<p>@ucbalumnus: For the sake of privacy, I do not want to share which state I live in and which state university I wish to apply to. Rest assured, I will likely be accepted; almost all students who apply to this university (from my high school) are accepted. The requirements are not much, and I have fulfilled them already.</p>
<p>From the replies I have received, it appears that my list IS a hell of a lot, so I will return to the drawing board over the summer and reconsider my options. </p>
<p>I am always open to opinions expressed politely.</p>
<p>@intemister: <:-I</p>
<p>@abinclane: That is a possibility. I’m looking more at what the schools offer besides the academic portion, though, so I probably have to discriminate even more.</p>
<p>you could definitely add brown to that list!</p>
<p>@Aj410: It was my top school for a while. “OMG Brown!!111eleven!!!oneone Emma Watson goes there (not anymore!)!!moreones OPEN CURRICULUM so I can take calc and physics and learn even though I suck in those fields!! omg- <em>shot</em>” I attended my first college presentation with Brown, explored the website, read through the admissions guide, etc., and I was dead set that it was the greatest place for me (though the Van Wickle Gates scared and still scare me).
But then something happened, and I don’t know what. I suddenly lost interest. I know it’s an absolutely fantastic place! I just don’t know if I’ll apply, though I won’t cross it out immediately. :-)</p>
<p>(Yes, Brown ex-but-not-so-ex fangirl here).</p>
<p>I would like to add that Brown is very difficult to get in for students with low GPAs. Brown is known for its lack of distribution requirements and its pass/fail system, both of which can make it easy for students to slack off. In order to counter this possibility, the Brown admissions office takes high school performance in serious consideration (more so than at other elite colleges), to select only students who appear to have performed very well in terms of grades. The logic is that students who get straight As (or near straight As) in high school are less likely to take advantage of Browns open curriculum than students with less stellar grades. Since even your weighted GPA is below a 4.0, your chances of admissions to Brown is highly unlikely.</p>
<p>My advice to you would be to aim lower. I would say that Yale, Stanford, Pomona, and Chicago are out. Rice, Wellesley, and USC are possibilities. Maybe you can try schools like Emory, NYU, or Carnegie Mellon. Also consider schools with lower median SAT scores. That way, even though you have a low GPA, your higher SAT scores could counter that.</p>
<p>Note 1: You should keep track of how many volunteer hours you have done. You will want to report this when you apply to colleges.</p>
<p>Note 2: You mentioned brutal junior year. If by brutal you mean your grades dropped significantly (i.e. downward trend), even though your classes may be more rigorous than your classmates, it leaves a bad impression on the admissions officers. They may think that you have poor work ethics, are unrealistic about class difficulty, etc., even if these statements are not true.</p>
<p>@KingAuthor:
Good tip about Brown’s M.O. Will keep it into consideration as I work at my drawing board. </p>
<p>I have looked at NYU and feel that it is too urban for me. Also, I prefer a smaller setting and a small to midsize university or college (“Then why is USC on your list?! Good question. Expectations and whatnot.”).
I prefer to stick to West or East coasts. I have Rice on my list because of its awesome Shepherd School of Music. So . . . Emory’s probably out since I can’t see myself in the South.
CMU doesn’t seem to have the best resources for the studies I wish to pursue at university, but I will have to do more research to be sure. </p>
<p>Note 1: Why? Besides the fact that I can easily falsify information? And the fact that 200+ hours shows “passion” and “commitment”? [insert evil grin here]</p>
<p>Note 2: I went from an almost straight A student (all As, one B in both freshman and sophomore years) to probably “3/4 Bs and 4/3 As” student. So yes, it’s a downward trend, but it’s not horrible.
I was a naive little child last February when I scheduled my courses (I had some issues, such as an existential crisis). Teenage years, man. I ain’t lettin’ this kinda thing happen again (at least, not to the degree that it did).</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions! :-)</p>
<p>Since USC does give 1/2 tuition scholarships to NMFs, that can be a source for a good scholarship (which it doesn’t sound like you ‘need’ but is nice to get.)</p>
<p>You are well within accepted range for Willamette.
Viola gets you more “mileage” with admissions than violin, as long as you plan to continue. If you want to leverage your musical talent, it would be in your best interest to make contact with some music faculty at the schools that interest you and submit an arts supplement to your application (to those schools that accept it). The arts supplement usually goes to the music department for review. The music folks then pass on their opinion to the adcoms.
Since you mentioned Willamette, have you thought of Lewis & Clark?</p>
<p>these schools are reaches for everyone, including you. you have decent sat scores and have taken some ap classes, but your general lack of ecs (why would you resign from the newspaper?) definitely hurt your chances. I would find a couple more match/safety schools where you would be happy. there’s nothing wrong with applying to some reach schools, i’m doing the same thing, just balance them with some more targeted schools that are definitely in your range. My advice would be to visit some college websites and look at the profile for admitted students. that will give you a good idea of where you stack up against people who have been accepted.
also, stanford is (besides harvard) pretty much the hardest school in the country to get into, so don’t take it personally if you don’t get into all these places, it happens to nearly everyone who applies.
that being said, i feel like you have decent chances of getting into at least one, if not more, of your reach schools.</p>
<p>
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<p>You can take calculus and physics at any university. Brown’s open curriculum merely means that students need not take courses for a “well rounded liberal arts education”, unlike students at (for example) MIT, who need to take 8 math and science courses (2 math, 2 physics, 1 chemistry, 1 biology) and 8 humanities, arts, and social science courses (at least 1 from each area, 3-4 in a concentration, at least 2 which include communication).</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids:
That’s one of the primary reasons I’m applying to USC, along with some other neat reasons.</p>
<p>@musicmomz:
I haven’t thought about contacting music faculty. I don’t plan to major in music though I would like to participate in college ensembles. Yeah, I also have those supplements in mind.
My counselor also put L&C on my list, but I didn’t think it was a good fit for me (I’m not exactly the uber-ly social “liberal,” and Oregon isn’t my favorite place).</p>
<p>@bluekangaroo:
I haven’t done much for the newspaper (only edited once or twice in the year), and I don’t feel as if I “belong” in that community. You know what I mean? I just turned in my application for next year, but I just might rescind it, lol.</p>
<p>I appreciate the encouragement too. I know Stanford is a tough school. Very tough. As are all the other ones. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: I meant also to include the pass/fail option. Whoopsies.</p>
<p>Most universities allow some sort of passed / not-passed grading option for some out of major courses.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: LACs also give me that option, right? </p>
<p>If anyone knows of a school that offers:
- some sort of Asian population
- a tolerant student body (accepting of others’ opinions, including religious and conservative ones, not just liberal ones)
- some sort of symphony orchestra</p>
<p>Those are a few things to begin with.</p>
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<p>With the exception of Willamette, every place you listed is either in the top 20 of universities or the top 20 of LAC’s. (USC I think is just a smidge below top 20 but I’ll grandfather it in for the sake of discussion). Therefore, by definition, they are reaches for everybody, no matter what one’s stats / EC’s. No one should build a list that is solely top 20.</p>
<p>tolerance and acceptance are two different things.</p>
<p>Your list is very reach heavy. You should pick schools across a range of selectivity levels. There is a huge gap between your safety and reaches, without really having any match schools. You need to look outside of the Top 20 U’s/LACs.</p>
<p>What is your unweighted GPA? Even if the school doesn’t provide it, you can calculate it yourself based on your grades. (A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, etc.) It is important to know to understand what would be your match schools. </p>
<p>Junior year is the worst year to have a bad year, as far as admissions go. A poor freshman year can be excused somewhat, but junior year is the one that is looked at most closely. </p>
<p>Does your school have Naviance? It is the best way to figure out how your school’s GPA is considered, since high schools differ greatly. If not, there are other places on the Internet to find college admissions scattergrams, which show results for particular GPA/SAT score combinations. And check out the results threads for particular schools here on CC. </p>
<p>Your GPA will be considered low for the top schools, so you need to look at how sensitive particular schools are based on GPA. </p>
<p>If you could post more about what you are looking for in a school, some posters may be able to offer more suggestions. In particular, do you have any idea what you would like to study in college? </p>
<p>These schools come to mind as matches, smaller schools on the east coast, and not “too urban”: U. Rochester, Lehigh, Bucknell, Lafayette, American, William and Mary, U. Richmond.</p>
<p>I disagree with Pizzagirl’s belief that top 20 schools are reaches for everyone. Maybe this is part of her lifelong goal to have everyone consider Harvard and WashU in the same light. In truth, only a fraction of HYPSM’s applications actually go to committee. Not every app gets voted on. There are tons of easy admits, and for these kids, it’s not really fair to say that the school was a reach for them. </p>
<p>However, these schools are reaches for the OP who does not have a great record of academics or EC’s. It is definitely too ambitious of a list.</p>