<p>Hi everyone! I am a rising senior in high school and I have several, several schools that I really like, but need to narrow down to around twelve. Thank you so much for taking the time to read through all of this :) </p>
<p>My basic stats:
- 4.2 Weighted GPA (my school does not do unweighted or class rank)
- 2220 SAT
- 640 SAT Chemistry, 690 SAT Math I, 630 SAT US History :(<br>
(I will be taking Math II in October)
- 5 on AP Psychology, 4 on AP US Government and Politics, 5 on AP English Language and Composition, 5 on AP Macroeconomics
- Treasurer of speech and debate team, have played piano for eleven years, grade representative in a school club, National Honors Society</p>
<p>What's important to me in a school:
- I hope to major in economics, and possibly minor in either international relations, psychology, or biology
- Not too large, and not too small
- Not strongly affiliated with a certain religion
- Diversity
- Ideally in, or near, a city or town
- Good financial aid</p>
<p>My Schools:</p>
<p>Safeties.
Rutgers University
The College of New Jersey</p>
<p>Targets.
The George Washington University
Swarthmore College
Haverford College
Vassar College
Bryn Mawr College
Tufts University
Brandeis University
Boston College</p>
<p>Reaches.
Johns Hopkins University
Georgetown University
Wellesley University
Cornell University
The University of Chicago
Northwestern University
University of Virginia</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Unless you have a reason to think otherwise, move Swarthmore to the reaches section. It’s impossibly competitive and even the 17% admit rate is misleading because it’s self-selective, meaning the average applicant there is more driven than the average applicant at most other schools, so you really can’t count on anything there.</p></li>
<li><p>Are you sure that Swat, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr aren’t going to be too small? It gets bigger if you count them together b/c of the consortium, but they’re each under 2,000 so maybe that’s not right for you. Also, all 3 are pretty similar but slightly different in their own ways, so visit if you can to see which you like, and I would suggest picking 1 or 2 of those ones to apply to since they offer basically the same things. </p></li>
<li><p>Since you only have 2 safeties (which I do think is enough), I would suggest looking to your reaches to cut first. If you’re trying to limit the number of schools you apply to, try to do as many matches (vs. reaches) as possible so that by April, you have more offers to compare.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hope that helped :)</p>
<p>If you want to go to graduate school in economics, choose a school that also has a good math program and which offers intermediate microeconomics courses using university sophomore level math like multivariable calculus (you can check prerequisites in their course catalogs).</p>
<p>Also, consider taking AP Microeconomics to go with your AP Macroeconomics. At some schools, introductory economics is a single course, and you would need both APs to place out of it and avoid having to waste time partially repeating it.</p>
<p>Make sure that your safeties are definitely affordable, based on the cost of attendance and the financial aid that they are known to give. Do not make the mistake of having admissions safeties which are reaches for cost and financial aid.</p>
<p>Eliminate any schools that you would not choose over your safeties even if you got in (this may include eliminating schools that are unlikely to be affordable at all, or will be much more expensive than your safeties to the point that you do not feel that the extra cost is worth it).</p>
<p>I agree with the previous poster: Swarthmore is definitely a reach. Possibly Tufts as well, especially as it tends to get a lot of applicants that use it as a “second chance” for an Ivy.</p>
<p>Just to rep my school, any special reason you aren’t looking at Brown as another reach? I applied to quite a few of the places you’re looking, and find that Brown’s pretty similar in many ways.</p>
<p>@ smwhtslghtlydzed - Thank you for your help! Regarding size, although I said I did not want something too small, I would rather attend a college on the smaller side than an extremely large university (20,000+) :)</p>
<p>@ ucbalumnus - I would actually like to go to graduate school in business. I am hoping to major in economics because I believe it will better prepare me for the mathematical/analytical aspects of business school, and I would not like to get too focused during undergraduate school. I really wish I could have taken AP Microeconomics, but my school does not offer it, and I simply don’t have enough time to self-study, on top of all my other APs (I get stressed out easily!) Thanks so much!</p>
<p>@ bruno - I will definitely take a look at Brown. There’s really no special reason…I guess I just hadn’t given it much thought, but now I realize it would be silly not to think about Brown. Thank you :)</p>