Safety/Targets

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Anyone have suggestions for safety/target schools for me? I will be a computer science major.</p>

<p>-Please, no really small schools</p>

<p>ACADEMIA:</p>

<p>Freshman GPA: 3.52
Sophomore GPA: 3.52
Junior GPA: 3.75 W, 3.7 UW
Overall GPA: About 3.6</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: 610
SAT Math: 680
SAT Writing: 680
Total: 1970</p>

<p>My School does not rank.</p>

<p>AP Courses:
Biology (This year)
Computer Science A (Next Year)
Economics (Next Year)</p>

<p>3 letters of recommendation (math teacher, club advisor, guidance counselor)</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULAR:</p>

<p>President of Support our Soldiers Club (10,11,12)
-Interviewed WW2 Veteran, contributed to National Archive</p>

<p>Red Cross Volunteer (8,9,10,11,12)
-Office management, computer database organization, phone duty, etc.</p>

<p>Varsity Swimming (9,10,11,12)
-Not a recruit!</p>

<p>Member of School Atmosphere Committee(11,12; Club was founded this year)
-Group of students selected by faculty
-Helped create a video to send to New England Board of Accreditation to display information about our school
-Spread word about school ideals and beliefs in various ways</p>

<p>HOOKS:</p>

<p>I am of Hispanic descent.</p>

<p>I will not be applying for financial aid (?).</p>

2

<p>Purdue, Bucknell, Clemson, NC State, Santa Clara, U of Oregon, Vermont, Boston University, Lafayette, Wisconsin, Colorado, Kansas, Texas A&M, Florida State, Miami of Ohio, Pittsburgh, Villanova.</p>

3

<p>What do you want in a school besides academics?</p>

<p>Do you want a spirited campus (rah rah) and all that?</p>

<p>Do you want a quiet sort of school?</p>

<p>Do you want a rural setting?</p>

<p>Do you want a city setting with off-campus hangouts?</p>

<p>:) You’re lucky not to have be concerned about cost!! :)</p>

<p>Many on Schmaltz’s list are more “targets” than safeties for you. Santa Clara might even be a reach. </p>

<p>Are you going to test again?</p>

<p>How many schools are you applying to? What schools are on your current list?</p>

4

<p>“Many on Schmaltz’s list are more “targets” than safeties for you.”</p>

<p>Note URM status.</p>

5

<p>^^^</p>

<p>I saw that, but I think because Santa Clara is in Calif that being Hispanic may not count for as much. SCU is 19% Hispanic.</p>

6

<p>San Jose State University is likely a safety (assuming you mean that you do not need financial aid), but you need to calculate your CSU/UC admissions GPA as described here:
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - GPA Calculator](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)
and then calculate your CSU eligibility index as described here:
[CSUMentor</a> - Plan for College - High School Students - Calculate Your Eligibility Index](<a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU)
and then check last year’s minimums for each major here:
[url=&lt;a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1208.html]SJSU”&gt;http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1208.html]SJSU</a> Admission<a href=“note%20that%20OOS%20applicants%20needed%20a%203502%20if%20that%20was%20higher%20than%20what%20was%20listed%20for%20the%20major”>/url</a></p>

<p>Why San Jose State University? It is local to Silicon Valley, which makes it convenient for recruiters to visit the career center, and convenient for students to go to interviews for internships and post-graduation jobs.</p>

<p>List price for out of state students is about $35,000 per year (add $372 per unit to the in-state prices – normal course load is 30 units per year):
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.sjsu.edu/faso/Applying/Cost_of_Attendence/]San”&gt;http://www.sjsu.edu/faso/Applying/Cost_of_Attendence/]San</a> Jos</p>

7

<p>Take a look at Clemson! Let me know if you have any questions!</p>

8

<p>Why the ? after “I will not be apply for financial aid”? Have you asked your parents if they’re willing to pay $50K/year for college? That’s what some of those schools will cost.</p>

9

<p>@Pierre: I am definitely applying to Clemson!</p>

<p>@Erin’s Dad: I put the “?” there because I am unsure whether or not this is a hook.</p>

<p>Thank you for all the suggestions.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>Schools with poor financial aid budgets may be more need-aware in admissions, so they may admit a non-needy applicant at the margins whom they would not admit (or admit without sufficient financial aid, which is the same as a rejection for all practical purposes) if s/he had need.</p>

<p>You do mean to say that you and your family can afford full list price anywhere (up to $55,000 per year or so)? If so, then you need only look at the admissions dimension when considering whether a school is a safety (if you had cost constraints, then the list of safeties is reduced to the subset of admissions safeties that you know that you can definitely afford).</p>

11

<p>RE: hook for not needing FA…</p>

<p>Supposedly Santa Clara is need-blind, but some argue otherwise (maybe they are influenced by high school names or zip codes)…so maybe not needing FA would help there. Do you live in a fancy zip code or go to a pricey high school?</p>

12

<p>I live in an upper-middle class town in Fairfied County, CT. My grandfather has an education fund for me which has enough. I owe him everything.</p>

13

<p>Purdue - Applying
Bucknell - Don’t like Pennsylvania
Clemson - Applying
NC State - Bad location for me
Santa Clara - Don’t want religious affiliation
U of Oregon - No CS reputation
Vermont - Bad location for me, no CS rep
Boston University - Don’t like Boston
Lafayette - Not a safety or target
Wisconsin - Applying
Colorado - Bad location for me
Kansas - Bad location for me
Virginia Tech - Applying
Texas A&M - Bad location for me
Florida State - Grandfather doesn’t like it, I need to respect that since he is paying
Miami of Ohio - Hate this school, don’t ask)
Pittsburgh - Penn, no good for me
Villanova - Penn, no good for me</p>

<p>Any more? Thanks for the suggestions thus far.</p>