Help me find some safeties, matches, and reaches :D

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So I'm a junior and I'm trying to find some colleges ^^; Basically, my list is empty besides for UCs.</p>

<p>Anyhow, cost doesn't matter as long as the school is top 20. Lower ranked schools that are good for computer science are ok though :D </p>

<p>Location: Don't care
School Size: Don't care
Social Environment: Where regular partying and lan parties are cool :D.
People: Should be open and nice :p [but of course there are people like this everywhere]</p>

<p>I'm not picky about colleges. I just need some names so I can search them up and compile a list. The only colleges I know about are Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc.... [call my sheltered!] so I need more exposure ^^; </p>

<p>Soo just tell me what I can put on my safety, match, and reach list :] . And I'll try to narrow it down to 10. Thanks!</p>

<p>GPA: 3.4 uw ; 3.6x w
UC GPA 3.75/3.8
Class Rank: 30% (honors not weighted. honors classes are harder than our ap classes)
Classes so far:
freshman year: honors geometry, honors global studies, honors english, spanish 1, foods, biology, health
sophomore year: honors alg 2, honors english, ap world, spanish 2, chemistry, physics</p>

<h2>junior year: honors pre calc, ap bio, ap chem, history, english, spanish 3 (counselors messed up my schedule so less ap classes)</h2>

<h2>senior year schedule: ap calc bc, ap gov, ap macroecon, ap compsci, ap stats, brit lit, ceramics</h2>

<h2>SAT: 2220 680 R 750 M 790 W (might retake due to the number of sentence completions i shouldn't have missed - suggestions?)</h2>

<p>ECs:
-businesses + websites made 5 figures...thousands of it donated to charity
-varsity track 4 years (fast enough to run D3 or D2, but probably not fast enough to get recruited)
-secretary/chief technology officer/team leader of an organization that teaches kids science (pretty big, 50+ people attend each seminar)</p>

<p>well those are my most notable ECs... :P anyways gogogo! </p>

<p>Thanks guys!</p>

2

<p>Your rank is very low for Ivies and top 20 schools unless you go to some insane school that sends like half their kids to top 20 schools. If AP’s are easier and you get college credit for them, why wouldn’t you take them?</p>

<p>I know Carnegie Mellon is particularly great for Comp Sci.</p>

3

<p>Yea I know my rank, although inaccurate, is extremely low. The good news is that UCs dont look at ranking so… I’m safe there. P: I don’t think I can get into top 20, but I’m looking into top 35</p>

<p>Anyhow, I do take APs… they weren’t offered until junior year though, and with all the pink slips my counselor messed up and wasn’t able to fix it. I’m taking all the AP classes I can next year though, and right now I’ve taken every science ap offered except AP Physics. Our ap classes aren’t easy either… there’s an extremely high 5 rate</p>

4

<p>loopyz, start out by using CC’s College Search tool to identify some possibilities</p>

<p>[College</a> Search - College Confidential](<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search]College”>http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search)</p>

5

<p>You have a high SAT score; did you take the PSAT? Will you be a National Merit Semi-Finalist?</p>

6

<p>slithey - CC’s college search tool is… very…strange… it gives me colleges way out of my reach and well… it also doesn’t factor in my ecs which I think will give me a huge boost :stuck_out_tongue: </p>

<p>BillyMc- yes i did… ;<em>; i shifted my answers on the last 8 or so for math… so my usual 750-800 went boom on the psat x</em>X; i don’t think i got national merit =/</p>

7

<p>Is money a factor? Do you need financial aid?</p>

8

<p>Public schools outside the top 25 or aren’t good for comp sci = money is a factor</p>

<p>private schools that are outside the top 25 and aren’t good for comp sci = not a choice x_X</p>

<p>so its either a public school in california or a top 25 school x_X;</p>

9

<p>Next question: does your school GC have suggestions for schools based on where other students from you school with similar stats and rigor have been admitted in the past few years? That will give more of a sense of what is possible. Take a look at some of the threads on the Parents Forum about where students with GPAs of 3.6 and under have been admitted.<br>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767486-where-did-your-3-3-3-6-gpa-child-get.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767486-where-did-your-3-3-3-6-gpa-child-get.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1026754-under-3-6-applying-top-schools-2010-11-a.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1026754-under-3-6-applying-top-schools-2010-11-a.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767118-under-3-6-gpa-applying-top-20-parents-thread.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/767118-under-3-6-gpa-applying-top-20-parents-thread.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There’s also lots of great suggestions in those threads about what students fitting in this range can do to make their applications sing.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>I’m in California, and I see this attitude a lot. Like you, most students know about the UCs and a handful of east coast schools. Start a new thread mentioning in the title that you’re looking for suggestions for computer science schools, and do a search on that phrase in thread titles here. Look at the engineering subforum, if you haven’t already. The UCs may end up being a great option, but it can’t hurt to think outside the box a bit.</p>

10

<p>“SAT: 2220 680 R 750 M 790 W”</p>

<p>Take a look at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/848226-important-links-automatic-guaranteed-merit-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt; Your scores may be good enough for some of these institutions.</p>

11

<p>Try for Carnegie Mellon even though the GPA might be a problem. Besides the UC’s, USC is a probable match for you. I think you have a good chance at UC Berkeley and UCLA.</p>

12

<p>*Public schools outside the top 25 or aren’t good for comp sci = money is a factor</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>what does this mean? does it mean that your parents will willingly pay for a Top 20 or top CS school, but won’t pay for other schools? If so, then you probably won’t qualify for aid because your family won’t likely qualify. You might qualify for merit scholarships.</p>

<p>*“SAT: 2220 680 R 750 M 790 W”
*</p>

<p>Your 2220 is good, but your M+CR is a 1430…which is good, but not ivy strong. The writing score doesn’t count as much. You need to retest. also take the ACT.</p>

<p>If you don’t raise your M+CR scores, you’re going to need to look at the Top 50 or so…Like Purdue, UIUC, URoch, RPI, etc.</p>

<p>Are you only looking at CS? Or are you also looking at Computer Engineering?</p>

13

<p>Some schools weigh all the scores equally, others do not. It really depends on each. However, the scores are looked at individually, not just as a composite.</p>

<p>Thus, I would also recommend retaking with a focus on Reading, to provide a more balanced (and higher) score.</p>

<p>Really focus on getting better grades. If you can pull of an A for all of your classes now and the first semester of your senior year, you’ll be better off.</p>

<p>Also note that there are some schools not in USNWR’s Top 25 (27, really) that are better than many of them for CS or other majors.</p>

14

<p>SlitheyTove- Guidance counselors are not willing to talk about colleges until next year, so no suggestions yet. I’ll take a look into those, thanks! :)</p>

<p>happymomof1 - Thanks so much for that link, it’ll make for some good safeties! </p>

<p>mom2collegekids - top 50 is out of question simply because I’m practically guaranteed into a top 40 (UCI, UCD, UCSB, UCSD). </p>

<p>Average GPAs for these schools are only about 3.6-3.7s (from my high school), UCSD being a 3.85 (making this school more of a target than a “guarantee”)</p>

<p>I’m only looking at computer science. I was hoping my ECs would bear more weight at private schools… since most teenagers don’t own their own business and make 5 figures o-o; But anyways, yea I think I’ll retake since sentence completions should be relatively easy to cram for and that’s the only thing I missed in cr.</p>

<p>BillyMc- Yes I’m trying for better grades but my schedule is so… busy. 2:30-5:30 I have track. I get home around 6. Managing my business and [unofficial] nonprofit organization takes up quite a bit of time after that too. Then there’s…homework. My grades are improving this semester though, and I think I can pull off a higher GPA…if I don’t, I hope some 5s on the AP Tests will alleviate some of the damage. </p>

<p>===============</p>

<p>As of now it seems like my grades are so low, my ECs hold no weight. Is that true? :/</p>

15

<p>Your ECs are impressive. Your grades could be better, but you need to apply.</p>

<p>Also, rankings aren’t everything. Just because one college is assigned a particular number doesn’t mean it is better than another college with another number. If they were perfect, why would US News change its methodology every year? They do it so the list changes so they can sell more magazines.</p>

16

<p>I don’t think the 5’s on AP tests will make much difference. I’m not even sure if that goes on an application anywhere.</p>