<p>I want to go to an academically matched school but all of those are very selective. I want to go to a good school but I would like it to be at least a name people recognize. I know it's not supposed to be a big deal but it is with some employers and stuff, right? I got 2110 on a practice SAT, but I have 9 more to do and a lot of lessons so I expect to improve. Are there any really good colleges that are not too selective for that kind of score?</p>
<p>So you’re looking for match (which you’re defining as not-reach) schools? Just as a side note, I don’t know what you define as prestigious, but most prestigious schools are rather selective. What’s your GPA? Course rigor? EC involvement?</p>
<p>I have a 4.0 UW / 4.67 W right now. I’m taking 2 AP and 2 honors classes (as a junior, and I’m only not taking one out of all the offered AP/honors. I’m going to take 5 AP overall next year). My ECs are not that impressive - I’m in an academic and interscholastic leadership group, work in technical theater, have bass lessons (does that count?), and regularly volunteer at a cat shelter. Also, I’m not really sure but I’ve been defining prestigious as more or less 20-30% acceptance.</p>
<p>Prestige is really relative. To major, goals etc. In general, it matters to employers much less than it does to HS students, to give you some perspective. Recognizable to HS kids is different than to adults, to employers and to grad schools all who have different and broader knowledge in their area. That’s the problem with high stats kids, the selective schools aren’t a lock and selective safeties don’t really exist. So you build a list the best you can. It will serve you a lot better if you can look at what will serve your education needs rather then be a prestige monger. If you can change your mindset you can be a more satisfied consumer. Everyone needs a college or two where they know they can get in and afford. That is often your instate school where there will be many top students separating themselves from the general population and may have an honors college. Or it may be a small private where you are sure to get in. </p>
<p>For example, my daughters list: 3 instate publics, one famous other less so, 2 LACs with 30% acceptance, 1 selective research U and 2 Ivies. There might have been more but she was admitted early action to one which took the pressure off. Probably one of the LAC no one would have heard of but it would have suited her goals for grad school well. One of the instate she would be at the top of the ‘stats’ for and probably get a lot of attention from profs from her great academics and it is a research uni and would serve her well. Even when she decided on Brown many people we know didn’t know of it and couldn’t understand why she was going. That tells you how much attention you should not pay to thinking of schools people have heard of. Because usually they just know the ones around them, the sports team ones and HYPSM.</p>
<p>Get a Fiske Guide and start reading about colleges and the special attributes those 350 or so have and get excited for the academics and how they may fit your goals. Look closely at your safeties instate.</p>
<p>go to college simply dot com and do some shopping around to get an idea of what schools are in your ballpark.</p>
<p>It’s also a very regional thing. I went to a college that is immediately recognizable and well-reputed in my hometown region, the South - so when people asked me where I went, I just said the name, no explanation. I now live in the Northeast, and when I tell people where I went to college I usually have to explain. There are few schools that are just nationally well-known. Even some really well known universities that you would think everyone has heard of, sometimes, get this treatment. I recently talked to someone who went to Columbia for undergrad. He was frustrated because he lives on the West Coast and a lot of people out there don’t know that Columbia is an Ivy League school. Another person told me that some people don’t recognize Brown when he says it. And I work at Penn State and people constantly get it confused with Penn. And a LOT of people have never heard of Amherst, Swarthmore, or Williams.</p>
<p>And yes, I totally agree with the field and generational thing. I’m in public health & psychology, and there are a lot of schools with very good programs in my field that aren’t instantly recognizable to other people. For example, a lot of people would just think of Minnesota as a good public flagship, but it’s a top 15 school in both of my fields. An even better example is UAB, which has excellent programs in public health despite not being the public flagship. Employers are probably familiar with places due to a combination of national rankings, regional schools and their own experiences with graduates. An person who hires engineers in Atlanta, for example, would of course know about Cornell and Duke. They’d also be heavily invested in Georgia Tech, and perhaps hire a lot from Auburn and UA. But they would probably also hire extensively from Southern Polytechnic, which probably few people outside of the South have heard of (it’s a public regional engineering school that is actually quite good).</p>
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<p>It’s not as big a deal as you might think. Good employers know good schools (and recruit at them). If you go to a great college but the employer has never heard of it and doesn’t hire you because of that, then they are probably not a good employer anyhow. Excellent colleges have outstanding alumni who can also help you get good jobs, regardless of how famous the college is.</p>
<p>All graduate schools know the good colleges. </p>
<p>Plus, after two or three years of employment, the name of your college becomes almost irrelevant. I recommend that you apply to schools that you really like, and only use name recognition as a “tie breaker.”</p>
<p>Thank you all. I guess my first priority at this point is how much students like it there and the resources they have for programs I want to pursue. I am going to tour a bunch of colleges next summer. But for relative academics, I want stuff pretty much matched to me - which was kind of my point above, that a lot of the schools that are academic matches are 20-30% acceptance rates. Is it realistic to apply to these as matches, or are they reaches because of the selectivity?</p>
<p>Important questions: What can your parents afford (and how much do they make)? </p>
<p>Where are you in-state?</p>
<p>I’m not sure what my parents can afford. They make about $150,000 a year but no rich ancestors or anything so no endowments. We live in CA. My parents say they probably won’t be able to spend a ton, maybe like $20,000 (right now I’m going to a pretty expensive high school, so basing it off that) but I haven’t talked to them about it much. My dad is a professor at Santa Clara University though, so I would be able to get a free ride there (am applying there safety) and we have a list of tuition exchange programs with a bunch of schools including BC and Bucknell. </p>
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<p>That does not necessarily mean they have acceptance rates that low for applicants with your stats.
Those colleges attract many applicants with lower stats who reduce the overall acceptance rate.
<a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/upshot/for-accomplished-students-reaching-a-top-college-isnt-actually-that-hard.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/upshot/for-accomplished-students-reaching-a-top-college-isnt-actually-that-hard.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=1</a></p>
<p>According to College Board data, about 64,000 college-bound seniors scored 2100 or above on the SAT in 2014. (<a href=“http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables”>http://research.collegeboard.org/content/sat-data-tables</a>).
Consider the number of spaces available at just the top 20 private national universities, the top 20 private national LACs, and the top 10 state flagships. Harvard’s entering class would have about 1600 students, Wesleyan’s about 750, Michigan’s about 6000. Collectively, these 50 “top” colleges must have about enough spaces to accommodate nearly all the 2100-or-above students (especially if you subtract all the high scorers who don’t even apply to such schools). </p>
<p>And this set of 50 is a fairly conservative definition of “top” schools. It leaves out Emory, Georgetown, CMU, USC, Tufts, BC, Rochester … Colgate, Oberlin, Macalester, Kenyon … Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas, etc. Furthermore, many high stats students must not even bother applying to these schools, because the admit rates or the sticker prices scare them away.</p>
<p>@tk21769: actually, UW-Madison, UT-Austin, and even UIUC would be in most people’s list of top 10 publics. The others you list wouldn’t be easy for someone with a 2100 SAT but no hook to get in to. Keep in mind that at the highly selective privates, the bottom quarter generally have some special hook (athletics/URM/talent/legacy).</p>
<p>In any case, I prefer my own tiers of the top schools (based off of alum accomplishments): <a href=“Ivy-equivalents - College Search & Selection - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1682986-ivy-equivalents.html</a></p>
<p>However, I agree that a 99th percentile kid who does not have to worry about costs and who strategizes applications smartly has a pretty good shot at getting in to some near-Ivy schools at least (having money being key, because many publics provide poor fin aid to OOS students; or in general).</p>
<p>To the OP: you’re kind of lucky to live in CA. UCB, UCLA, and UCSD are all on the edge of being affordable for you and held in high regard. College of Creative Studies at UCSB and honors colleges at various UC’s could also potentially be good options. In addition, for sure, apply to SCU, BC, Bucknell, etc. Also, wouldn’t some Jesuit tuition exchange program be open to you? You could throw in some apps to Ivy/Ivy-equvalents as well, but they would be kind of reachy for you, and outside of HYPS, they may not provide enough fin aid for you to attend anyway.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have a Jesuit tuition exchange thing. I do hope to raise my SAT scores with all the practice tests, but I still don’t really have a hook, so I’m not expecting to get into any Ivyish schools. Recently I’ve been looking at Colgate and Bucknell, which I love the look of. Also I was loving Wesleyan which would probably be reachish.</p>
<p>Not sure many of those privates outside the tuition exchange would be generous enough with fin aid for you to attend, frankly. Run the NPC for all those schools first.</p>
<p>No use falling in love with a school that you can’t afford.</p>
<p>Looking at the FACHEX schools, BC and Holy Cross are probably the most “prestigious”. Still, I would not consider either to be more than high match or even reach if you want the FACHEX money.</p>
<p>You’re lucky in another way, however, in that SCU is among the more desirable FACHEX schools, and that has an impact on whether you get FACHEX money.</p>
<p>Frankly, you’re pretty fortunate to have some FACHEX schools and SCU as tuition-free options (and the UC’s on the edge of affordability). You can look at other schools if you like, but they’d likely be a waste of time.</p>
<p>Yes, I will definitely be considering the UCs and applying to a couple FACHEX schools. Luckily though, there is a much longer list of schools that are participating in some other exchange thing (not sure what it’s called) that my dad also has through SCU, so that broadens my horizons a little.</p>
<p>Oh right, The Tuition Exchange.</p>
<p>USC is part of that, but getting in to USC through that is tough from what I understand.</p>
<p>A ton of schools to choose from, however (Occidental, USD, Chapman, Connecticut College, GWU, New College of Florida, Knox, School of the Art Institute, IIT, Centre, Tulane, CWRU, Wooster, Pitt, NYU-Poly, Bard, Stevens Institute, BU, Clark, WPI, OWU, Bucknell, Bennington, Richmond, Beloit, Lawrence).</p>
<p>That’s a lot to choose from (if you can get in).</p>
<p>Any idea on majors yet?</p>
<p>I (tentatively, since I haven’t taken physics yet) want to major in physics or, if the school has it, maybe astrophysics. I want to be an astrophysicist.</p>
<p>Um, yeah, take physics first. Actually, take calculus first.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know. I’m in trig/precalc now, but I really love astronomy and I want to pursue it in any way I can.</p>