Need serious personal advice. Could be a matter of life or death.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a high school junior. Too young! I know, but I've been curious and just needed to post. I am wondering what range of schools should I be looking in? I don't want to apply to schools that I have no chance to go to, but I also want to do the best that I can.. if you get my meaning. </p>

<p>Anyway, I live in Virginia but am open to anywhere on the east coast. </p>

<p>I am a minority student.
I guess you'll want to know my grades and such? My high school doesn't offer much like a lot of these people's do, but I am taking close to the hardest possible schedule. </p>

<p>All honors classes that are offered honors, besides 1 math class freshman year.
1 AP class I am taking online- few other people do it at my school too, it's legitimate. Let's not be overambitious and say a 4. Hopefully higher though.
My school offers a few Dual-Enrollment classes instead of AP, so there may be around 5 college level classes total. (All my school offers basically). </p>

<p>Top 10% (Not definitive, but my guess- maybe better). </p>

<p>PSAT-189 sophomore year
I just took the SAT December 1 and haven't gotten scores back. Let's again not be overambitious and say 1300/1600 and 2000/2400. Maybe it's higher, and I can take it again.
My high school GPA at the end of my sophomore year is 3.85 UW- hopefully will go up after this semester(block schedule). </p>

<p>Lots of extra curricular activities- I'm not going to list them as I feel it's a little pretentious and I'm too young to be worrying about it too much.</p>

<p>You can ask me questions about anything I forgot! I just want to know what's the highest type of college I can expect to get into, so I'm not disappointed or overly cocky. My parents were mentioning names like "Brown, UChicago, NYU, UPenn" and I wasn't so sure because so many people on here are so smart. We're fairly certain about UVA and William&Mary, though.</p>

<p>Also, on another note- It says I can add 25 tags to this thread, but will only allow me to put on 2. What's up with that?</p>

2

<p>Your smart :slight_smile: And dang it our schools sounds really similar! (Im in a VA school too.) UVA and W&M do sound in your reach, but don’t get too cocky :wink: But your scores (if they are as you hope) and grades are great, you should consider applying to a few of the schools your parents mentioned. UPenn is amazing! My advice to you is this:
Get your hopes up! Shoot for schools not always in your reach. Pick one or two easy schools for you to get into that might offer you some nice money (JMU, Tech, GMU) and then apply to some in your reach that arent too easy (W&M, UVA) and then two 2 or 3 hard ones (Upenn, Chicago, yadda yadda. lol) Dont shoot only for high ones, but don’t limit yourself cause the worse that can happen is you get rejected. Heres an example of my schools:
Safety (s):
JMU
VCU
UMass- Amherest</p>

<p>Matches:
Loyola-New Orleans
U of Washington- Seattle
U of Alabama
Drexel
Ohio State University (Slight reach)</p>

<p>Reaches:
U of Minnesota- Twin Cities
UVA</p>

<p>I have already been accepted into Alabama (Honors :)) and Loyola! And even though I applied to schools harder, I actually love love love Ohio State U. :slight_smile: So apply to some “matches” and of course 1 or 2 safe ones, but go ahead and try out some of those hard ones. Dont get your hopes to high, but dont set your standards too low, you know? Maybe one will accept you!</p>

3

<p>Thank you! Thank you for replying. I was afraid nobody was. Congratulations on your college acceptances. I wish other people would reply…</p>

4

<p>NYU would be reachable with the file in the OP… and perhaps better than a reach.</p>

5

<p>Thank you, Catria. Any advice on how to get people to look at this post and reply? There should be more than 2 responses by now…</p>

6

<p>You are not too young for this. In fact, you should start doing some visiting during spring break this year if you can. It is better to visit while schools are in session, so don’t wait until summer to do it all. And you will be so busy fall of senior year that it is better to get it out of the way now. If you can, it is better to visit before applying. The time window from when you get accepted to have to decide is short, and it is a lot of pressure to try to visit a lot and decide in one month. Plus, colleges look different in person than on paper. Lots of colleges look great on paper, but might not feel so good when you get there. Important to find that out before wasting time and energy applying (and maybe missing out on applying to schools you would rather attend).</p>

<p>Also, plan to take a couple of SAT subject tests. It sounds like if your parents have their way, there will be some top colleges on your list. Many of them require 2 subject tests.</p>

<p>I would also suggest you get a Fiske Guide to Colleges and start reading up on schools. That is a really good book because it gives you information like what the strongest majors are, campus atomosphere, housing info, whether they have merit aid, SAT ranges, etc. That is a great way to pick out some colleges to visit that does not just rely on name recognition. You will want to apply to a range of colleges. A couple of reaches, a few matches, and one or two safeties that you are sure you will get into. Just a note, it is super easy to find reach colleges (they are great and everyone wants to go there!). But the acceptance rates are really low, and they have a lot of applicants. You should definitely apply to a couple, but also spend time reading about and visiting matches and safeties. That takes more work to find ones that you would be really happy attending.</p>

<p>You haven’t mentioned finances. But you should know that each college has something called a NPC (Net Price Calculator) on their website. Your parents can put in their financial information, and get some idea of what your family would be expected to pay, and what you would get in grants (don’t need to be paid back), work study, and loans. This is pretty important, and you will be surprised at how much this varies from college to college. It is one of the most important factors for a lot of students in picking a college.</p>

<p>You also haven’t mentioned what area(s) you might want to study. You might have no idea, but if you do, it would be good to say what that is here. You will get better advice on strong programs if you are more specific about that, since it varies from college to college.</p>

7

<p>Thanks intparent. That’s really helpful. So what do you think the highest I could get into could be? Also, application fees are expensive. And I’m undecided about what I want to study.</p>

8

<p>“A matter of life or death”</p>

<p>Grow up kid.</p>

9

<p>Well, if I went into a college I didn’t like it could be a matter of life or death. And I needed the views so people would reply. Any advice from you?</p>

10

<p>I got into Chicago, Brandeis, UC Davis, Irvine and a few other schools with a 3.05 GPA at a CC. So in my opinion, you have a chance, however little to get admitted to the likes of Harvards and Stanfords. Shoot for the stars, you never know what you’ll get. As you said, college is about how good a fit it is for you not all about the rankings.</p>

11

<p>Thanks. Any more advice? Where do you go now?</p>

12

<p>"Well, if I went into a college I didn’t like it could be a matter of life or death. "</p>

<p>You better not write that in your application essays or you’ll get rejected from every place you apply.</p>

13

<p>Well, I agree that a statement like that will sure hurt you on essays. And may not endear you to people who spend time out here providing input and answering questions. But I think the rest of the OP’s post is more thoughfully written. The one thing I would say is that high ranking does not always equal liking the school. What you need is the school that is the best fit for YOU, where you feel comfortable, confident, happy with the types of students who go there, with the academic opportunities, extra curricular options, and campus environment. You have no idea if other students who attend a school want the same things you will want in a college.</p>

<p>There are no shortcuts to figuring this out. Asking a question this generic on the internet isn’t really going to get you very far. You have to start researching, visiting, and thinking more deeply about what qualities are most important to you in a school. </p>

<p>Also, your comment about application fees tells me that cost will be important. So don’t neglect that in your research, as I mentioned above.</p>

<p>Also, it looks like you bumped after only 20 minutes (looking for more replies). Bump after a day or so if you need more input… 20 minutes is too short.</p>

14

<p>Bump bump bump.</p>

15

<p>Bumping and melodramatic hyperbole and status seeking (“So what do you think the highest I could get into could be?”)? Ugh! That kind of thing could cause you to wear out your welcome quickly.</p>

<p>Stop catastrophizing, and listen to intparent’s very good advice. Now is exactly the time for you to start doing your homework and researching colleges and universities. But doing your homework will require work on your own part, some of which nobody can do for you. We can’t, for example, decide whether you’d rather be at a large research university or a small college. We can’t decide for you whether you’re seeking a school that excels in the sciences or international politics or the arts. We can’t decide whether you’d rather be in Philadelphia or Charlottesville or Williamsburg.</p>

<p>Based on what you’ve said, I think the biggest, best regarded public colleges and universities in Virginia (U.Va., W&M, Tech) probably suit you academically. No clue, of course, whether they’ll be to your liking in other ways. Unweighted GPA over 3.75 and SAT scores around 2000/2400 should give you a lot of great options for higher education, but based on what you’ve described, I think Ivies and Chicago are a long reach. For those, I think you’d be much better positioned if you were not just top 10%, but one of the top few students in your class, and had SAT scores that were a well balanced 2200 or above.</p>

16

<p>Uh, stay classy, Brock.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>

17

<p>Ok, sikorsky. Let’s just stop this feud. I admit that I just did the title because I wanted views. I really just wanted an opinion on what level of school I should be thinking about, so I’m not disappointed. It’s mostly my parents who thought of the reach ones. I’m not conceited. And I didn’t think it was necessary to share my personal views on what type of college I want to go to, online.</p>

18

<p>Why doesn’t anyone ever reply?</p>

19

<p>Youre a junior right? Heed my advice: Take TWO sat test this year. Hopefully youll get the score you want. The first one your nervous anyway, and if like me wont be able to sleep the night before, so even if you dont get your scores before the second one take a second one right away! After you take two, if you still dislike your scores you can spend all summer studying for the Oct SAT, or if you scores are better- which, I assure you, will be- you can spend all summer studying hard on the practice test. I wish I did that, instead I only did one SAT my junior year, and was up ALL nigh worrying about it. I had to wait till October to take my second one, and although I had a 150 point increase, I feel like if I had taken two my junior year I either wouldnt of had to spend all summer worrying, or perhaps could of studied and gotten an even higher score in october. Just a little tidbit of advice</p>

20

<p>bump…</p>