Please help me trim- LACs, Ivies, Privates, UCs

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Can you guys take a look at my stuff and help me trim down my college list? It's WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY too big, but it's really hard for me to cut any one of these schools. I need a solid list of like 10 (counting the UC system as 1)</p>

<p>Pending college list:</p>

<p>Yale
Brown
Harvard
UPenn Wharton
Princeton
Dartmouth
Wesleyan
Pomona
Vassar
Amherst
Northwestern
Duke
Tufts
Georgetown
Notre Dame
WUSTL
UC System (Berkeley, LA, San Diego)</p>

<p>I'm an Asian male attending a public high school in Northern California that is ranked in the top 250 High Schools in the country. Every year, we send about 2-3 to Stanford, 2-3 to Harvard, and about 6-7 to other Ivies. We regularly send about 20 students to Berkeley and UCLA each. That serves to explain my slightly low GPA, where I've gotten 5 Bs (in weighted classes). I've taken the hardest workload imaginable, though, all APs and Honors.</p>

<p>GPA after Spring of Jr Year: UW- 3.93, W- 4.38</p>

<p>SAT I- (Single sitting Oct. 2008) 2360 CR:780 W: 780 M: 800</p>

<p>PSAT: 231</p>

<p>SAT IIs: Chemistry-760, US History-800
To take: Math II (expecting a 780+) and Lit (hopefully 770+)</p>

<p>APs</p>

<hr>

<p>soph AP Human Geography- 5 (self study)
jun AP Chem-5
jun AP US History- 5
jun AP Comparative Politics- 5 (self study)</p>

<p>Still to take:
AP Spanish
AP U.S. Gov
AP English Lit
AP Statistics
Maybe AP Calc...but taking it at nearby college</p>

<p>Upcoming Senior Year Schedule</p>

<hr>

<p>AP Statistics
AP U.S. Gov.
AP Spanish
AP English Literature
Chorale
School Newspaper (one of the editors)
Varsity Boys Golf (captain)</p>

<p>College classes (at a top-50 university)</p>

<p>To Take:
Single-Variable Calculus
Chemical Study and Analysis
Earth Studies IA</p>

<p>WORK EXPERIENCE:
-paid intern for national advocacy group dealing with issues regarding public healthcare, i am very involved in it and help create manuals, help work on the website, and write blog entries. this is probably my most important extra curricular.</p>

<p>-intern for city hall</p>

<p>-summer reporter for my city newspaper</p>

<p>EXTRA CURRICULARS</p>

<hr>

<p>-delegate of california boys state</p>

<p>-probably going to be national merit finalist</p>

<p>-president of MUN
two gavels(best speaker), two outstandings, more to come
planning trip to MUN Stockholm in Sweden</p>

<p>-president of the Political Advocacy club
I organized and hosted an open political forum at school with candidates for city council
work with city hall to help voter registration at school</p>

<p>-co-captain of mock trial, varsity closing attorney
award for most outstanding closing attorney in county (20 schools)
coaches award for closing statement</p>

<p>-Secretary of Speech and Debate
5th place in california in public forum debate
1st place in public forum debate, policy debate at 2 invitationals, 2 open tournaments, 3 county tournaments</p>

<p>-attended republican national convention as a student reporter from my city newspaper</p>

<p>-tutor kids on public speaking around the city</p>

<p>-article in my city newspaper on how i went to the rnc, intern at city hall, etc</p>

<p>-summer intern for very big city newspaper, many articles published</p>

<p>-Leadership Team of church, plan/organize events, every thursday night and sunday</p>

<p>-all district choir, very big on acapella, helped found acapella group on campus, first tenor and counter tenor (very valued in acapella choirs)</p>

<p>-high school student of the month</p>

<p>-humanities award in sophomore year (english/history)</p>

2

<p>I personally like reasonably warm schools with good social scenes, so my list would look something like:</p>

<p>Duke
Georgetown
Penn
Pomona
UCs (Berkeley/UCLA/UCSD)
WUStL</p>

<p>+4 more (Brown, HYP, and/or Wesleyan, perhaps?)</p>

3

<p>What, in your mind, connects the schools you’ve listed? What aspect of these schools made you choose them?</p>

4

<p>You have a good profile, so I wouldn’t eliminate any of these schools based on your stats. It would have been more important to post what you might be interested in majoring in. One school that has me scratching my head a bit is UPenn Wharton…which is almost the complete opposite of schools like Pomona, Amherst, etc. This is what I suggest, just based on the overall character of the list as a whole: </p>

<p>Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
Pomona
Vassar
Amherst
Tufts
Georgetown
UC System (Berkeley, LA, San Diego)</p>

<p>Interestingly, nearly every school I applied to was on your list: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Pomona, USC, WUSTL…</p>

5

<p>wait…how do you have a 3.93 UW w/5 Bs?</p>

<p>besides that,</p>

<p>UC
Duke
NWestern
G-Town
Harvard
NotreDame
Pomona
Amherst</p>

6

<p>A big reason why I picked a lot of these schools is that they have strong political science departments, which is likely what I’m going to major in. </p>

<p>The thing about Wharton is that I want to go into business after college, and then maybe get my MBA. I really want to study PoliSci during college, however, and in the job market, you don’t really have to have a specialized professional degree- Philosophy/Economics/Polisci majors can do well as long as they have the right qualifications.</p>

7

<p>I’m counting my freshman, sophomore, and junior years. If you average out my schedule (I have roughly 7-8 classes per semester), it turns out 3.91-3.93ish.</p>

8

<p>Yale
UPenn Wharton
Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
Pomona
Amherst
Duke
Georgetown
UC System (Berkeley, LA, San Diego)</p>

<p>In no particular order.</p>

9

<p>I think that you should really think about what part of the country you want to apply to. If you’re okay with going really far from home, then you can apply to the Mid-West and East Coast schools. If not, then just apply to West Coast Schools. Also, if you’re not Catholic, I wouldn’t apply to Notre Dame because it is a really Catholic environment. (Think chapels in the basement of the dorms)</p>

10

<p>Based on everything you said, this is the list I would personally cut it down to:</p>

<p>Yale
Brown
Harvard
UPenn Wharton
Princeton
Dartmouth
Northwestern
Duke
Georgetown
UC System</p>

<p>That’s taking into consideration the fact that you seem to want some prestige and name recognition, so I eliminated the small (but excellent) LACs, and Tufts.
You also did not list many “artsy” “hipster” schools except Vassar and Wesleyan, so I eliminated those as well.</p>

<p>I eliminated WUSTL because personally I hate the location, and that really matters to me. I doubt you are looking forward to 4 years in St Louis…</p>

<p>I removed Notre Dame because I don’t think you’re looking for the catholic experience, and you have better schools on that list, IMO. Georgetown is Jesuit but it’s excellent with what you’re looking for, so it stays. It’s not overwhelmingly Catholic anyway.</p>

<p>and you’ll need a safety… just one though, because you have good stats. maybe a lower UC that you like?</p>

11

<p>“That’s taking into consideration the fact that you seem to want some prestige and name recognition, so I eliminated the small (but excellent) LACs”</p>

<p>You contradicted yourself. What employer of substance and worth would not have heard of Amherst, Pomona, Wesleyan, and even Vassar?</p>

<p>“I don’t think you’re looking for the catholic experience”</p>

<p>Just because you fear and resent Catholicism and Catholics doesn’t mean he does.</p>

<p>“Georgetown is Jesuit but it’s excellent with what you’re looking for…”</p>

<p>Georgetown is excellent because it is a Jesuit institution. I’m speechless.</p>

12

<p>Tufts is important to me because my uncle is on the faculty as a professor of orthopedics and a doctor at the Tufts Med School. Hopefully, that will help me get in there. Additionally, they have a remarkable international relations program. I think it’s a solid match for me, maybe a low match.</p>

<p>I’m really interested in the LACs, especially Amherst and Wesleyan. Yes, name recognition is important; in today’s tough job market and economy, the name and the connections are invaluable in securing a solid job. However, it’s not everything. And among the academic and business community, Wesleyan and Amherst have exceptional reputations. </p>

<p>I was actually thinking of cutting out Duke-from my research and from one of my friends who goes there, they self-segregate a lot and there’s quite a fair amount of racism on campus.</p>

13

<p>And I am an Asian male Catholic, so that’s why I considered Notre Dame. I think I’ll cut it, though - it might not be free to the sort of open political discussion that I’m looking for.</p>

14

<p>Just to let you know: as an Asian male, you have very, very strong chances at ND, Vassar, and Amherst.</p>

<p>I didn’t recommend ND initially, but just know that it’s an exceptional school that you have a seal-the-deal chance of being admitted to.</p>

15

<p>Do you guys think it would be smart for me to early? Say to Yale, maybe, or Wharton, perhaps?</p>

16

<p>

Self-segregation is overrated. If you want a diverse group of friends, it’s easy to have one at any top university. </p>

<p>As for racism, it wasn’t Duke that was in the hot seat for a racist Christmas carol. ;)</p>

17

<p>Allradiance, An Asian Republican who has an interest in the business side of government or the government side of business. Golfs and sings.</p>

<p>My ten for you would be as follows. I’ve removed some of the more liberal schools and added some of the more middle of road. I’ve also removed the midwestern and southern schools just to give you more geographic focus.
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
Williams
Pomona
Amherst
Tufts
Georgetown
JHU
UC System (Berkeley, LA, San Diego)</p>

<p>Since you mention ED at Wharton (or SCEA at Yale) I presume that you really want to go to Wharton; however, I’d suggest you think this through a little further as you haven’t convinced me that an undergrad business school is what you’re looking for.</p>

18

<p>Wharton Huntsman or Penn intl relations with classes at Wharton
Georgetown
Tufts
Yale
Harvard
Princeton
JHU
Claremont McKenna
UCs</p>

19

<p>I’m taking a slightly different tack than Momrath. I would take her ten and substitute Wesleyan for Amherst, just because every incoming class at Wesleyan seems to include at least one frosh running a business out of their dorm room (something I can’t quite see happening at Amherst.) So, my list would look like this:</p>

<p>Yale
Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
Williams
Pomona
Wesleyan
Tufts
Georgetown
JHU
UC System (Berkeley, LA, San Diego)</p>

20

<p>

Is that necessary? Perhaps the OP would like a warm option or two come April. </p>

<p>In any case, it makes very little sense to include Hopkins but not Penn or Duke for business purely based on geography – the latter two easily outperform the former in placement. Even if the OP decides not to go down the business route, it’s very easy to switch tracks at Penn.</p>