How do you cut down your college list?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello I'm new but I have a question that has been bothering me for awhile. No matter how hard I try I'm having a tough time cutting down my college list. Through a lot of work I have managed to get down my list a bit but I would like a few opinions on what schools to take down. </p>

<p>I'm trying to cut down to about 12 schools tops including 1 backup school. I'm planning on majoring in medicine/bio/chem....science XD</p>

<p>Quick About me:
Asian, Female
-No preferences for school location, size, cost, etc.
-Main concern: If possible I would LOVE LOVE LOVE private showers/restrooms. Small dorms are fine but I need a clean shower
-Scores:
SAT: 2120 (Math 690, Reading 720, Writing 710)
GPA: (Overall 3 yrs) 3.4~3.5, Problem: GPA for my Junior year (now) is EXTREMELY low: 3.0
Weighted is at my personal estimate of 3.7~3.8
Extra: Grade 7 Piano, 3rd Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, Link Crew Captain, Director of international publicity Leo club, Silver and gold for Leo club, Calliope Historian/Webmaster, Yearbook member, DB4youth member, Anime club member (hopefully officer), Running book drive (will change in near future) and so on but those are my main dedications
In IB and school's tech program</p>

<p>I don't have anything that really makes me stand out other than maybe my black belt but my biggest fear is my gpa and kind of my sat ii's (I haven't taken any yet but I suck at math so I'm scared about that score).</p>

<p>My list as of right now:
University of Cambridge
University of Edinburgh
Boston U
Case Western Res. U
Cornell U
Duke U
Georgetown U
Johns Hopkins U
New York U
Princeton U
U Calif Davis
U Calif Santa Barbara
U Calif Los Angeles
U Calif Riverside
U Calif San Diego
U Rochester
Washington U St. L.</p>

<p>Any thoughts about what schools to take out?</p>

2

<p>Make a list and categorize all your schools into three sections: safety, match, and reach. For stats like yours, you should probably divide your choices evenly between the three categories, like four schools for each one, maybe fewer for safety if you can get your SAT score higher. GPA is a little scary. Also try to visit these schools. Visiting makes a huge difference.</p>

3

<p>“Any thoughts about what schools to take out?”</p>

<p>Some of the UCs?</p>

4

<p>Have to sort out those you love after you take visits. And try to figure out which field you love and then find those that fit your taste best</p>

5

<p>given your credentials, Cambridge and Princeton are VERY high reaches, and to be blunt, I don’t think that you have a chance for cambridge and maybe a very slim chance for Pton if you manage to whip up some AMAZING essays. Don’t know too much about Edinburgh. Duke, WUSTL, Cornell, and Gtown can also be classified as reaches. NYU and UCLA are low reaches. Are you applying for biomedical engineering at Hopkins? The rest of your list can be put in the match and safety groups.</p>

6

<p>I would worry more about the GPA than the SAT. For SAT you can easily improve over a hundred points, but your GPA is kind of low, and it’s going to be hard, if not impossible, to pull it up in a short amount of time:(.</p>

7

<p>And don’t take a wussy schedule full of easy classes in hopes of raising your GPA because colleges WILL know what you are trying to do and will NOT be impressed, even if you do manage to get that GPA up.</p>

8

<p>lol Yeah I understand. My schedules are all AP’s and honors. I don’t think I have ever taken a regular class in high school except English I (no honors) and non-academic courses (yearbook, html/css, photoshop, etc.) I have hopes for raising my GPA. This is my final year of math and spanish which are the two courses that are absolutely murdering my GPA…</p>

9

<p>Standards for average applicants range from:</p>

<p>2-3 reaches (if you must)
3-5 matches
1-2 safeties</p>

<p>More matches are definitely better than more reaches. If you need lots of fin aid, applying to a few more safeties/matches would be best for you. Matches include higher up matches, ie. BU, Case Western.</p>

<p>Remember, you are only applying to extremely top schools on your list. Focus more on matches/safeties also, although they are obviously less appealing. The 3.0 will hurt, so bump it up or look a little downer… seriously.</p>

10

<p><em>sigh</em> Sadly I understand :frowning: I’ll update my list a bit =/ Dang 3.0 T_T</p>

11

<p>Unless you are totally against LAC’s, can you add two of those so you have that choice in the mix? Look for LACs with median scores below yours so the grade point won’t hurt you as much. (20 - 35 on U.S. News??) And take off some UC’s as well as maybe Cambridge. Keep Edinbrugh (sp?) because schools in other countries may use slightly different standards and you may get into what is really an internationally known school.</p>

12

<p>Start by finding one rock-solid “True Safety”. This place is one that will guarantee your admission based on your statistics (many public Us post the stats that guarantee admission right on their websites), you can pay for out of pocket without any aid other than federally determined (FAFSA) aid, that offers your major (or the first two years if it is a community college), and that you are truly confident you can be happy at if you aren’t admitted anywhere else that you can afford.</p>

<p>If you are in California, your True Safety is likely to be one of the California Community Colleges, or one of the Cal. States. </p>

<p>You also need to sit your parents down, now that tax season is over, and run some of the EFC calculators at [College</a> Calculators - savings calculators - college costs, loans](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Calculate Your Cost – BigFuture | College Board) and at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) Talk with them about just exactly how your family will pay for your education. Is it all your responsibility? Is it all theirs? How much debt are they willing to have you take on for your education? This conversation needs to take place, but it doesn’t have to be all at once. You can work on it over the course of several months as you finalize your list. But please, please, please, make sure that you have it. Please don’t be the author of next April’s “I just found out how expensive college will be for me what do I do now?” thread.</p>

<p>Given your gender, your stats, and your pre-med interest, why aren’t there any women’s colleges on your list? Take a look at Bryn Mawr.</p>

13

<p>I think you can take out Princeton with your GPA, hate to be a heart-breaker, I really do, but I think you would be better off concentrating on your other schools</p>

14

<p>My son did something similar to what a few others said…</p>

<p>He split schools into 3 catagories.</p>

<p>1) Reaches (applied to 3)
2) Safeties (applied to 3)
3) Schools he could play athletics at (applied to 3)</p>

<p>Unfortunately, here is what happened… </p>

<p>He really was set on any of the 3 reach schools. Although we put them in the reach category, in comparing 2009 admissions statistics he was well above the 50 percentile of admitted students so we thought he would get accepted to 1 or more. He got denied at 1, and waitlisted at the other 2 on very long waitlists.</p>

<p>He got admitted to all of the safety schools, but really, he didn’t want to go to any of them. As a parent I don’t want my child heading to college disappointed at where he is heading. I don’t think that is the recipe for a successful experience.</p>

<p>He was set at playing college athletics if he could and got accepted into all 3 schools he chose for this. Problem is, he had not done overnight visits in advance. He had visited each school during a day visit. After application process he did overnight visit and left with no intention on attending any of these schools. </p>

<p>So of the 9 schools he applied to, with his current options, he is pretty unhappy with all of them.</p>

<p>We are working alternatives, waitlists, etc… We have some prospects that he is happy about, but that is all they are, prospects.</p>

<p>As much as I complain about kids applying to too many schools, my son should have applied to a few more. He should have added a “match” category where there were colleges he would be excited to attend that he knew he would get accepted to. We were so confident that he would get into at least 1 of his reach schools that we weren’t prepared for not getting into any of them.</p>

15

<p>Yeah, when doing your college list thing, make sure that most of them are those you would love to attend</p>

16

<p>Talk with them about just exactly how your family will pay for your education. Is it all your responsibility? Is it all theirs? How much debt are they willing to have you take on for your education? This conversation needs to take place,</p>

<p>The best advice! </p>

<p>You also need to find out what your family’s EFC will be and can they afford it. </p>

<p>If your parents can’t afford to pay $50k+ each year, then take out NYU. NYU gives awful aid…mostly big loans.</p>

<p>Since you’ll be going to medical school, you need to minimize debt for undergrad.</p>

<p>You should also include 1 or 2 schools that will give you assured BIG merit for your stats - for “just in case” the money doesn’t work out at your schools or your parents can’t
afford your schools.</p>

<p>Make sure that you can afford your safeties…a safety isn’t a safety if you can’t afford to go there. Some people have found out that they can’t even afford the Cal States.</p>

17

<p>If I were you, I wouldn’t necessarily take reach schools like Princeton off of my list, but I would definitely stretch my college list out a little more to include a true safety and colleges of more varied selectivity, like what mom2collegekids and others suggested. You can pick out a rolling school with an atmosphere that you like that also gives out good aid, then apply early so you have a definite safety in hand when you apply to other schools. This way, you know you’ll be going somewhere you like even if something turns out horribly wrong later on.</p>

<p>Once you have a school in hand that you really love and can afford to attend, I don’t see any problem in applying to some reach schools as long as you don’t mind the application fees and the time. When I started applying to college last year, I only had a 2210 SAT (which I later retook), and some people tried to discourage me from applying to so many reach schools (Of the schools to which I’ve applied, half of them were in the top ten of US News Ranking, and another five were in the top twenty. And people at my high school rarely even go to good colleges.) Now that the process is over, I’m glad that I gave all of my reaches a try - I somehow got into all of them except Yale, Princeton, and WashU, and now I can compare all the aid packages and decide on the best one. So, miracles do happen, and you don’t want to give up any opportunity too easily either:).</p>

18

<p>Find a safety school that you would love going to, then eliminate all of the reaches you’d not prefer to the safety. (actually, you should have two safeties at least, just in case). I managed to cut down a list of about 20 to a list of 9 that way. While you may get into your reaches, don’t fall in love with them until you know they are options. Fall in love with your safeties, and pay attention to the awesomeness of your reaches when you get accepted. </p>

<p>With your gpa and test scores, you’d benefit from a reach having a “holistic” approach. Essentially, your numbers aren’t great for a top notch big state school. On the other hand, if you can write well, you may have a chance at nice LACs or even some Ivies. If you like Princeton a lot, apply. Just make sure that you write amazing essays for the app. </p>

<p>If you want to go to med school, make sure the schools you apply to have generous grading. A tech school with no grade inflation is horrible for pre-meds. So either make sure the school is generous with A’s or that you’d be a star student there, if you want med school.</p>

19

<p>Thank you :slight_smile: I have a few “match” schools I would be happy with. I need to cut down on my dream schools more and at this point I think its down to the little things like how the college looks and the dorms =/</p>