My parents and I need help with my college list

College Search & Selection
1

<p>My parents and I sat down and made a list of schools that I'm applying to or considering applying to and I ended up with a huge number of schools: 16 schools. I was wondering how I could possibly trim down my list since it's so many schools. I am in Connecticut and my parents work a lot, so I will have trouble visiting many of the schools listed. How do I remove a school from my list if I can't visit it and are there any schools that seem to not belong on the list?</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>top 2% at a competitive suburban high school (top 10 out of 400, we don't do ranking, but my guidance counselor gave me an estimate)
white male
GPA 4.29 Weighted, 3.93 Unweighted, taking a hard course loud of 4 APs senior year (3 junior year and 1 sophomore year)
2280 SAT: 800 M/730 CR/750 Writing</p>

<p>SAT II
Math IC-750
Chemistry-800
Biology Molecular - 760
Math IIC-Pending</p>

<p>AP Tests: Chemistry-5, Biology-5, US History-5, French Language-4</p>

<p>ECs
3 sport varsity athlete, bunch of community service, and some club involvment, bunch of chemistry awards/all around academic awards</p>

<p>Reaches:
Upenn-Wharton (Early Decision)
Columbia
Harvard
Cornell
Duke
Stanford
McGill</p>

<p>Slight Reach/Matches:</p>

<p>UNC (Early Action)
Tufts
Washinton University - St. Louis
University of Viginia
University of Richmond
Emory
Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>Safties:</p>

<p>UConn (Early Action)
UMiami (Early Action)</p>

<p>schools I plan on visiting within the next 4 weeks: Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Cornell, but the rest I have no idea of visiting. I haven't even visitied UNC or Umiami and I'm applying early there. I have no idea how to limit this list and it's kinda intimidating.</p>

<p>Help Please!</p>

2

<p>dude....McGill is not a reach...it's like a safety practically. Wash U i would say should be bumped up to the reach category. U of Richmond down in the safety category. Everything else seems good.</p>

3

<p>I would drop McGill. It is kind of an odd choice for business, and who needs the border-crossing hassle. It certainly should not be a top choice. If you are narrowing your list, drop McGill.
UNC and UVA are publics and you are out of state. Maybe keep UVA but drop UNC. Drop U Conn and U Miami. They are "un-safeties"...they are not selective enough to be your safeties. Drop U Richmond for same reason. That leaves you with 11, a reasonable number. Tufts and Emory are your safeties. Problem solved. If you want to cut your list further, drop Washington U. It is more or less redundant and not worth the distance. Washington U is probably good for marketing though...they market themselves quite well. Carnegie Mellon might be another drop. It has a different character than the other remaining.</p>

4

<p>I would drop a reach or two. Maybe add a "safety" somewhere not quite so far beneath your matches. What about Conn College or Trinity as a safety?</p>

5

<p>what do you mean they are "un selective" enough to be my safeties? How should I pick a safety?? I just picked Uconn because its my home state public and Umiami because they give tons of merit aid and they got a great football team and theyre in a night life city Miami. What kinds of schools should I look at for safeties then?</p>

6

<p>If you'd be happy at UConn or UMiami, they'd be fine as safeties. I was only pointing out that there is a big territory between a school like Tufts or CMU or Emory and UConn.</p>

<p>I suspect there are safe schools out there that better mimic your reach schools. However, as I said above the most important thing is that you can count on admission and, if the reaches or matches don't work out, you'd be happy to attend.</p>

<p>I wasn't trying to knock your safeties, just to say I think you could shoot a little higher and still have safeties.</p>

7

<p>Okay, sit down and make a list of what you are looking for. You need to decide your priorities and then match them up with the various schools. If it is the night life of Miami, cross off Cornell. None of us can make your list better without knowing you a lot better. You know you, what are you looking for....there is a school out there for that.</p>

8

<p>Mr.B, I am pretty flexible and I would be happy at a lot of places. Some things that I look for are :</p>

<p>-School spirit/general happiness of the student population
-School with people who do other things besides work... have fun, do activities, go out, etc.
-Activities on or off campus (night life or lots of stuff to keep me constantly busy on campus)
-Big plus is if there are lots of other college students around from other schools (like UNC and Duke are right next to each other)
-A decent size, like 4,000-20,000 students
-Good recruiting/job placement
-At safeties: good honors program
-A really good school where I'll get a great education and meet other highly motivated people like me
-Location: pretty much anywhere
-Costs: if not a super good school, I want merit aid</p>

9

<p>Might look at Colgate and Holy Cross both very good academics -lower than Duke- but like Duke plenty of school spirit. Duke and Holy Cross have great alumni networks-job placement.</p>

10

<p>I agree- drop McGill. Drop any of your reach/match schools that you are not excited about. You are a really good candidate-you don't need to apply to a huge number of matches and safeties. If you can visit anyplace, visit UPenn, your early decision school. With luck, you will get in and be able to drop the rest of the list. Your parents should consider sending you on the visit alone. Next year, you will be going back and forth alone. The visit is scarier though, since you have never been there before, and since there is less support than during freshman orientation.</p>

11

<p>onemom, i actually did get a chance to visit upenn, columbia, and tufts so far, so I have a litttle bit of an idea what they're like... its the far schools I can't visit: the ones in the South or Stanford :(</p>

<p>thanks</p>

12

<p>You should look into Michigan-Ann Arbor. I would say that given your stats, Michigan is a safe match for you.</p>

13

<p>i'd keep uconn on there for their honors program- its fantastic.</p>

14

<p>michigan a safe match, its a safe safety 150 percent if u applied already.</p>

15

<p>How to pick a safety? A good choice for a safety would be a college at which your SATs (1530 CR+M) are above the 75th percentile SAT at the college but within 80 points of the 75th percentile. If the SAT 75th percentile is more than 80 points below your SAT CR+M then it is too far below your range to be a reasonable safety. The college is TOO EASY for you.</p>

<p>The 75th percentile at U Richmond is about 1390, more than 100 points below your SAT CR+M. </p>

<p>At U Miami, the SAT 75th CR+M is almost 200 points below your SAT score. Plus, night life is a stupid reason for choosing a college.</p>

<p>At U Conn, the SAT 75th CR+M is over 200 points below your SATs. It is an "unsafety". It is so far beneath your stats that the word "safety" does not apply.</p>

<p>The 75th percentile at UNC Chapel Hill is over 100 points below your SAT score.</p>

<p>UVA is about 100 points below your SAT. </p>

<p>Reasonable safeties for you would be colleges with a 75th percentile SAT CR+M between 1450 and 1530 such as Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Washington U, Rice, Emory, Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>With Tech schools like CMU, MIT, and Caltech, or if you are applying for engineering or physical sciences/math, you have to pay specific attention to the Math SAT 75th percentile score, which can be disproportionately high.</p>

<p>At the Ivies and Stanford, admissions is harder to predict no matter what the SAT scores are. There are certain schools that should never be considered safeties because everybody has awesome SATs and other qualities and credentials make the difference.</p>

16

<p>Is money going to be an issue? Make sure that you have a school that is a financial safety that if admitted, you will be happy to attend and it is a financiall y feasible option for your arents. have the money talk now. when your parents tell you that they are only going to contribute, pay, borrow so much $ for your education believe it. Have them run their numbers through some of the financial aid calculators so they will have an idea of where they stand. it is one thing to say go ahead and aly to cornell, columbia, stanford, etc but it is another thing to find out that you are not eligible for FA and they are expected to write a check for $40k.</p>

<p>Also look at schools where you would be in line to get merit money (especially should you find that your parents are going to have to foot the bill). This may mean your having to come down a notch to a place where you will be at the top of the applicant pool and in line for some $$.</p>

<p>IF you have not visited Columbia I recommend that you do and if possible spend the night and sit in on a couple of classes. It is really important to them that you show them love (they even ask how much love you have shown them on the app). Since you are within commuting distance, it would be a ding if you never set foot on the campus. Also show tufts some love because you don't want them to think that you are just using them for a safety and you become a victim of the tufts syndrome.</p>

<p>also remember that you do not have to physically visit each school. sign up for their mailing list and when they are in your area for info sessions or when they attend your school go down and check them out. You can also sign up for on line chats, etc.</p>

<p>all the best</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
Reasonable safeties for you would be colleges with a 75th percentile SAT CR+M between 1450 and 1530 such as Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Washington U, Rice, Emory, Carnegie Mellon.</p>

<p>At the Ivies and Stanford, admissions is harder to predict no matter what the SAT scores are.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I have to disagree with this. Take Northwestern, for example. For the class of 2008 (detailed breakdown for 2009 has not yet published but the average is higher than 2008), they rejected 61.5% of those with CR 700-740 and 53.3% of those with M 750-800. That's hardly a safety unless I am not understanding the definition of "safety".</p>

<p>Also, I'd say Northwestern, Rice, WashU are at least at the same level as Cornell, if not couple other lower Ivies in terms of admission difficulty. Their admission are just as hard to predict as Cornell. In fact, WashU has become very difficult and extremely unpredictable that some people accuse them of rejecting the overqualified. LOL! To think ALL Ivies are harder and more unpredictable than these school is very old-school. We are talking about 2006, not 1980.</p>

18

<p>Sam, this is 2005, not 2006. Check your calendar. LOL...just teasing.</p>

<p>Well, if Northwestern only accepts 50% of its 1530 SAT applicants, then it should generallly be considered a match, not a safety. I would say your chances at a safety should be between 60% and 80%.</p>

<p>But the OP is a 3-sport varsity athlete, has community service, and some club activity. Unless his/her recs are terrible, I think Northwestern is a safety for him/her. The SAT rule is a rough guideline. Of course applicants have to factor in other things to more accurately estimate their chances: sports, talents, community service, region of the country, reputation of the high school, recommendations, awards, and so on.</p>

<p>There are no guarantees at any college. Sometimes smart students get rejected because of "intangibles". "Intangibles" are pretty much "nonessentials". When a student is making a college list, it is the student who is assessing the colleges, not vice-versa. The most important and objective basis for ranking colleges in your list is selectivity and student quality, which is measured by SATs. It is always possible that an inferior college will reject you while a superior college accepts you (because of the "nonessentials"). That's why it is important to have 2 or 3 safeties and to apply to 10 or 12 colleges altogether....because it is a game of chance to some extent. Based on the SAT scores of the OP, he/she would probably be smarter than 85% of the other students at Northwestern. That alone is reason enough to make it a safety in the sense that it is a less desireable place for the OP (and the OP's chances are 50%, not 10% or 30%).</p>

<p>If you apply to 10 colleges, 5 should be reaches, 3 should be matches, and 2 should be safeties. If you apply to two safeties, one will probably admit you.</p>

<p>Who wants to go to a college where you are smarter than 80% or 90% of the students? How challenging is that going to be? Better to make your safeties a little challenging but apply to more than one.</p>

19

<p>NU accepts much more than 50% of its 1530 applicants, I would say around 70%. Many kids will have a 750 V, 650 M, etc so gauging difficulty by seperating out sections doesnt work. Plus you have to factor in the kids with 1530s but 3.4GPAs, etc. My guess is he has over a 75% chance at NU with all of his stats taken into consideration.</p>

<p>Anyway this guy is getting into Wharton ED in my opinion.</p>

20

<p>I don't think you can apply ED and EA somewhere, just a heads up.</p>

<p>I think the biggest word of advice I can give to you is that UNC isn't a safety for you. Only about 20% of their students are out of state, and if you live out of state, it's harder to get into UNC Chapel Hill than it is to get into Duke. So...yeah.</p>

<p>You seem to eb the regular highly qualified applicant to top-tier schools, so reach/slight reach/safety is general right. Tufts is probably a safety.</p>

<p>Based on what you said you're looking for, I'd drop Cornell.</p>