p>

<p>Thanks a lot!</p>

6

<p>Azusa Pacific (religious)
Biola (religious)
San Diego State
CSU Long Beach
Loyola Marymount (religious)
University of Redlands</p>

7

<p>I prefer not to go to religious school…
The CSU doesn’t have Cog Sci; the same goes for SDS (sigh, I liked it!) and Redlands.</p>

<p>Thanks anyway.</p>

8

<p>Do check with your parents - until you have an actual number, you don’t know what they mean by “it’s not a problem”. MANY Americans find out at their expense, in March, when it’s too late and parents say that, ooops, they hadn’t realized college cost so much. :(</p>

<p>If 3.45 is an estimation, don’t use it. It’s probably inaccurante. (3.45 means you got more B’s than A’s. UCSD is a school for A-students, not B-students. If you’re 5th, you’re more likely to be an A-student than a B-student).</p>

<p>To have a shot, the absolute minimum SAT score you should have is 1800. (The average UC GPA for UCSD is 3.95).</p>

<p>Your Maturità results or predicted results should indicate that you’re likely to graduate with honors.</p>

<p>In the US, students apply to several schools – the information below assumes you’ll be full-pay.
2 safeties (for you, those could be schools where your GPA and SAT scores are well above the top 25%)
3-5 matches (schools where your GPA and SAT scores are near the top 25% and well above the average)
a few reaches (schools where your GPA and scores are around the average)
UCSD would be a reach, so you need to find your matches and safeties.
You may want to buy “The Fiske Guide”, “insider’s guide to the colleges”, or “The Princeton Review’s Best Colleges” to help you find those schools.</p>

9

<p>Thank you for your help! I will look at these books!
I am almost sure I can pay full tuition - I will check ASAP.</p>

<p>I don’t know what you mean by honors - but surely I will not get the Laude. As regards the result - I really don’t know.</p>

<p>In my midterm I got 1 C (only 2 credit, it does not mean much…) 5 B’s and 5 A’s.
Two of the B’s al likely to become A’s.</p>

<p>Do you have suggestion for safeties and matches? I am searching too, though. </p>

10

<p>Honors are a sort of distinction given to the top 30% students (or so, it depends for the exact percentage but that’s to give you a rough idea). It’s equivalent to Laude - magna cum laude and summa cum laude are the most prestigious in the US.</p>

<p>If you are full pay, your choices are very wide… We can’t suggest matches and safeties before you have more information from you.
For instance, why do you like UCSD? The weather? The size? A specific program? Being in a big city? The caliber of applicants? </p>

<p>Use “Big Futures”, entering your major(s) of choice and current test scores. Look at the colleges they suggest (“100% match”)
<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search&lt;/a&gt;
Look at USNWR “national universities” and “national liberal arts colleges”, starting at number 30 or so: 30-50 would be reaches, 50-80 would be matches, 80-125 would be safeties. (Remember that there are 3,700 universities in the US, so that a college ranked 74 would still be considered an excellent college.)
Look into Colleges that Change Lives, these include colleges in all three tiers, that recruit high-caliber applicants (Whitman, Reed, St Olaf, Denison, Centre, Rhodes, Agnes Scott, New College of Florida) as well as good students (UPuget Sound, Willamette, Knox, Beloit, Lawrence, Earlham, Wooster, Goucher, Clark, Allegheny, Hiram, Southwestern, Hendrix, Eckerd…) and hard-working-but-not-so-good students – those would be reaches, matches, and safeties for you.
(As of now, those B’s and SAT scores will hurt your chances at most top 30 universities and LACs).
Fill out the “request info” or “join the mailing list” questionnaires for all colleges and universities you find interesting.</p>

<p>In the US, a B isn’t a very extraordinary grade. It’s not bad, but it’s the minimum you need if you want to keep going with the subject or if you want a college to take you seriously. An A means you did a great job (but it doesn’t necessarily mean that you rank with the best in the country). A C means the teacher isn’t very happy with you and you only understand the basics of the topic. For instance, in many European systems using the 1-5 scale where 1 is high, both 1 and 2 are considered A’s. 3 is a B, 4 a C, and 5 is D&F ( for all practical purposes, 5’s essentially eliminate you from consideration for most colleges).
Your description of 1C, 5Bs, and 5As, describe a student who is probably competitive for national colleges (LACs/universities) ranked 60-100 plus regional universities ranked 5-20 but for whom a college ranked 35-40 nationally would be a major reach. </p>

11

<p>I really like UCSD because of its program in Cog Sci, but also the weather, the campus itself and the surrounding area (I love the beach, and SD itself)</p>

<p>Our grades are on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lower and 10 being the higher.
The B’s I stated are 7 - that is 80%
The C is 6 - minimum passing grade 70%
The A is 8
The A+ is 9
I’ve got no 10.
Actually 9 and 8 are not given very much - almost never. For some profs there are grades only 4 - 10</p>

<p>Even for us, a 7 is very good, but not that much. here <a href=“GPA Calculator”>http://www.foreigncredits.com/Resources/GPA-Calculator/&lt;/a&gt; it says it’s a B, I figured it could be right. We do not have + or -.</p>

12

<p><a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board;
Put in your stats and preferences and see which schools it comes up with? I’d do a primary look-through for you but don’t have all your info (SAT breakdown, etc)</p>

13

<p>Sorry I missed to give you SATs breakdown! Thought I did.</p>

<p>M 620
CR 540
W 480</p>

<p>I am planning to retaking in in May or June, and to raise it by minimum 200 points, if not more. </p>

<p>I am searching for a university in a good location, with warm/hot weather, little/none winter, definetly NO snow.
NO mountains, woods or things like these. If possible, it should be on the beach.</p>

<p>I would like to major in Cognitive Science, so it should have it, but I could change my mind.</p>

14

<p>CSU Fresno

  • 60% acceptance rate
  • above mid-range in CR, above mid-range in M, in mid-range in W
  • average TOEFL score: 70
  • offers CogSci
  • in California
  • GPA not too low</p>

<p>CSU Stanislaus

  • 74% acceptance rate
  • above mid-range in CR, above mid-range in M, in mid-range in W
  • TOEFL required but they don’t report averages apparently
  • offers CogSci
  • in California
  • GPA not too low</p>

<p>Mississippi State

  • 71% acceptance rate
  • in mid-range in CR and M; W not reported
  • TOEFL minimum: 71
  • offers CogSci
  • don’t know about the weather but it’s not in the North
  • GPA not too low</p>

<p>UC Merced

  • 65% acceptance rate (is primarily commuter campus, so probs shouldn’t be first choice but you can check it out I guess)
  • in mid-range in CR, above mid-range in M, in mid-range in W
  • TOEFL minimum: 83
  • offers CogSci
  • in California
  • GPA not too low</p>

<p>University of Georgia

  • 55% acceptance rate
  • below mid-range in CR, in mid-range in M, below mid-range in W (this would be a reach school, I guess, if you were interested; though it’s in Georgia so maybe you won’t be)
  • TOEFL minimum: 80
  • offers CogSci
  • in South (Georgia)
  • GPA might be too low</p>

<p>George Fox University

  • 75% acceptance rate
  • in mid-range in CR, above mid-range in M, in mid-range in W
  • TOEFL minimum: 70; average: 84
  • offers CogSci
  • in Oregon, I don’t know what the weather’s like but probs won’t be your first choice
  • GPA on the low side but still doable</p>

<p>I know nothing about these schools–you’ll have to research them for yourself to actually determine fit–but I tried to make a quick list of ones in which you might be interested. Have fun!</p>

15

<p>I cannot believe that took me half an hour. O_O Sorry about that.</p>

16

<p>Thank you very very very much!! I’m checking them out right now!</p>