Safety schools? Help!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, I'm applying to Uni for 2014 and need some help with the schools.</p>

<p>Currently, I am a US PR situated in either California or Minnesota but am a Singaporean by citizenship. Yes, I am Asian.</p>

<p>SAT Score: Too low to even put here, but i'll be retaking in Oct.</p>

<p>Subject Test: Lit- 680, Math L2 - 730</p>

<p>School subjects: Lit, Math, China Studies, Econs, General Paper, Chinese</p>

<p>School Ranking: We do not rank students, but I am consistently in the top 40-5 percentile for every subject</p>

<p>Extra-Activities:</p>

<p>1) Sports : Tennis, been playing since I was 10. I have represented in Inter-school Nationals twice.</p>

<p>2) Music: I achieved a Grade 5 at 12 for Piano, and ever since, have been self-teaching</p>

<p>3) Community service</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Leader for an Overseas programme to a rural village in China</p></li>
<li><p>Leader for World Vision's Famine Camp</p></li>
<li><p>Leader for various Church outreach programmes</p></li>
<li><p>Help out at the library</p></li>
</ul>

<p>4) Academics</p>

<ul>
<li>Honor Roll ( This refers to the top 50 students in the level or less)</li>
</ul>

<p>5) Clubs</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Debator (Runner-up in a challenge shield and Exco for two years)</p></li>
<li><p>Model United Nations (Clinched 'Miss Congeniality', Council Press Director)</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Universities I am applying to:</p>

<p>1) Wellesley (ED)</p>

<p>2) Northeastern (EA)</p>

<p>3) Tufts (Maybe not)</p>

<p>4) Amherst College</p>

<p>5) UCLA</p>

<p>6) USC</p>

<p>7) UC BERKELEY</p>

<p>Could you please chance me for each of these schools and suggest safety schools for me? Thank you!</p>

<p>I intend to go into Political Science/Economics.</p>

2

<p>How much is too low?</p>

3

<p>Do you need financial aid? How about Mount Holyoke or Dickinson? It is hard to recommend safeties without test scores, though.</p>

4

<p>Ahem, <em>shameless plug</em> apply to Williams College! It’s about an hour away from Albany International Airport and Amherst, so if you’re doing college visits, it’s conveniently on the way. Reasons you should apply to Williams? Too many to count, but I’ll name a few:</p>

<p>•Two-on-one tutorials, in which you and one other student meet with a teacher for classes, Oxford-style
•Beautiful view of the Berkshire Mountains
•Tons of opportunities for backpacking and skiing
•Amazing alumni network
•Our mascot is a purple cow (WHAT?)
•Tight community
•Winter Study term</p>

<p>Plus, I really think you have a good chance at getting in here, although I don’t have your GPA to base this on. </p>

<p>Best of luck! I think you have a good chance at most of these schools!!</p>

5

<p>Hello everyone :slight_smile: Thank you!
My current SAT score stands at 1860, from a lack of studying of course. But I’ve been taking collegeboard practice tests and scoring in the 2000-2100 range. </p>

<p>HAHHAHA, Peeta Mellark, you sure are an advocate for Williams. I was looking at your school because the head alumni of Wellesley based in Singapore was selling it to me too. If I ever get in, I’ll be sure to find you and your purple cow :slight_smile: any tips on getting in?</p>

6

<p>And I don’t need financial aid, but it would be good to have it.</p>

7

<p>Do you prefer to attend college in a large college or a small college?
Do you have major(s) in mind?
Is there a region where you would want to attend college in?</p>

8

<p>Hello Catria. I’d prefer a small college, but I wouldn’t mine a large college as well. So I’m largely flexible. I would be applying to a range.</p>

<p>I’d like either Boston, New York or California. Somewhere accessible, near a town or a city, so I’m not too alone all the time. </p>

<p>In addition, I’d be going into political science and economics.</p>

9

<p>Hello Catria. I’d prefer a small college, but I wouldn’t mine a large college as well. So I’m largely flexible. I would be applying to a range.</p>

<p>I’d like either Boston, New York or California. Somewhere accessible, near a town or a city, so I’m not too alone all the time. </p>

<p>In addition, I’d be going into political science and economics.:laughing:</p>

10

<p>A practice test result is not a real SAT result. With your current score of 1860, Williams and most of the other schools you listed are out of reach. Hopefully you will do better in October, but you need to be ready to apply to schools that are mostly matches, with a couple of safeties and a couple of reaches. Your subject test scores are okay but not great – per the College Board percentile ranks, you Lit score is 77th percentile, math II is 74th percentile. You probably need to identify a few more schools that are matches (not just safeties).</p>

11

<p>UCI: Match
SFSU: Safety
CSULA: Safety
St. John’s: Safety
Fordham: High match</p>

12

<p>i don’t think any of these seem like too far of a reach!</p>

13

<p>NEU seems the most reachable of your initial list, followed by UCLA and Berkeley, in that order.</p>

14

<p>Alright! Thanks everyone.
But supposing I up my grades to 2100+? What would my safeties be then?</p>

15

<p>I’d say there really is no “formula” for getting into the college of your choice. Just be yourself; just looking at what you’ve posted here, you seem like you’d make a great contribution to any college campus. I would recommend, however, focusing on your essay. The same people tend to apply to the top schools (great academics, amazing extracurriculars), and doubtlessly begin to appear the same to application readers. Write about something that demonstrates clearly who you are as a person; show the readers that you are a person with passions and pursuits, not just another number to be thrown into a pile. Hope that helped a little :)</p>

16

<p>Yup! It does really :slight_smile: if any of you are keen, I would gladly send you my essays to review? I really need help with them!</p>

17

<p>And may I know, if I manage to get 2100+, which are my safety schools and matches?(:</p>

18

<p>I often feel uncomfortable recommending “safety” schools. A safety school is one that YOU would be happy to attend, YOU are certain you can afford, and that you are almost certain to be admitted to. Finding safeties that meet those criteria is a much more difficult prospect than finding reaches. Mostly because the “what you would be happy to attend” and “what you are certain you can afford” is something we can’t really know. I feel like students who come out here asking strangers on the internet to give them safety schools are making a mistake. You have clearly taken the time to research your “reach” list, which also has a couple of matches on it. But slacking on the research for your safety is not a good idea. Quite a few students end up at their safeties, and too many of those students only did the most cursory research on them and are unhappy with them because the school is not a good fit for them (or not really a safety and is unaffordable).</p>

<p>You would be a lot better off taking a copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and reviewing it for schools that sound attractive to you and where your statistics (test scores in particular, as I can’t really tell much about your grades) place you in the top 25% for the school. And where the acceptance rate is fairly high (say over 40%, if your stats are high you probably have a pretty good chance). Check the costs on the website and see if you can afford it. If I were you I would add a couple of safeties to your list, as it sounds like you may not be able to visit before applying. Safeties that sound good on paper often aren’t as appealing in person, so having only one that you have never been to is a risk.</p>

19

<p>I would like a school that is academically-driven, yet, has a good social life where students are friendly and there are parties to attend.</p>

<p>A school that is near a town/city/airport and is well-connected with transportation. </p>

<p>A school that has good professors and extra-curriculums! Does that help?(:</p>

20

<p>What kind of grades can land you on the top 50 at your school?</p>