Help with undergraduate selection

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I'm having a hard time selecting a set list of schools to apply to. Every time somebody mentions a school, I read about it and find the positives in each school, and this sort of makes this hard to narrow my choices down. I'm also not particular sure about what I plan on studying as I am pretty much interested in almost everything I study. My parents have suggested medicine, engineering, and economics as general fields of study but I have virtually no preference, other than the fact that I would like to study abroad. As of right now some of my choices include UChicago, Upenn, and Rice University.
Here's a rough picture of my academic record and other things pertaining to college admissions:</p>

<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Chinese
State: Rhode Island
GPA (On a 4.3 scale): 4.03 (apparently ~3.91 on a 4.0 scale)-2 B+'s as the lowest grades, with A+ being the highest
Class rank: 4/~230</p>

<p>SAT Total: 2100
CR: 670
Math: 720
Writing: 710</p>

<p>SAT Subject tests:
Biology M: 690
U.S. History: 740
Math I: 690</p>

<p>PSAT: 204 (97th Percentile)</p>

<p>AP Exams:
Biology (5)
U.S History (5)</p>

<p>Senior Courses:
AP English Lit, AP Calculus AB, AP Physics B, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, Bioethics Symposium and Environmental Chemistry (Over virtual high school)
All of my classes (with the exception of some electives) have been honors or AP, and I have taken pretty much as many AP classes as my school allows.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities:
Student Council Vice President 12; Band 9-11; JV Lacrosse 9; National Honor Society (Plan on joining executive board of my school's chapter) 11 12; LIFE Society 9-12 (community service organization founded by my friends and one that I will be leading this year); STEM (science, tech, engineering, math) Academy 10-12; Courtyard Club and Environmental Club (Nature conservation clubs); Language and Culture Club 10-12 (President this year); various other activities for fun</p>

<p>Awards:
Selected to compete in the National Merit competition (based on PSAT scores)
Holy Cross Book Award
Various recognition for volunteer work</p>

<p>Misc facts: leader of various clubs and activities at my school; sensei in karate; lots of community service hours (though many not recorded); frequent traveler to China with my family; Plan on retaking the SAT test and the ACT test for the first time this fall</p>

<p>Sorry for the long post, but college is starting to stress me out and it seems that I should attempt to have an idea of what I want to do, but as it turns out, I have none. Any suggestions are welcome, and thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>Nothing wrong with not knowing what field of study you want to dive into. I’d rather have someone enthusiastic about learning than someone who is zeroed in on a major, all else being equal. Liberal arts colleges were made for that kind of exploration.</p>

<p>Besides what you want to study (since you don’t know yet), what do you think you might want out of a college? Size, location, net cost, etc.?</p>

3

<p>In terms of size, I don’t want an extremely large college. I prefer smaller class sizes but at the same time I don’t want to struggle to find friends or certain classes that I want. </p>

<p>Location: I don’t want to stay in the northeast too badly, but I understand that there are many good schools here so location isn’t too big of a deal to me. I would prefer to live in or near the city, but not directly in it. What I really liked about Upenn was that their campus was a short ride from central Philadelphia, but it still had the feel of a central college community. Castles are something I’m fascinated by, and a beautiful campus is something I’d also enjoy. One of my favorite things to do is to try new food, so any city that is famous for its food could pull me in too :smiley: </p>

<p>Any school with a reasonable price and financial aid are in my family’s range, but I have two other siblings, one who attends Tufts and the other who is 2 years younger, so I don’t want to ruin my parents.</p>

4

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<p>The area around UPenn is not exactly a “nice neighborhood” as far as Philadelphia is concerned, but I don’t think that should discourage your from applying.</p>

5

<p>I can see why you were drawn to UChicago. Sounds like a good pick for you. I would suggest Duke, Cornell, Pomona, USC, Northwestern, Georgetown.</p>

6

<p>Thanks to everyone for their responses!
BTW I had another question: I know certain schools such as Carnegie Mellon have you apply to specific schools (I think they have 6-7 different schools), does it cost money for each application to that school? And also, I hope to do some sort of business in the future to make some extra money, but would it be worth applying to business schools such as Wharton (Upenn) or Stern (NYU)? I don’t know much about admission into business programs really though, but I do like the fact that you can involve business into anything at Upenn.</p>

7

<p>I am interested in interdisciplinary programs also.</p>

8

<p>University of Chicago would be perfect if you wanted to get out of the NE, beautiful campus and Hyde Park is truly a melting pot of unique cultures, it’s a pretty special spot. I can’t really give you details on business schools, but I wish you luck in your search.</p>

9

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<p>Actually, Big State Universities may be better places for the undecided to explore, since there are more different courses and majors available than the usually smaller liberal arts colleges (some liberal arts colleges, like Harvey Mudd College and Sarah Lawrence College, are specialty schools emphasizing majors in a specific area, with only limited courses available in other areas). Community colleges may be another place for the undecided to explore if it is likely that it will take more than two years to decide, or if a late switch to a major with long prerequisite chains (e.g. physics or engineering) is a possibility, since there is less institutional and financial pressure to decide quickly, though the obvious disadvantage is the inability to take upper level courses before reaching junior standing, and the necessity to transfer to complete a bachelor’s degree.</p>

<p>Liberal arts colleges do have their advantages, like usually smaller size and smaller class sizes, and more focus on undergraduates. But limited courses and majors can be a significant limitation. Advanced students who want to take graduate level courses as undergraduates may find the lack of graduate level courses at many liberal arts colleges a disadvantages.</p>

10

<p>I don’t think you stand a strong chance with Wharton since you haven’t really lined up your ECs. It’s brutally competitive. With more impressive test scores, I think you have a better shot at the current schools you listed. That said, Chicago, Rice, and Penn are reaches for a lot of applicants. </p>

<p>Also, I’m not sure what your financial prospects are but you should look into the University of Alabama’s presidential scholarship for a financial safety.</p>

<p>I wholeheartedly agree with you about Penn’s location. University City and Rittenhouse are awesome places to live.</p>

11

<p>You asked about whether there are separate fees for each additional school within a college (ie Stern). I don’t believe so, but go to each schools website and start making a list of criteria for all applications (can use an excel sheet to keep track of all apps.). Also, read through each school’s supplement on Common App. (if they accept CA). Some schools will ask in the supplement whether you are applying for a certain college within the college. NYU did come to mind. Also, look at UVa. The schools I mentioned above are all reach schools. They are reaches for everyone, so it’s more based on acceptance rates and not your stats. I just don’t want you to expect to get admitted to several of them. Even with your stats, have some safeties in mind too is my point and have them be colleges that you would actually not mind attending. </p>

<p>One last thing I noticed, you listed an award incorrectly. You are considered National Merit Commended. They should have sent you a letter back in April asking you to notify two schools of your choice of this status. Did you pick two schools? What were they? You may find out you are a NM Semifinalist this next couple weeks (your school counselor will notify you). If so they you will be able to apply for Finalist standing. You will have to look up what the scores are in RI for NM Semifinalist’s this year. Commended is still great on your resume though.</p>

12

<p>You can apply to some of the top schools, though you may be a reach for the top 15. A good list should include a handful of the top schools in different ranges. For example, a good list for you would include reaches, safeties and matches:</p>

<p>All Ivies
Stanford
Duke
Boston College
Colgate
Northwestern
University of Chicago</p>

13

<p>if you’re looking at those sorts of places, you’re going to need to kick up your scores.</p>

<p>Also, I wouldn’t bee too worried about being able to find people at smaller schools. Even small schools usually have thousands of people on campus, and if you go looking, you’re very likely to find the type of people you want to hang out with</p>

14

<p>None of the schools in post #12 are safeties. BC and Colgate may be matches, the rest would be reaches. You’ll need a legitimate safety school that is affordable.</p>

15

<p>Does RI offer reciprocity agreements with other nearby states? Just wondering if you get instate tuition rates in any other state other than RI. Gadad is absolutely right, by safety we mean a real safety. State Flagship, university with lower stats than yours and considerably good acceptance rates. At least 1-2 schools in this catagory. The “target” vs. “reach” lines get fairly blurred when you are dealing with stats at this level. The term target is less meaningful because most of your schools will be reaches based on acceptance rates. So yes you can have a big list of reaches, but you have to include at least one safety.</p>

16

<p>To answer my own question, lol, yes, RI does have reciprocity agreements with several other states. Here’s the link to the website that you need.</p>

<p>[Eligibility/</a> FAQs : NEW ENGLAND BOARD OF HIGHER EDUCATION](<a href=“http://www.nebhe.org/programs-overview/rsp-tuition-break/eligibilityfaqs/]Eligibility/”>http://www.nebhe.org/programs-overview/rsp-tuition-break/eligibilityfaqs/)</p>

<p>This may not be as good a deal as say with Minn. with Wisc., because you may be limited by a certain major.</p>

17

<p>Thanks for checking that out on my behalf :D. And I did reach commended status. I sent the score reporting services to Upenn and Uchicago. My guidance counselor mentioned something about really nice scholarships that kids got for that competition in the past, so I’m definitely hoping for that. I plan on improving my test scores to make my application look more promising, and I have looked at a few safeties. If anyone could post any safeties based on my information, that’d be fantastic. So far I’ve only looked at northeastern as a possible safety, and people say BU would be a safety, but I’m not too sure about that and would like some others. Thanks again everyone !</p>

18

<p>Northeastern would probably be a low match, BU would be a safety.</p>

19

<p>U Penn and UChicago were excellent choices for notification about NM commended status. Not to bumm you out but it looks like RI semifinalist cutoff scores this year are a PSAT of 211. Here’s the link:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/987836-national-merit-semifinalist-score-cutoff-class-2011-a-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/987836-national-merit-semifinalist-score-cutoff-class-2011-a-4.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>No worries though! Commended status is enough to get you on their radar. Always good for them to consider that you will attend if offered a spot in their 2012 class, so by having contact with you this past spring they know that you had long-term interest. I think that Northeastern and BU are perfect safeties for you. </p>

<p>Just aim for about 8-12 schools total and don’t over stretch yourself with too many schools since you’ll have a full load of courses, EC’s and the applications. It’s a good idea to get the Common App. essay written and out of the way now, so that you can start to plan the supplements based on due dates (keep in mind that some supps. are due before the Common App. in order to “open the file” as in the case of Brown or Wesleyan, so check each school before submitting). You don’t have to submit the common app.,just get it filled in and saved. It seems to take at least one weekend per supplement is what we found. That’s full days of writing and editing. Again, and excel sheet helps keep it all organized. I love the book On Writing the College Application Essay by Harry Bauld (former Brown admissions rep). It will help you determine what not to write about; what’s been completely over done and seen a million times by adcoms.</p>

<p>The only other thing I will mention is to consider applying to some schools Early Action (non-binding) to stretch out the due dates. Of course get your rolling admissions schools done first (not sure if you have U of Michigan on list, but it’s rolling). UVa is offering Early Action this year by the way.</p>

<p>Good luck! I think you’ll have some great options in April :)</p>

20

<p>Thanks again…I had another question though. Based on my record, would it be wise for me to do early action at any schools that have it? Would there be any reason not to/wouldi t hurt my application and chances of getting in? I know there are a lot of questions asked like this, but I was hoping to get some opinions specific to me. Thanks in advance</p>