My Top Seven - Thoughts?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey all - I've trimmed my college list to seven. I was just wondering whether or not it is a balanced list (safeties, matches, reaches, etc) and what schools I could possibly be missing or could possibly take out.</p>

<p>Top Five (In order somewhat):</p>

<p>University of North Carolina
University of Maryland
University of Southern California
University of Miami (Florida)
University of Virginia</p>

<p>Bottom Two (Safeties):
University of Oregon (Automatic Admission with a 3.4 UW GPA)
University of Tennessee</p>

<p>I'm instate at UMD and have a double legacy (two parents attended) at UVA. I'm planning on majoring in business. If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm looking for warm schools with nice campuses, big time athletics, and good business schools.</p>

<p>UNC and Maryland are my top two right now. UNC for obvious reasons - Great business school, awesome weather, awesome sports, and a great campus feel/environment. UMD because it is my instate school. I am a big time Maryland sports fan, they have a pretty good campus and business school, and it is cheaper/closer.</p>

<p>About me:
Junior
3.89 UW GPA
4.59 W GPA
2100 on my first shot at the SAT
5 APs so far - not sure of my senior schedule yet:
AP NSL (4 - only AP class I have finished so far)
AP BC Calculus
AP Language
AP World History
AP Physics</p>

<p>4 years varsity tennis (2 year captain)
250+ Student Service Learning Hours
Job for a year (still working)
Prestigious internship this summer hopefully - nothing is guaranteed though</p>

<p>I may see a slight decline in my GPA this year (nothing major) because of all the APs. I figured the much harder course load with slightly worse grades would look better than a lighter course load and perfect grades.</p>

<p>What are my chances at some of these schools - is this a balanced list? Where else should I be looking? What school should I take off this list?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance :)</p>

2

<p>I think this is a decent list, as long as you’re 100% positive you want the type of schools you listed. Also, I don’t know what type of financial aid they give OOS if you need it.</p>

3

<p>Your list looks perfect to me. I would also look at the University of South Carolina as a safety-their international business program has been ranked #1 in the nation for the past several years, and the school meets most of your other criteria (warm, bigtime sports, and a beautiful campus).</p>

4

<p>MapleLeafs26 - Thanks for the response. I’m definitely confident that is what I want. I had a sister at UVA and a sister at Washington University in St. Louis. I visited both several times and liked UVA much better. Have also visited Maryland and some other big schools that aren’t on my list and really liked them as well. While financial aid is always nice - my parents have said all along that they will pay for my undergraduate education if I worked hard in high school (in school and at a job, etc). So cost is not an issue at the moment.</p>

<p>Cuse0507 - thanks for the reply. Should I lengthen my list to 8 to include South Carolina or should I kick out Tennessee? Truthfully, Tennessee is on my list only because I love their basketball team (hence the name orangesuspenders) - it doesn’t really meet my other requirements (ugly campus, not a good business school). How is South Carolina’s business school other than international business?</p>

5

<p>I think you can trim U Tennessee.</p>

<p>Given your legacy status at U Virginia, I’d suggest that is a match to high match. I think that U North Carolina is your only true reach and, for OOS students, it’s also the best value of the schools you listed.</p>

<p>You could probably add Duke or Vanderbilt to your list as both would be slightly stronger schools with stronger student bodies than U North Carolina or U Virginia and not substantially more expensive than U Virginia.</p>

6

<p>Safety similar to UVa and UNC: Miami U. in Ohio.</p>

7

<p>It’s not called legacy status exactly at UVA as I recall–they count you as in-state in terms of admission if a parent is an alum, which could actually be more favorable than legacy at a large school.</p>

8

<p>Whatever U Virginia calls it, the point remains that the competition in the IS pool is not nearly as tough as the OOS applicant pool and being part of the IS pool is an important advantage for the OP. Given the OP’s stats, I’d say U Virginia is a higher probability admit than U North Carolina (which is really, really tough for OOS).</p>

9

<p>OP, you have a good stat. I suggest you also apply to Ross, Duke and Northwestern.</p>

10

<p>Hawkette/Mattmom - Tennessee is probably a good one to drop. Virginia legacy doesn’t count you as an instate technically, but your chances are about the same as an instate legacy.</p>

<p>Hawkette - UNC is extremely tough for OOS students. Much harder than most state schools for OOS kids. I always found that interesting.</p>

<p>Hawkette/RML - I had Duke and Vanderbilt on my list but they don’t have undergraduate business schools, unfortunately. I also had University of Michigan (Ross) but I’d be miserable in the cold.</p>

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<p>^ With the exception of USC and Miami, all the rest of the schools in your list are in cold locations. If you think you can stand UVa’s weather, you’ll be fine spending 4 years at Ross. </p>

<p>Duke doesn’t have a BBA, but its economics program is very well regarded amongst top the employers. I’d put them in the same league, in terms of opportunities after graduation.</p>

<p>BTW, a 50k loan for USC wouldn’t be worth it especially if you have a full ride from other schools. USC isn’t in the same league as Ross’ is.</p>

12

<p>Orange,
Agreed on U North Carolina. Hope you can find a way in as it is a pretty energetic and attractive undergraduate environment. </p>

<p>Re your business school idea, you may want to rethink your exclusion of Duke, Vanderbilt and, for that matter, any school without an undergrad business degree. There are plenty of great places without undergrad business programs which have outstanding postgraduate opportunities. Duke and Vandy are two, but so also are places like Harvard or Dartmouth. Those schools may not be your cup of tea, but I suspect that something like an Econ degree from any of these wouldn’t dent your job chances vis-</p>

13

<p>RML - Although Maryland, UNC, and Virginia may not be in hot places like Miami or LA, they are certainly not as cold as Michigan. I’m sure weather.com could verify that.
Also, I don’t know where or if I’ll get a full ride to some school so I’m not worrying about the financial side of it just yet.</p>

<p>RML/Hawkette - I thought about going to a school without an undergraduate business program, but I’m looking more into accounting. Most of those schools offer only economics - which I’m not really interested in.</p>

<p>Hawkette - I definitely want to go visit UNC. Sounds almost perfect for me.
I’ve always been a warm weather person - I would be miserable in the cold in a place like Michigan.</p>

14

<p>For a safety, (financial safety I suppose, if you want one, which it sounds like you may not need one), you may want to consider some SEC schools, all big into sports and in warm climates</p>

15

<p>Thanks Tonytet. I think I am adding South Carolina which is in the SEC I believe.</p>

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<p>Not to beat a dead horse but several years ago while attending an admissions info session in the Rotunda I heard the adcom say very clearly that the child of an alum was counted as instate no matter what the state of actual residency was. Perhaps they no longer are as explicit about it but they definitely were very forthright about it five years ago. Taht particular admissions staffer was also very clear that sibling alums did not confer the same benefit.</p>

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<p>If you like to major in accountancy and you prefer not to be in a cold weather then you should consider UT-Austin. I think it’s better regarded than Miami for accountancy and as a whole.</p>

18

<p>

I second that suggestion. Wake has a tremendous amount of school spirit, and the campus is lovely. The business program is not as strong as Carolina’s but still very good.</p>

19

<p>mattmom - you could be right. I was just going by what I read on the UVA forum here.</p>

<p>RML - the only problem I had with UT Austin was that it is a major commuter school. I think I read that less than 50% of the freshman live on campus.</p>

<p>IBclass/Hawkette - Good suggestion, I missed Wake.</p>

20

<p>Get rid of the University of Tennessee—it’s a terrible school, a dirty, overcrowded, poorly maintained, poorly run, party-hardy mess of a place. I know this because I live in Knoxville and know dozens of people who went to UT.</p>