Need some recommendation for reaches and safeties. Applying soon

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hey. I have been lurking for quite a while and I never realized it is my time to apply. What a dreadful time! I checked some of my historical posts and I realized that my ideas haven't changed too much on the surface, although deep under I have gone through some serious personal struggles with my current life and goals for the future. </p>

<p>I still want to do something in business or finance. People have recommended a wide array of majors from finance by itself, to stuff like mathematics, statistics, economics, political science. I think eventually my college curriculum would look like a combination of all these. Anyhow, the criteria for my college-looking would be based on a good school with these programs.</p>

<p>A little about me:
Class of 2010
Asian Male. International student status (have been in US for 6 years+).
GPA: Nonweighted 3.99, ranked 1 or 2
AP: 10+ in the end. Not that important in my opinion. Mostly 5's
SAT: 2300, 2340 superscore</p>

<p>EC:
-Several school clubs, volunteered probably around 200 hours.
-Varsity Tennis for 3 years, nothing impressive.
-One bio project sophomore year, interned in a University lab worked with a graduated student. Funded by the military with about 4K.
-State science symposium, went on to JSHS. No major awards
-State science fair. A ton of mini-awards. Notable is a Yale Engineering award, haven't determined its credentials yet.
-State Spanish Declamation, 2nd Place in poetry
-Raised about 4K for an earthquake in my homeland last year.
-DECA state, Marketing 2nd place, qualifed for nationals.
-Almost qualified for a math minor (1 more class) at my local university. 4.00 College GPA =D. Planning on a major research project for the summer which represents the culmination of my learning. </p>

<p>Personal stuff:
I am a very maudlin person, this is the truth. I exploit this weakness of mine in the form of writing essays. My thoughts are very tangled but I can crank out some good stuff. My family had lived on about 15k year for 3 people (4 for a year) for about 5 years. Parents were burnt out, being torn apart by the stress of immigration and alienation. Somehow unfortunately, we are not poor anymore. In fact my dad has used his Ph.D degree to get a top ranked engineering job, which pays tremendously. Overall, I have a lot of ideas, which is something that I treasure the most about myself. </p>

<p>Stretches are Yale, Princeton, Harvard, Colombia, and Stanford.
More probable stretches are probably UC Berkeley, Michigan, Ann Arbor
Safeties? My local university. Haven't looked yet. </p>

<p>Any input would be appreciated. Thanks brilliant people!</p>

2

<p>For a low reach, the University of Chicago.
Academically, for your combination of interests (especially mathematics, economics, and political science), it is probably one of the 5 best schools in the country, maybe even one of the best 2 or 3. However, it is less selective than your stretches. It offers decent merit scholarships. You might have a good shot at one (although the overall financial aid at HYPS tends to be better). I don’t have figures on the percentage of Asian students there, but would expect it to be much lower than the Stanford numbers and certainly a fraction of the Berkeley numbers. </p>

<p>Georgetown is another possibility. It is more selective than Chicago, but in my opinion not nearly as good academically in most areas (I’ve taken classes at both). On the other hand, it offers the benefits of life in Washington DC, such as good internship opportunities.</p>

<p>Other DC-area schools are much less selective than Georgetown but offer similar advantages. American University and the University of Maryland (College Park) have some very strong programs.</p>

<p>Oh, and if you want to do something in business and finance, consider UPenn. To keep the number of applications down, you might want to substitute it for Columbia among the stretches. For your interests, it probably is a little stronger, but it’s a little less selective too.</p>

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<p>But Emma Watson is going to Columbia. Damn.</p>

<p>Yale is very alluring to me. They had a rep to come to speak to us (very elegant lady ;D) and they are coming again for its pacific tour soon. </p>

<p>I like to do business and finance, and I am glad I like it because it makes decent money. I guess I have weighted the pro’s and con’s of doing what you like and doing what brings home the money and I concluded that the latter does not constitute a large portion of my decision. I always get scorns from people whom I tell that I am doing something with banking, considering the negative stigma attached to the field and the automatic association with greed.</p>

<p>I am very interested in psychology. Perhaps I will get a psychology minor, if possible a double major. It seems like that the human aspect of business overlaps with psychology, so I hope the double major is doable. I heard (haven’t checked) that Yale and Stanford has pretty good psychology majors. </p>

<p>Chicago sounds nice, I heard that’s where the real smart people go. What do you mean by a low reach? Is a reach like a match? With a relative better chance than a stretch?</p>

<p>I wouldn’t say I like the DC area too much. I’d either enjoy Californian weather or stick with something similar to the weather in where I live right now, with which the New England weather is pretty similar.</p>

<p>On another note is NYC a good match? They have a decent business program, but I don’t know if there’s anything good for undergrads?</p>

4

<p>You mean NYU? Excellent school including business if you don’t mind very big city.</p>

<p>Reach: UPenn (Wharton) - cold New England but definite top business school.
Safeties: USC, BYU, University of Washington</p>

5

<p>Since I can’t edit my original anymore, I will have to post a new one:</p>

<p>Although my family is fairly well off now, but we only started being so from the past year, therefore we do not have much saved in equity. For this reason I do not want to have my parents pay too much for my education–the cheaper it could be, the better.</p>

<p>I thought UCB or UMich are good options, but apparently none of both, most UC’s do not offer financial aids to internationals. I was considering to apply these schools as safeties, but for now it looks like that these schools are not as appealing as before. I might still apply for UCB or UMich for the admission, see if my other reaches with financial aid offers admit me or not.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, perhaps I have seen this before on CC already, but what decent public schools have financial aid offers for international students? I understand most ivies do provide such aids for international students, but the more options the better.</p>

6

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<p>I thought she was going to Brown…</p>