I hate myself for doing this but

College Search & Selection
41

This is a very stupid argument to get into, but you’re calculating fees + housing only for Durham. Overseas tuition + housing + catering is around 28K pounds, not 26K. In any case, sure, I concede the point. I was going off my own experience living as a university student in England, when 12K pounds was barely enough to get by, but Durham’s room and board is around 8K. Including airfare and the bare minimum of pocket money, that’s still $40K per year. I wouldn’t consider this cheap at all.

UCL, by the way, advises students to budget 15K per year for living expenses, for a total of 34-40K pounds excluding airfare for an international student, depending on their course.

I specifically mentioned Bristol because a cursory search showed me that their Biological Sciences degree + accommodation costs overseas students 30K pounds per year. Including airfare and a stipend for personal expenses, that’s $50K per year, as I said.

But this is all irrelevant. As @tk21769 said, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a student with OP’s credentials applying to a bunch of state schools in California + a few out of state private reaches. She’ll be fine.

42

I just want to clear up one misconception that has been repeated on this thread a few times. Barnard is definately not a low reach or match for anyone. It is a a reach, pure and simple, for every applicant. Barnard accepted 13.9% of applicants last year. It will probably be lower this year. Its important that students are realistic about their chances at all of these schools.

43

@gallentjill I saw the 13% thing, but is that for everyone? My guidance counselor told me that if I applied to Barnard, it would be a high match, not a reach. Would you say my chances are around 30% maybe?

44

Does your high school have some sort of privileged connection to Barnard that typical high schools do not have?

45

I only think she said it was a high match. Just an opinion it would seem. There’s no real match vs reach - -o meter.

@nomood There’s no way to know. As @ucbalumnus states. Unless there’s a hook of a legacy or first gen. Schools like Barnard get a lot super talented students like you applying.

If you execute a fantastic set of essays and great lor. Sure - a 3.93 gpa with high rigor and 1540 boards is a upper end candidate. Probably top 25 percent level, if I were to guess.

However with 13 % admit rate and you normalize for hooks. Sports, legacy, first gen and super rich or famous - there’s another 30 percent of the spots being used at least.

So 30 percent of 13 percent is another 4 percent of the spots that are spoken for, in reality.

So the admit rate is 9 percent for you.

If all of the spots come from the top 25 percent group that you occupy. It still means 64 percent or nearly 7 out of 10 students like you are rejected.

I would also assume with urm and other institutional needs, it’s more like 8 out of 10 get rejected.

I would apply this logic to all your elite options in terms of expectations. Apply widely in terms of admissions selectivity. Take advantage of the uc system. It’s a blessing. Also the elites should be schools you want to attend, not to feel special from a peer group standpoint.

So in the end, Barnard is a reach. You would have perhaps a 20 percent chance based on my back of the envelope math and made up set of assumptions. Although not wildly off imho.

If it were elective surgery with a 20 percent chance of survival would you do it ? Since it’s not life or death give it a try. Just trying to right size how you look at all of these top schools everyone will throw out to you.

But my guess is you will find a home at some top school. I would look at wash u and Emory too.

46

I think you seem perfect for the top UCs, and I really don’t know why you’d want to go elsewhere. Good luck; you have nice stats.

47

@privatebanker So I guess I shouldn’t worry about statistics and focus on just doing my best. @GrandIsland my parents are pushing me to go to an ivy, and even though Columbia is my dream school, if I’m not accepted there then I’d really rather go to UCSB or UCLA, at least for undergrad. @ucbalumnus no, but a lot of people from my high school do apply to ivies, though not a lot apply to Barnard, and she based her answer off of that.

48

Yes. Amen to that. And get outside and have some fun. Play frisbee. Walk the beach.

Hip replacements come sooner than you think!

I like your style. You’re going to do great things in life. I have a sense for these things.

49

If you are interested in environmental science, neither Columbia nor Barnard are that good for you. If you want to add an Ivy or two, Cornell is the best, and, surprisingly, Yale, which has a school of forestry and environmental studies. Closer to home, there Pomona and Pitzer as reaches, Scripps as a match (if you would like a women’s colleges). Among the UCs, Davis, UCSB, and UCB, and perhaps UCLA.

But, as @privatebanker wrote - summer is here, and you should take some time off to relax. Dance too.

50

Barnard is great for environmental science. I know. I went there. I’m an environmental scientist.

51

@nomood I’d research one of the top 10-30 schools as mentioned above as your ED reach school. Apply to a wide swath of UCs. And if money really is no issue can look at T20-40 privates that you might choose over the top UCs if admitted. I’m a bit confused about how cost is valued. If you think you might be eligible for Financial aid you can look at which ones might meet your goal.

52

“only ivies are worth going out of state for, otherwise go to a uc school”

Does this mean that in-state privates like Stanford, Pomona et al are out, and it’s pretty much UCs or ivies? As others have said, if this to be taken that literally, it’s a pretty simple process. Since the UCs are top choices, I would not ED anywhere, but that’s something you have to discuss with parents and GC if you want to Columbia ED. Then your reach/match/safeties will follow most top high school students, esp if you got ELC guaranteeing you a UC campus.

Reach - Columbia, any ivy you apply to, UCB, UCLA
Match - UCSD (could be reach/match border these days), UCSB, Davis, CSU-SLO
Safeties - UCI, UCR or M, any CSU campus that does auto admit for your major, you should be fine there

Female will give some advantages for stem, but Asian will not, so check with your GC on how Asians do at ivies and Asian females as well, if you have that kind of detail. Asians from upper-SES parts of CA may be the most competitive sub-group in admissions and that’s who you will be compared with. I think you’ll do fine, good luck!

53

@privatebanker @MWolf @silverpurple thanks for all your help! @anon145 I am most likely not eligible for financial aid. @theloniusmonk I’m pretty sure I have like a 0% chance of getting into Stanford so I’m not even worrying about that. I also live in California so applying to ucs will be easier.

54

so I’d see if there’s any private school your parents would pay for if you got in. If you really want to get in, ED is probably worth it (assuming finances are OK). You’re applying to a bunch of UCs anyway. I suppose if you don’t really find a private you would go to, you can always apply RD knowing it would be a reach

55

yeah, regarding the OP’s original question - whenever this type of question is asked, it’s invariable that you’ll get the “take a look at 50 other universities” bit. As an Asian parent, I already know what’s going thru her mind more or less without all the other riffraff - UCs, Ivy’s, Stanford, maybe throw in something in-state fancy like Pomona or Harvey Mudd or USC, The rest, meh.

56

I would think the totality of the Asian community would not be able to so easily defined. One would hope that large of an educated cohort would be a bit more worldly and open minded than that, a bit sad.

“Riffraff”is a fairly insulting pejorative to describe a few hundred of the best universities and small colleges in the world.

57

Hey everyone, my guidance counselor gave me a letter saying I qualified for ELC because I’m in the top 9% of students at school today. I looked it up but it was a bit confusing, so does anyone know what it means? I thought at first that it meant that I could go to any UC that I applied to, but I’m really not so sure.

58

Oh dang, reading some other posts here on cc, what I’m getting is that if you qualify for ELC, you only are guaranteed to go to Merced? Can someone confirm that? Do other UC’s take into account the fact that you qualify?

59

I defer to @ucbalumnus and @Gumbymom as they’re the uc/csu experts but ELC is a really a good thing, and with your 1540 means you should get into more selective UCs. It’s necessary but not sufficient for the top UCs, meaning if you didn’t get it, that could be a concern. Most, if not all, kids with ELC did well with UC admissions, but it’s more correlation than causation. It doesn’t mean you’ll easily get into UCLA or Berkeley with regents, but you should do fine. Good job!

60

@nomood: ELC guarantees that if you are not accepted to any UC’s of your choosing (applied), then your application will be referred to UC Merced if spots are available. Several of the popular/competitive majors (Engineering/CS/Biology) are no longer part of the guarantee.

Being ELC eligible is a consideration in the UC application review but as stated above, it does not guarantee you any UC campus.