I need advice...safties

Parents Corner
21

<p>I pretty much agree with Curmudgeon.</p>

<p>Your strongest suit is a solid class rank in a large public with the most difficult curriculum. That's a good strong suit because high school transcript is the single biggest factor. </p>

<p>ACT score is good, if I'm not mistaken, equivalent to SATs in the 1410 to 1450 range.</p>

<p>I'm not familiar with the dance, but that seems to be your strongest differentiating EC. The others are good, solid ECs, but stuff that the colleges see in a lot of apps.</p>

<p>I assume you are Indian, which overall won't hurt, won't help.</p>

<p>Havard, Yale, Columbia: forget it.</p>

<p>Dartmouth, Brown, Duke, Penn: These are big reaches. I wouldn't rule out the possibility, but realistically you should look at these as as your long-shot schools. Your class rank and SATs are mid-pack for these schools and I'm just not sure they'll bite on your EC list. Pick one and apply, but don't count on it. </p>

<p>JHU and Cornell. These are starting to be in the range of plausible reach schools. These really should be the top of your real list. You aren't quite at their 75th percentile scores, so I couldn't call them matches by any stretch, but your class rank would probably be enough to get past the first cut.</p>

<p>NYU and BU and USC are the types of schools that should be pretty solid matches, except that you just happened to pick three that are terrible admissions values because of their prime real estate. You can find better schools that would be easier to get into if you broadened your horizons a bit.</p>

<p>You'll have to evaluate the UCs yourself. I just don't know the admissions scene in California. I assume that you would get in some, but not all, of them.</p>

<p>All things considered, your list looks to me like you've already decided to go to one of the UCs and are just slapping together a list from the guidebooks for giggles. I don't see any real thread of commonality or any theme of what you really are looking for in the list. It's pretty much a "copy down the top ranked schools from USNEWs and throw in three well-known big schools in Boston, NY, and LA". There are at least 100,000 kids with exactly the same list.</p>

<p>There are a ton of great schools who would love to grab your test scores and class rank. Look at the universities and LACs where a 1400 to 1450 SAT is their 75th percentile.</p>

22

<p>A few questions:what is your University of California GPA? Can't address your chances at any of the UC's without it. </p>

<p>Second, are you any of these: an under-represented minority (Asian, including Indian, doesn't count), the first in your family to go to college, from an underperforming high school in Calif. (i.e., one where most kids don't go to college or where most kids are low income), have you overcome any special challenges in your life, have you held a job while going to school, have you played a sport? How how many years of math, science, foreign language have you taken ? </p>

<p>Also, are you considering applying Early Action or Early Decision to any of the schools on your list? If so, which one(s)?</p>

<p>All of this information, and more, is necessary to evaluate your chances at the schools on your list fully.</p>

23

<p>I like smaller schools for pre-med, and your profile would put you into very good shape at small liberal arts schools with selectivity rankings (not overall rankings) of 10 and higher (higher number. . .lower rank.) In fact you have a shot at just about all LACs. For you, I'd guess safeties start to kick in around 40 or so. . .Connecticut College, Dickinson, Union. . if you visit and interview well.</p>

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<p>thanks for the comments everyone. and i will definetly make a more conservative list.</p>