Reaches Fits and Safeties- my college list of last night (help me out!)

<p>Alright about a 3.65 weighted GPA, Varsity Lacrosse, Good ECs, Great Recs, and a nice essay.
-Go to a top 10 nationally ranked gifted school in FL, so my course selection is very high level (5 APs when I graduate)
- Right now I have a 2070, but retaking it..(580CR 740M 750W, but I'm retaking it hoping to get my reading at least to 620)</p>

<p>REACHES
Boston College
NYU
USC
Northwestern
UC-Berkley or UCLA
USC</p>

<p>FITS (hopefully)
UCSB
UCSC
SMU
UGA
Tulane
Miami
Pepperdine</p>

<p>Safeties
College of Charleston
UofDenver
FSU
University of Colorado-Boulder
University of San Diego
Northeastern</p>

<p>definitely retake your SAT. are you considering applying ED anywhere?</p>

<p>I don’t really want anything binding…</p>

<p>I think your list is alright as it stands, assuming you are a california resident for the UCs.</p>

<p>The list looks good, although its hard to tell without an UW GPA. You’ll have a hard time getting into UCs as an OOS applicant, although I heard they were considering letting in more OOS applicants to raise revenue.</p>

<p>The list itself looks fine. Realistically, I think you have a decent shot at BC, USC, and NYU. UCB, UCLA, and NU will be the real reaches though. If you really love NU definitely go for the early decision. If not, stick to regular.</p>

<p>Northwestern, UC-Berkley, and UCLA are sort of super reaches… Basically I know they’re out of my range, but want to apply just for the hell of it.</p>

<p>I agree with nooob. Both USC and NYU are similar stats-wise to Miami and Tulane. They are only slightly more competitive. You should try to raise your SAT some. Also, here in the south (along with in the midwest) the ACT is heavily favored. Try taking that.
<a href=“http://premieracademywalnut.com/Documents/difference_between_the_ACT_and_SAT.pdf[/url]”>http://premieracademywalnut.com/Documents/difference_between_the_ACT_and_SAT.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you’re considering NYU, look at Fordham too. It’d be a fit for you, and it has an actual campus at Rose Hill. (But if you like the idea of going to college in the city, their Lincoln Center campus is right in the middle of Manhattan.)</p>

<p>i only got a 29 on my ACT…</p>

<p>What is your unweighted GPA? Many colleges look at that more than weighted.</p>

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<p>lol. 10char.</p>

<p>Are you a senior?
It’s a well balanced list.
It seems like you have a general idea of what you want, but you might want to delve deeper now that you have a good foundation.</p>

<p>Oh, and a note on University of SD: most people think it is going to be on the water, like UCSB or Pepperdine, but it isn’t. You need to drive to the beach, it’s not RIGHT on the water.</p>

<p>It seems like you have three types of schools on your list: beach schools, city schools, outdoorsy schools… maybe decide which will make you happier or maybe only have about one type per level (safety, match, reach.) That might help you cut your list a little.</p>

<p>u definitely do not need all of those safeties…</p>

<p>UMiami
Test Name High Low Avg.
SAT I Verbal: 680 580 630
SAT I Math: 700 610 655
Combined: 1,380 1,190 1,285<br>
ACT Composite: 31 27 29</p>

<p>NYU
Test Name High Low Avg.
SAT I Verbal: 720 620 670
SAT I Math: 720 630 675
Combined: 1,440 1,250 1,345<br>
ACT Composite: 31 28 29</p>

<p>TULANE
Test Name High Low Avg.
SAT I Verbal: 720 630 675
SAT I Math: 700 630 665
Combined: 1,420 1,260 1,340
ACT Composite: 31 28 29</p>

<p>USC
Test Name High Low Avg.
SAT I Verbal: 720 620 670
SAT I Math: 750 650 700
Combined: 1,470 1,270 1,370
ACT Composite: 33 28 30</p>

<p>Other than UMiami’s SAT, they are all fairly close with NYU and USC having the slight edge. I’m not sure why my earlier post was funny but I’m glad to amuse.</p>

<p>to marie 03</p>

<p>"Are you a senior?
It’s a well balanced list.
It seems like you have a general idea of what you want, but you might want to delve deeper now that you have a good foundation.</p>

<p>Oh, and a note on University of SD: most people think it is going to be on the water, like UCSB or Pepperdine, but it isn’t. You need to drive to the beach, it’s not RIGHT on the water.</p>

<p>It seems like you have three types of schools on your list: beach schools, city schools, outdoorsy schools… maybe decide which will make you happier or maybe only have about one type per level (safety, match, reach.) That might help you cut your list a little."</p>

<p>Ya thats basically what I’m thinking also, I just don’t know exactly what schools I could be without! I no some are kind of nothing and I have no chance of them.</p>

<p>I’m sort of thinking now</p>

<p>NYU
USC
SMU
BC
UofMiami
University of Colorado
Tulane
College of Charleston
UCSB or UCSC (can’t decide which I’d rather)
University of Florida</p>

<p>Firstly, to help with the UCSB vs. UCSC thing:</p>

<p>UCSB and UCSC are both beach towns. However, I would say UCSB has a slightly more active party scene (due to Isla Vista) but that there is more to do in the actual town of Santa Cruz (due to its slightly more touristy nature). UCSB has a relatively flat campus centered around a man made lagoon. UCSC is more of a foresty campus in the sense that is has redwoods and more dirt in general… it might be a good combination of that outdoorsy feel and the beach scene. UCSB students don’t venture too far from Santa Barbara/Goleta area. I believe that students at UCSC will occasionally go to Seaside/Monterey Bay or San Francisco.</p>

<p>I don’t know if you knew any of that but that is the atmosphere in a jist. If you need more info on either I can hopefully provide more to the best of my ability.</p>

<p>Looking at your list, I think you have a great breadth of schools with realistic reaches (but definitely still reaches) that you will be happy with. It seems you leaned a little bit more towards the city scene but that you still have a representation of other alternatives. Good job. :)</p>

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<p>I was thinking the same thing. Tulane offered me admission within ten days of applying (well actually they didn’t lol, I got my application rejected to get an email like three hours later saying I wasn’t rejected and it had been an error, I knew I didn’t want to go there for sure then) and U Miami is a tight school, but in no way is it as hard to get into as SC or NYU.</p>

<p>I’m not knocking the caliber of the school, an education is entirely yours to work with whether you attend harvard or eastwick college. However, to tell someone that if they can get into Tulane or U Miami they can probably get into NYU or USC is just erroneous. Tulane has had a 35-45% acceptance rate in recent years and U Miami has hovered aroundd 35-40% as well. USC and NYU are at something like 21 and 24% respectively.</p>

<p>Either way OP I think you will enjoy all those schools, they all have similar work hard play hard mentalities, though NYU is a little less so. I’m biased as a Trojan but I applied to a good amount of the schools you did and ended up at SC, couldn’t possibly be happier at all.</p>

<p>My point was simply that the stats have Tulane, for instance, right there with USC and NYU and only slightly less competitive. </p>

<p>Tulane grants admission to instate students that have a 28 ACT and a certain GPA so that skews the numbers for out of state students slightly (75% are from more the 500 miles away so it’s not skewed much.) </p>

<p>My over all point was that NYU and USC should not be considered that much of a reach if TU is a match. TU’s acceptance rate is 22.5% for the Fall 2009 class. </p>

<p>If you want to talk about recent years then use current stats. If not, then consider TU was tied in the rankings with NYU for a few years way back when I was in school. Since the question was refering to these schools NOW, I was using current data. Anyways, I love NYU and USC, I just think TU has gotten back to equal footing with them, which is where it was previously.</p>

<p>I should add that UMiami is more of an up and coming while TU is a school that had fallen off the wagon (or is it on?) and is back on track. :)</p>

<p><a href=“http://tulane.edu/news/releases/archive/1997/tulane_climbs_in_us_news_rankings.cfm[/url]”>http://tulane.edu/news/releases/archive/1997/tulane_climbs_in_us_news_rankings.cfm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Just trying to clarify what I was saying, and I do agree that just because you can get into TU does not mean you can get into USC or NYU.</p>

<p>I checked the TU Focus Louisiana program and it requires only an unweighted 3.5 and an ACT of 28+ or SAT of 1870+ for Louisiana student admission. Again though, this only has a small effect for TU admissions due to the geographic diversity there but it’s worth noting that higher requirements than the TU averages listed may exist for out of state students. The same can said for out state students for schools like UT Austin and UVA where the averages can be slightly misleading for OOS.</p>