<p>I’m an Senior in high school, AZ resident with a 2200 SAT score (800 R 740 M 660 W). I have a 4.0 unweighted GPA, 4.67 weighted. I took all of the AP classes offered to me in high school and I’m ranked in the top 1% of my high school class. I scored a 750 on the SAT molecular biology subject test, 740 on the US history, and 710 on the literature.</p>
<p>I’m an Eagle scout and I started two clubs in my high school - Spanish Club and Trivia/Quiz Bowl Club (I served as president of both). I have three part time jobs- one as a sandwich maker/busser, one as a landscaper, and one as a website tester/developer. I am the treasurer of my school’s Physics club, president of an AP Literature book club and a member of NHS. </p>
<p>I am a commended National Merit Scholar and an AP Scholar (I am hoping to be a National AP scholar by the end of this year.)</p>
<p>I am wondering if Barrett would be a good fit for me. I am applying for Ivy League schools and I guess I’ve always just thought of ASU as a party school that people go to for fun. Will Barrett provide a level of education on par with Ivy League or sub-Ivy League schools? (i.e. Duke or Rice)</p>
<p>I guess my question is: Is Barrett just a college for above average ASU students? Or does it truly provide a high quality education?</p>
<p>Perhaps you’re coming at this from wrong direction, with excellent SAT’s, great GPA, outstanding EC’s, you would likely be a match candidate for any number of strong Universities, LACs and the like, dont consider this from a prestige perspective, better to approach it from a what do I want to study and where is the BEST program/majors for that passion/interest. You’ll likely find many Ivy’s or LAC which can meet your needs.</p>
<p>Your proposition is I think correct, Barrett is a college within a huge University for above average ASU students. Bear in mind you would still graduate from ASU in 4 years and yes, ASU accepts anyone and everyone, that is its mantra, plus ASU is a commuter school, very few stay on campus through the weekends, so you should consider what you want from college, do you want to go home each weekend? I think you should and could do much better. You’ve worked hard in High School don’t waste it.</p>
<p>I suggest that you disregard the post of Englishman, as he has made it a point to trash up every recent thread by railing on Barrett and ASU, and obviously has some type of axe to grind. Look back through this forum for more discussion on Barrett from better sources, and visit Barrett/ASU yourself to see what it is like. We are doing this for my son. </p>
<p>To respond to your question about “level of education”, that is going to be a function of your effort at college, not necessarily the school you choose. Any large University will provide the opportunity for a great education if the student keeps focus, works hard and aggressively takes advantage of the opportunities that exist. I suspect, however, that the peer group at the Ivies will be different in terms of wealth and connections as compared to Barrett, and that (judging by SAT scores) only the top quartile/decile of Barrett students will have the same qualifications as the overall student body at an Ivy.</p>
<p>The other thing about Barrett to remember is that only a fraction of your classes will be with all-honors students, so depending on your major you may be in classes with students who are not the Ivy type, at all.</p>
<p>All that said, your stats are pretty good, but I think it is safe to assume that you will be able to find many students who are your academic peers within the Barrett system.</p>
<p>I agree with bonard and would be skeptical of anything Englishman says as past posts indicate a split personality as both a student currently applying to colleges and as a parent of such a student.</p>
<p>In particular I take issue with his (if it is even a he) claim both here and on another thread that ASU is a commuter school. My D is an OOS freshman in Barrett and tells me that there are plenty of people on campus both in the evenings and on the weekends (except maybe fall break or Thanksgiving). I don’t think it is any more of a commuter school than any other large state university. D graduated with a very high class rank, is an NMF, and is having a very good experience in Barrett and ASU in general. She is in engineering with a music performance minor. Sure there are Barrett students who party but a lot are very serious students and the Barrett dorms are generally quiet on school nights if not always on the weekends. I cannot say much about majors in the liberal arts, but there is no question there would be plenty of academic peers. Even in non-Barrett classes, the top students will be your peers, but the classes may also be larger than you want. ASU’s online class schedule will tell you how many seats are available in every class and you can also see how many students are actually registered for every class.</p>
<p>You need to decide what is best for you. I suggest you check out the ASU and Barrett websites and then visit Barrett, arrange to sit in on a Barrett class and contact the academic department to visit an ASU class in a major in which you are interested.</p>
<p>We visited Barrett and really loved it. They are doing fantastic job of attracting higher level students, and seem to provide a good quality program. Take a look at their stats for Fulbright and other such scholarships. </p>
<p>We did notice that the campus was quite dead on a Saturday and were wondering where everyone was. We visited during fall semester so I would have expected more kids around. Is this typical of most colleges? We’ve mostly visited schools during the summer and obviously saw few students then other than summer camp kids.</p>
<p>Every reason to be sceptical of anything and everything on the web even on CC, no axe to grind nor beef with Barrett!, but I will at least hold to my opinion. </p>
<p>As a Tempe resident (ASU is in Tempe, at least the main campus), my DS was accepted to Barrett, we about 20 mins away. His HS sends about 1/3 to 1/2 its students in state and most go to ASU, somewhere close to 150-200 students annually and most Do commute, its cheaper!, those that dorm almost all freshman do, but many go commute in later years.<br>
Secondly I have no beef with ASU, I was on a Board of Advisors for a number of years, this is just my view as an in-state parent of DS accepted to Barrett but went elsewhere. My DS lived in the Barrett dorms for a weeklong ASU program and we have friends whose kids are at Hassayampa (dorm). I know the campus and school very well. </p>
<p>Bear in mind ASU has up to 74,000 students, Barrett is a very small part of a very large University and as STEM mentions you will have many classes with non-Barrett students.</p>
<p>Note also as Dr Crow maintains the ‘New American University’ will likely accept pretty much anyone with a 1040 (SAT CR+Math) score and a HS transcript, with an 85% acceptance rate the results is that only about 1/3 graduate within 4 years and I am sure most all Barrett students do.</p>
<p>Eman you do make a valid point, though it may be overstated. I wonder if you have links to data I can’t find. I’ve been poking around in CDS and various documents I found in ASU’s IR. It seems that up until 6-7 years ago, only 50% or so of freshmen lived on campus. Then, over a 3 year period that number climbed to 70% and stabilized. For comparison, I checked other large state U’s in big cities like Ohio State, UMN-Twin Cities, UW-Madison and all have about 90% freshmen on campus. </p>
<p>It’s a bit difficult to pin down just how many students live on campus or in digs nearby. Of the 48,000(?) undergrads at Tempe campus, about 25% are from OOS. Of AZ residents, about 10% are from outside Maricopa Cty. At least that was the case in 2008, can’t find any more recent data. Most of that 10% must live near campus, though students from NW Pinal Cty could commute. There are the couple thousand Maricopa Cty freshmen who live on campus. Also 6,000 or so OOS grad students. So a bare minimum of 24,000 students on or near campus. And surely some Maricopa Cty students continue to live on or near campus beyond freshman year.</p>
<p>ASU isn’t a commuter campus in the same way as, for example, Cleveland State University, with only 35% of freshmen living on campus and many older adult students and no residential area nearby where students could live. Given the size of ASU student body, even if many students do commute, there are so many remaining on campus that it doesn’t feel empty.</p>
<p>I read an article recently about a Sallie Mae study that reveals a trend toward more college students living at home with parents, about 50% now. Most of increase is in middle class students as college costs rise and paying for college more difficult. Of course that can’t apply to schools that have most of students from OOS.</p>
<p>Tyden, my D is an OOS Barrett freshman with very high test scores and other stats, but choice of college isn’t about matching stats to schools. You don’t choose a high ranked school just because your stats place you there and you ‘earned’ it. You go because that is the kind of environment in which you thrive. D likes big state schools and is happy at ASU. Can’t say if that would be the right choice for you. Only you can know this. Have you spent time visiting schools?</p>
<p>Ahem, I think we should all commend the student, who is very happy to be admitted to ASU/Barrett with a 1340 SAT and 3.5 GPA, to Tyden46’s original post, I think you can do better!</p>
<p>‘I GOT ACCEPTED TO BARRETT! Just confirmed it with the Barrett student support specialist, don’t know why I got it so early but I’m stoked!’</p>
<p>If anyone was wondering my stats:
GPA: 3.5uw 3.9w
SAT: 1340/1600
ECs,recs,essays: great</p>