Help on the college list!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello guys, please take a look at my academics and help me towards cutting down colleges.
Firstly, I think I'm applying to around 14 to 15 colleges. I do want to major in somewhere close to biochemistry/BME or even business/economics. I am an international student, a rising senior, but goes to a public high school in Oregon. </p>

<p>A thing to note, I came to America at second semester of my sophomore year, and until then I went to school in Singapore for freshman and first semester of sophomore.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 Unweighted, 4.32 Weighted </p>

<p>SAT: 2250, superscore (2 sittings)
CR: 670 M: 800 W: 780 (w/ 11 essay) << I don't think I'm submitting SAT though... have better score in ACT</p>

<p>ACT Plus Writing: 35 composite (First try), 33 w/ Writing
Reading: 32, English: 35, Math: 36, Science:35 (w/ 10 essay)</p>

<p>AP Classes: AP Chemistry (5), AP Biology (4), AP Calculus AB (5)
(and I do notice I have a shortage of AP for top-notch universities because I came here middle of sophomore year)</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests: Math IIC: 800, Korean w/ Listening: 800, Chemistry: 800</p>

<p>ECs: Track Varsity (In Singapore), JV (In U.S.), out-of-school choir section leader, community service choir singer, tutor for the refugees in Portland, Boys' Brigade (a cadet group similar to Scouts), </p>

<p>I have qualified for AIME once with score of 109.5 in AMC 10 and have a few Silver/Bronze certificate from SMO.</p>

<p>During summer, I did volunteering at Radiology Department in Hospital, researching about Chinese medicine.</p>

<p>List</p>

<p>Reach school
- Amherst (ED because of their excellent Need-Blind admission and financial aid policy)
- Williams
- Stanford < impossible lol
- Columbia</p>

<p>Match school
- Johns Hopkins
- WashU
- Brown
- Pomona << It's more like a reach school
- Dartmouth
- UPenn/UChicago << Not sure about this one too</p>

<p>Safety
- UCSD
- USC
- Emory
- Notre Dame</p>

<p>Thanks for your help!! :)</p>

2

<p>I’d say that your match schools are very similar to your reach schools in terms of selectivity. If applying to those schools, you should note that they are at least as selective as several of the reach schools you have mentioned, if not more in some cases. Why are you applying to each of the schools you are applying to?</p>

<p>If you don’t have a solid reason for them beyond “they are ranked high, people know it… ect” then I’d recommend you start cutting from there. That probably means your Upenn/Chicago/Stanford, although its up to you to do the research. Also, I don’t see a financial safety.</p>

<p>The schools you mentioned can be very expensive, and as an international student applying to theses schools you need at least one school where you are sure to get a significant merit scholarship to offset the costs of tuition if things don’t work out, especially with a list that is so reach heavy.</p>

<p>You are no doubt a qualified applicant, but you should look into refining your list to best meet your needs</p>

3

<p>Thank you, and yes, I have researched into those financial aid policies given at each schools.
As an international students I have an obvious disadvantage in terms of financial aid thus admission, except those few schools who practice need-blind policy for BOTH international and U.S. students. (Amherst, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Yale, Princeton)</p>

<p>I am planning to research on the majors that are popular yet well-established in each school listed, and it’ll take some time. However, I do notice the LACs such as Williams and Amherst have a broad range of education prioritized on ‘width’ than ‘depth’ compared to Ivy League schools. </p>

<p>For scholarship issues for my safety school, I am applying for Trustee scholarship at Boston University which I forgot to include… hopefully the odds are in my favor…</p>

<p>Well then, here come the essays…</p>

4

<p>Add Duke. Check out the Karsh Scholarship. Also one of the top in the nation for BME.</p>

5

<p>Notre Dame is NOT a safety for anyone. Your other “safeties” would be matches. </p>

6

<p>Tom, what schools would you consider as the ‘safety net’? I mean, for international students there is certainly a different financial aid policy and by ‘safety’ I also mean financially safe school to go to. For my visa status Notra Dame is a good school for safety… and i’m not sure whether UCSD is a match school…</p>

7

<p>UCSD might be a safety school IF you can afford it, but you must also fulfill all the A-G requirements for admission.</p>

8

<p>I am certainly good for A-G requirements, and yeah the cost is the problem because of the out-of-the state tuition cost of 22k…</p>

9

<p>University of Alabama would likely be both an admission and financial safety.</p>

10

<p>I agree with others that your list is way too aggressive and needs an overhaul. All of your match schools are pretty much reaches for anyone (only Hopkins might be considered a match) and Notre Dame and Emory are nobody’s safety. </p>

11

<p>Thanks for the tip, happy. Yeah… I know it’s really full of high tier schools.</p>

<p>To be honest, I didn’t know what schools I can put as ‘match’, since only Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth and Amherst practice the need-blind admission policy for BOTH U.S. and international students. </p>

<p>What schools do you guys think I should go for as the ‘match’ schools? Not sure whether I’m even understanding the definition of match and safety…</p>

12

<p>As I said above, University of Alabama. A safety school is one where you are virtually guaranteed admission. None of your safeties meet that criterion. </p>