Would love some ideas:
HS senior daughter in search of college near a city, with prestige, Little or no Greek life - considering engineering - She is an introvert so a place with reserved low key students near an exciting city would be great!
Considering Vanderbilt, Trinity Dublin, Tulane , and Brown
Her gpa is 4.3 with 28 Act superstore 30
Thanks. We are stuck!
Curious about her GPA. Typical unweighted is on a 4.0 scale and weighted scales vary so much from one school to another. Is she looking at applying TO?
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If you don’t want greek life, i wouldn’t recommend Vandy, there’s about 20% enrollment in greek but I’ve heard it has a lot of sway over campus culture despite that.
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Case Western might check the boxes.
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Any idea what her class rank or class percentile is? Depending upon the system that the school uses for weighting, that GPA could be top 5%, or top 50%. She should not submit that test score, assuming that her GPA places her in the top 10-15% of her class.
Base upon her test score (which she’s not going to submit), I’m thinking maybe RPI? Although I sure don’t consider Albany, NY to be an exciting city. Brown and Vanderbilt are likely to be impossible dream schools for her. U Maryland College Park? It’s at the end of a metroline that goes into DC. U of Washington? Seattle is an amazing city to be in, and the campus is very pretty, not intensely urban. U Wisconsin? Ohio State? Boston U? U Va? Arizona State will offer her merit, I bet, and Phoenix/Tempe is pretty for more than half the year.
One thing to consider. Most students don’t actually spend much time off campus, even if they have the idea that they want to be in an exciting city. College itself is very engrossing.
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I agree. Case Western seems more of a match both academically and socially than those that are on her list.
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Does the desire for prestige (which is mostly correlated with admission selectivity, at least from typical high school seniors’ viewpoints) mean that any college which would be a safety for her would not be a fit for her?
Has she considered George Washington University?
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As a school, the University of Rochester would match her preferences.
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Northeastern or BU?
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I’d suggest Brandeis, Northeastern, second URochester, Boston College, maybe Drexel.
Tulane and Vanderbilt seem at odds with her preferences.
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I really don’t know how Tulane is on the list. The have a ~40% Greek percentage. Also, their engineering program is also not the standard robust program.
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Depending on cities she is interested in
Philadelphia: Villanova
Boston: Tufts,
Maybe WPI
NYC: Manhattan College (if she is interested in Civil)
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Seconding the fact most college students don’t actually spend much time off campus. In addition, engineering is very demanding.
Tulane and Vanderbilt are Greek life heavy.
A 28 ACT shouldn’t be submitted for these universities. (Their bottom 25% threshold is around 31-32).
Trinity Dublin may work but only if she’s taken AP Physics 1&2 and/or 1&C + Calc BC. To give you an idea of the difficulty at Trinity, a 70% is ~top 10%. If she applies to Trinity, she should apply to UCD and Maynooth too.
What’s her unweighted GPA? Class rank?
Case Western, WPI, RPI.
if she wants prestige more than urban: St Mary’s (Engineering program with Notre Dame),
So the first thing, she needs to apply test optional because that score won’t even get into second tier. But it’s ok because you can apply TO.
I’ll assume her GPA is weighted so on a 4 scale meaning she’s taken some AP. Can you elaborate ?
Being female will help in some cases. I think engineering and prestige…honestly you just want to find the right fit. As a female engineer, she’d be in demand.
Vanderbilt and Brown are unlikely even for people with much better stats. Tulane does not offer true engineering. Schools like Rochester and Case are likely reaches. I’m thinking a school like UAH May work or Florida Tech. WPI is another.
Good luck.
Agree with others that this list doesn’t make sense academically nor does it fit the serious vibe sought. Please take prestige out of the mix when building your daughter’s list and look carefully at past student profiles. Has she toured any schools?
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Would be a major reach but Cal Tech. Very introverted but brilliant kids, heavily male. In Pasadena area (where Rose Bowl is outside of Los Angeles).
I can’t help commenting on this thread and asking what does prestige add to the mix? I’m really curious and not being obtuse. As for suggestions, it sounds as if you’re on the east side of the country, I’ll throw Olin and Rose Hulman in for consideration since you mentioned engineering.
Edited to add: Rose Hulman is not near a big city but both Rose Hulman and Olin are great for undergraduate engineering instruction.
I’m sorry. We don’t yet know the gpa scale or rigor. Bit there’s zero shot of Cal Tech and highly unlikely any of the top schools listed.
This is engineering. Let’s be honest with the OP and not be unrealistic.
The top of the line kids get rejected at the schools being mentioned and this student, based on act alone, and yes you can apply TO, but is not tops. Very good I’m sure but very good in engineering means 3rd tier.
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I understand but she has been at a private prep school where all the others are wanting the name brand schools. This group is very helpful. Thank you for your insights!
Her school is on a 4 point scale and she has taken a fair number of APs.