<p>I still don’t understand Premed’s strategy. If his stats aren’t high enough for Georgetown and he’s premed, why does he want to go to schools where he’d be “middle of the pack”? When you’re premed, you want to be top of the class, get the research opps, be noticed by profs for Letters of Recommendations, etc.</p>
<p>Go to UCONN, get high grades, do research with professors, get good LOR’s and then go on to med school. Not in a city, Storrs is kind of in the middle of nowhere, with a lot going on there. Beautiful campus, USNWR’s #27 National Public Universities. </p>
<p>I just love driving into campus, seeing the barns, the silos on the left hand side of the road and the cows, too! You might enjoy attending the basketball games & football games
as well.</p>
<p>+1 for Bucknell, also, consider Colgate and Lehigh</p>
<p>USC. it’s admissions standards have gone up quite a bit. i’m not surprised that they rejected 3.86, 2140 ( a walk through just few years ago). letters, major, essays, family background etc. (holistic!) could also contribute to admit/reject decisions. they don’t hand out trustee (full-tuition) haphazardly.</p>
<p>it’s a city school, but still teh party scene is all campus</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>sorry if I was confusing with that, as of now Cornell is my dream school and I want to go to a school similar to that, I have a legacy there and with all my stats I have a shot at that.
My stats are really confusing due to the fact that I’m just finishing sophomore year (trying to make a list of colleges to look at this summer) at a private school with a convoluted grading system:
-GPA would be ~4.0 unweighted
-Taking the hardest courses possible, 2 APs this year, hopefully 5’s and 4’s, will ideally take 9 by the time I graduate (3 next year, 4 as a senior)
-On the PSATs I took I did really bad and got a 187, I got a 73 in the math due to careless mistakes and could have gotten an 80, and then on the other sections I could have done better as well, hoping for a 210+ on next year’s PSAT and then 2100-2300 on the SATs.
-3 sports, all varsity by senior year
-president of 2 clubs and members of a few more
-volunteering at a camp this summer</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^ basic stats</p>
<p>I have to admit that Stanford is a huge reach, might not even apply, and Duke is a reach as well, but I’m hoping that I can get into Cornell with ED/ legacy. But if I don’t I have to have other schools that I would like.</p>
<p>Also, for anyone who was wondering, I’m from CT, but my dad’s really pressuring me to go to a prestigious college, and since he’s paying I feel obligated to try to get into one of the more prestigious ones and try really hard there.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt immediately came to mind.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advise guys, I was just looking around and I think Vanderbilt will definitely be one of the schools that I look at, I just hadn’t realized that it was such a good school.</p>
<p>Also, the reason I said earlier that Georgetown was a reach was because our school valedictorian was got into Yale got wait listed there, looking now it seems like it isn’t as hard as I had originally thought, although it’s still really hard to get admitted to.</p>
<p>Any good school has an ok party scene, even Chicago. I don’t think you should be too worried about that.</p>
<p>Michigan (If you consider it a safety you’re in for a rude surprise)
Vanderbilt
Northwestern
Wisconsin (good college town)
Boston College
Emory</p>
<p>BC, Emory and Northwestern sit on the outer edge of their cities, so they may or may not be “too city” for your taste. USC is about as downtown as you can get without being in the Staples Center.</p>
<p>
I purposefully didn’t call it a safety, I was just trying to give the range of the schools I was looking at and that happened to be on the lower end. I am simply making a list of colleges that I think I would like, no planning as in safety or reaches yet.</p>
<p>
yea thanks, I was just asking because for example when you are on the college confidential super search (I think that’s what it’s called) it calls some schools party schools such as Cornell and Vandy. In addition to this I have heard of some good schools as having limited or no social scene and I just don’t want to end up at one of those (don’t want to name names at risk of offending anyone).</p>
<p>Here’s my list to talk to my college councilor about:</p>
<p>Duke, Cornell, north western, emory, Upenn, Umich, UVA, Vanderbilt, WSUTL, U chigago</p>
<p>any input/ suggestions to add?</p>
<p>TUFTS! amazing social scene/night life</p>
<p>I suggest having a good proofreader review your you apps.(college councilor??)</p>
<p>You definitely need some schools lower down in the US News rankings on your list unless you plan on going to UConn as your safety. Bucknell fits the bill. Also, Lafayette.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, I’ll figure out safeties when the time comes, I was concerned about that too and asked my college councillor but he said not to worry about it because I was already ahead of the game by looking at some colleges this summer and most other students won’t start till next year. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Boston College. On the edge of Boston and has a great social scene.</p>
<p>Just some clarifications from the conversation between mom2collegekids and eiffel:</p>
<p>m2ck:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Full tuition is $33-34K/year; the extra $16-17K is r&b, etc. Most private colleges are in the $40K range, from degree mills upwards to the truly elite in this country.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For its specialty majors, engineering, etc, USC will indeed reject high-stat kids and has done so for some time. One can’t gain admission to a good engineering program with anything < 3.9/4.5+/2200. Anything < this would be the exception rather than the rule.</p>
<p>Here’s a [HS in SoCal](<a href=“http://www.pvpusd.k12.ca.us/penhi/collegeacceptance/collegeacceptance2010.pdf”>http://www.pvpusd.k12.ca.us/penhi/collegeacceptance/collegeacceptance2010.pdf</a>) that shows admits/matriculants, gpas, uw & w, SAT’s, EC’s, etc. With the surfeit of college students, it’s not unusual to see some high-stat kids rejected at many places.</p>
<p>Honestly, though, I’m not real crazy about m2ck’s commenting on anything related to UC, because she seems to have a bias against the system and tries to criticize it anytime she can. She’s an extremely valuable person on many other matters, but not wrt UC.</p>
<p>Next, you’ll read a spiel or her’s (and it is, sadly) against UC related to budgetary problems and fees that will increase three times. Budgets haven’t hurt graduation at UCLA and Cal. UCLA’s graduation is ~ 70%. Elite schools are typically 80% or so, some undoubtedly higher.</p>
<p>Correction:
Methinks the older to newer English eliminated the need for the apostrophe because it was obviously possessive anyway.</p>
<p>Here are the high uwgpa-students USC rejected 3.8 or >:</p>
<p>No.<em>Uni</em>UWg<em>Wg</em>W<strong>M</strong>R_<em>R/M</em>TotSAT_ACT</p>
<p>793 usc 4.00 4.80 630 680 630 1310 1940 32
701 usc 3.98 4.51 620 790 720 1410 2130 -
904 usc 3.96 4.66 600 750 710 1350 2060 32
792 usc 3.95 4.75 680 690 780 1370 2150 -
675 usc 3.94 4.39 540 630 710 - 1790 -
530 usc 3.93 4.56 650 740 500 1390 1890 -
968 usc 3.92 4.57 690 710 750 1400 2150 28
740 usc 3.91 4.56 670 710 760 1380 2140 31
824 usc 3.90 4.48 560 700 560 - 1810 -
674 usc 3.89 4.34 700 670 780 1370 2150 -
952 usc 3.85 4.70 630 720 700 1350 2050 -
930 usc 3.84 4.42 580 800 740 1380 2120 29
976 usc 3.84 4.69 670 630 580 - 2100 -
577 usc 3.84 4.39 710 620 660 1330 1990 -
762 usc 3.83 4.53 510 650 590 - 1750 -
1009 usc 3.82 4.67 650 700 720 1350 2070 29
852 usc 3.82 4.50 670 740 700 - 2050 -
887 usc 3.80 4.28 700 760 670 1460 2130 -
1008 usc 3.80 4.65 630 750 680 - 2060 32</p>
<p>… and the high SAT-scoring students it rejected, 2100 or >:</p>
<p>No.<em>Uni</em>UWg<em>Wg</em>W<strong>M</strong>R_<em>R/M</em>TotSAT_ACT</p>
<p>669 usc 3.55 4.30 740 700 800 1440 2240
583 usc 3.28 4.23 680 760 780 1440 2220
578 usc 3.73 4.56 630 790 760 1420 2180
792 usc 3.95 4.75 680 690 780 1370 2150
690 usc 3.69 4.37 670 730 750 1400 2150
968 usc 3.92 4.57 690 710 750 1400 2150
674 usc 3.89 4.34 700 670 780 1370 2150
788 usc 3.54 4.24 750 710 680 1460 2140
740 usc 3.91 4.56 670 710 760 1380 2140
887 usc 3.80 4.28 700 760 670 1460 2130
701 usc 3.98 4.51 620 790 720 1410 2130
930 usc 3.84 4.42 580 800 740 1380 2120
976 usc 3.84 4.69 670 630 580 - 2100</p>
<p>premed, as a rising junior you are probably ahead of most of your classmates but I’d advise against ignoring safety schools “until later”. As drax’ link shows, things are very competitive out there, so falling into the trap of, “I’ll get into one of my match schools for sure”, can be a recipe for disappointment. </p>
<p>I’m not saying you should focus intensely on safety schools but you should at least consider looking at some safeties that are near the schools you’ll be visiting this summer. You should try and put some time into the “safety” thought process and not just throw them on at the end. Read some of the acceptance threads here and you’ll find more than a few very surprised posters who are now having to go to their afterthought safety school.</p>
<p>Finally, keep in mind that at many high schools Junior year is the meat grinder year. Classes are at a higher level and often taught at a faster pace. The competition gets more intense as you and and your classmates try to buff and polish your resumes in anticipation of application season. A mediocre junior year can turn this summer’s matches into next year’s reaches and this year’s safeties into match schools.</p>
<p>*Just some clarifications from the conversation between mom2collegekids and eiffel:</p>
<p>=======================</p>
<p>Mom2’s Quote:
If you’re OOS for UCLA or UCSB, then expect to be full pay at $50k per year. </p>
<p>=============</p>
<p>Full tuition is $33-34K/year; the extra $16-17K is r&b, etc. Most private colleges are in the $40K range, from degree mills upwards to the truly elite in this country.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>???</p>
<p>Exactly what were you clarifying? To attend those UCs as an OOS student, the student needs to expect to be a full-pay at about $50k per year. </p>
<p>Going to a UC as an OOS student is soooo not worth it…especially for a Pre-med student. The UCs don’t have a high med school admit rate…they have poor pre-med advising…they don’t do Committee Letters, the grading curve can be brutal…so, not worth $50k per year…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Waaaay to the contrary… The health professions in CA are dominated by UC grads. There are UC students well represented at many of the top med schools in the nation.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Compared to which schools? Harvard, Yale, absolute top-elite privates? … absolutely correct.</p>
<p>But you have to realize that UC doesn’t try to restrict the number of applicants from its students applying to med school – via campus-to-campus advising – to pump up acceptance %'s. </p>
<p>The data each UC shows re its premed-to-med acceptances shows all who applied, even in the < 3.0 ranges.</p>
<p>So Cal’s 55% and UCLA’s 53% off of limited info is ‘unfiltered,’ and therefore very good, esp, since each has > 700 med school applicants/year, typically the top two in the nation (with adj for reapplicants ~ 1/4, and those who’ve gone for post-bac education).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I think this is overblown, and this is one of the spiels that is making its rounds on this board.</p>
<p>There are extremely strong communities of premeds at just about all UC’s – probably the worst are UCSB and UCSC. Therefore, mentorship from students would be undoubtedly strong. UCLA has a med school on campus – probably a rarity among all UCs, and undergrads in labs, etc, are often ta’d from med/phd students, who could give them advice on med school. And advising is there, probably limited in scope as counselors’ knowledge base would typically be. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m sure this is overblown… give me a for instance of a prof who denied a student a letter of rec. And who cares about anyone else.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Compared to which schools? Which UC schools have ‘brutal curves’?</p>