<p>How about Ithaca College?</p>
<p>Plenty of colleges back here that would love to have a hard working CA kid!!!</p>
<p>Ithaca, like Northstarmom said.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac (this college is moving up!!)</p>
<p>RIT (for engineering/technical)</p>
<p>Marist</p>
<p>Fairfield</p>
<p>Loyola Maryland</p>
<p>Ursinus</p>
<p>See a list also in the book “Colleges That Change Lives”</p>
<p>There are 3000 colleges in the US; you have plenty of choices!!!</p>
<p>Kei</p>
<p>P.S. Just like everyone else, you need safety schoosl on yoru list,too.</p>
<p>
The 1st thing you do is give up on name worship. I can’t imagine a student that would be equally happy at smallish rural Dartmouth and frenzied urban UChicago. Picking highly ranked names is not the way to choose a college; finding one that’s a fit for you is. As an earlier poster noted, if you are whining about not getting advice in HS then why in the world are you picking large U’s where if anything the classes are much larger and the approach is hands-off?</p>
<p>Really you also ought to think about counseling regarding your approach to life. “I feel like just giving up with everything…” If that’s how you approach things when you have tons of great options available, I wonder what you’re going to do when you face some real problems. There is lots of evidence that an optimistic explanatory style has a huge impact on success, and conversely the hopeless/helpless attitude you show is tied to depression and failure to achieve one’s goals.</p>
<p>R124687, you’re distorting the situation. A student with an SAT of 2210, a GPA of 4.3-4.4, and a class ranking in the top 10% is competitive for every Ivy. Such students don’t apply for mere “grins.”</p>
<p>I attend an Ivy. Our campus if full of dynamic students, but we didn’t all have 2300+ SAT’s and we weren’t all in the top 1% of our classes, but each of us did bring something unique to campus. </p>
<p>High school students need to understand that test scores and grades are used only to determine whether you will succeed academically at the school. Once you qualify academically, colleges evaluate your application for things that have nothing to do with grades or test scores. Schools want to see that you are unique, that you will make the campus a better, more interesting place. This is why some students with 2400 SATs get rejected, while some with 2100 SATs get accepted.</p>
<p>OP - there are a ton of good colleges out there. many are rarely mentioned here. Please do not get hung up on name recognition, or USNWR rankings. You can and should find the college that is the best fit for you</p>
<p>you want to leave cali? do what i think lots of other californians do and go to Arizona or Arizona State. I think you will get into both. A 25 ACT is better than a 1690 SAT, so send your ACT score and you should get into both schools, and you might know a few people at each school. Both are Tier 1 Universities.</p>
<p>wow…you suck…with those scores I’d say community college for sure.</p>
<p>wow…you suck…with those posts I’d say jerkface poster for sure.</p>
<p>OP, I understand exactly how you feel. I went to a crappy school in CA with a bunch of morons. I somehow made my way to top 10 with only my unweighted GPA, and I thought that I was totally sure I could go to Ivies. So there I was, happily requesting information from HYPSM, drooling over the top-tier schools brochures and fantasizing about my achievements. All was cool until I discovered CC –> Immediately lost all hope</p>
<p>Now let’s get to the point: there are many schools that are very lenient in admission. Some other are Test Optional that usually requires an essay instead of submitting SAT/ACT scores. Did I mention that there are plenty of LAC that are great and easily to get into? (70-80% admission rate here). Do your research once again and I’m definitely sure you could get into a good school</p>
<p>Look at your grades. Look at those schools. Get some state schools in or end up like that kid who applied all Ivys and went nowhere.</p>
<p>Jamma…no distortion whatsoever. She’s already been told she won’t qualify. There is a lot more to a person’s application than those stats. 9th percentile rank, at her high school does NOT get a 2nd look at Ivies. We have all the stats from all the past years’ applicants from her school (average stats for those who applied, and who was accepted). It’s a top 2% ranked high school, but the ONLY acceptances into TOP Ivies are the top <1% rank of this school. Pretty much ALL salutatorian or valedictorian (of 700-800) hooked by race, very specific ECs. About 1 child out of 700 gets into a TOP Ivy in a GOOD year. A few more into lower Ivies. And these are kids with 5.0-5.2 grades, and then some. Interestingly, their SAT scores are usually lower than my Ds. GPA overrules standardized test scores. Rank is VERY important. </p>
<p>So, not sure why you’re using this thread to say I’m wrong, but…no it’s not overstating her situation at all. Her shigh chool even has a dedicated college admissions counselor who was a college admissions administrator for MANY years. She’s advised her she’s NYU competitive but not Ivy. D has many long term ECs, some leadership, some volunteerwork, GPA is even now running at a 4.0 (5.0 weighted) now that the “issues” in her life have been managed. But she’s still been told she’s pretty much just dreaming because of a very bad semester with Bs that dropped her GPA to an unrecoverable level (at least as far as Ivy qualifications). </p>
<p>It’s important to be realistic. These colleges are making so much money from “folly” type applications, and kids sit for 5 months dreaming of that tiny spark of possibility. Yes, if one is borderline, why not try if this is your preferred type of school. But I also think we collectively owe it to the OP to tell the truth. He needs to KNOW the level of competition to make serious/informed decisions. He already says he hasn’t had any guidance, so some smart moves are now needed to help him move forward. Safety safety safety is the buzzword here. And then learning not only to live with the results of one’s efforts, but to embrace it as being lucky to get an education.</p>
<p>I’m not in ANY way telling him not to apply. That’s not my place. I’m giving OUR story, and telling WHY I insisted on a good safety school for my D. She selected 1 “match”, 2 low reaches, and 3 high reaches. So I insisted on a safety…both financially and academically. OP would be well advised to do the same. And he’s looking for advice.</p>
<p>No offense…but did you research the requirements for those schools you listed? Though you have had a very successful high school career, your GPA and SAT scores fall considerably short for those schools you listed. (I mean aren’t Cornell, UPenn and Dartmouth Ivy League schools??) I understand your apprehension towards the Cal State system in this current economy. With budgets being slashed at all campuses and astronomical applicant numbers, chances of getting the classes you need and graduating on time are pretty slim. Last week my son got a very polite rejection letter fron San Diego State saying it’s not that he wasn’t qualified for admission, it’s just that the ridiculous number of applicants have enabled the universities to be more selective then they used to be just a few short years ago. ( San Diego State had 62,000 freshmen applicants for 6000 spots this fall!!) You have numbers very similar to my son’s (3.5 GPA…1710 SAT) so if your looking for a good private school in California that are more realistic for your numbers you might want to look into Chapman University, Loyola-Marymount University, Cal Lutheran University or University of San Diego to name a few…all very well rated and in your ballpark for admission. And if you REALLY want to get to one of those schools you listed…do really well somewhere else for a year or two and then try to transfer. One thing you definitely SHOULD NOT do though is give up…you sound to smart and talented for that. Good Luck.</p>
<p>i have the exact same feeling as you…and though my GPA’s 3.86 for the first three years, i got like four Bs and a freaking D in first semester of senior year due to lots of family issues and health concerns. I mailed in a letter to all the colleges i applied to and explained what happened but i highly doubt if that helped. and my SAT score’s 2020 which’s not soo good either for those top schools. But i do have pretty decent ECs too.
However, i’ve been rejected from like UC berkeley, UCLA, (i’m in washington so guess it’s a bit harder for me than for California kids) U of Chicago, Northwestern already…I feel so doomed now and can totally understand your feeling of giving up on this…</p>
<p>Just go to smaller colleges</p>