<p>Agree, csdad! Be warned, most high school counselors will tell you to wait until the spring of junior year and I think it’s well meant but misguided advice. Not only does it create unnecessary pressure if the test needs to be retaken in the fall for ED purposes, but SAT IIs and APs compete with that testing timeframe as well.</p>
<p>Especially you want to me a NMSF… I would recommend students to start studying early in their soph year on a consistent basis. Wish I could of told that to myself T.T</p>
<p>Great post!</p>
<p>You didn’t say anything, however, about being realistic about the cost of going to college. I think this is the most important thing a student must consider. There is no point getting excited about a school if you can’t afford it. Too many kids start out with the idea that they can get financial aid, and then end up with enormous loans. Start with a realistic discussion with your parents about what they can contribute.</p>
<p>I’d say costs are an issue if you’re planning on going into liberal arts, but for professional school, a prestigious college will pay itself off fairly quickly (speaking from experience after recruiting season at an ivy). </p>
<p>I’d also have to disagree with OP on whether prestige matters. It won’t affect your college life, no, but it will have an enormous impact on what opportunities are available to you after graduation. You don’t always have to choose the most prestigious school but you should go for something within the same tier. Since you applied for wharton, I’ll assume you have an interest in business. Most (but not all) banks and consulting firms that recruit at wharton will also recruit at chicago though with a preference for wharton kids. In comparison, most major firms don’t regularly recruit at boston university so your chances of landing an awesome job post grad are slim to none even if you do have a 4.0 and some amazing internships (assuming you can get them in the first place). An exception always exists if you have a family member or close friend who can recommend you to the firm in question but I’m not sure most people can rely on that.</p>
<p>Should you choose a college that fits you? Yes, but keep in mind fit also includes what kind of job you want to aim for after graduation and that there is a pretty big difference between schools in different tiers as far as recruiting goes.</p>
<p>Didn’t you know MIT has a top business school?</p>
<p>Thank you! Your post about writing more concisely w/ character limits definitely helped me. I’m doing my common app right now. :O</p>
<p>@Sid</p>
<p>Thank you very much for the post! I just started my junior year, and though I’ve begun the college search process, I don’t yet know that much on the specifics of applying. You provided some helpful background information for me to keep in mind. I have a few questions for you, if you don’t mind answering them:</p>
<p>1) Did you take the ACT as well? If so, do you have any tips? If not, may I ask why?</p>
<p>2) How many SAT subject tests did you take? (I am assuming you did because I do believe all four schools you listed require two with the SAT…?)</p>
<p>3) Did you by any chance start your own club in high school? Any tips and/or guidance in that department?</p>
<p>4) How might I brainstorm essay topics? Other than pondering what I’m “passionate” about for hours, is there a way I might trigger some great-in a simple kind of way-ideas?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance! :)</p>
<p>Can you tell me how the SAT is predictable? Do you know the prompt for writing section for the next SAT ?</p>
<p>the SAT is predictable in the sense that they always use a certain bag of tricks to test your logic and critical thinking. if you do a lot of practice tests, you can see the patterns in the questions. the tricks are repetitive.</p>
<p>"I’d say costs are an issue if you’re planning on going into liberal arts, but for professional school, a prestigious college will pay itself off fairly quickly (speaking from experience after recruiting season at an ivy). "</p>
<p>Nice thought, but most 16 and 17year olds are unrealistic about this, and many will resort to magical thinking about college costs and how much they estimate they can make after graduation. We are living in incredibly uncertIn times Personally, I’m not interested in starting an argument here about prestige and college costs, (and not everyone on these boards are looking at ivies and professional schools, so let’s not assume that’s what we are discussing and shut out other types of students). That has been done to death on these boards. I stand by my assertion that a discussion on college costs and how much a student and his or her parents can afford must come first.</p>
<p>Awesome post.
A few things: I really do not have that many extracurriculars. I’m in Upward Bound, if anyone knows it (sort of a college prep program for people whose parents didn’t go to college, six weeks out of the summer), Beta Club, NHS, and I plan on being class president, or at least an officer for the next two years (I’m a junior), and I was an officer last year, too.
But all of my classes are no joke. I’ve been basically completely above grade level since freshmen year, and this year I’m in three APs and an honors, and the other two important classes that I have are ones in which I am the only junior. By the time I graduate, my GPA should be somewhere between 4.0-4.5, and I haven’t take my ACTs or SATs yet.
Question: Even with my limited ECs, do you think I still have a good chance of getting into a school like UChicago or UPenn / various other prestigious places (not Harvard level, I doubt that could happen)? I know name isn’t everything, but it’s really important.
What are the minimum SAT or ACT scores that someone like me would need to get into these schools? Thanks for everything in advance.</p>
<p>what made you decide BU over Northeastern out of curiosity?</p>
<p>Wow, the original poster is quite lucky to have gotten into all of the schools she applied to. I have known several great students who were not so lucky, and a few good-but-not-stellar students who have gotten into great schools. You have to remember that college admissions are pretty subjective, and that is why my high school advised that seniors apply to 6-8 colleges with varying acceptance rates. A common rule is to apply to a couple of safeties, a couple of reaches, and a couple of matches. I applied to 8 colleges, 3 of which were ivies/Stanford. I got into two of my safeties, but I was surprised that I got waitlisted at two of my match difficulty schools. It turns out that those schools wouldn’t have been great matches for me anyway because I wouldn’t have enjoyed the environment. I got rejected from all three of my reach schools. Luckily I got accepted to a small but highly selective school that probably fit me the best. (That acceptance arrived later than my rejections, causing a few days of panic for me.) What I was most surprised to learn from the whole process is that financial aid can affect admissions quite a bit. Applying for financial aid at a school that is strapped for cash may hurt your admission chances, so be aware of the school’s financial situation.</p>
<p>Hi sidthekid.
Your post is great … By the way which books did you use for SAT Prep and did you take the ACT test as well.</p>
<p>sid, that post is so inspiring. If I saw you in real life right now, I’d probably glomp you.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity… has anyone else taken the SAT 754907534908506835907689035685 times and improved their score? I’ve never done it (though I’ve taken it maybe four times already, but no improvement.), just been trying to take tips from the book. A friend of mine once said she took the Chem Regents like 5 million times, and then got a 98 or something on it. But like I’ve said, never done anything like that, so I don’t know if it works for everyone or wouldn’t work for me or w/e (of course I won’t know till I try.)</p>
<p>OP, you are not an expert in college admissions, you just are one person with one college acceptance experience–an experience which includes some poor choices (despite excellent credentials, you applied to only two highly selective schools, neither of which you wanted to attend). You ended up attending a school you are overqualified for. Don’t you think it’s rather presumptuous of you to offer advice? You actually have no idea why you were accepted to these colleges–only your best guess–so you are in no position to reveal any “secrets” to young posters who are asking you questions as if you are some kind of admissions guru. It’s lovely that you’re happy with your experience, but it’s a logical fallacy to assume it can be generalized to anyone else.</p>
<p>Thanks for sharing the experiences.</p>
<p>@MommaJ I think that’s why the OP put the word “secrets” in quotes in the title. he’s not necessarily saying that his advice is confidential information which will get someone into any college, but he does have some good, overall advice which is helpful. maybe he’s not an expert, but it’s nice to get a little advice from others who have recently been through the process</p>
<p>MommaJ: the OP is doing what everyone else does on CC. I don’t think he/she needs this criticism.</p>
<p>I agree…I think this is a great post. There are a lot of factors that colleges consider especially volunteering. I read something very similar at IvyInsidr where a lot of Ivy League students talked about volunteering.</p>