<p>My preliminary list is currently:
Reach
-Columbia
-Stanford
-Upenn
-Johns Hopkins
-UC Berkeley
Swarthmore
Pomona
Tufts
Matches
UT Austin
UCLA
Boston U
Emerson
NYU
Colorado College
Macalester
Haverford</p>
<p>I have a 3.95 gpa and 2020 SAT. My extracurriculars are unique and I am one of the top MUN participants in California. I want to get down to around 10 schools.</p>
<p>Help please!</p>
<p>I realize it might be a little late in most of the country…</p>
<p>Figure out your reasons for wanting to attend each school. If you can come up with good reasons for all of them, then heck apply to all of them!! :)</p>
<p>Well, the first thing you need to do is add a few safeties (maybe schools like UCD or UCSD), then I would cut down that list of reaches, unless you have some special hook that might make up for your SATs. I would pick one or two reaches that you are interested in and then focus more on matches. From an academic perspective, your matches look good, but I would try to determine if you prefer big, urban campuses (NYU, BU, UCLA) or LACS (Colorado College, Haverford, etc.) to narrow down your list a little more.</p>
<p>these are just reasons for me… which are mostly stupid. but i’d scratch ut austin, i live in texas and visited it and have decided against applying there because the atmosphere was so snobbish and superior something i really wasn’t expecting for the artsy hippie city of austin, it made me feel very intimidated and unhappy just being there one day. it’s also very overrated i know a lot of people that go there, and most of them aren’t so much what i would call serious about education or learning as partying and being cool hipsters… it’s way more of a party school that people realize i actually know one girl that went there and failing because of partying all the time, had to transfer to utsa. and johns hopkins cuz it’s in murderville…
ummm also don’t apply to multiple schools that are very similar as in, pick one or two of each different type of school so that you’ll have a variety of options, i.e. one big one small, one uni, one lac</p>
<p>also upenn is across the street from murderville camden… </p>
<p>and i personally would scratch schools that wouldn’t provide the needed financial aid</p>
<p>All of the schools I have chosen are within reasonable distance of a large city, which was my general focus with location. As far as safeties go, I will automatically be admitted into a number of UC schools because my class rank qualifies me for a special program for California residents.</p>
<p>Also if it helps I want to major in English with a focus in creative writing.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Eligibility in Local Context (ELC) will gain you admission to a UC if space is available, not necessarily one of your choice. So you may get a big packet from Merced if you do not get into any UC that you specifically applied to (maybe not even Merced if it has no space available).</p>
<p>ELC is also not based on current class rank as calculated by your high school; it is based on your UC admissions GPA exceeding the top 9% threshold of UC admissions GPA set by previous classes at your high school. Presumably, your high school should be able to tell you what this threshold is; you can then check to see if your UC admissions GPA exceeds that threshold.</p>
<p>If you cannot pay full price at the schools in question, check the net price calculators for need-based aid, and check their scholarship pages to see if any large enough merit scholarships are within reach. If not, then you may as well remove them from your list.</p>
<p>Have you actually visited either of the campuses. I have recently visited both and they both are on the nicer side of town and are very protected. Johns Hopkins university is practically its own city and has been ranked as one of the safest schools in America. The have armed guards outside all of the dorms and you need your jhu card to even get onto campus.</p>
<p>My school has notified me that I am eligible for the ELC program.</p>
<p>Any more opinions?</p>
<p>Bump…</p>
<p>Check out the block plan of Colorado college. It is not for everyone, so I dunno if you would want to keep it in your list or not.</p>
<p>Pomona and Haverford are both really good in hard sciences, but I do not know how good they are in English or creative writing. Then again, how can one quantify the quality of education of something like English…Check out their academic programs, and see if they impress you or not.</p>
<p>How come you don’t have Kenyon on your list. Granted that it is in Gambier, but it has a very well reputed writing program.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most selective LACs, including Pomona and Haverford, have strong (or at least adequate) English departments. Depending on your goals, you might find that certain schools fit your needs/interests better than others. Do you want to focus substantially on creative writing (i.e. major)? Or, will you be satisfied with a minor or concentration? I am familiar with the English departments at two of your prospective schools; feel free to send me a PM if you’d like more information from a former/current student.</p>
<p>Also, others might be reluctant to offer assistance because you’ve excluded some necessary information. Are you simply basing your decision on school location and strength of English departments? Or, are there additional factors (size, intellectual atmosphere, campus climate, etc.) that might eliminate schools from contention?</p>