<p>Considering these for a physical chem major, I plan on doing a PhD at the same place I do my undergrad/masters.</p>
<p>You likely aren’t in a position to determine if that is a wise or feasible plan. Why don’t you start working on your essays so you can help your chance of getting into one of them. Also, you’ve some during rush hour, take a look at accepted student threads. Then go and identify your safety school.</p>
<p>@brownparent I just want to know which one is the best so I know what I should pick if I get in. Again, UT Austin is mu safety since I have automatic admission, my higher safety is UCLA. This thread isn’t about getting in, it’s about which one is the best for my major of choice.</p>
<p>You will know better in a year.</p>
<p>“Why don’t you start working on your essays”</p>
<p>Very good advice. Well, maybe you don’t need to start working on them this early, but you should still see their prompts, as they usually change little from year to year. You’ll find that this discussion of which univ. is better is useless, because you 1) probably won’t even apply to all of them and 2) very probably you won’t get into all of them, unless you are a true physics/chemistry superstar(if that’s the case, why worry which one is slightly better? 
)</p>
<p>Personal “anecdote”: last summer, Caltech became my dream school. At that time, I did not care a straw for what Caltech could possibly ask in their essays, feeling that I could convey my enthusiasm for it no matter what.</p>
<p>Guess what? In October(stupidly late), I first read the Caltech prompts, and found myself unable to write a word on their required topics(moral dilemma & unusual way in which you have fun). Then I decided to search for more info about Caltech, and…</p>
<p>Colleges do not select essay prompts at random. Predictably, I found that the Caltech I had liked was not the real Caltech. I found that, while academically superb, Caltech’s socially a terrible, terrible match for me. Therefore, I never applied to Caltech, and never regretted this decision. But the time when I dreamt about Caltech could’ve been spent more wisely.</p>
<p>Conclusion: Search the essay prompts for any university you’re considering right now. I wish someone had given me this advice when I was a junior. ;)</p>
<p>@Disari21 thanks for the advice, I already wrote practice essays for caltech and mit’s prompts this year. I know what the culture at both CalTech and MIT are, and I would definitely fit in. I feel like I’ll get into at least two (probably not princeton). So with that, I need to figure out what is the best for me educationally. What gives me the most experience and the most options in my field?</p>
<p>Lol just lol that you said you’ll get into at least two. What are you, an IMO gold medalist?</p>
<p>@mathstarftw I THINK I’ll get into two. Not saying it confidently, but my humble opinion is just based off of analysis that I’ve done.</p>
<p>“Lol just lol that you said you’ll get into at least two. What are you, an IMO gold medalist?”</p>
<p>I don’t know specifically about IMO gold medalists, but I know about a silver medalist who was rejected/waitlisted everywhere except Duke(last year). :)</p>
<p>OP, college admission is much more difficult than juniors usually believe it to be, and it’s getting harder every year. Hope for the best, but also add some matches and 1-2 safety to your list. Chances are that one of the matches that you might not care too much about today might be the college you’ll attend, and maybe you’ll find that it’s actually a wonderful school.</p>
<p>@disari21 My matches are Berkeley and UCLA, my safety is UT Austin, which as I have said many times on this forum, I have automatic acceptance to.</p>
<p>Oh, apparently I missed your post about UT Austin.
Good stuff then. Still, an extra match won’t hurt.</p>
<p>You need to verify with your parents that UT Austin is affordable.</p>
<p>Also, in some subjects, it is widely believed among departments (when evaluating applicants to PhD programs) that a student should go to different schools for bachelor’s and doctoral study, so you may not want to plan on doing both at the same school.</p>
<p>Berkeley’s College of Chemistry has gotten extremely competitive for admission in recent years, so it may be significantly more difficult to get admitted to than Berkeley’s overall admissions profile may indicate. However, you can also major in chemistry (but not chemical engineering) in Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science (which is the largest division which carries the most weight in the overall admissions profile). But note that UCs’ financial aid will not cover the $23,000/year out-of-state additional tuition. Run the net price calculator on each school’s web site to check need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>Maybe you could try a thread stating you want to narrow down your list of reach schools to apply to and ask for comments on which reach schools people would recommend for p-chem undergrad and grad. Somehow your original post seems to have set people off. </p>
<p>My parents have already filled up a fund for me attending UT for 4 years. Money is fortunately not an issue for any of these schools. They’ve made it clear that they can pay for any college I get into for as long I want to attend. I just have to worry about getting in now.</p>
<p>@midwestsalmon I should also mention that I am considering a physics major or possibly biochem to radiation oncology premed then do an MD PHD.</p>
<p>@disari21 Is considering Cornell a match stupid? I think UPenn and Cornell are both high matches for me. I don’t really know though.</p>
<p>Both Cornell and Penn are considered reach-for-everyone schools (although, since they are divided into divisions, some divisions may be more or less selective than the more usual ones of arts and sciences or engineering), as are all of the schools in your thread title.</p>
<p>High stats (GPA, rank, test scores) are only the baseline qualifications for admission at such schools. Those schools have several times more applicants with high stats than the number they will admit, so success at admission needs something extra beyond just high stats. Typically, this means either a “hook” (e.g. recruited athlete, parental donations, legacy in some cases, etc.) or an extraordinary achievement, award, or recognition (e.g. something that may be considered news at the state or national level).</p>
<p>Out of all of the schools you named in this thread, do not be too surprised if your only admission next year is UT Austin. If you like UT Austin, no problem – just go there and be happy. But do not be like the posters who show up this time of year feeling let down because they only got into a safety that they do not really like.</p>
<p>You are a strong high school student and could have MANY options. Top schools are inundated with apps from top students. This does not mean you should not apply, but it does mean these schools are reaches for most who apply. I’d really try to think about what you would like from a school beyond name recognition/prestige. </p>
<p>Have you read this thread?
<a href=“http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1632160-christoph-guttentag-s-letter-demystifying-admission-process-at-duke.html”>http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1632160-christoph-guttentag-s-letter-demystifying-admission-process-at-duke.html</a></p>
<p>Specifically:
“Most students who apply to Duke display the intellectual chops and commitment to succeed here. With over 32,000 students vying for just 1,700 spots in the class, even absurdly fine grained distinctions along a numeric metric wouldn’t get the selection job done. To look at just one example: more than twice as many valedictorians applied as we had spaces in the class, and that’s a count contextualized by the fact that only half of schools sending us applicants provided a class rank. We have to look at other factors, and we want to consider all the other ways a student might contribute to the richness of Duke’s community.”</p>
<p>Duke could have filled its incoming class with valedictorians 3 or 4 times over. They simply do not have enough spots for all the valedictorians who apply. So right here you have thousands of valedictorian seniors rejected from Duke–a school many of them probably considered a “match”. So when high school students post questions about ivy league or highly selective schools as if they are already admitted, the replies tend to get a bit brisk. Wishing youu all the best!</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I hope my scientific research, science projects, science olympiads, and self started science tutoring service will be my hook. Not just the 2220 SAT (800 math), 750+ on all science subject tests, and a transcript filled with high a’s in all 11 of my AP classes. You can look at my stats, they’re on a previous post. If I only get into UT I’ll only be mad because I worked so hard, and I really wouldn’t have had to try at all if I knew I would only get into UT. I really do enjoy science, I want to go to the best place in the world to further my education.</p>
<p>Mit</p>