My Un-narrowed-down College application list

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a student from a very competitive school in the top 10% of my class. I have a 3.62 unweighted GPA, a 5.1 weighted. I take the most rigorous classes offered at my school, including 3 AP classes. I got 5's in the AP Calculus BC exam, AP Language and Composition, and AP US History. I got an 800 in Math IIC, and a 710 in US History, and I'm planning to take SAT II Literature in the fall. I got a 2200 (800 math, 730 writing, 670 critical reading) on the actual SAT, and I'm planning to retake it in October. I have a lot of volunteer work, I spent an entire summer volunteering at the library, the next summer I worked for $$ at the same library. I'm active in my school's Key Club (on the Executive Board) and Chem/Phys club (no position in that one, though, ran and lost). A little weak in that regard. </p>

<p>9 University of Chicago Private 1ST TIER
12 Washington University in St. Louis Private 1ST TIER
14 Northwestern University Private 1ST TIER
14 Johns Hopkins University Private 1ST TIER
17 Rice University Private 1ST TIER
17 Emory University Private 1ST TIER
19 Vanderbilt University Private 1ST TIER
21 University of California—Berkeley * Public MIDDLE TIER
22 Carnegie Mellon University Private 1ST TIER
23 University of Virginia * Public 1ST TIER
23 Georgetown University Private MIDDLE TIER
25 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor * Public MIDDLE TIER
28 University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill * Public MIDDLE TIER
28 Tufts University Private MIDDLE TIER
31 Lehigh University Private MIDDLE TIER
34 New York University Private MIDDLE TIER
35 Boston College Private MIDDLE TIER
41 Case Western Reserve University Private MIDDLE TIER
54 George Washington University Private SAFETY
57 Boston University Private SAFETY
59 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey—New Brunswick * Public SAFETY</p>

<p>This is my preliminary list. 1st tier meaning reach school, middle being match, and safety being saftey.</p>

<p>Which ones do you suggest I eliminate? Which ones are misplaced?</p>

2

<p>Hi runtime,</p>

<p>First of all, please don’t apply to schools based on US News Rankings!!! It’s disheartening to see people do that. Visit the school and learn more about how each school operates. Will you fit in? Will you be happy? Does the teaching style and philosophy match your learning style? Do you want your classes to be planned for you (closed/core curriculum) or do you want freedom to explore (open curriculum). Rankings don’t mean everything. </p>

<p>Second of all, in what twisted world is Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and UMich second-tier schools? They’re wonderful schools academically. For example, you probably didn’t know that Berkeley is so good that the US government conducted some research for the Manhattan Project (the A-Bomb) using Berkeley facilities and people. You also probably didn’t know that UMich ranks in the Top 10 for about 75% of the majors that is offered, and for both schools, OOS admission is very selective. That’s why Michigan has the nickname of “Harvard of the West.” </p>

<p>Anyways, I’m done with my tirade about your way of choosing colleges. Now, let’s start eval of your stats. Your UW GPA is average at 3.64 … and you may want to know that UMich does drop 9th grade grades and any electives on your schedule (you’ll have to recalculate the GPA). However, the good news is that you have obviously taken advantage of what your school has to offer, and you’ll recieve credit for your AP exams. Your SAT of 2200 is very strong; it does not need retaking for the schools you’re applying to. Your SAT Subjects are also pretty good. Your ECs, though somewhat few in number (that’s okay since you’re active in them), are good, and you demonstrate leadership to some extent. </p>

<p>Overall, you’re a good student, but your GPA will probably go against you in admissions for the more prestigious schools. </p>

<p>Chances:
Univ of Chicago: Your test scores are within range, but your GPA is below their average. However, Chicago admissions is based on the essay for the most part; however, the way that you’re choosing Chicago based on their ranking on US News tells me that you might not be a match for UChicago.
WUSTL: Reach (GPA)
Northwestern: Reach (GPA)
JHU: Reach (GPA)
Rice: Slight reach (GPA, but SAT is what they’re looking for)
Emory: Slight reach (GPA)
Vanderbilt: Slight reach (GPA)
Berkeley IOS: Slight reach (GPA) OOS: Reach
Carnegie Mellon: Match
Univ of Virginia IOS: Slight reach (GPA) OOS: Reach
Georgetown: Slight reach
Univ of Michigan IOS: Slight reach (GPA) OOS: Far reach (they care too much about GPA)
UNC IOS: Match OOS: Slight reach
Tufts: Match
NYU: Match
Lehigh: Not familiar
Boston College: Match
Case Western: Match
George Washington: Match
Boston U: Safety match
Rutgers: Safety match</p>

<p>Good luck, and remember to chance me as well: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/538677-please-chance-me-i-d-really-really-appreciate.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/538677-please-chance-me-i-d-really-really-appreciate.html&lt;/a&gt;. </p>

<p>Please narrow down your list, and please VISIT CAMPUS to learn more about each school. Start with the ones closest to home, and spend time during school vacations visitng campuses that are far away. If you can’t do that, at least visit the school’s website to explore what they ofer. For example, if you’re interested in Engineering, don’t apply to Univ of Chicago, because they don’t even have an Engineering program.</p>

<p>I really can’t tell you which ones you can eliminate, because I don’t know what you’re interested in studying.</p>

3

<p>I completely agree with the above’s assesment. I’m not sure where you pulled out that UVA would be a reach but UCB isn’t.</p>

4

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<p>This is a pretty big list I have up there. I basically took the entire US News rankings list, took out a few that my parents/siblings/friends have said aren’t worth applying to, and then categorized them to what I thought may have been my reach schools, match schools, and safety schools. Especially for the finalized version of my list, I’m not going to take the US rankings very seriously. </p>

<p>From this list I plan to narrow it even further based on all of the criteria you have mentioned. The final list will be the result of a more detailed research of each school. </p>

<p>Right now I’m focusing on the general academic reputation of each school, because I’m not even certain what I want to do - but it’ll probably be a science field. </p>

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<p>If my naming convention gave you the idea that Carnegie Mellon & company were second tier schools, that’s by no means what I intended. The organizations into reach (1st tier), match (middle tier), and safety were based on the advice I got from people who already went through the application process and who I believe know a lot about it. I wanted some feedback from the knowledgeable community of college confidential on this list. </p>

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<p>I’m confident I can do better, so it wouldn’t really hurt, would it? Especially since I’m hoping that I can get a lot of the tuition covered through merit-based financial aid. I just realized I forgot to mention two ECs (Spanish Honors Society and Social Studies Honors Society). I volunteer as a tutor through Spanish Honors Society, but I’m not extremely involved in either of them (to the extent that I am for Chem Phys and Key Club). </p>

<p>Thanks for your advice. Again, I want to emphasize the fact that I merely used the US News rankings as a catalog of colleges, and I do not put much weight on them for the actual decision making.</p>

5

<p>“Especially since I’m hoping that I can get a lot of the tuition covered through merit-based financial aid.”</p>

<p>That certainly changes the picture…you will definitely need to add more schools lower down on your tier list if that is a requirement…From our own experience, a 3.6 or so UW GPA will not get you merit aid at the schools on your list, even with the SAT score…</p>

<p>Look down to the private level of Miami, Tulane, Syracuse etc to achieve a safety with great merit aid…your safety and match schools are not great with merit aid either (with the exception of BU, but with a 3.6UW and 2200, merit will be minimal…)</p>

6

<p>if you need merit aid, most of those schools might not work, except for the safeties. </p>

<p>Tufts is not a match, as they like high GPA</p>

<p>If you are interested in sciences Georgetown might not be the best choice.</p>

<p>Might want to add University of Rochester to the list.</p>

<p>You will probably have better results doing searches on college board and Princeton review for good matches.</p>

7

<p>Thanks. This is the kind of advice I was looking for - what schools are out of my league, which ones I should add.</p>

8

<p>So, any more suggestions as to which colleges I should remove from my list?</p>

9

<p>You need to take a lot of the publics off your list if you want substantial merit aid. OOS they are really tough with it.</p>

10

<p>The fact that you’ve worked so much in libraries suggests that you might be a good fit for UChicago. The students there tend to love books. You’ve got obvious strength in the humanities as well as math ability.</p>

<p>Berkeley OOS is as hard to get into as an Ivy, and expensive.</p>

11

<p>I don’t think any of these schools are out of your league to be admitted,
but merit aid (especially at the schools you’ve marked as reaches and matches) is very very VERY competitive.
With your GPA, I wouldn’t count too much on getting substansial merit aid at any of those schools. Of course, there is no harm in trying!</p>

<p>Anyways, what exactly are you looking for in a school? What kind of environment do you want to be in? Do you want a large or a small school?</p>

<p>If I were you I would focus more on what I’m looking for in a school as opposed to whether or not I feel I am a shoe-in for a school. Maybe I am thinking backwards, but when you find a handful of schools that you are truly interested in, there are bound to be schools within that handful that you can be admitted to. If not, find schools with higher acceptance rates that compare similarly to the schools you like.</p>