Recommendations for Early Action/Decision

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I need some help choosing a school/schools to apply to EA/ED. I have listed my stats below. Please recommend colleges that you think that I would be a good fit at. Thank you so much. I am an Asian male that is a junior in high school. Top 3% of my class at a competitive high school in Illinois that sends many graduates to Ivy League and Similar.</p>

<p>GPA:
UW: 5.0
Weighted: 5.92</p>

<p>ACT: 35
SAT MathII-800</p>

<p>Awards:
Business Student of the Quarter-9
Dean's List-(9-12)
National Spanish Exam-Plata de Oro
National Merit Commended
National Honor Society
National Spanish Honor Society</p>

<p>APs: Computer Science A(5), European History(5)</p>

<p>Current AP: US History, Calculus BC, Language and Composition</p>

<p>Senior Year: AP Spanish Language, AP Micro/Macro, AP Physics C, AP Statistics, AP Literature, AP Biology</p>

<p>EC:
Boy Scouts of America, Eagle Scout, Senior Patrol Leader
Business Professionals of America, Chapter Officer, State Competitor
Math Team
Saxophone, Jazz Combo Club, Extra Curricular Band, Variety Show (9-11)
Yearbook, Writer
Peer Leadership, Committee Member
Religious Organization, National Youth Planning Board
National Honor Society
National Spanish Honor Society
Track and Field: Shot Put and Discus, Sophomore Outdoor Conference Champions (Recruited by Caltech)
Research at local clinic: Assisted with national trial, KAST Study, ATTRACT Study, 200 Hours, Research Intern
Diabetes Research at University of Illinois-Chicago</p>

<p>Please recommend some colleges that you think I could get into. Money is not an issue for my family. Again, thanks for all the help and be brutally honest, I can take it.</p>

2

<p>Your stats are amazing, and I think you have a shot at all the top schools. In order for people to recommend schools to you I think you are going to have to give a little more information about what you are looking for. Location? Major? LAC vs. Nat U? Ivy? Take some time to reflect on what qualities are important to you. Not to sound rude or anything, but if you are smart enough to get those scores and grades it seems odd you need help picking a college from random people on the internet.</p>

3

<p>Thanks annarunner. I’m sorry, I forgot to add information about what kind of colleges I’m interested in. I am interested in engineering or possibly business. I am looking for a school that I could get a good quality education and make connections. I’m the first person in my family to go to college in the US, so I don’t know a lot about the colleges here. I would like to go to an Ivy League school or similar, but I am not sure of my chances.</p>

4

<p>Your best Harvard bet is engineering. Might want Olin, Cooper Union, CMU otherwise.</p>

<p>Georgetown EA if you want to do business.</p>

5

<p>If I where you I would not apply ED anywhere, it seems that you have not fell in love with a school and ED is binding. Your stats are great, you have a realistic shot at top schools RD, though you should look into applying EA to a few schools as well.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s not true. Very few high school students will know where they want to ED at this stage. Most ED applicants only select an ED college over the summer (or even the beginning of senior year). With your stats, I think you’re competitive enough to get in ED at a non-HYP ivy, but not competitive enough to get in SCEA to HYPSM.</p>

<p>If you like engineering and business, I suggest looking at: Columbia, Cornell, Brown (excellent engineering program that’s often overlooked), UPenn, Carnegie Mellon (for SCS), Northwestern</p>

<p>With your stats, you can definitely get admitted ED to any of the ivies on that list. I’d suggest researching those colleges to find which one you like best. You should also visit their campuses to get a better feel for campus life.</p>

7

<p>Do I have any chance at HYPSM?</p>

8

<p>You certainly have a chance, but those schools are crapshoots for non-URM, non-superhooked applicants.</p>

9

<p>Thanks. Can somebody describe the difference between LACs and Universities? I am sorry if this sounds stupid, but they both seem similar.</p>

10

<p>LAC = liberal arts colleges. Private universities that are focused on undergraduate teaching. Generally small, expensive, and “care about students”. </p>

<p>University = all colleges with a research/ graduate study focus</p>

11

<p>bump10Char</p>

12

<p>LAC - Small private colleges that emphasize humanities majors. Very few LAC’s offer undergraduate majors in business, engineering, applied science, and computer science*. In addition, very few LAC’s have graduate programs so almost all LAC students are undergraduates. Furthermore, the majority of LAC’s aren’t well known to employers. </p>

<p>Universities - Any college != LAC. There aren’t any good definitions of university, so [any college != LAC] is the best I can do. </p>

<p>One of my parent’s friends works as a recruiter for a large tech company. When she visited my house, I asked about the “name brand” of some colleges that I was considering. I’m planning to become a trader so the “name brand” of my school is extremely important for my career. She told me that she, like most employers, was well acquainted with the top 50 USNWR universities. She also told me, however, that LAC’s (excluding Amherst, Swathmore, Williams, and Harvey Mudd) don’t usually have much “name brand.” Due to their lack of graduate programs, most LAC’s aren’t well known to recruiters at engineering and business corporations. She told to avoid LAC’s unless I really intended to be a humanities major. </p>

<ul>
<li>There are obvious exceptions, like Harvey Mudd, but those are exceptions that prove the rule. </li>
</ul>

<p>tl;dr - You shouldn’t attend an LAC unless you’re interested in a humanities major and are comfortable being at a college where most students study humanities (Harvey Mudd is an exception of course). If you intend to become an engineering or business professional, you’re probably better off attending a well-known university.</p>

13

<p>With your stats I would not ED but rather EA to many places like UChic,UMich,UVA,Caltech,MIT, etc and do RD as well to many top universities.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

14

<p>I agree that you should try EA to lots of engineering colleges, but if you want to study business, you can try ED to Wharton/Jerome Fisher at Upenn. Both super hard to get into, but it won’t hurt to try.</p>

15

<p>I would visit a variety of schools over the next few months that interest you, if at all possible. If you aren’t sure whether you went a LAC or national u visit both, and see how you like the atmosphere. I think you do have a good chance at the ivies, especially since that is where many of the top students from your school are accepted, as you said.I would not recommend applying early decision anywhere you haven’t visited and are sure is your number 1 choice. Don’t apply early decision because of the “strategic advantage”, but if you fall in love with a school, and finances are not a problem, go for it! Best of luck! Also, I would go talk to your guidance/college counselor at school (do you have one? we have them at my school…) and they might be able to give you more personal advice.</p>