<p>LOL no. Reed has a pretty traditional curriculum. There’s the HUM110 requirement, which is a yearlong course. And there are distribution requirements. They are not nearly as restrictive as those of Chicago or Columbia (you can decide what science to do, whether to do math or foreign language, and what kind of arts/literature classes to take), but definitely not close to the open curriculum at Grinnell or Hamilton. Someone with diverse interests should be fine, though, and speaking as the free-floating spirit I am ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ I don’t think it would make much of a difference. </p>
<p>Yes, you can “learn it well” at Reed. I was going through my friend’s graduation requirements for economics recently, and I noticed an interesting difference. He does not, for instance, have to touch any of the other social sciences. At Reed, however, economics majors also have to take 4 courses in two of the other social sciences to have a broad understanding of the social sciences in general. I have reviewed the syllabi of the math-track econometrics and macro theory classes (two of the three core economics courses) and they are definitely very, very advanced as they use graduate level textbooks. This advanced nature of the classes is there so that majors are able to browse the very math-heavy economics literature around to write their thesis. You will definitely be prepared.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think getting into an MA program is a big deal. There is little to no funding available for MAs so you would have to pay for it yourself unless you win a Fulbright or something. Scholarships are available in Europe, though.</p>
<p>@Esat936 let’s assume for the sake of argument that the “chance me” sites like parchment, cappex, unigo, etc reflect actual accepts/rejects with actual stats. (In reality the reported stats for rejects are probably inflated, but whatever).</p>
<p>What color do you see in the upper right? Red. Underneath those red dots there are a lot of purple and green ones, but the fact is, acceptance to these highly selective schools for unhooked students comes down to some luck. For that upper right corner, there are probably 2 rejects for every 1 admit. So yes, you have a better chance than most students to get into Chicago or Brown and probably even HYP. But it is still a relatively small chance.</p>
<p>Tufts in particular is a crap shoot, since they are concerned that high stats kids are using them as a safety, as you appear to be.</p>
<p>For Brown, our high school’s Naviance graph illustrates this perfectly. In terms of stats, there are about 3 accepts a year, all high stats, surrounded on all sides by a swarm red reject X’s. The Parchment graph shows this as well.</p>
<p>Students tend to look at averages, and examples of other students with similar stats who got in to X school and tell themselves that they have a pretty good chance. Rarely do they concern themselves with the unlucky.</p>
<p>The reason I’m applying to so many schools is plainly because:
As you said, it is a crapshoot. I used to have a friend who was literally 2400/4.0 and 3 800s on separate SAT II exams. The guy was alsoHe was accepted to Brown, Princeton, Harvard, U Penn, Columbia, Caltech and George Washington State. The only school that rejected him was Cornell. CORNELL. Crapshoot.</p>
<ol>
<li>I am an international student.</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m just hoping that at least one of my top choices does accept me. I can’t control whether or not Tufts think I am using them as a safety. Either way, if. I get accepted to Harvard or only to Howard, I will be happy. But I view my luck positively because I believe the odds are in my favor.</p>
<p>Ok @Esat936, I am not one of the posters that will try to convince you to limit your application pool. If you have the money for fees, the time for supplemental essays, and you genuinely like all of those schools, I don’t see why you wouldn’t apply.</p>
<p>What I have a problem with is students who apply to all the “top” schools, instead of top schools that are a good fit, which I think you may suffer from.</p>
<p>For example, in another comment on this thread, you indicated you liked the “open curriculum” concept, but your first choice is U Chicago, which has one of the strictest core curricula of highly selective schools. Brown is on the opposite spectrum, one of the most open. Those two schools have nothing in common but smart kids and great profs. Culturally/socially they are pretty different also.</p>
<p>Let’s assume you like the open curriculum concept and that Brown is actually your first choice. People have there reasons, but I would say that these schools don’t totally match up with Brown/open and you could reduce your workload by removing some of these:</p>
<p>-Harvard
-Princeton
-U Chicago (First choice)
-Dartmouth
-Duke
-Georgetown</p>
<p>Again, I’m not saying you are unqualified, I just think they don’t go along with the more “open” schools like Brown, Yale, UofR.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about the international finaid situation, but as an International that needs aid, UofR might be your best shot as they give out lots of merit aid to high stats students and I think that applies somewhat to internationals.</p>
<p>@ormdad You need to understand that it’s not about the “the money for fees, the time for supplemental essays, and you genuinely like all of those schools”. It’s rather that internationals simply have no other choice given the competition. Most of these OP’s schools offer application fee waivers and OP may qualify. The fit part is important, however. There are many schools that offer aid to internationals and I believe OP can create a list of schools according to ‘fit’ as well.</p>
<p>The University of Rochester is far from what I would call generous.</p>
<p>Ok, @International95, as I said I’m not really attuned to the finaid situation for internationals, but I know Rochester as a great school that gives merit aid to highly qualified students. I thought that applied to internationals, but maybe not.</p>
<p>It’s also an open curriculum school.</p>
<p>Again, I personally think 15 applications is fine, but if OP is looking to reduce the list, I’ve offered my take.</p>
<p>I know that Chicago is the polar opposite to Brown in terms of core requirements. The only thing that I dislike about Chicago are the core requirements which are pretty strict. Chicago is also more conservative while Brown is more Liberal(from what I gather), but I fall somewhere in the middle and wouldn’t mind being around people from either side. I absolutely love Chicago’s economics and political science departments. That’s the most important factor in all of this. The quality of those majors at Chicago is on par with any other school, and I believe it’s worth a couple of semesters of biology too. I also love the city of Chicago itself and the student atmosphere and love, or perhaps obsession, with education, which is a trait I admire. Chicago is a fit for me. I’m a very flexible guy too, I don’t necessarily have huge preferences. I mostly care about the quality of education and my ability to pay for the school. I like Georgetown and Duke for similar reasons.</p>
<p>Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth would probably be the first three schools to go if I made cuts. Especially Dartmouth. I still have to do my research about them though, and then I’ll decide.</p>