In a word, ridiculous

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My list of colleges is, in a word, ridiculous. I'm really looking for some advice on cutting it down so as to decrease stress and application costs come fall. Soooo I came here.</p>

<p>Basic
Entering senior, white male
independent relatively competitive school in Little Rock, AR</p>

<p>GPA W is like a 4.3 I believe.
No idea on the unweighted, but I've got like a 94, 95 average or so.
Class rank is in top 5 percent out of a class of about 60.
SAT I CR 780 M 670 W 800 Combined 2250
SAT II Lit 780 US History 780 Math IIC 700
ACT Reading 35 English 34 Math 33 Science 33 Composite 34</p>

<p>Will have taken 10 APs. Only know that I made a 5 on World History so far.</p>

<p>Senior year schedule
AP Bio
AP English Lit
AP Spanish Lit
AP Calc
AP Euro
Shakesperean Drama
Orchestra</p>

<p>Recs should be excellent and essays should be as well.</p>

<p>School activities
NHS Treasurer
Newspaper Editor senior year, coeditor last year
Founded a political activism group at school to encourage political debate. It's grown into a good thing and this year we've got a lot planned with the election and such.
Elected President of my school's Honor Council. This is a big deal at my school.
I'll probably be a National Merit something, as my PSAT was a 222.</p>

<p>ECs
Classic/Select soccer for 12 years now. A lot of travel, a lot of time.
Varsity soccer starter for three years in HS. Will probably be Captain next year.
Piano for 12 years now. Will have performed several times as a soloist with the school orchestra. Advanced level.
Major role in a school drama production.
Reasonably fluent in Spanish, learning Arabic now.</p>

<p>Work
Got fairly prestigious internship this summer at the local medical school as an intern in a lab. I'm working 40 hrs a week for pay.
Last summer I worked part time doing research for a tax consulting firm.</p>

<p>There's probably more that I forgot but whatever.</p>

<p>My list stands as follows
HY
Columbia
Dartmouth
UPenn
Rice
Colgate
Middlebury
Vassar
Pomona
Georgetown
George Washington
UChicago
Northwestern</p>

<p>Right. And apart from any narrowing suggestions, I'm also welcome to new safety school tips. I'm considering GW a safety school for now, is this accurate? Where would Vanderbilt fall for me? Thanks.</p>

2

<p>What are you looking for in a school. What do you plan to major in?</p>

3

<p>Bring math scores up a tad bit. Imo</p>

<p>Reach:
HY
Columbia
Dartmouth
UPenn
Northwestern</p>

<p>Low Reach:
Vanderbilt
UChicago (Random)
Rice
Pomona
Georgetown (Non SFS)</p>

<p>Match:
Colgate
Middlebury
Vassar</p>

<p>Safety:
George Washington</p>

4

<p>As to what I’m looking for, I think, as of now, that I want to do something along the lines of International Relations, however, I also really enjoy Biology so who really knows. I would prefer urban, but it’s not really all that important to me as long as the school has a vibrant on campus social life and such.
Yeah, math scores are a bit of a problem. I’m going to retake the SAT and try to get Math up above 700 in October so we’ll see.</p>

5

<p>George Washington may be a “safety” for admittance but it is very expensive. I might add a “financial safety” (a school you are guaranteed admittance and can easily afford).</p>

<p>If you prefer urban, I would drop Dartmouth.</p>

<p>Why Pomona? It’s the only west coast school on your list…do you want to be that far from home?</p>

<p>If I were you, I’d look at applying to EITHER of these choices, after you’ve investigated them a bit further and narrowed down your preferences:
Harvard or Yale
Columbia or Penn
Northwestern or Chicago</p>

6

<p>Why are you applying to so many colleges?</p>

7

<p>^^ Did you miss the part where he said he wanted to narrow down the list? </p>

<p>If you are interested in IR and bio, you might want to consider adding Tufts, which is strong in both and allows undergrads to take courses at Fletcher.</p>

<p>Do you have any chance of being recruited for soccer?</p>

<p>I can’t see applying to both the U of C and Northwestern. They are very, very different in atmosphere. You sound more like a Northwestern kid to me. I also don’t think Columbia would suit you. Do you really have a compelling reason to want Yale? Why not drop it and just apply to Harvard. Or add Princeton instead.</p>

<p>I don’t see why you’d apply to Middlebury and Vassar, given your interests.</p>

<p>So I’d think about these as a core group, and add maybe three more :</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton
Georgetown
Tufts
Rice
GW</p>

<p>A reasonably safe school to consider that would be a very good fit for you with possibility of merit $$ would be the University of Rochester.</p>

8

<p>Agree with Consolation – there are schools on your list that just don’t go together! (Colgate and UofC?? Middlebury and Rice???) </p>

<p>You need to better define what you want in a school. Focus on:</p>

<ul>
<li>region</li>
<li>urban/suburban/middle-of-nowhere</li>
<li>LAC or research u</li>
</ul>

<p>– then rewrite your list.</p>

9

<p>Being that your from Arkansas and have pretty good stats, I could see you getting into a lot of the schools on your list. So I wouldn’t worry too much about safeties. Maybe throw in another one for good measure. </p>

<p>I have to agree that some of your choices don’t make sense. Either apply to UChicago and the LACs on your list, or the rest of the National U’s. Some of the schools on your list are VERY different from one another. </p>

<p>You could probably narrow the list yourself if you just rethink what exactly you are looking for in your college experience, then rethink your list.</p>