Looking for some match and safeties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi everyone =D </p>

<p>I'm an Asian male, junior, at a top prep school on the east coast. I THINK I will study engineering/physics in college, but I am still really undecided.</p>

<p>Here are my stats</p>

<p>GPA unweighted
-Freshman - 3.66
-Sophmore - 3.48
-Junior - hopefully 3.72 or 3.666 </p>

<p>Courses this year
-Calc AB AP
-Chinese 4 AP
-Comp Sci AP
-English 3
-U.S. History
-Physics Honors</p>

<p>Courses next year
-Multivaraible/Calc BC AP
-Physics 2 AP
-Econ AP
-English 4 Honors
-A theology course
-Honors Independent Study on the relationship between Taiwan and China</p>

<p>Test Scores
Math - 760
Verbal - 580
Writing - 670
Total - 2010
Chemistry - 610
ACT - 28 but horrible on science section so I don't think I will send it out</p>

<p>Also taking the Calculus AB and Chinese AP tests on Wednesday.</p>

<p>Extracurricular Activities
-Head of Receptions Committee
-Head of Work Job
- Peer Counseling
-Big Siblings Program
-Orchestra for 2 years
-President of Asian Club
-Assistant Information Director of ITASA(Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Student Association)
-Photoshop Editor of Yearbook
-Over 100+ hours of volunteer at Jefferson University Hospital</p>

<p>I will also be doing a physics lab/research at a college in Taiwan this summer for 2 months. Hopefully this can be a hook.</p>

<p>I am also a pretty good track athlete. My level right now is for low-level D1 school/high D3 school, but the schools I'm interested in are high level D1. Therefore I know I won't be recruited, but I've won numerous awards for track. So I guess it's a really good EC. </p>

<p>I also think I will have really good recommendations. </p>

<p>I'm looking at big schools, I really don't like small schools(like my hs right now T_T )
My top choices right now are Michigan, UCLA, USC, Brown, and UPenn.</p>

<p>I think out of those Brown is a reach and the others are matches.</p>

<p>Can you guys suggest some other matches/safeties for me??? </p>

<p>THANKS!!</p>

2

<p>UCLA is a big reach unless you're a California resident. Penn is also a reach. Are you in-state for Michigan?</p>

3

<p>I don't see how the others are matches given your scores. If you go to a top prep, your scores are quite low when compared to your classmate's. Brown is a big reach as is Penn and UCLA.</p>

4

<p>Your CR score is weak for Penn and Brown (and probably also for the other two, as well). The fact that you go to a top prep school makes it even weaker looking, frankly, and being in an over-represented minority won't do you any favors, either. Your extras are good--but not better than above average for a Penn or a Brown. As others have said, UCLA is tough because of your OOS status. UMich and USC are probably matches--but definitely not schools that you can count on. Your academic record is very nice--I think that you should really invest some time to raising your SAT/ACT scores to at least the 2100/31 level (especially breaking 600 on the CR). That would help you a lot and make these schools more realistic, although the Ivies will still be pretty big reaches. </p>

<p>Going off of your preferences and your interests, think about some of the other strong publics as low matches/safeties. For example, UIUC--great engineering school and engineering physics major, big school, sports scene, and a low match/safety for you (OOS is not a big deal here). UW-Madison also offers the general feeling that you are looking for (big school, strong engineering) in a much nicer location than UIUC. UT-Austin also has a beautiful location and a big, school-spirit heavy atmosphere like most of the other schools that you are considering. Not sure how competitive it is OOS, but definitely less so than a UCLA or UMich. </p>

<p>Non-reachy private schools are a little tougher to come by, because they don't really offer that big feeling that you are looking for. However, in general, schools ranked in the low teens (Rice) and twenties (Georgetown), while still reaches for you, are a bit more realistic reaches for someone with your stats than a Brown or Penn, although I don't know if those schools are particularly good fits for you or not. </p>

<p>PS: I don't get where Brown fits into this list. It's not big, or big on sports (as your other schools are), or known for engineering. Is it just a wildcard choice that you liked anyway, or is there something specific there, or what?</p>

5

<p>What class rank does a 3.6 GPA translate to? That easily could be top 3% or top 40%, which obviously makes a big difference. I would retake the SAT to try to improve your verbal score, because that single-handedly will keep you out of being in the running at Penn and Brown, otherwise. Maybe, you should look at larger D-III schools (URochester, WUSTL, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Emory) where you could run track and would give you an extra boost in admissions.</p>

6

<p>Consider Pittsburgh for a safety that has excellent engineering programs</p>

7

<p>Well.....the average GPA to get in UPenn from my school is like 3.74 and the SAT is a 1366. </p>

<p>Here is a scattergram of the acceptances from my school to UPenn.</p>

<p><a href="http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/TaiwaneseTerror/upenn.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/TaiwaneseTerror/upenn.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>As you can see, a handful amount of kids around 3.5 and 3.6 get accepted into UPenn. </p>

<p>My school is like 45 minutes from UPenn, so we're a really well known school to UPenn. Also, my sister also went to Penn undergrad and is now at the Med School. Plus there is the track factor...I can easily get recruited at Ivy's, that's what I meant by low-level D1's. </p>

<p>About UCLA....geeez I'm sorry lol. I've always considered it a reach. I don't know why I said it's a match. I guess I meant to say it's one of my top choices. Sorry! </p>

<p>And here is how I compare with the colleges on my list right now. </p>

<p><a href="http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/TaiwaneseTerror/college.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/TaiwaneseTerror/college.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>For some schools on that list like UIUC, Wisconsin, Michigan, and USC, nobody above a 3.5 (3.3 for Wisconsin) has been rejected from my school. So that's why I'm considering these as matches. </p>

<p>advantagious - yea Brown is just a wildcard. Some of my friends are at Brown and I haven't heard ANY negative things about it yet. </p>

<p>gellino - we don't do class ranks at my school, but I'd guess it's around 10% to 20%</p>

<hr>

<p>The schools I listed in my original posts are my top choices(USC, UMich, UCLA, UPenn, Brown)</p>

<p>Here is the complete list of schools.</p>

<p>Reaches - Brown, Columbia, UCLA,
Semi-reaches - UPenn, Rice, UCSD??
Matches - UIUC, UMich, USC
Safeties - Purdue, Texas, UW, Wisconsin</p>

<p>Does it look alright?</p>

8

<p>Remember: not all schools count the writing section, so it's not necessarily going to save you/overshadow your CR score. And your CR score is BAD. You NEED to get a 650. Brown won't take you with those scores and no other great ECs or achievements.</p>

9

<p>Yea...that was one thing I was worrying about. I just got my May SAT score back and my writing improved 40 points to 670. </p>

<p>Now, I'm taking the Physics and Math II SAT2's in October next year. So I can't take the regular SAT's until at least November, or I could take them on June 2nd, which is only a few days away. I doubt I'll improve much from now to June 2nd. I'm gonna be extremely busy from now to then since we have finals, so I'm not gonna get much time to study for the SAT's. Do you guys think I should take the test on that day? </p>

<p>Brown and UPenn are behind USC, Michigan, and UCLA on my list. I'm planning to apply to Michigan really early(in September), and if I get in, I'll only apply to USC and UCLA because these are the only two schools that I want to go to more than Michigan.</p>

10

<p>If you're from Tiwan and at Andover or Exeter or SPS you probably do not need financial aid. If that's the case and you can get your CR to more than 600, USC will probably admit you. UCLA will probably not as they don't get many applications from top preps so don't know how to understand their GPAs.</p>

11

<p>LOL, I'm pretty well off, but I think I will need some financial aid since my sister goes to med school and that's like 60,000 a year? That's already 100,000 a year now. I don't want to burden my parents. </p>

<p>And I don't go to Andover or Exeter. I go to a school slightly below their average. </p>

<p>Yea, I been asking the guys at UCLA forum about the GPA and it looks like I'm at a bad position =(</p>

12

<p>It's unfortunate, but schools don't count siblings in grad school when figuring out aid. I wish they did!</p>

13

<p>My son has slightly higher stats than yours and more leadership, and I think Rice and USC are reaches for him. Besides Rice is a really small school so doesn't fit your criteria. You sound like a good fit for USC so you should definitely apply even though it's a reach. Purdue is definitely a safety. They like athletes. UW is probably a safety, too, but not sure about UT and Wisconsin.</p>

14

<p>Hmmm....</p>

<p>I still think USC is a match for me, but I guess I'll have to be careful. </p>

<p>According to the scattergram from my school, out of the around 10 kids that got accepted, 6 have GPA's lower than 3.5, and 4 of their SAT scores are in the 1200's and the other 2 are in the 1300's. The other 4 had GPA's of 4.0 and like 4.1, so obviously USC was a safety for them.</p>

<p>Of the 10-15 that got rejected, most had GPA's around 2.7, so obviously USC was a reach for them. 2 of the rejects had decent GPA's, 3.5, but had SAT scores of 1150. Another had 3.3 and 1350. </p>

<p>Please don't think GPA and SAT's are the only thing I look at to determine if I'll get in or not. But from looking at the USC scattergram, I just think I am definitely a match for USC.</p>

<p>Edit: <a href="http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/TaiwaneseTerror/USC.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g78/TaiwaneseTerror/USC.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There's the scattergram for USC</p>

15

<p>Just how "top" is your prep school with those stats?</p>

16

<p>I say we'd probably be ranked in the 20's.</p>

17

<p>Probably not correct to call it a top prep school then. A step under Andover and Exeter is Choate and Lawrenceville.</p>

18

<p>Ehh....Lville is our archrival haha </p>

<p>W/e, it's just from what perspective you look at. I still see Chocate, Lville, or Loomis as top prep schools. I don't think it matter too much in comparison to the rest of the schools in the country. But if you're just talking about these schools in a group....then yea we're definitely "a few steps" under Exeter and Andover. </p>

<p>Also you have to take into consideration that I dislike this school. Other students might say it's ranked around 10. </p>

<p>Anyways, back to the topic. </p>

<p>How much will alumni recommendation letters help my chances for big schools like USC or Michigan?</p>