<p>Hi, im a high school senior, living in Southern CA, If u could please help me narrow down my choices for colleges i'd greatly appreciate it.</p>
<p>-unweighted Gpa: 3.8
-Weighted gpa: 4.3
-Act composite score: 27
-Sat subject tests US history: 650
-Taking Math level 2 and World history in December
-AP classes taken in past: US history (4), English Literature (4)
-AP classes this year: AP econ and AP Pyschologly </p>
<p>-I have very weak Extracurriculars just one club (digital design) and a few hours of community service</p>
<p>-Other Miscellaneous things: I am first generation college student, born out of the US (serbia), english is my 2nd language, my personal essays are very very good,mom is declared legally blind, family is low-middle income, and my parents are divorced.</p>
<p>-I want to major possibly in Geography or another social science</p>
<p>This is my list of schools so far:
UCLA
Berkeley
UCSB
CAL poly slo
long beach state
San diego state
cal poly pomona
UC santa cruz
USC
Clark University
Tulane
DePaul
Drexel
Dartmouth
Uni. of penn</p>
<p>-So PLEASE help me narrow this down, preferably to a school that has a good geography or social science program, i will consider any suggestions u guys may have about other schools in state or outta state also, Thanks!!</p>
<p>Any list that has Drexel and UPenn on it needs to be narrowed down (unless the category is “schools in Philadelphia”)</p>
<p>Your stats wouldn’t normally make you competitive for the top schools on your list. But with your background story it might be worth applying.</p>
<p>If you’re low middle income I’d definitely apply to the public schools in CA and the schools with the most generous financial aid programs (Dartmouth and Penn are both very generous with financial aid)</p>
<p>how can anyone tell you where to apply, or even give some intelligent suggestions? Nowhere do you mention whether you’d like to live in a large city or smaller area, what regions of the country you prefer or dislike, whether you want to attend a large school or smaller one, whether you’d like larger lecture classes or more personal attention in smaller classes and/or seminars, what any of your interests are, whether you’d like to live on campus or in the community, whether you’d like a school with a big greek scene or big sports program, what your family EFC is likely to be, etc, etc. Until you spend some time thinking about what you want in a college you’re unlikely to recognize a good match when you see it.</p>
<p>Since the SATs and ACTs are standardized/same test for everyone, they are often seen as a test of your gpa. An A student is expected to achieve ACTs and SAT2s within a certain range. When he drops below, it can indicate the gpa is inflated. That’s your hurdle. Yes, even though you got 4s on the APs. </p>
<p>At the Cal publics, you will have much competition from other 1st gens and foreign born. The talk about the UC’s reflects tremendous competition. LB State and SD State are likely. Also, they have “impact” considerations- (their priority is students from the defined local region.) Clark could be a possibility.</p>
<p>yeah well i posted a very BROAD list of schools on purpose because some are safeties, some are reaches, and some are targets. Also, for location I’m looking for anything but rural, I want to live on campus and i’d be happy with a big city, but not huge like new york, so that is why I have some schools in Philly on my list. My family makes less than 70K a year. I’ve already said that my interests include geography and thats why i asked for schools with good social science programs…Also i got my ACT scores back and i improved to a 29. So any suggestions ?</p>
<p>Dartmouth and Penn seem like unrealistic reaches. If 4.3 is your UC GPA and you can bring your scores up, Berkeley and UCLA will be realistic reaches. The list is all over the map, but since yup have safeties it’s fine.</p>
<p>Good improvement on the ACT! Dartmouth and Penn are still huge reaches and there are lot places on the rankings between there and Drexel. Schools with an SAT median at 1300 would be reasonable reaches/almost matches. What about George Washington, University of Pittsburg or Boston University? Also maybe look at one of the cheaper (but quite high quality) publics like University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>thanks! i will take a look at those schools you mentioned, but i’ve had trouble locating any sort of list ranking the strength of geography programs, so do you guys have any insights on this?</p>
<p>There was a recent thread on geography departments if you do a CC search. Some colleges apparently don’t even have a geography department, so you would want to look for that. Unless you have very specific interests, though, it seems like you might be taking political science and international studies courses which complement geography, so those strengths are also important.</p>
<p>…their web site, their geog dept pages:<br>
Clark’s undergraduate program in geography is consistently ranked as the best in the country. Because we also offer a top-ranked graduate program, undergrads have the opportunity to interact—as fellow students in upper-level classes, in mentoring relationships and through research collaboration—with geography graduate students from all over the world.</p>
<p>Yea apparently from looking around this board, it seems as though Clark and Dartmouth are the best choices…And my scores need to improve drastically in december for Dartmouth…Thanks for the answers though guys!</p>
<p>Right now, your scores are way too low for many of those schools.</p>
<p>Some of those top schools are going to want your dad’s income and asset info. Does your dad have a good income and/or assets? Will he complete the forms? Will he contribute to your education?</p>
<p>If not, those schools won’t work for you.</p>
<p>I don’t see any safeties on that list at all (Schools that you’re certain to accept you and you’re certain will be affordable). Which schools are your safeties?</p>
<p>how is a 29 act score low for san diego state or long beach or cal poly or uc santa cruz or drexel or depaul??? Next time take time to read the rest of this thread before making inaccurate statements</p>
<p>UCSB and Clark are hand down the best geography programs on your list. UCSB is easily one of the top three programs in the country, and has some of the most elite geographer researchers on faculty (famous names like Goodchild, Church, Clarke, Raubal, Dar Roberts, Tobler, all of which you will know when you finish a Geography degree from anywhere else). </p>
<p>Clark is a top five program, and again has some elite level researchers on faculty.</p>
<p>Nice advantage to both is that the programs are so enormous that there are real opportunities for undergrads to get involved in research.</p>
<p>*how is a 29 act score low for san diego state or long beach or cal poly or uc santa cruz or drexel or depaul??? Next time take time to read the rest of this thread before making inaccurate statements *</p>
<p>I didn’t say that a 27 was low for ALL of your schools. An ACT 27 is in the 89th percentile…not exactly what UPenn, Dartmouth, Tulane, USC, UCLA, and Berkeley are looking for. </p>
<p>At Cal Poly SLO…an ACT 27 puts you in the middle of the 2 inner quartiles of the school. The same at UCSB. Both of those schools reject 50-60% of their applicants.</p>
<p>Do you know how much your parents will pay each year?</p>
<p>yea my act is 29. Idk what my EFC is but my parents are divorced and remarried, and i live with my mom and stepdad who together make about 70K a year.</p>
<p>Also, if i minor or major in geography what would be a good compliment major/minor, i was thinking something like computer science? Any suggestions?</p>