<p>I'm a white sophomore male at a good public school in a Dallas suburd. Here are my stats:</p>
<p>UW GPA: 3.65
Class Rank: terrible, top 25%
PSAT: 207
SAT: 2030
AP Courses: AP English Language, AP English Literature, AP Biology, AP Government, AP Economics
ECs: Lettered sophomore year in football at a very competitive school, will letter junior and senior years in lacrosse, 100+ volunteer hours</p>
<p>My goal is to get around a 220 on the PSAT and a 2300 SAT next year. </p>
<p>In college I plan on double majoring in finance and another field, most likely English, history, or political science. I have no preference when it comes to location of my college. I plan on attending either law or business school after undergrad. What schools would be good matches for me?</p>
<p>Since you want to major in business, how about SMU?</p>
<p>It is also pretty good for English.</p>
<p>That would an obvious school to put on your list.</p>
<p>Assuming that you have taken the recommended Texas high school curriculum…</p>
<p>Top quarter and SAT CR+M >= 1300 (with each section >= 600) gets automatic admission to Texas A&M:</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Admits](<a href=“http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshmen/gettingin/waysAdmitted/academic.aspx]Academic”>http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshmen/gettingin/waysAdmitted/academic.aspx)</p>
<p>UT Dallas will take you if your SAT CR+M > 1200:</p>
<p>[Admission</a> Process For Freshman Students - UT Dallas](<a href=“http://www.utdallas.edu/enroll/apply/fprocess.php]Admission”>http://www.utdallas.edu/enroll/apply/fprocess.php)</p>
<p>So if they are affordable (check the net price calculators) and you meet the criteria for automatic admission, they can be safety candidates if their academic offerings and other characteristics make them desirable places for you to attend.</p>
<p>Don’t look at UT Dallas, A&M, and SMU.
You’re better than that if you get 2100+ on the SAT, and you would be wasting your time at any of those schools.</p>
<p>Your situation is similar to what mine was (2200 SAT, white suburban male from near Dallas at a public school with an athletic background).
I’m going to Middlebury College this year (top 5 USNWR LACs), and I think it would be a great fit for you.</p>
<p>Lacrosse, and sports in general, are really big there, for one. Something like 40% of the students play a sport. The culture is really taylor-made for suburban white kids from cities, as opposed to schools like UT Dallas and A&M.
As one of the best schools in the country (right behind schools like HYPSM), they have a great, great reputation in the Northeast, as well as one of the most dedicated alumni bases in the country (#1/2 in alumni donations per capita I think?). Furthermore, the biggest program is the Economics program, and one of the most famous programs is their English program. Their economics program regularly puts kids on Wall Street (stats I saw one year had 20/90 kids from Econ on Wall Street, not counting those who went on to B/L school and worked there later), and the school in general puts many, many students at top business/law schools. </p>
<p>The curriculum is somewhat open, which should make studying more than one thing VERY DOABLE.
In fact, there is an INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AND ECONOMICS dual major program, tailored specifically to combining Polisci/Econ and developing foreign language skills (They have THE TOP foreign language department in the country).</p>
<p>Admissions are very competitive (15% acceptance rate), but I had stats similar to yours and I got in. Plus you will get an admissions boost just because you’re from Texas. Best of all, there is no common app supplement, meaning that you don’t have to do anything extra to apply there.</p>
<p>Neither UTD nor A&M are very appealing to me. UTD seems like a terrible school socially, and A&M is very cult-like from everything that I’ve seen. SMU and Middlebury look great. Thanks for the input guys.</p>
<p>Given your relatively low class rank, you need to check carefully how strongly the schools you apply to use it in admissions. Texas public universities obviously consider it very important; highly selective private schools also often consider it very important (check their common data sets, section C7).</p>
<p>Wavy:</p>
<p>I think it is unlikely that he would get into Middlebury with his stats, even if he gets his SAT up to a 2100.</p>
<p>Texas95:</p>
<p>I don’t know why the Middlebury guy says that SMU would be a waste of time for you.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that it has a great alumni network in the Dallas area, and is very good for business. And they have some sort of literary journal as well.</p>
<p>And I think it is not even a sure thing that you will get in there.</p>
<p>It is also supposedly a beautiful campus.</p>
<p>I think Middlebury would be a big reach for you. It is very very hard to get into Middlebury.</p>
<p>@floridadad55 I agree with almost everything you said. SMU does have a great alumni network in DFW, better than UT in some cases. I’ve been there a few times for sports and other school events, and the campus is great. However, I don’t think it would be too hard for me to get in. It is not very difficult to be admitted there, they have a 55% acceptance rate, about 50% of incoming freshmen are in the top 10% of their class, and my current SAT score is on the upper end of their averages.</p>
<p>What do you guys think of schools like LSU, Arkansas, and Alabama as safety schools?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Do you like those schools? Alabama has a full out of state tuition merit scholarship if you get a 1400 SAT CR+M or 32 ACT along with a 3.5 high school GPA.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus The merit scholarships offered are a big reason why I’m looking at those three. Their academic reputation is what worries me</p>
<p>Sadly, a big part of getting into business schools is where you get your degree from.
Law schools don’t care as much, but really, if you want to go into business, finance or law, your choice of school is going to matter a LOT in getting jobs. If you really want to work in one of these fields at a competitive level, don’t just settle for going “anywhere” just because the school may be cheap.</p>