Recommendations for match/safeties

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Stats</p>

<p>SAT: 790 CR, 780 Math, 790 Writing (11 on essay) </p>

<p>ACT: I'm not taking it</p>

<p>SAT II: Lit: 760
Chem: 760
Math: 760</p>

<p>GPA: UW: 3.93
Weighted: 5.29</p>

<p>Rank: 39/534</p>

<p>APs: APUSH (sophomore year): 5
Junior Year:
AP Language: 5
AP Stats: 5
AP French: 3 (ew)
AP Calc AB: 5
AP Chem: 5</p>

<p>ECs/Awards: </p>

<p>NHS
NFHS
Editor on school's literary magazine
Number 8 in region in National French Contest
"Peer ambassador" for a dating abuse outreach program
Volunteer for a dating abuse helpline (different organization)
Volunteer at a law firm for women in need of legal representation
Four years of Orchestra (I'm a cellist), three in the top orchestra
Three years at Region Orchestra
Highest rating at State Solo Ensemble last year and this year
Probably getting Commended based on my PSAT score...gah, I screwed up on that one. </p>

<p>Classes next year: BC Calc, English course for AP Lit, AP Bio, AP Gov, AP Economics, Orchestra, Creative Writing, AP Psychology (Maybe...)</p>

<p>Essays: I'm a good writer and I feel like I'll write some unique essays.
Recommendation: I feel I have three people who'll give me good recommendations. </p>

<p>I'm looking at doing pre-law. I have problems with asthma so my parents are leery about letting me going to the Northeast but they said as long as the average winter temperature isn't too cold (ex. Cornell is almost eliminated) I can apply. I'd prefer a school without too much Greek influence. I would like to go to a smaller school that doesn't have a preppy feel.</p>

<p>Schools I've been considering:</p>

<p>UT Austin
Davidson (I know its reputation)
Pomona (my fav)
Rice
Columbia
UCLA
UNC Chapel Hill
Duke</p>

<p>I really need some more matches/safeties cause I feel like a ton of these are reaches.</p>

2

<p>You should be safe with austin, rice</p>

3

<p>Greek influence:
UNC
UCLA
Duke
UT-Austin</p>

<p>Large schools
UT-Austin
UCLA
UNC</p>

<p>Prepp Schools:
Columbia
Duke</p>

<p>Cold:
Columbia</p>

<p>You are pretty much left with:
Rice
Pomona
Davidson</p>

4

<p>How much can your family afford? What is your home state?</p>

5

<p>I’m in Austin, TX so because of the “top 8% get automatic admittance”, I’ve put UT Austin down as a school. </p>

<p>My parents have told me that they can afford any college I want to go to but naturally I don’t want to burden them so much; if given a choice between Pomona and UT Austin, for example, and Pomona doesn’t offer me significant financial aid, I’d probably choose UT at the moment, especially since this is only undergrad.</p>

6

<p>How severe is your asthma? I’m only curious because I live in the northeast and the cold really doesn’t bother my asthma that much. Have you had much experience in the cold? Obviously I’m not you so I don’t know how much it would affect you, I just thought I’d mention it. :)</p>

<p>That being said, here are a few schools I think you might want to look at:</p>

<p>Hamilton (safety - I know people will beat me up for this, but I honestly can’t see you not getting in there)
Claremont McKenna (match, and right near Pomona, great weather and consortium, etc.)
William and Mary (match)
Harvey Mudd College (see Claremont McKenna)
Wesleyan University (match/reach, still probably worth looking into)
Washington and Lee (match?)
I’d also maybe suggest Wake Forest based on your interests.</p>

7

<p>I was actually born in Ottawa, Canada (no plans of returning to Canada) and used to go to the emergency room because of my asthma triggered by the cold, so my parents are paranoid that my asthma is still that bad. Can’t really blame them so I’m trying to avoid getting my hopes up about Northeastern schools (which eliminates all the Ivies, lol)</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions! I haven’t really looked at William and Mary or Wesleyan…</p>

8

<p>What do you plan to major?</p>

<p>If you live in Texas, I would not write off University of Texas at Austin. Don’t let the USNWR ranking fool you, it has a VERY good reputation. The peer assessment is very high, and it’s looked at highly when applying for graduate school.</p>

<p>With you stats, you’ll likely get accepted in the honors program. The honors programs offer MUCH smaller class size. My calculus class had ~20 students, as opposed to ~400. You’ll also likely get a scholarship, although UT isn’t in the habit of giving full scholarship.</p>

<p>Of course, you should also apply for other schools and see how much they’ll give you.</p>

<p>You should also visit the colleges. Austin is consistently ranked to be one of the best college towns. Since you are from Austin, you should probably try to live on campus to get the full feel of campus life and get away from high school lifestyle.</p>

9

<p>One thing to consider: it gets very smoggy in LA, especially during the summer, and I’ve heard Pomona students complain that that gets all the way to the campus sometimes. Is your asthma only triggered by cold, or would that potentially be a problem too? (This could also be a problem at UCLA).</p>

<p>I second Wesleyan as a potential option, though if you consider someplace like UCLA a reach, Wes would be one too. But we’re small, quirky, and good for pre-law, and as New England goes, CT winters aren’t TOO bad.</p>

<p>Occidental is another LAC in LA that would certainly be a match and probably a safety, and it definitely sounds like it could be a good fit. Goucher in MD is a small, quirky school that would be a safety, and you’d probably get good merit aid, which would at least give you a choice other than UT Austin if you don’t get the aid you want from need-only schools. Goucher is a “Colleges that Change Lives” college. In general, those colleges (most of which are smaller, a little quirky) might be good for you to look into for safeties that could also give you aid.</p>

10

<p>Haha, I’m definitely not writing it off, but I’m hoping to get out of Texas especially since it feels like about 40-50 people of every senior class at my high school goes to UTA so I want a totally different experience. XD</p>

<p>Oooo, thanks for bringing up the smog issue; that definitely might be an issue. I’m visiting the LA area soon so we’ll see about that. Thanks for bringing that up. Not to sound arrogant, but I don’t think UCLA is really too much of a reach for me. Maybe a medium safety to low reach, because I’m out of state? I’m not too sure. </p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

11

<p>Might look at some Boston area schools-Tufts, Holy Cross.</p>

12

<p>

I thought that would be an issue as well, but it really isn’t if you are in the honors dorms. It’s isolated from the general population at UT, so you can keep only the connections you want. There’s a decent amount of diversity in the honors dorm. There’s more OOS as well. It has a LAC kind of feel in an enormous Public Ivy.</p>

<p>P.S. UTA = UT-Arlington. UT = UT - Austin</p>

13

<p>In response to the third post, Duke definitely doesn’t have an overwhelming Greek influence. Something like only 27 percent of students are involved and it seems as though their events and parties are campus wide and non-inclusive anyway.</p>

14

<p>Can you afford to make a short trip to the Northeast in the fall/early winter? You can check if your asthma is still triggered by the weather there. It would suck to pass on so many good opportunities (because I think there are many schools you’d love in the north: small, intellectual, no Greek scene, etc.) only to find out at some point in the future that you could have applied to some great places.</p>

15

<p>Come to the Bay Area than, Stanford and UCB have good weather and great acadamics.</p>

16

<p>@liu02bhs I’ll research more about the honors program. And lol, i should have known about UTA and UT, slipped my mind. I moved to TX from the Bay Area, so artlovers, I might look at both schools.
@Ghostt If my family can afford to make another college visit, we’ll head to the Northeast in the winter. ^^ Thanks for the tips!</p>