Please help me with my college list!!!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>From what I've seen here, my stats don't look any hot. But I go to a magnet school (Stuyvesant HS) and my grades have been improving.</p>

<p>GPA - 3.4? It's 88.5%, but it's been increasing (junior year = 91.5)</p>

<p>I'm a senior and I have 2 AP's in my schedule.</p>

<p>Tests -
SAT - 1500/1600, 2260/2400
SAT II Math 2 - 800
SAT II Physics - Probably will get like a 720
AP: Language and Composition - 5</p>

<p>Major EC's -
Ultimate frisbee team
Sunday school teacher
Counselor for a Christian-themed daycare program
Volunteer math tutor</p>

<p>Not-so-strong EC's -
Acting classes
Some clubs
....</p>

<p>Essays - Pretty good.</p>

<p>Teacher recommendations - Pretty good.</p>

<p>Hm. Yeah. I plan on going into social work, and if my college doesn't have a Bachelor for Social Work, I'll major in Sociology/Psychology and get into grad school for a Master's in Social Work.</p>

<p>Finance isn't too much of a problem.</p>

<p>My current list...</p>

<p>Reach - NYU, BC, Cornell
Match - Boston University
Safety - SUNY Bing, SUNY Stony Brook, Penn State?</p>

<p>And I plan on EDing Macaulay Honors College (CUNY Honors).</p>

<p>I can't think of any other colleges to add to my list but I would like for more choices to consider. And if you think a certain college in my list should be in a different category, please point it out.</p>

<p>I think I need more targets, but I don't know what will fit my GPA. And I heard my SAT can make up for some of my GPA, but I'm not sure about that.</p>

<p>Yeah, I don't know much!! Please help me out!</p>

2

<p>Yeah and my school doesn’t rank.</p>

3

<p>You might want to consider looking toward the midwest, particularly at LACs. Look at Denison, Ohio Wesleyan, Earlham.</p>

4

<p>I agree with Erin’s dad. Since so many people want to go to school in the Northeast, the schools there are harder to get into than schools of comparable quality in the Midwest (and South). Try Miami of Ohio and Case Western Reserve. </p>

<p>If you’re certain you want to be in the Northeast, try Clark University in Worcester, Mass…great in psychology and easier to get into than it should be. Also Fordham.</p>

5

<p>Binghamton a safety? Are you sure? </p>

<p>I second Clark University.</p>

6

<p>Isn’t Bing a fine safety for my 88.5 average??</p>

<p>I’ve decided to remove Boston College from my college list. I’ve added Clark, George Washington, Fordham, and Case Western. Would these four colleges classify as targets for me?</p>

<p>Even though these colleges do have a good amount of people with my GPA, I feel like I have a shot at better schools because I’m from a magnet school, I have high SAT’s, and my GPA for junior year and 2nd term sophomore year is 91.5.</p>

7

<p>What about Oberlin?</p>

8

<p>Yes, those look good. Your SATs are great. I just hesitate to ever consider Binghamton as a safety. Especially in this economic climate.</p>

9

<p>Yeah, shoozer, those would be matches for you. Others to consider as low match/safeties: U of Dayton, Marquette, St. Louis U., DePaul, Virginia Tech, U of Maryland.</p>

10

<p>Thanks for your responses guys!!! My list grew and my prospects broadened. Thanks!</p>

<p>One thing that’s bothering me is when I see the average SAT scores for what you guys said should be my matches. Although they do fit my GPA, the SAT scores are 50-100 points lower than mine. Does this…mean anything?</p>

11

<p>You don’t have a “perfect” profile (high test scores and high grades). So you might have to go for a school that’s really good but has something about it that makes it less than super competitive admissions-wise…a minor flaw, you might say. For example, Case Western Reserve probably bows to nobody in the quality of its profs, but it’s a not-particularly-bucolic school in a less-than-glamorous city. Clark’s psych reputation is the equal of any school’s but the neighborhood is a little rough. George Washington’s location is amazingly good, but it doesn’t have much of a campus, etc.</p>

12

<p>SUNY Binghamton should no longer be considered a safety school. Due to the current economic enviorment they had almost 32000 applications for 2000 spots. Do the math. It was harder to get into Bing this past year than most elite private schools. A private school runs 50k vs Binghamton for 16k. Anyone planning on going for a professional or graduate degee was applying in order to pocket the 34k!</p>

13

<p>Are you serious? So Binghamton’s admissions were as tough as like the Ivies…? I feel like I have a very strong chance of getting into Bing!</p>

<p>I’m going for a Masters in Social Work, so my undergrad isn’t as important to me as my grad school. I’ll be doing psychology/sociology and maybe philosophy, and my undergrad college’s reputation won’t be as important as my grad school’s. So I just want a good environment, decent education, and cheap tuition for undergrad study.</p>

<p>Please continue making suggestions for my list, either adding/removing/changing schools or whatever!!!</p>

<p>Macaulay Honors @ QC
Boston U
Case Western
Fordham
George Washington
NYU
Oberlin
SUNY Bing</p>

14

<p>If you are really interested in keeping costs down for UG then I would add SUNY New Paltz. It’s possibly a better match for social work than Binghamton (or Stony Brook). NYU would be very expensive (with little aid).</p>

15

<p>You should definitely apply to more SUNYs such as Albany, Buffalo and Stony Brook. My understanding is that the SUNYs love Stuyvesant kids. If you’re going to apply to Binghamton, you may as well apply to the others. They all use the same application (but you may want to double-check on this).</p>