Matches for an ordinary student?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I have so many reaches, and not enough matches/safeties. So please, help me out! </p>

<p>Asian female
GPA(W): 94.4. Weird trend, high freshman, low soph, highhh junior. Transferred from a not so competitive school to a pretty competitive one soph year. First semester senior year will bring me up to 95+. Background story is too long, but I have explanations for certain grades etc. (family issues, deaths, moving)</p>

<p>APS: 4/7. Most of my classmates take around this amount.
Rank: 130/1200, but my school doesn't release them. Good for me I guess since I'm not top 10%
SAT superscore : 730/700/660 (2090). Single sitting : 730/670/660(2060). One more time in Oct, W and M will improve. (hopefully to 2200+)
Hooks: .. low income, first generation?
ECs: Normal. NHS, Beta NHS, Seekers, Red Cross, Orchestra/musicals. My main ECs are volunteering outside of school and church-related.
Essays: will be about my village. </p>

<p>Right now my list includes :
Many reaches (Cornell, Rice, Duke), and these I consider matchish
Brandeis, Lehigh, Boston U, Case Western, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Geneseo/Stonybrook(will pick one), Carleton(?)</p>

<p>Need school with good financial aid/merit aid. Pretty campus, near civilization. Over 2.5k - less than 10k undergrads preferably. Wet campus. :]
Major : neuroscience or biochemistry. </p>

<p>So that's my dilemma. My grades aren't bad enough(for HEOP..or are they?) or good enough to not worry about my reaches. Would the SUNYs be safeties, or no?</p>

2

<p>Hofstra University might be a reasonable match/safety for you looking at your stats, although I don’t know about financial/merit aid.</p>

3

<p>*Need school with good financial aid/merit aid. Pretty campus, near civilization. </p>

<p>Over 2.5k - less than 10k undergrads preferably. </p>

<p>Wet campus.*</p>

<p>Wet Campus? Does that mean that they must sell alcohol on campus…or that alcohol is allowed on campus?</p>

<p>RE…Financial Aid…</p>

<p>What is your likely EFC?</p>

<p>How much will your parents contribute? </p>

<p>Most schools don’t give much aid and most don’t meet need.</p>

<p>RE…Merit aid…</p>

<p>How much do you need? Full tuition? More? Less?</p>

4

<p>While it is larger than your stated preference, Pitt might be worth looking into. It is very strong in neuroscience and offers lots of opportunities for medical related research at the UPMC hospitals abutting campus. You have a shot at full tuition merit aid (particularly if you get your M/V to 1450 or higher.)</p>

5

<p>I think Carleton is more a reach than a match and they don’t give merit aid.</p>

6

<p>Colleges will be given enough info to know where you rank. Cornell, Duke and Rice are unrealistic. Carlton would be a realistic reach.</p>

7

<p>Oh, I thought Carleton would have been a match based on the Naviance information, but I guess it isn’t very trustworthy?
Our EFC is 0. My parents will try to contribute as much as they can. And for the merit aid, as much as is possible? </p>

<p>thanks for mentioning Pitt, I’ll look into that.</p>

8

<p>Neuroscience and biochemistry are research disciplines. I would highly recommend considering schools with significant undergraduate research opportunities with access to a large number of labs and facilities in areas of your interest. Most LACs don’t offer this at a significant level. Look for schools with their own neuroscience department, not just a tract or program within biology or psychology. Such places would typically be superior because they have dedicated faculty, offer more neuroscience classes, and are likely doing a larger variety of research. If your goal is to be in these fields after you graduate, say going to a PhD program (or MD/PhD) as opposed to getting an MD, your research experience is going to be very important. I’d recommend finding a place that has several labs doing work that interests you. It is probably a good idea to check out some of the faculty webpages in the neuroscience and biochemistry programs at your candidate schools to see if the work being done there is interesting and if they are publishing regularly. A goal should be to get some sort of authorship as an undergrad.</p>

9

<p>The problem with finding matches for students with 0 EFC who also have good stats, but not stellar stats, is this…</p>

<p>Match schools often don’t give much need-based financial aid, they usually don’t meet need, and they often won’t give you a big merit scholarship…so matches will likely be unaffordable.</p>

<p>So…for students like you…financial safety schools might be your salvation for schools choice if your top schools do not work out.</p>

<p>Lucky for you, there are some schools that would give you big merit for your stats. You would probably need at least full tuition scholarships for a school to be a financial safety. Adding a Pell Grant, work-study, and a Stafford loan, you could have all your school costs covered. Savings from a summer job could also help. Hopefully, your parents’ contribution can cover any transportation costs.</p>

<p>**For your own protection, please apply to at least 3 schools that would give you full tuition for your stats. ** Be open to good schools that will give you lots of money.</p>

<p>Do you intend on going to med school?</p>

<p>Can your parents contribute the money for transportation?</p>

<p>*Would the SUNYs be safeties, or no? *</p>

<p>They could be if Pell, Tap, student loans, and work-study could cover all costs. Do you like the SUNYs? Which ones? Would you be happy at a SUNY or do you want other safety choices?</p>

10

<p>My goodness. Can’t anyone read the Common Data Set? [Carleton</a> College: Institutional Research and Assessment: Common Data Set (CDS)](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/ira/CDS1/]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/ira/CDS1/) shows the OP is near the bottom 25% for grades and scores. The SUNYs would be safeties or near safeties (depending on admission percentage).</p>

11

<p>… my SAT is not bottom 25%, maybe for W. but math and CR are about 50%. sorry to see that I was mistaken, but I was basing it off my school’s Naviance. </p>

<p>The only SUNY I really want to apply to is Binghamton. I’m still thinking about Geneseo too. I don’t want to but Stonybrook is pretty much a guarantee for anyone in my school with an 85+ average.
Transportation is a must, so they definitely would. Plus my sister always gets miles and stuff on her credit card; I’m sure she could help me out.</p>

12

<p>Per the 2009-10 CDS, the 25th percentiles and 75th percentiles are respectively:</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading 660 760
SAT Math 660 740</p>

<p>The OP’s SATs were 730, 700.</p>

<p>That looks to be around the median. They did not publish GPA numbers in this CDS but a 94.4 - 95 average looks to be around an A (4.0).</p>

<p>Carleton is not a safety by any means but it isn’t unrealistic.</p>

13

<p>*
SAT superscore : 730/700/660 (2090).
…Single sitting : 730/670/660 (2060)*</p>

<pre><code>Middle 50% of First-Year Students
</code></pre>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: … 660 - 760<br>
SAT Math: … 660 - 740<br>
SAT Writing: … 670 - 750<br>
ACT Composite: … 29 - 33</p>

14

<p>*
The only SUNY I really want to apply to is Binghamton. I’m still thinking about Geneseo too. I don’t want to but Stonybrook is pretty much a guarantee for anyone in my school with an 85+ average.</p>

<p>Transportation is a must, so they definitely would. Plus my sister always gets miles and stuff on her credit card; I’m sure she could help me out.*</p>

<p>Do you like Bing? If not, then it’s not a safety for you.</p>

<p>Bing costs about $20k per year. Don’t know if Pell, Tap, student loans, and work-study will pay all costs. Anyone know? If not, then it’s not a safety for you.</p>

15

<p>Yes, I like Bing and wouldn’t mind going there if all else fails. :] I’m not sure about the financial aid for it either, but I assume it should cover a good amount?</p>

16

<p>You have Naviance. Use it. We found it to be an excellent tool for assessing the probability of getting into a school. None of the people here have better information for YOU than YOUR own school’s Naviance. </p>

<p>In order to use it, take your dot and draw a pretty liberal neighborhood around it. We used the M+CR SAT, and translated ACT scores using concordance tables. Then count the number of admits divided by the number of applications in your neighborhood. This gives you an approximate probability of getting in with YOUR stats from YOUR school. Reaches are when the probability is very low or indeterminate. Matches are when the probability is between 40-80% or when most but not all people with your stats or better get in. Safeties are when you can clearly see that all people with your stats before have gotten in and there is no doubt because there is a lot of data. Rolling admissions schools and schools with EA can be great safeties because you will bag one early and know that you are going to college. </p>

<p>I don’t know about the SUNYs, but if I had to guess, I’d say that Brandeis is a match and Boston University is a safety, but perhaps neither are financial safeties. Case should also be a safety and they are very generous. As far as SUNYs, just apply early and you’ll know soon enough. Can’t you still apply to four SUNYs one application?</p>

17

<p>^ Yes, Naviance is a better tool to tell where you might be accepted. </p>

<p>Sorry if you all took exception to my comment about being near the bottom 25%. I was going by the total score since the OP gave a break out but didn’t state which number was which. The bottom 25%-75% spread is 1990 - 2250.</p>

18

<p>I would suggest you add SUNY Buffalo to the mix. It has many great science programs and should be a “match” for you.</p>

<p>Close to the airport.</p>

19

<p>Thanks for all the advice! </p>

<p>I love Naviance, but it doesn’t really account for URM or anything esp for schools where there aren’t that many apps. :[
Thankfully my school is about 60% asian so that’s not too big a deal or anything.</p>

20

<p>“Many reaches (Cornell, Rice, Duke), and these I consider matchish
Brandeis, Lehigh, Boston U, Case Western, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Geneseo/Stonybrook(will pick one), Carleton(?)”</p>

<p>This is a very odd list of schools to match together. Are you working with a guidance counselor?</p>

<p>For starters, you should be focusing on National Universities (not LACs) as you are looking into a hard science degree. There is nothing wrong with the state schools in NY, but you should strive a little higher. These schools do not excel at hard science. </p>

<p>Schools you should take a look at:
Tufts University
Syracuse University
Northeastern University
George Washington University
John Hopkins University
New York University</p>