Help me refine my list of colleges (criteria & stats included)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I'm a junior trying to create a relatively balanced list of 10 or fewer colleges (as in, reaches, matches and safeties).</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<p>Academics:
GPA 3.71 UW (private HS is known within the US for teaching all classes at AP level, Naviance puts average accepted Cornell student from my school at 3.67).</p>

<p>PSAT 222, waiting on SAT I scores
Planning on taking SAT2 in Math 1&2, English Lit, Chemistry, Chinese)</p>

<p>Plan to self-study AP Chinese, AP Econ, AP Chem, AP English</p>

<p>ECs:
Practiced Karate since Nov 1998.
-Achieved senior rank (in line for a black belt by the next school year)
-Extensive community involvement, teaching 2 hours/week and practicing up to 6/week
-Won numerous medals from the state to international level, including an international gold in 2008</p>

<p>Ongoing internship since 2007 @ the U.N.'s World Trade University, producing original research and documents for a prominent businessman and speaker</p>

<p>Guitar/piano as a hobby, 6 years (non-competitive)</p>

<p>Planned: volunteering at SBOC (Seattle Bilingual Orientation Center) over the summer 4hrs/week & in senior year 2hrs/week</p>

<p>Awards:
-Numerous medals in Karate (can list if need be)
-National Merit Semifinalist (will apply for finalist)</p>

<p>I feel my recs will be very strong.</p>

<p>Notes:
Legacy at Stanford - dad and his dad both went there, one for grad school and one for undergrad</p>

<p>I'm looking for:
MUST HAVE:
-Strong economics or undergrad business program ("prestigious" a huge plus as I'm interested in Chinese-US business)
-Chinese language program
-Study abroad opportunities in China</p>

<p>WOULD REALLY LIKE:
-To be close to some kind of city... I'm a city kid and can't deal with being too far from population centers.
-Not too hot... but I can deal with whatever weather</p>

<p>Current list (very rough draft):
NYU
U of British Columbia
UT-Austin
Cornell
U of Chicago
U of Penn
Stanford
U of Washington
Boston College
Emory</p>

2

<p>What state do you live in? How far do you want to go away from home?
Is a school that is well known in sports a preference or do collegiate athletics not matter?
What about a schools diversity? OOS population or religious/political views?</p>

<p>If you think about some of those things it might help you refine your list and find better matches. Also others might be able to give better input.</p>

<p>Right now you’ve said you’re looking for a school w/ a strong economics/business program located in or very close to a city with study abroad options in China. While this is a good start we can’t really help you refine your list unless you give more specifics because it seems like you’ve already chosen a good selection. I’ll do some research and then come back later with some other school suggestions.</p>

3

<p>I live in WA and would be willing to travel anywhere, and in fact the least attractive idea to me is staying in Seattle.
Collegiate athletics are irrelevant to me as a student because I don’t play any NCAA sports =p
Diversity is nice but not necessary, as I am half Chinese/half white and am unlikely to feel alienated in any ethnic group.
Living in Seattle, I am politically liberal, but moderately so and find myself agreeing with certain conservative ideas. So basically politics don’t matter to me.
I have some aversion to religious schools & OOS% doesn’t matter much to me.</p>

4

<p>What can you afford for college? Have you discussed this with your parents?</p>

5

<p>My college fund at present is about 106k and I plan to work and take out loans to carry me the rest of the way. Money won’t stop me.</p>

6

<p>look into columbia and harvard and also a safety school or two… these all look like target/reach schools for you.</p>

7

<p>Might look at Holy Cross-near Boston. Holy Cross is similar to Boston College both Jesuit schools.</p>

8

<p>Cornell is FAR from a city. Don’t go there if you like cities.</p>

<p>UCLA, Chicago, NYU are good</p>

9

<p>Chicago Columbia Penn Stanford</p>

10

<p>I would definitely check out Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Northwestern and Penn. I agree that Cornell is too remote and quasi-rural for a person seeking a more urban environment.</p>

11

<p>Here is one that has all you want. It was a safety for my D, but she took it over lots of schools she got into, including NU and BC.</p>

<p>Trinity University in San Antonio. Highly thought of econ, business, Chinese, and yes, Study Abroad in China.</p>

<p>Beautiful campus in a great city with wonderful weather, offers merit aid, and has a COA next year of ~$42,000.</p>

12

<p>Interesting mix of Must Haves.</p>

<p>Geography:
Yale is out since it is not near a large city.<br>
Stanford is OK as it is only 50 minutes from San Francisco
Berkeley is good as it is 20 minute BART ride from San Francisco
Northwestern is fine as it is a 25 minute train ride (express) from Chicago
Harvard and MIT are fine
Penn is fine
Princeton is too remote
Duke is too remote
Chicago is IDEAL
NYU is IDEAL</p>

<p>Strong Business or Prestigious Econ:
Chcago, Harvard, Penn, Stanford, MIT are all IDEAL
Berkeley, Northwestern and NYU (Stern only) just behind</p>

<p>Strong in Chinese:
don’t know. Would suspect the strongest would be –
Berkeley
Stanford</p>

<p>Given that Chinese-US business will likely center on the western US, especially San Francisco/Silicon Valley, my gut tells me Stanford or Berkeley are your best fits. Check out this Berkeley program: <a href=“http://ieas.berkeley.edu/ccs/[/url]”>Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) | Institute of East Asian Studies;

13

<p>Dunnin, Princeton is just as close to NYC as Stanford is to SF</p>

14

<p>you need to add USC as it has all of the following:
:undergrad business program (“prestigious” a huge plus as I’m interested in Chinese-US business)
-Chinese language program
-Study abroad opportunities in China
-To be close to some kind of city… I’m a city kid and can’t deal with being too far from population centers.</p>

<p>AND as a NMSF, you will receive a 1/2 tuition scholarship at USC for all 4 years. </p>

<p>But you REALLY need to find some safeties and matches- [I’d say USC is a match], as your EC’s are weak and legacy at Stanford means very little unless your Parents have donated continually to S for a long time. Penn is VERY “class rank” conscious, and I remember reading on their accepted student profile that 90% of accepted Penn students rank in the top 10% of their class.</p>

15

<p>Safeties: Wisconsin, Indiana, SMU, U of Miami, and U of South Carolina ? South Carolina is supposed to have a spectacular program in international business. Don’t know if it’s for undergrads, grad students or both… <a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/international-business[/url]”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-business-schools/international-business&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;