<p>75% of the colleges I'm applying to are ranked from 21-60 because I looked into each of the school's thoroughly. Not only did the schools I pick have strong computer science/pre-med/honors programs, but they have the social atmosphere, extracurricular activities, and faculty that I appreciate.</p>
<p>In the meantime, I just told my parents that I was applying to Illinois for Computer Science, and they went ballistic because it's not a top 20 university. They said I have to apply to schools like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Princeton, all that stuff.</p>
<p>Now, I'm applying to Penn, Emory, a few other top 20 schools - some of those schools are because my parents made me apply there, which is why my original list of 10 schools has ballooned to 16. I have a 3.73 UW and 2340 SAT so I think I CAN get into a top 20 school, but a) I HATE Duke (UNC fan), b) I'm losing interest in Penn and c) I can't do anything about it especially after my parents have said if I don't attend a top 20 school after getting into one, they're going to spend that tuition money on a house in China (which they'll move into when they go back in a few years).</p>
<p>This can't be right, is it? How are schools like Pittsburgh and UNC so "bad" that they'd be so much against it?</p>
<p>Ask your parents what you’re supposed to do if you don’t get accepted to a top 20 school? Go to a CC?</p>
<p>if I don’t attend a top 20 school after getting into one, they’re going to spend that tuition money on a house in China (which they’ll move into when they go back in a few years) and “diamonds”.</p>
<p>^ Then I apply for loans for the entire undergraduate education, which means I’d go as cheap as possible and go to my state school in Rutgers. Which is a pain especially since I’m considering grad school/med school as well.</p>
<p>I’m convinced that my parents want me to go to a top 20 school because a) they think that top prestige = most happiness for me and b) they want to brag to their own friends whose children have went to Penn, Emory and all that jazz.</p>
<p>Have you shown them your research on these schools and the programs they offer you? Maybe if they see your reasoning they’ll be more open to supporting your choice of schools. I really hope they’ll listen to logic since only applying to top 20 schools, which are a reach for everyone, is a good plan at all. Best of luck!!</p>
<p>*Then I apply for loans for the entire undergraduate education, which means I’d go as cheap as possible and go to my state school in Rutgers. Which is a pain especially since I’m considering grad school/med school as well.
*</p>
<p>YOU can’t borrow much…do your parents know that? You can only borrow the following amounts:</p>
<p>frosh 5500
soph 6500
jr 7500
sr 7500</p>
<p>To borrow more requires co-signers which it doesn’t sound like your parents will do. </p>
<p>Are you saying that if you don’t get into a Top 20, then your parents won’t pay for anywhere else? That’s just nuts.</p>
<p>And, won’t it be too late to apply to schools at that point?</p>
<p>Anyway…to protect yourself, apply to some schools that will give you large merit scholarships. Are you a NMSF?</p>
<p>I’m going for Pitt and Miami and I’m hoping I get a good scholarship in one of those two. I missed the NMSF cutoff by 4 points because I’m in New Jersey.</p>
<p>If they care so much about your future, they won’t doom you with all of those loans. I’m guessing they won’t enforce that threat. Hmm. Or you could just tell them you need one non-top 20 safety, and then write a great essay for it, and terrible (mmm, maybe profanity-laden) essays for the top 20 schools… But do you not like ANY of the top 20 schools?</p>
<p>Well, okay, these are the schools I like and what they like. In the top 20:</p>
<p>Me: Emory, Notre Dame, Penn (not as much as I did a year ago).</p>
<p>Them: Ivies, Chicago, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Duke, JHU, WUSTL, Emory. Notice how the USNews Top 20 just got reiterated.</p>
<p>Then I asked them what they liked about those schools. They said “they’re famous and very good and will you set you up for success best”. Um, interpret that as you wish.</p>
<p>Tenors, what is wrong with Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford and WUSTL? </p>
<p>I would have recommended other strong universities, but your parents obviously have a very strong opinion of qhat constitutes a “good” university, so I won’t go there.</p>
<p>Seems like you might like JHU, Cornell, and WUSTL. And maybe Brown, it’s pretty awesome, haha, though I don’t know if it fits your tastes. And though Georgia Tech isn’t mentioned by you, and isn’t a top 20, you still might like it, check it out. By the way, hmm… Freud would definitely agree with me that they have an altruistic surrender issue there… Like I said, you could just write crappy, or inappropriate, essays to where you don’t want to go, but they’re forcing you to apply. But if I had to apply to a school, I’d do my best, it’s nice to have options, you never know, you could fall in love with a school after you’re accepted. This is really up to you… But hmm, if you got into, say… Emory and UPenn, do you think they’d make you go to UPenn because it’s ranked more highly?</p>
<p>This is a hard cultural barrier to overcome, you are not the first student to post out here with this issue. One argument you might try is that if you want to go to medical school, a high GPA is essential. You have a better chance of pulling the GPA you need in the tough pre-med classes in the schools you prefer, and it will also potentially cost your parents less money if you can get some merit aid (so they would still have some money for that house in China).</p>
<p>Tenors, I would encourage you to put sports passions aside when applying to schools. I’ve always been a huge Duke fan (Dad is an alum) but I didn’t let that stop me from applying to UNC. A good school is a good school! :)</p>
<p>I agree with the sentiment that if they are MAKING you apply to schools you don’t want to go to, tank your essays.</p>
<p>*Anyway…to protect yourself, apply to some schools that will give you large merit scholarships. Are you a NMSF?</p>
<p>==================================
I’m going for Pitt and Miami and I’m **hoping **I get a good scholarship in one of those two. I missed the NMSF cutoff by 4 points because I’m in New Jersey. *</p>
<p>It’s not enough to apply where you “hope” to get good scholarships. You also need to apply to at least one school where you know FOR SURE that you’d get large scholarships. </p>
<p>*I was applying to Illinois for Computer Science, *</p>
<p>Can you clarify? are you CS and pre-med? If so, that’s fine, just wanting to make sure.</p>
<p>Tenors, I’m sorry. It sounds like you’re in a difficult position. What if you could get them to approve your applying (just applying) to one or two schools that you are really interested in, in addition to their preferred schools? Then, if you could get them to visit those schools with you, maybe they could see what the environment is like. Could you plan trips to YOUR favorites when the weather is likely to be pleasant (for example, UNC in late March/April when the dogwoods and azaleas are at their peak and the weather is perfect)? Maybe plan trips to the ones you don’t care for in unpleasant weather (winter for the Northern schools, mid-summer for the Southern schools)?</p>
<p>Thinking about you and hoping you are happy at whatever school you end up attending.</p>
<p>Your parents are funny because the bulk of the USNWR top 20 are bad engineering schools with exceptions here and there (namely Stanford, CalTech, and MIT). </p>
<p>I’d definitely add CalTech to your list of colleges. </p>
<p>Also, ask your parents if they are fine with Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon. These universities are not top 20 but they are both excellent engineering colleges and you’ll like be admitted given your stats. You could easily sell Berkeley by saying that it is a famous, large public university (refer to international rankings) and that more people will know about it in China than schools like Penn.</p>
<p>You could also squeeze more room for potential safeties by throwing top liberal arts colleges at them. You could sell colleges such as Reed for being “elite” to care about rankings.</p>
<p>How about a school just outside the top 20 like Carnegie Mellon. Seems like you like Pitt, and if you’re at Carnegie Mellon, you’ll be able to be in Pittsburgh, enjoy Pittsburgh things, and go to an almost top-20 school. (I’d choose CMU over almost all top 20 school for engineering).</p>
<p>Edit: I just realized the poster above me put CMU. I HIGHLY recommend that you (and your parents) visit CMU. Maybe they will feel the “prestige” when they set foot on campus, and will be in awe when they see how much people in Pittsburgh worship the school. I personally love the campus, and in certain circles, it is very, very prestigious.</p>
<p>Isn’t Illinois ranked higher than all of the above for Computer Science ? You should point that out to your parents.</p>
<p>PS: For liberal arts degrees, I agree that overall reputation is more important than major reputation. That’s not the case though for CS. You should focus on the CS rankings rather than the overall top 20 list.</p>
<p>I second the suggestion, but keep in mind that, at CMU, you must apply to individual colleges as opposed to the university as whole. CMU’s School of Computer Science (SCS) in particular is as selective as MIT (11 % acceptance rate last year).</p>
<p>Quite a valid question in post #2 from Mom2K (as usual!!!).</p>
<p>You’re a young person with a difficult decision ahead, but it must be made. You must decide whether or not you will submerge you own intents and aspirations for that of your parents. Young people face this all the time, particularly as I understand it, in Asian American families.</p>
<p>The good news is, you’ll likely succeed wherever you spend your four undergraduate years. Try talking again to your parents to try to persuade them. Then decide if you can live with the consequences of the result. That’s what adults do; make choices and live with the consequences without complaining. Good luck.</p>
<p>See where you get in. This whole thing may look a bit different after you see what your acceptances are. If you really hate Duke, consider being truthful when the Duke interviewer asks you questions about it.</p>