<p>Stats:
White middleclass male, good NJ public school
730M 760V 680W(Retaking)
800MathII 780Physics
Grades:
Freshman-84.5(one honors class, 84.5 is a rough estimate)
Sophomore-84.2(one honors class)
Junior-89.2(two honors one ap class)
Senior-two honors three ap classes
Rank: Top 30%
EC's:
Nothing amazing. Things to note include a pending patent, president/founder of Computer Club, Ranked top 5% of new jersey science league for first year physics students.</p>
<p>I have had some serious family problems which i plan to write about- and im not some melodramatic kid whining about a divorce or something, im talking about some legitimate long term serious problems.</p>
<p>Uchicago
Bates
Emory
CMU
Reed
Oberlin
UW-Madison
Connecticut College
TCNJ
UIUC
Penn State
Rutgers</p>
<p>This will probably be my final list unless you guys give me any suggestions. Im applying to a lot of schools(12) but most are common app.
I plan to major in physics and am considering transfering because my family life messed up my highschool GPA.</p>
<p>I think it'll be hard for you to get into UChicago, Bates, Emory, but it looks like you have some good safeties. If you'r'e happy with your list, it seems like you've got a good mix.</p>
<p>Oberlin and Reed too. It looks like you have 6 reaches to start. I'm not sure how many of the others are match or safeties but that seems pretty skewed. Make sure you love your safeties with this list.</p>
<p>UChicago and Reed are tough to predict, but both consider factors beyond grades and test scores. For these schools, your essays will most likely determine the result. I would recommend visiting.</p>
<p>I think i will replace Emory with Whitman College.</p>
<p>I am aslo thinking of getting rid of penn state and replacing it with something else? UIUC seems pretty safe to me and i would rather go there than penn state. Plus penn state is not good with fin aid, which would be the only draw for me.</p>
<p>Why do you recommend visiting idad? would it improve my chances or just to see the campus?</p>
<p>I think I would visit UChicago and Reed in particular because both have reputations for being somewhat quirky and catering to a specific taste. Why apply if you don't even like it? Granted, these are pretty far away from each other and it may not be possible to visit.</p>
<p>I don't think you have much of a shot at eihter UChicago and Reed, or Emory,Bates or Oberlin because of your GPA. However, you might want to consider either Syracuse University or Rochester Institute of Technology. Both have science programs, strong choices in majors etc. Syracuse, also has a lot of tutoring and nurturing that you won't generally find elsewhere. RIT also is fairly inexpensive for a private school (tuition is 23K). Other good choices could be Univeristy of Cincinnati ( which is BIG on SAT scores), Ohio State University, Ohio University, Towson Unversity in Maryland. I could go on and on. If you don't like these schools and you do well there, you could transfer. Most are well respected schools.</p>
<p>You are very difficult to predict because of the gap between your GPA/class rank and SAT scores. A good essay could sway adcoms that the SAT is more predictive of future college academic success, but it really is hard to know. The key question is whether you would be happy to go in-state to Rutgers or TCNJ. Those are reasonable safeties for you, but everything else are questionable or definite reaches. If going to RU or TCNJ worst case is OK with you then just go for it on the others. Otherwise you have more research to do.</p>