***Schools like UPENN***

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,
I'm a rising Senior with an interest in studying Economics or Finance. So far i have visited Penn, Villanova, Brown, and Wesleyan. What I've learned from those visits is:
- I want a school in a large urban environment.
- I want a school with a total student population with around 6,000 minimum.
- I want a school with a student body that, while obviously very bright, is not 100% concerned with their GPA. Rather, I'd prefer to be around students who enjoy being involved in extracurriculars such as sports or other competition based programs. Basically, I want an academically rigorous institution with kids who are mostly laid back. I don't want to be at a place where everyone stows away in their rooms and studies.<br>
- I am not a partyer. However, I realized you will find parties at any school so I'm not necessarily opposed to going to a "party school" because I know I can just choose not to partake in those activities.
- I want to go to a school from the Baltimore/D.C. area up through Boston. </p>

<p>Based on these findings, I have crossed Villanova and Wesleyan off my list. So, I'm left with two FAR reach schools in Penn and Brown. Therefore, I'm looking for some match and safety schools that hopefully fit my criteria. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>Also, I've heard here on CC that Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Boston College, and Boston University fit this description. Is this true? </p>

<p>As far as my qualifications,
I have a 2130 SAT and a 32 ACT. 750 Chemistry SAT II and 740 U.S. History SAT II. I also have many EC's just as pretty much everyone else does. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance for your help!</p>

2

<p>GPA?</p>

<p>have you run the net price calculators? what can your family afford? how much grant and/or merit need do you have? can your family pay the EFC? Without this info, you’re just twiddling your thumbs.</p>

3

<p>Okay, this is probably a dumb and obvious answer, but as a UPenn student I have to say Drexel! The campuses are so close they blend in to each other, there is a lot of cross-over opportunities, everyone I know there matches your criteria…it’s probably a safety/match but I can’t imagine why someone who would be super-happy at Penn wouldn’t also be happy at Drexel.</p>

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<p>Pitt and Northeastern come to mind. I found northeastern really similar to Penn’s campus. Northeastern and Penn (visited both) both have a campus inside a major city. BU and NYU were open</p>

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<p>@jkeil911‌ Sorry forgot to post that. GPA is 4.33 weighted (school doesn’t calculate unweighted). I’ve run the net price calculator at every school I’ve looked at and on average it’s about 13k for each school which my family is able to afford, 15k being the max we can pay net price. With that in mind, do you have any suggestions or info on the other schools I mentioned? Thanks for your help</p>

<p>@rebeccar‌ No that’s not a dumb answer and it wasn’t obvious to me! I’ll look into it, thanks!</p>

<p>@RugbySingh‌ Thanks for the suggestions. I’ve look at Northeastern only problem is their net price calculator puts me at 36k which is wayyyy to much. I’ll look at Pitt though, thank you!</p>

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<p>@1600mPenn‌ Same, I loved NEU’s campus but it give little need based aid, put me to 41,000 when EFC was around 22,000</p>

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<p>While Drexel is a good school if you aren’t pursuing engineering it can be an enormous financial burden, they dont give great aid and students take big loans to graduate. The biggest issue is Drexel spending money to create the premium housing while its nice is also expensive and the burden of the costs fell on students through tuition. Its a decent school for engineering but for other majors i’ve heard that you don’t get back what you put in, which in many cases, people end up putting in a lot due to its high costs.</p>

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<p>@SWeLLT‌ Thanks for your points. I just did the net price calculator for Drexel and it amounted to 34k so it’s not really an option. Still glad it was suggested and any more suggestions are welcome!</p>

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<p>PennState is a party school but you said you are ok with that but its equidistant from phili and pittsburg</p>

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<p>The Financial Aid at Penn State doesn’t seem to be what I need. But thanks for the suggestion! @SWeLLT‌ </p>

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<p>OP, I don’t think Wesleyan has an undergraduate business major. Maybe I’m wrong about that. </p>

<p>You want two majors that aren’t in the same schools within a college. Econ is in arts & sciences and finance in a business school. Given your other criteria, here are my suggestions:</p>

<p>NYU, Cornell, and Carnegie Mellon. So I’m going to go with good econ programs that have business schools: Boston University, Northeastern, Johns Hopkins, URochester, Ohio State, Penn State, UVA, UPitt, Georgetown, Rutgers</p>

<p>reaches: Penn, Brown, NYU, Johns Hopkins, CMU</p>

<p>matches: Cornell, URochester, UVA, BC, Georgetown, Boston U, Penn State Honors, Northeastern</p>

<p>academic safety: UPitt, Rutgers, Ohio State</p>

<p>I cannot speak to the npcs, of course, and I don’t know your residency. OSU has some automatic merit for OOS; UPitt has good competitive OOS merit, Rutgers has its Presidential scholarship. Some of these matches could be reaches, no doubt. The aid at the other schools is not superb. Penn and Brown are meets need.</p>

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<p>OP, why did you cross off Villanova? I’m interested in the same things as you, and I was considering Villanova. However, I haven’t gotten to visit it yet, and I don’t know much about it.</p>

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<p>@jkeil911‌ Wesleyan does not have a business major you are correct. It does however, have an economics major which pretty much all schools do. I included econ or finance because there are aspects of both that intrigue me and since they are interrelated, I feel an undergrad degree in either one will serve me well. Especially since I plan to pursue an MBA later on. </p>

<p>Thank you for the comprehensive list and the break-down of where each school falls for me. I really do appreciate your help and I look forward to learning more about the schools you’ve outlined for me. Thanks</p>

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<p>@jkeil911‌ curious as to how Cornell and Georgetown are matches?</p>

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<p>@pmmywest‌ When I stepped on the Villanova campus it didn’t feel right. Even though it’s close to Philly, looking around you would think you’re in the middle of nowhere. It’sThe campus is really spread out which for me, makes it feel like not much is going on. Also, the building you wait in before the tour starts is small and not very well maintained. This gave me a bad first impression. Even still, these are just my experiences and you could get a totally different vine when you step on campus so I encourage you to visit and see for yourself. </p>

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<p>I didn’t have the breakdown of the ACT or SAT that I would have liked to have and I’d already asked for some more data once. Looking at it again, I would have asked for state of residency and the breakdowns of the two standardized tests, particularly the math scores.</p>

<p>Cornell and GU ACT middle 50 is 29-33. Student is at upper end of middle 50. OP’s SAT isn’t out of line with the SAT middle 50s either. </p>

<p>Does that help, TMSG?</p>

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<p>@1600mPenn‌ Ok thank you for sharing your thoughts!</p>

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<p>So: ≥6000 students pretty much crosses off all LACs/LAC consideration.</p>

<p>Many of these have been mentioned, but:</p>

<p>Georgetown
U Rochester
Rutgers
NYU
Pitt
Johns Hopkins (not sure about their Econ, but their overall rep is high)</p>

<p>And… have you considered Chicago? There are two top-shelf schools there with world-renowned Economics departments:</p>

<p>U of Chicago
Northwestern</p>

<p>2130 is going to be under their mean SAT among acceptees, but they’ll let in some students with lower scores than yours. Would be worth a shot.</p>

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<p>@jkeil911‌ Additional info: SAT- 660CR, 670M, 800W. ACT- 31E, 32M, 33R, 32Sci. State of residency- Connecticut</p>

<p>@prezbucky‌ Thanks for your affirmations. I think I would love going to a school in Chicago, but I don’t think my parents would love me to. Just a bit too far away. Also, U of Chicago ACT range is 32-35 so it would be even more of a reach than Penn or Brown. Northwestern’s however, is 31-34 so that would be doable. Thanks</p>

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<p>I saw OP’s response about Chicago and just wanted to point out that the middle 50 method has to be considered in line with other factors. I don’t trust admissions rates to tell me much about particular majors at schools known for those majors, or really to tell me much of anything when I’m dealing with a particular student. And I’m also willing to adjust the method I use if a good argument can be made for doing so. Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor not a green-blooded Vulcan.</p>

<p>Last thing I want to do is give the impression that my use of the middle 50 is in any way the only method for calculating reaches, etc. Nor was it all I used. I also considered, for instance, recent trends in admissions at some of these schools (I don’t pretend to know the trends at all these schools), the econ course focus at a school, my memory and sense of reports made by seniors who’ve been admitted or denied, other reports I’ve heard on CC, personal knowledge of some of the schools from my D’s search, etc. I tend to be conservative, but as @ThatMathySciGirl‌ points out maybe I was a bit less conservative and careful this time. </p>

<p>With the 800W, I’m now less certain of my choices. I’d now consider some matches as reaches because the math score in a math-intensive track (not all schools have these) is a concern with a 670. I was approximating a 710 or 700. This student has a 1330 in the more important scores, and the 670 in math puts the OP at the bottom of the middle 50 at Cornell, Georgetown, and some of the other matches 670 is at or below the bottom of the middle 50.</p>

<p>btw, I think UChicago and Northwestern are reaches. My feeling about reaches is that you’re throwing money at a 12-1, and that for 99.5% of students a large number of reaches is a waste of money and/or an excuse not to do your homework.</p>