<p>Alright I hope this doesn't seem to condescending, but I am 1/700, have a 4.0 uw, and a 35 ACT (2140 SAT). I was going to apply to University of Illinois-Urbana as a safety school both for admittance and as a financial safety. However, ppl at my school have gotten in with 1100 SATs, and if I go to U of Illinois, I feel my high school efforts may have been "wasted." Is this a stupid notion I have, or should I not apply if I don't really want to go there? Any comments would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>bumpity bump... cmon ppl</p>
<p>Patience young grasshopper</p>
<p>It's a fantastic safety, but if you can do better shoot for it. But make sure you have safeties you love.</p>
<p>Definitely visit if you get a chance. At large state schools, you can almost always find a large group of people who are academically focused. Your education is what you make of it at these types of schools. </p>
<p>However, I kind of feel the same way about one of my safeties. Plus the school seemed really boring when I visited. I will visit again before deciding to go if I am accepted there and nowhere better.</p>
<p>You should be happy with your safety and willing to go there. What if you don't get in anywhere else? I hate to say it, but think in terms of a worst case scenario. If you're not comfortable with attending your safety, you've been lazy in the college search. </p>
<p>What exactly bothers you about UIUC? Is it the school itself, or just the ease of admissions? If it's the former, start looking for other safeties. If it's the latter, don't worry about it. I did NOT want to go to UNC because a ton of people at my school get in, but I reminded myself a lot of OOS people are dying to get in. It's all a matter of perspective. </p>
<p>Anyway, I'm sure your high school efforts were not "wasted." You'll get in a good school (with $, perhaps) if you've picked good matches. :)</p>
<p>UIUC is also my safety. I got accepted at the beginning of October but I visited campus last spring. All I can say was that it was 'nice'. Nothing really stuck out about it. It really depends on what you are looking for in your college experience. I will only go there if I get rejected everywhere else, but I know that if I do go I'll be one of the smartest people there which will make classes a lot easier and will give me more time to get drunk (sad to say it, but drinking is all you can do for fun in Urbana-Champaign).</p>
<p>Don't apply to any school you wouldn't be comfortable attending.</p>
<p>That said, what is the problem with going to school with students whose SAT scores are lower than yours? Maybe they just don't test well. Maybe their focus and discipline will make them more successful than 2400 scorers. And even if some of your peers weren't the most successful high school scholars on the planet, plenty of them will be plenty smart, and UIUC offers superb academic resources to motivated and aware students.</p>
<p>see the "love your safety" thread in the parents forum for some cogent discussion about this.</p>
<p>just make sure u have good matches</p>
<p>With stats like yours, you can have safeties that many kids consider reaches. Look at the LACs and Unis ranked 10-30 and you will find plenty of them. Find a school that duplicates many things you like about your reaches. If it is not in New England, so much the better; your odds will go up. (Grinnell, Rice, etc.)</p>
<p>Remember that some extremely bright kids attend merit aid matches or safeties just to save their money for grad school. Other very bright kids attend regionally-well-known schools that may not be as high on the national radar. If your safety has an honors program this is another good way to make sure there is a "critical mass' of like-minded peers.</p>
<p>Bravo on your excellent record!</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>if I go to U of Illinois, I feel my high school efforts may have been "wasted."<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>Not if you can go for practically no money, be a star, and afford Harvard Med or Yale Law or MIT for graduate engineering!</p>
<p>I'm surprised you don't know about the campus honors program:
<a href="http://www.honors.uiuc.edu%5B/url%5D">www.honors.uiuc.edu</a></p>
<p>Going to a large public university is all about digging up opportunities and making the most of them.</p>
<p>UIUC is a FANTASTIC school. One thing to think about is that Greek life is HUGE up there. If you are into having fun, it's a fabulous choice.</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb (I know college selection depends on more than SAT scores), I think a good safety would be a school where your SAT/ACT is above the 75th percentile but still within 60-80 SAT points or 2-3 ACT points of the 75th percentile. If your SAT CR+M is more than 80 points above the 75th percentile then you might be overqualified, selling yourself short, underachieving. I personally am not a proponent of honors colleges at big state schools.</p>
<p>collegehelp, what made you come up with that formula? How does not fitting that formula make one "be overqualified, selling yourself short, underachieving."</p>
<p>DRab-
I came up with the above formula because it is simple, pretty accurate, and SAT information about 25th-75th percentile is readily available.</p>
<p>Why overqualified at 75th percentile plus 80 points? Because you'd be about the smartest person at the school (if SATs follow a bell-curve). I wouldn't want to be the smartest person at a second-tier college because it would mean I could have gotten into a better college (sold myself short, underachieved in the area of college admissions).</p>
<p>here is my formula
if your SAT score is:
more than 80 points above 75th percentile = don't apply
75th to 75th-plus-80 = reasonable safety
50th-75th = match-safety
25th-50th = match-reach
80-points-below-25th-percentile to 25th = reasonable reach
more than 80 points below 25th percentile = don't apply unless other things compensate, "long-shot", probably should not apply</p>
<p>Its a simple rule of thumb that has to be adjusted for things like in-state/out-of-state, awards, ECs, and so on.</p>
<p>IMO, there are some clear problems with what you're saying:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you're talking about the so-called safety being a state school, being 80 SAT points above their 75th percentile will not necessarily make you "about the smartest person in the school". Many very bright kids go to state schools for financial reasons--still others go because a particular program at such a school is rated much higher than is the University as a whole (e.g., UIUC--Engineering; Missouri-Columbia--Journalism; Iowa--writing--all of these rank among the Top 5 such departments in the U.S.). If you look at the stats in guidebooks, schools with a median SAT of the mid 1200s have 10-15% of their kids with SATs over 700 on each section (e.g. Minnesota). So your numbers don't follow.</p></li>
<li><p>The notion that one can "underachieve in the area of college admissions" strikes me as an indication that you see admissions as a game to be won or lost depending on the prestige of the school one can get into. If so, I disagree. College is not an end--it is a means to an end. Kids do best where they fit best. For some, that's at a school where they are at the top of the curve, while for others, it's where they need to be challenged. Some want smaller, more personal schools, while others want to go to bigger places with the advantages offered there (ECs, sports, greater choice of course offerings, etc.). This is not to say that college prestige, scores of students, and quality aren't factors in the college selection process--they should be important factors. But, they shouldn't be the only factors.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hi gobears,</p>
<p>My daughter scored 2160 on the SAT and 34 ACT with SATIIs well above 700. Her safety schools are Skidmore and UCLA/ UC Santa Cruz. Though she is stronger academically than most Skidmore students, she'd be very happy there because of the emphasis on the creative arts, which many of her target schools view as "fluff." (Sadly, there is no SAT for divergent and creative thinkers.... which is just as important to scientific innovation as a high IQ) Skidmore also is small, nurturing and is in a groovy and quaint town, Saratoga.</p>
<p>She'd also be very happy at Santa Cruz, which is quite a bit below her credentials, because it is also a creative school in a stunningly beautiful place with sunshine and ocean. So, if her "reaches" and her "targets" don't come through, I think she will be quite deliriously happy at one of these two safety schools, with no regrets or bitterness over her "wasted" all-nighters-- she'll be too busy painting, drawing, studying, being encouraged as the brighest of her professors' students, and soaking in the local life.</p>
<p>Please, please do a little more research and find a safety that you would REALLY like-- that fits YOU. Your hard work in high school will NOT be unrewarded if you choose a school that truly FITS you, rather than on the basis of garden variety prestige. If you think of it from the perspective of your destiny, sometimes a great destiny comes out of a less prestigious school that brings out your innovation and forces you to focus on your real and true passions. So, where would you like to be for 4 years? Small, large, sun or snow? Which schools have great departments that could strengthen your interests?<br>
For example: The American University is a top notch school for International Affairs in Washington D.C., though it would be a safety for you-- you could take advantage of powerful internships in D.C.. and enjoy the nightlife. Likewise with GWU. Your true interests are so important to your future and have little to do with the prestige of a school. Remember that William Faulkner was a "C" student in writing-- and he won the Nobel prize for writing....... Its all about your passion and internal goals, grasshopper.....not about what society says is "prestigious." If you hold on to your dreams, nothing on the "outside" is going to lead you into bitterness about a mismatch between your brilliance and the intellectually inferior students at the safety school. Remember that Ronald Reagan was a C student at a safety school for you, and he ended up as the "great communicator...." ( I didn't vote for the guy, but his success proves my point...) Good Luck and let us know how it turns out.....</p>
<p>Dadtimesthree-
I understand what you are saying about the differences in selectivity between colleges within a university. I agree you should take that into account.</p>
<p>When I speak of underachieving in the area of college admissions, I am thinking about reaching your potential, not prestige. I think there is an optimal level of college difficulty for each person where they are encouraged to grow as much as possible but without experiencing excessive frustration or failure. If the college is too easy (level of expectation, student work ethic, sophistication of ideas), students don't grow as much as possible. Different colleges teach at different levels as the ability of their students permits.</p>
<p>Somebody has to be in the top 5% at every college but I don't think it is the best situation to be in the top 5% unless it is a top tier school and you could not do substantially better than where you are.</p>
<p>I understand what you are saying about fit. A student who enrolls in a college where they are in the top 5% may feel comfortable being a big fish in a small pond but it is not the best fit from a growth perspective.</p>
<p>An SAT that is 100 points above the 75th percentile would put the student in the top 5-10%, I believe, if SAT scores follow a bell curve.</p>