<p>Entering my senior year, I have though long and hard about what schools to apply to and what i want in a school. Here is my list.</p>
<p>Reach:
Columbia, George Washington U, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, U Penn</p>
<p>Match:
Boston U, NYU, Northeaster, Northwestern, UCLA, USC, Chicago,</p>
<p>Safeties:
U of Washington</p>
<p>*** I have chosen these schools based on the three wants or necessities of a school that i am to consider attending which are... In or bordering a very large metropolitan area (preferable in), A large student body (bigger the better), and level of prestige.... My interests for majors and minors revolve around business, economics, and political science.</p>
<p>*** Now after all this info what am i asking? Basically can you recommend any universities to add or detract from this list. I especially would like some more safeties. Also any input you would like to add about the above institutions would be greatly appreciated. However, I'm not asking if i can get into these schools, so i will not be posting all my credentials and such as I know what i can do (and cannot do as well) and what my stats and connections etc. can do.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for your input and conversation!</p>
<p>switch the spots of northwestern and GWU… BU and Chicago are on a different level of selectivity… depending on your stats chicago is most likely a reach as well</p>
<p>yeah your right. That was a typo on my behalf. GWU is in the match category on my paper. And northwestern was borderline between the two categories. And I know that i said i wouldn’t get into credentials but i will let you know i got a 2270 on the SAT which i understand to be extremely good and my counselor told me that it would aid greatly in getting me into most of my match schools.</p>
<p>Reach:
Columbia, Georgetown, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley (OOS), U Penn, Northwestern, Chicago</p>
<p>Low Reach:
UCLA (OOS), USC, NYU</p>
<p>Match:
Boston U, Northeastern, George Washington U</p>
<p>Safeties:
U of Washington</p>
<p>Fixed it for you</p>
<p>Really? How much harder is it to get into the california schools out of state? I’ve read that with the budget cuts, its actually easier for out of staters to get in because of the hiked oos tuition.</p>
<p>I’ve looked through your other threads and you have never posted your quantitative info (Grades/scores) before now. What are your grades and what was the rigor of you classes, though (for some of those schools those are rated as more important than scores)? Otherwise it seems Noobcake has done a pretty good job.</p>
<p>I agree with noobcake’s reassessment. </p>
<p>Personally, I would cut one or two from the UCLA, USC, NYU, Boston U, Northeastern, George Washington group. I don’t see any real need for six matches/low reaches.</p>
<p>Because CalGrants were completely cut, there isn’t as huge of a difference between OOS and IS tuitions, and our family’s EFC is 0. I would say UCLA is actually in the reach, not low reach.</p>
<p>Well i’ll list a few that i can think of off the top of my head. currently 2nd in my class. class treasurer, as well as officer in FBLA, TARS (i founded), Student Council, and Foreign Language. Currently i have 9 Varsity letters with 3 on the way (pending injury “knock on wood”.) I can think of 11 AP classes (including this years schedule.) Don’t know my GPA but I’ve have never had anything lower than a 95 and my 0-100% GPA is usually in the high 98%. SAT 2270. Took Spanish for 6 years and speak fluently. Have some very strong connections too.</p>
<p>Are you referring to the strong connections with wealthy powerful people than in other threads were considered to be useless? I wouldn’t depend upon those. Otherwise, I would consider your list at about the right level. Have you contacted the coaches at these schools? That may help you.</p>
<p>They aren’t useless if they donate to the school or know people within the college that can get people in. And a lot of other sources say knowing alumni does help. Though maybe not a whole lot. But every little positive on an application helps. Especially when applying to schools where everyone has a lot of positive qualities, that a tiny something extra grants you admission. I’m not going to get into this too much because it is a small detail. But in my mind it can help and its not useless. And i would like to say that everything i say is with the utmost respect and i appreciate the conversation.</p>
<p>OP- I hope you realize that you will be in the vast minority politically, based on your alliteratively insulting name, at probably all your schools listed. If you are ok with that, great. If that is a big deal you probably will want to look a some schools like SMU, Baylor, U of Alabama et al… You would be right at home at Bob Jones or Liberty.</p>
<p>I am very proud and secure being a conservative republican. If i wasn’t i wouldn’t be telling the whole community with my name. I preach my party’s word like Christian’s preach the bible. So in other words, I like debating and arguing politics with other people. So thank you for your post and information. But it doesn’t bother me at all. In fact it sounds kinda fun</p>
<p>It would be fascinating to talk with you in 4 yrs to see how you have changed. I surmise that since you want to go to great schools to be educated, you admit there are many things of which you know not. Why else would you spend 4 yrs paying thousands of dollars being subjected to professors judgement and tests. You realize most educated people are liberal and professors are the most educated members of society. It will be a true challenge to your mental discipline going into that environment with your preconceptions and remaining open minded enough to learn.</p>
<p>I wish you the best. I have been where you are now. It was more challenging than I thought but I became a much better person from the experiences of an excellent college.</p>
<p>Good luck with your search. The best is yet to come.</p>
<p>and you are applying to Berkeley why? To stand-out and be different?</p>
<p>Two great schools that are not quite as liberal and have a good number of Conservatives are Notre Dame and wake Forest. Don’t worry about political differences, the only people who don’t respect them are ignorant people both Democrats and Republicans.</p>
<p>Thank you very much “Swish” for your response. Although i would love to differ, I don’t know everything and that is why i want to invest a good deal of money and 4 years (maybe 6) of my life into education. I’m not arguing that most liberals are or are not very well educated. However I would like to add a little something in to this scenario. My number #1 choice is NYU which is in the heart of Democratland and Liberal City, but facts state that an overwhelming majority of businessmen and women are republicans. I want to go to business school. Meet and associate with business people. They are probably going to be republican as well for 2 reasons. #1 they are interested in business and businesses like lower taxes. And #2, a lot of NYU is upper class or “wealthy” and wealthy people also like lower taxes so good old rich daddy is going to raise his kids to be republican too. Parents do it. I got into politics cause my dad would always listen to Rush on the radio and we would discuss it. Anyway i just thought i would through my reasoning out there. I should change the title of the thread to “Let’s Talk Politics” or something. LOL it would be more suitable</p>
<p>Seriously though why do both the main political parties suck horribly?</p>
<p>
Knowing alumni can help by giving you the insiders’ perspective on what the college experience was like at their schools, or by putting you in touch with people who can help you address specific issues. That, in my opinion, is how the connection is best exploited.</p>
<p>The fact that your connections donate to the school is unlikely to help at all unless it is a close relative (parent, grandparent) whose donations are into the many millions of dollars. Dropping names in an interview, or getting a LOR from a famous person who does not know you well, could even backfire. </p>
<p>The application process is an opportunity to show your character to the school. The essence of immorality is in laying claim to what does not justly belong to you. This quality shows itself in small matters as well big decisions. So you have to be careful about trying to pull strings. The adcom likely will see through it. More importantly, if not done carefully and in a good spirit (as a sincere request for appropriate help), it’s a bad habit to get into in life. Which is not to say that “networking” is a bad thing. But learn to finesse it as a smart, ethical person not as a sleeze-bag.</p>
<p>By the way, the best colleges are not uniformly liberal. In my (rather dated) experience of Chicago, the atmosphere was well-balanced and civil. Opinions ran the gamut from very far left to moderately right (vocal Nazis, no; cultural conservatives, yes). The focus was more on understanding why people believe what they believe, not proselytizing.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>