“And because of your SAT score, Syracuse is a bit of a reach.”
Pretty sure it would put OP in the 75% there.
@CaliCash @planner03 Yeah thats what I was about to say. I thought maybe he thought my score was out of 2400 but that doesn’t make sense with the suggestions either. Syracuse’s average is around only a 1700.
@planner03 @class0f2017 Sorry, I was a bit confused about the PSAT scores. I thought they were out of 240? I must be a little behind on the times. Just learned they are now out of 1520. Yeah so scratch Syracuse and Lehigh lol
I don’t think Carnegie Mellon is too reachy unless are going for computer science. However they don’t always meet full need, so that may be an issue for you. Georgetown would be much more of a stretch, but if you have some good safeties I think it’s okay to stretch a bit. I think making it to states for any well known competition is quite an accomplishment. You seem a little low on APs compared to other candidates, but if that is the norm for your school it should not be a huge issue. Have you asked your GC if students with your stats from your schools have been accepted into any of the Ivy League type schools? I think you might have a shot, but it will depend on how you sell yourself and how enthusiastic your teachers are about you.
@mathmom I go to a small school where most people don’t really shoot for top schools, but some people do get in once in a while. We don’t have Naviance or anything like that. Also, I’m actually taking maybe taking the hardest schedule this year and next year of anyone in my grade so I can’t really do much more than that for APs. I could probably get great recommendations especially since our school is so small our teachers know us pretty well. The teachers I was going to get recommendations from have had me in multiple classes and are an advisor for atleast one club I’m in so I think I’ll get good recommendations. Any suggestions for other reaches?
According to the current concordance which will be updated in May, a 1400 is equal to around a 2060.
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-preliminary-concordance-tables-2015.pdf
Re #25, the helpful link indicates PSAT to PSAT conversions. A PSAT to SAT conversion estimate could still be useful. A top 1% PSAT score, which the OP stated he has, comports with about a 1500/1600, or 2250/2400, SAT on the former scale.
I believe all the PSAT discussion is that the printed %iles aren’t very accurate and are based on how CB thought students would do instead of how they actually performed.
WashU definitely has an undergrad B-school (Olin). It’s a 4 year BSBA program and just opened a $90+ million building.
So the consensus seems to be that GTown is a little too reachy but aren’t some of these suggestions(WUStL,Duke,Penn) much more selective that Georgetown?
Yes they are.
Preprofessional vibe: Northeastern, Bucknell, Colgate, UPenn, Washington and Lee (in VA)
I’m confused, so are these suggestions reasonable to have as reaches or are they way out of reach? I’d love to apply to some of them(Penn’s my favorite but I know its impossible to get in) but I feel like the responses are conflicting each other.
Get a copy of the Princeton or Fiske guide to colleges. Read the descriptions to see if the schools might be a good fit for you. Look at the statistics for admitted students. If you fall within the middle 50% it’s probably a match. If you’re in the bottom 25%, it’s a reach. However, if the overall admission rate is less than 20%, it’s much harder to predict. If it’s less than 10%, all bets are off.
A plausible reach, for me, would be a place where you are somewhat below the 50% mark but has an admissions rate of 30-40% or higher. Or a place where you fall in the upper quarter, but has an admissions rate of 20%. Roughly speaking.
If you want merit scholarships, you should be in the top 25% and the admissions rate should be less selective.