Junior starting the college process, UPENN, Syracuse Newhouse, Holy Cross, Bucknell

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi everyone,
I'm a current junior starting the college process. I've been reading forums on CC since last year and have developed a tentative list of colleges to visit and possibly apply to next year. I know that I want to major in either journalism (at a good j-school) or english at a liberal arts college. Some of my top choices as of now are Upenn's Annenberg School for Communication, Syracuse Newhouse and then holy cross, bucknell, william and mary, or Colgate for english. I'm not entirely sure if these are too far out of my reach. I have a 3.63 gpa as of right now (freshman and sophomore year) and am taking 2 AP's this year (and hopefully a few next year as well). I am also taking honors spanish 5 this year and took honors history and bio last year. I write for the school newspaper, have my own fashion blog, and play field hockey (since freshman year). I also am on the golf team (as of last year) and participate in key club at school. I am in youth group at my church and tutor middle schoolers after school. I went on a people to people Australia trip last summer and am probably going to a Putney Excel program at Oxford this summer. I'm also attending Teen Vogue Fashion U in the fall. </p>

<p>As for the schools, both of my parents went to UPENN for grad school but I'm not sure if that helps at all since I would be applying undergrad. My dad went to Wharton and my mom was in the nursing school (both for grad). For undergrad, my dad went to Holy Cross and donates to the school. I would like to stay on the East coast and study either journalism or english. I also want to study abroad in Spain. Does anyone have any suggestions for other good j-schools or liberal arts colleges within my reach to look into. I'm also planning on visiting lafayette, lehigh, franklin and marshall, loyola md, umaryland, st. michael's, and maybe gettysburg and dickinson. Oh and I haven't taken the SAT's yet but I have a tutor so hopefully I can get a decent score (my goal is 1900-2000). </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any suggestions:)</p>

2

<p>You need to raise your GPA. Without SAT / ACT scores it is difficult to determine your chances at these schools. If you do get a 1900-2000 & stay at a 3.6 Penn is a big reach, Bucknell & HC are reaches, I’m not familiar with the program at Syracuse.</p>

3

<p>you’re a junior who hasn’t taken the psat or plan(ACT)? im not sure if syracuse-newhouse is a special program, but syracuse(in general) is pretty easy to get in and you seem like you’d get in no problem. holy cross and bucknell would expect you to have a 1900-2000+ SAT score though</p>

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<p>@collegebound41
Yeah, our school has the psat’s in October and I’m signed up. I took them last year too but I don’t remember my scores (I know I did well in reading and writing and poorly in math because I hadn’t learned the geometry content on the test).
@csdad
Yikes! It seems like everything is so hard to get into. For Bucknell though, on naviance it said 3.6 gpa for my school so I thought that wouldn’t be too bad. It said about 4.0 for UPENN and Holy Cross, though I know the acceptance rate is only 14% at Upenn. I know Upenn is a big reach for me but decided to try anyway. There are a bunch of other colleges that I would like to go to as well. Upenn is definitely my biggest reach. I am trying to bring my gpa up though, hopefully I will do well this year.</p>

5

<p>Syracuse’s Newhouse School is one of the top Communications schools in the country! The requirements for admission to Newhouse are much higher than SU as a whole.</p>

<p>In addition to top facilities, instructors and guest lecturers, the alumni are very active and internships top notch and strongly encouraged.</p>

<p>Some alum:
Aaron Sorkin
Bob Costas</p>