<p>I am currently a high school junior and I am trying to pick my reach schools to apply to. I want to do pre med and major/concentrate in either neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychobiology. Currently the reach schools I am thinking about are: Yale, UPenn, Brown, Duke, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Stanford, and Wash U in STL. I want to go to an undergraduate focused school where I will be able to discuss with professors easily as well as have good research opportunities. In total I want to apply to around four or five reach schools. So please if anyone could contribute to what schools i should pick and why, it would be very much appreciated.</p>
<p>What did you get on the SAT (or PSAT)? What are your grades like?</p>
<p>The thing with reaches is that you have to be at least a little bit realistic. For some kids, their state university is a reach (but still within reason). For other kids, schools in the top 20 are reasonable reaches. </p>
<p>I think UPenn is a wonderful school (of course, that could be because I’m going there next year) and everything else on your reach list seems to be of about the same caliber (except I don’t know anything about Wash U).</p>
<p>I’m not sure about the other schools, but Northwestern is good at placing students into medical schools. Here are some more info on what kind of courses you would take for the majors you listed:
<a href=“http://www.biosci.northwestern.edu/content/Concentration_in_Neurobiology%204.23.08.pdf[/url]”>http://www.biosci.northwestern.edu/content/Concentration_in_Neurobiology%204.23.08.pdf</a>
[Cognitive</a> Science at Northwestern](<a href=“http://www.cogsci.northwestern.edu/major.html]Cognitive”>http://www.cogsci.northwestern.edu/major.html)</p>
<p>I’d also look into Cornell and Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>I would look into Dartmouth which is completely focused on undergrads. Don’t waste your Ed or ea.</p>
<p>My cum gpa uw: 4.0 w:4.3
AP/Honor Classes: AP Euro, APUSH, AP Spanish, AP Biology, Honors English 9, 10, 11
Classes next year: AP Calc, AP Econ, AP Govt, AP English
ECs: Varsity Track (4 years) Mock Trial (3 years) Board Member of National Honors Society (2 years) LINK Crew (2 years) Student Ambassador for the Tournament of Roses (1 year) Hall of Fame (top 4 GPAs) Played guitar in a band (Venues like the Roxy, the Knitting Factory, and the Levitt Pavilion) </p>
<p>Summer Plans: Citizanship Youth Seminar at Pepperdine University</p>
<p>Volunteer: 250+ hours at USC University Hospital
40 Hours for JDRF
30 Hours at Project Angel Food
40 Hours for Student Ambassador of the Tournament of Roses
Other Stuff-20 hours</p>
<p>SAT Scores: Don’t want to talk about hopefully i get them up or do well on my ACT</p>
<p>I know my resume is not really spectacular but I’m still going to apply to some reach schools while the rest of my schools will be the UCs.</p>
<p>You played at the Roxy? Coolness! Haha I have a special spot in my heart for that place.</p>
<p>Your ECs look fine, but I guess it will depend a bit on how you do on your SAT/ACT. Good luck!</p>
<p>you should definitely apply to brown. Its the only ivy apart from dartmouth that has a strong undergrad focus (and, unlike dmouth, its not in the middle of nowhere 
) </p>
<p>Moreover, their neuroscience major is supposed to be great and, with the open curriculum, you’ll be able to try out everything you mentioned on the list!</p>
<p>Your weighted gpa is low for the ivies. Still apply, but to be very competitive for any of the ivies, you should have a 4.4ish</p>
<p>Penn three kids got in from my school. All had 34+ on ACT and 4.5+. </p>
<p>6 kids got into Duke from my school. Their gpas were 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, 4.5, 4.5, and a 4.3. The 4.3 was an exception because he was Latino. </p>
<p>Try to raise your gpa and test scores.</p>
<p>^^ You have no idea what the weighting system used by the OP’s school is. 4.3 could be the max. However, with an SAT the OP doesn’t want to talk about, the OP should be looking at some schools that are more safe as well.</p>
<p>4.5 is the highest GPA you can get at my school and don’t forget I’m thinking about which REACH schools I’m going to apply to. I’d never consider any of these schools to being anywhere remotely close to my targets.</p>
<p>*SAT Scores: Don’t want to talk about hopefully i get them up or do well on my ACT</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Would you say that they’re close to being competitive for elite schools or not anywhere close at this point?</p>
<p>for instance…</p>
<p>At Stanford…</p>
<p>Test Scores Middle 50% of First-Year Students </p>
<p>SAT Critical Reading: 660 - 760
SAT Math: 680 - 780
SAT Writing: 670 - 760 </p>
<p>Would you say that your SAT scores are within those ranges? Below? Above?</p>
<p>* with an SAT the OP doesn’t want to talk about, the OP should be looking at some schools that are more safe as well. *</p>
<p>I agree…yes, some kids do significantly raise their scores, but most do not raise them very much.</p>
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</p>
<p>I’m going to give a shout out to Princeton here…</p>
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<p>If you’re not confident that you’re at least seriously competitive for these schools, that’s a whole lotta reaches.</p>
<p>I know its a lot of reaches thats why I am trying to narrow it down to around 3-5…</p>
<p>Right now the reaches I’m leaning towards are brown, upenn, stanford, duke, and emory and the reasons are:</p>
<p>Brown:
Really really really good neuroscience program
Open Curriculum
In a small/medium sized city and close enough to Boston and New York</p>
<p>Upenn:
Access to Wharton
Philadelphia</p>
<p>Stanford:
Silicon Valley/A lot of research and internship opportunities
San Francisco
A lot of school spirit</p>
<p>Duke:
Research Triangle Park/A lot of research and internship opportunities
Alot of school spirit</p>
<p>Emory:
Proximity to the CDC for internship and research opportunities
Atlanta</p>
<p>The reason I’m leaning towards these schools is not just because they have strong science programs. I truly believe that any top tier university will have a top tier science programs. But these schools all have something else to offer such as their location. But I’m also still thinking about Wash U since their is no supplement essay so mine as well try right?
Any thoughts?</p>