<p>rutgers is right down the road from me.. maybe a 15 minute drive. its a little too close to home and too many kids from my hs will go there. im looking for other safeties i could apply to in the northeast. major reasearch uni's would probably help me find my niche best and allow me room to learn a ton as a physics major. financial aid is also a big thing. if rutgers is much cheaper than any other safeties ill be going to rutgers</p>
<p>ive heard of umass, upitt and umaryland. how are there physics departments? what other large uni's in my area would be good safeties?</p>
<p>i also plan to major in philosophy but i've heard that is very hard to compare at undergrad level</p>
<p>my sat(retaking in october):
760 verbal
670 writing
730 math</p>
<p>800 math II
780 physics (:()</p>
<p>i have some good ec's.. nothing amazing but theyre ivy league calibre if i do say so myself</p>
<p>my gpa is the trouble spot</p>
<p>freshman: %83
sophomore: %86
junior: %89
with a handful of honors classes</p>
<p>i have a sappy story about family problems/hardships to go along with that.. i will spare you all though</p>
<p>ohnoes,
It's always hard to figure out where you will get in when you have such unbalanced credentials as you do. But if you can write a strong essay explaining your circumstances and get some very strong letters of recommendation, ad coms may well be willing to use your SATs as a better measure of your college success likelihood and what you bring to their program. And your SATs are strong enough that you may well get some merit scholarships.
It's too bad you live so close to RU because the physics program there is one of the best in the country and probably much better than some of the other schools that you list. In addition, the philosophy program is considered one of the very best (<a href="http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.htm)%5B/url%5D">http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.htm)</a>. RU is no booby prize. I grew up in Middlesex County and went to Rutgers so I understand where you are coming from, but found that living on campus was very different from being at home. Don't worry about the other HS kids going to RU You will never see them if you don't want to; there are 10,000 kids at Rutgers College alone, think about it. But if you are going to shoot for leaving the area, don't aim lower than Rutgers. I really don't know a lot about other physics departments, but considering overall strength, for state schools (are you committed to the Northeast?) I would consider Penn State (probably equal to RU). But more importantly I would consider some of the better private universities such as Brandeis (very strong in sciences, not sure about physics), BU, BC, Tufts; you may be very surprised about the scholarships offered. What about Tulane in New Orleans? We checked it out with my son and NO is not like deep south at all culturally, more than 25% of the kids of from the Northeast. In any case, if you end up going to Rutgers you will be going to a great university that happens to be extremely strong in 2 areas that you have an interest in.</p>