<p>Well, I'm an upcoming senior and probably starting my college search a little late. I'll probably be doing weekend visits to colleges first semester. Anyways, here are my stats:</p>
<p>GPA: ~97 unweighted (Assuming I stay constant through 1st semester senior year)
SATII: chem-740 math I-660 world history-770
SATI: 1940
ACT: 30
AP's: 4- chemistry 5-world history 5-statistics 5-us history
Courseload: Toughest possible (Missed 1 AP my school offers if my senior schedule ends up working out...still waiting for it officially) with 9 APs, 2 honors, and 3 university level classes.
EC's: 1) Model UN 2)black belt in karate 3)varsity tennis 4)JV cross country 5)tutoring 6)NHS 7)Masterminds 8)Key Club 9)Band</p>
<p>My planned major is physics. So I want a school that will best prepare me for a career doing research or working in the industry as a physicist. Not really sure what I want to do, but I'm into science and physics is my favorite. </p>
<p>I live in upstate New York and my parents basically want me in the northeast region. Here is my current list of colleges on my list:</p>
<p>1) Cornell University
2) Columbia University
3) University of Illinois at Urbana (Kinda far, but I'm hoping to convince my parents of this as an option since I read they have a top physics program)
4) Rutgers
5) SUNY Stony Brook
6) Ohio State University
7)University of Rochester</p>
<p>I would suggest RPI as an additional possibility. Perhaps consider SUNY Buffalo. I think you might be a good candidate for the U of Rochester or RPI. Cornell might be a reach.
Carnegie Mellon and U Maryland College Park might be worth a look. Also Johns Hopkins, Case Western, U Pittsburgh.
Maybe Syracuse.</p>
<p>Are you from Syracuse, Buffalo, or Rochester?</p>
<p>Case Western, Carnegie-Mellon, RPI, and Rochester are all pretty similar schools. I'd say Case is the best for physics, but then I go there for the program so I'm biased. ;)
By the way, depending on where you are in math it might be a good idea to take the Math IIC test because people often find they do better on it thanks to the curve, especially if you are now taking precalculus or beyond. Just a suggestion.</p>
<p>Take the math IIc sat. The material is harder, but the curve is better. You might need a high score if you want to be a physics major. You might even want to consider the physics sat II as well. Your list of colleges looks decent. best of luck.</p>
<p>In response to collegehelp, I'm from Albany actually. Any universities on my list that I should take off? I suppose I'll try the Math Level 2 this year.</p>
<p>WPI in Worcester,MA</p>
<p>Check out the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. All three of them have excellent physics departments and awesome overall academics. If you are willing to go as far as UIUC, don't forget to chack out Wisconsin-Madison.</p>