List is too long and possibly high?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I need help narrowing down my list of colleges. And maybe add more matches instead of reaches? A little help? I'm really interested in biology and I don't really care about the geographics of the college as long as it's not insanely city like or rural like. Also, I prefer medium size colleges though I don't mind small or large schools. </p>

<p>Colleges looking at
Brown
Cal Tech
Cornell
Duke
Harvard
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Northwestern
Stanford
Rice
WashU
UCB
UCSD
UCLA
UCD</p>

<p>A quick rundown of my stats
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: F
School: Competitive public school in CA. Sends many students to top schools
Rank: Top 4%
GPA (UW): 3.97
GPA (W): 4.24 (4.37 if I get all As for first semester Senior)</p>

<p>Courses
Freshman (school doesn't offer honors for frosh): Literature/Writing, Geometry Enriched, Biology, Spanish 1, Electronics, Drama, PE 9
Sophomore: World Lit, World History, Algebra II/Trig, Chemistry H., Spanish 2, Oral Composition, PE Dance.
Junior: American Lit/Writ H., US History, Pre-Calculus H., AP Biology, Physics H., Spanish 3, Lab Assistant
Senior: AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Physics, Spanish 4 H.
College courses taken: Psychology, Statistics, Music, maybe also a marine bio /physio class later</p>

<p>SAT: 2350 (770 CR, 800 M, 780 W) This is from two tests. Best single sitting:2290
SAT II: 800 Biology E, 800 Chinese, 800 Math IIC (Will Also take Chem and Physics)
APs: Bio, Chinese, Stats, Psych, English Language (all 5s) I will also take Gov, Chem, Econ, Lit, Physics by end of senior year.</p>

<p>ECs
Biology Club-Co-president
MUN Club-Co-founder
Speech and Debate Team-Member
California Scholarship Federation-Life Member
Octagon Club-Member
Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra-Second Chair (May be section leader next year)
Pipa Player-6 years
Work at Veterans Hospital-Volunteer/Research
International School of the Pennisula-Work</p>

<p>Awards/Recognitions
National Finalist-USA Biology Olympiad
Program Recognition-National Merit Scholarship (Probably be finalist/semifinalist)
Wondercup Semifinalist
AP Scholar with Distinction
Top 4%-UC Recognition-State
National Society for High School Scholars (Is this even valid?)</p>

<p>Volunteer: around 250-300 hours from Octagon, CSF, and Veteran's hospital</p>

<p>Recs: Projected to be pretty good. My bio teacher knows how much I adore bio and how much effort I put into it and my history teacher wrote in my year book that I'm a strong young woman and asked why couldn't all her students be like me.</p>

<p>Essays: Projected to be good. Thinking about writing my USABO experience, the first time I fell in love with bio (visit to an aquarium), or my first airplane trip alone when I was labled a security risk, lost my wallet, AND missed a plane but a nice lady helped me and gave me 10 dollars for lunch. (which one do you think I should write about?)</p>

<p>Other things: I plan to organize a fundraiser to raise money for either orphanages or research institutes and also start a tutoring program. (Any advice for this?) I may also write for a science magazine newly formed at our school next year as well as find the Science Bowl team/club. Perhaps also enter the Intel/Siemen's competition.</p>

2

<p>You have 10-12 reach schools. That's absurd. Look at what you want in a school and and cut that in half, just to save yourself the hassle.</p>

<p>Because you're in CA, you'll always have a UC to fall back on, so I wouldn't worry about safeties, those schools look fine.</p>

3

<p>You have good stats... but none of those schools are good matches! All are either reaches or high matches, I think! You definitely need to cut most of those off of your list and add some safer matches and safeties... (I'm suffer from the same problem as you do, but I managed to come up with some matches and safeties, and so can you =P). If you apply to these schools, there's a chance that you won't be accepted anywhere! That's why a balanced list is very important... One school that I really like is Hamilton.... there's something to get you started =)</p>

<p>Are you a rising senior? Because... I don't think that you'd be able to do Intel/Siemen's. It requires at least ~3 months of serious research.</p>

4

<p>You're pretty much guaranteed in at UCD, UCSD, and probably UCLA. You don't need any more safeties. They're good schools and the tuition is cheap. It would be silly to add more to the list. </p>

<p>You do have a lot of reaches. I'd say about 10-11 of them are. If I were you, I'd cut out about 3 or 4 them. Whichever ones you don't feel as strongly about.</p>

<p>As far as matches go..I'd say that Johns Hopkins and Harvey Mudd could be high matches. As well as Berkeley, possibly. You don't neccesarily need more match schools, but it's up to you. You might end up with more options if you trade a few reaches for matches.</p>

5

<p>Anyone have any suggestions as to which ones I should cut?</p>

6

<p>Well...it depends on what you want. What do you plan on majoring it? What kind of experience are you after?</p>

7

<p>Well, I'm definitely into biology and will probably major in something in that field. The geographics/size do not matter too much for me. I'm looking for a school with a spectrum of activities and is somewhat liberal and not too preppy.</p>

8

<p>Since you already have scored 800 on three SATII's, I don't see any reason for you to take any more if you don't want to. I don't know of any school that requires more than three.</p>

9

<p>Chinese doesn't really count since almost half of the test takers get perfects. Therefore, I'm going to have to probably take at least one more. I'm thinking two just because I'm not sure which one I'll do better in.</p>

10

<p>I haven't visited the campuses, so I can't say for sure, but I've always gotten the impression that Duke and Northwestern have a somewhat preppier vibe. Still liberal, but more "All-American/frats/preppy" than "hippie". </p>

<p>And..I'm not sure if it makes any difference to you, but I hear that Cornell and MIT both have really high suicide rates. I'm not saying that this should highly affect your decision, but it might be worth looking into (seeing if the environment is too stressful or whatnot).</p>

11

<p>Alright, thanks! I know the MIT workload is like hell but I like the school so that'll probably stay on. I did not know about the suicide rates for Cornell though so maybe I'll look into that a bit more.</p>

12

<p>Oh, whoops... I didn't see that you were from CA. In that case, you just need to cut down on the reaches and get some more matches =)</p>

<p>I wouldn't worry about the suicide rates. My guess is that those who did commit suicide were depressed/had very low self-esteem/struggled with self-doubt long before attending those schools. The stressful environments undoubtedly aggravated this... but most people at those schools thrive and really enjoy their college experience. The workload isn't for everyone, but most students know what they are getting into, and are even excited about it.</p>

13

<p>The suicide rate thing is deceiving. It's really no higher than any school. Maybe a fraction of percent. Don't consider it at all.</p>

<p>And I like your chances at any school.</p>

14

<p>okay, I'm probably cutting Brown and Northwestern from my list. Possibly Wash U and Harvey Mudd. Any suggestions for matches to add?</p>

15

<p>UMichigan, UNC-CH, maybe UVA</p>

16

<p>You're cutting Brown, NWU, WashU and HMC for being preppy, and you're leaving Harvard, Cornell, Duke, JHU, and Stanford on your list?</p>

<p>Also for the record, if you said you're looking for a liberal school Rice should not be on that list either.</p>

17

<p>I don't think that she specifically said that she cut those schools because they were preppy. I do agree that Duke probably shouldn't be there... I've always felt that it's a pretty preppy school. I don't think that Cornell, JHU, and Stanford are as bad.</p>

18

<p>Trust me Cornell and Stanford are; my dad and brother went to Cornell, so I've heard numerous stories and made quite a few visits. A good friend of mine also ended up at Stanford, and when I met him in the summer he was a different person, sitting with his collar popped going off with his stories of frat life and such. bleh I'm glad I goto Columbia.</p>

19

<p>ijbsa;iorwhn;oi bdjfzo i;nfdi;ozbji</p>

<p>WHY????
WHY is fricken harvard not a (high) match????
this dude has perfect everything (almost) and in my opinion is getting in everywhere except maybe hyps.
why is it that CC kids always COMPLETEly overestimate college admissions standards?</p>

<p>at least in the school i go to, things arent so bad....
top 5ish gets into harvard lik autoaccept,
in terms of my friends,
3.65 + 2150 = cornell
3.55 + 2300 = northwestern
3.80 + 2180 = duke
B average + 2250 = duke</p>

<p>to the dude who made this thread : go eat some potatoes, you'll be chosing the college, not the other way aroudn</p>

20

<p>The Ivies are reaches for everyone.</p>

<p>We aren't saying that the OP isn't qualified (she definitely is!), but Ivy League admissions, especially at schools like Harvard, are a crapshoot. Kids with perfect scores and great ECs get rejected all the time. Yes, the OP definitely has a chance, but they're still reach schools.</p>