New York Schools, changes, suggestions

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I’m helping my brother with narrowing down his list of colleges we’ll visit this Fall and need suggestions and changes opinion…
Here are his stats:
Hispanic Male, low-income, first generation
He goes to a Public IB school and therefore has taken every single IB class offered in his school for the IB diploma. He has an A average in Bio, History, Music and English. But has a B+ Average in Spanish and a D+ in Math. He took all IB classes this past year (JR year) and will take all IB (except for Math, it's not offered at his school at an IB level and he is weak in math) on his Senior Yr.
He wants to major in Biology and wants to be a Medical Biotechnologist (not interested in Medical school. He wants to work in a lab/do research..)</p>

<p>His current GPA is: 84.4
IB: Music, English, Spanish, History and Biology
PSAT CR: 610 Math (warning, low) 470
He’s taking an SAT PREP course to help his SAT scores…</p>

<p>EC: Fencing, Chess Club, Programming summer Institute, Founder of the Robotics team at his school, international back-packing to the Dominican Republic, American Museum of Natural History Science program, AMNH class: Microscopy, volunteer to clean up NYC Parks, animal shelter volunteer and currently enrolled in a Summer Institute called Henry Street.</p>

<p>Schools he’s considering include a few we are both fully aware are a reach. I told him his best change at getting into them is EOP or HEOP. He prefers sub-urban or rural campuses, but is willing to sacrifice any of these for a top-notch education. He fell in love with Colgate because of it's location and individualized attention. He prefers smaller colleges but again, also is drawn to larger schools because of their research opportunities..</p>

<p>Here we go!
Colgate University (I know, high reach!)
SUNY – StonyBrook
SUNY – Binghamton
SUNY – New Paltz
SUNY- Albany
SUNY- Oneonta
CUNY- Hunter
Marist
Skidmore</p>

<p>What are his changes? (for HEOP/EOP or regular) Any other suggestions?</p>

2

<p>Since his GPA is low, he should aim for about 2100-2200 to stand a good chance at getting in to Colgate. the school will also give him a more favorable review of his application because of his URM and first generation status. That and a great application essay plus some good letters of recommendation will give him a better chance of gaining admission.</p>

3

<p>Thanks Shrivatas! He really has to buckle up with the SAT and also improve his math this coming year. I forgot to include he’s also a peer mediator in school as one of his ECs.
Also, his personal statement his experience in the Dominican Republic and how although he’s low income here when he saw how poor our grandmother is and how you have to hike a muddy mountain to get to her he learned to appreciate the little that he has that much more. He told me he will mention how he plans to help our parents and grandmother. I told him not to mention me then…lol… I was actually the first person to go to college in or family and I’m very successful so he said he won’t mention me at all. (I’m 13 yrs older than him) Our parents did everything they could to get me through college and I’m not doing the same for him. Any other comments on any of the others schools. Anyone?</p>