Thinking up of more college choices

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey. Please help me make a college list. I only have 3 colleges so far and my counselor wants at least 10 possibilities. It's due next Friday and I'm freaking out.</p>

<p>Caucasian male
Current Junior
Home state: New York
Private all-boys boarding school
No financial aid needed (have discussed with parents)</p>

<p>Won't be taking more sat 2s. Taking AP World History, AP Bio, AP Spanish, and AP Government this year. I'm expecting my gpa to either stay the same or be extremely similar to my current gpa.</p>

<p>UW GPA: 3.87
W GPA: 4.21</p>

<p>SAT 1: 2300 (740 CR, 780 W, 780 M)
SAT 2: World history, U.S. history, Chemistry all 780, Math 2C 770
AP: U.S, Calc BC, Chem all 5, Macro Econ, Micro Econ, and English Lit all 4</p>

<p>ECs: Varsity Crew Captain (all-state champions), Varsity Tennis Captain, Future Business Leaders of America co-president, Debate Team
- all done for 4 years (all captain/president positions are in senior year) </p>

<p>Summer: Johns Hopkins CTY for 2 years, internship at Goldman Sachs for 1 year</p>

<p>Recs: good but not amazing (counselor is my neighbor and hates my dog)</p>

<p>Essay: great (about crew)</p>

<p>Awards: If nothing goes wrong, will graduate as valedictorian</p>

<p>Things to note:
- Legacy at Yale - Father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and 2 uncles all went to Yale and older brother is currently going to Yale
- Legacy at Brown - Mother and older sister</p>

<p>Current colleges on list: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, U of Notre Dame</p>

<p>Prospective major: Politics or Business</p>

<p>Please recommend at least 5 more colleges I should consider.</p>

2

<p>Are you willing to consider small? You should have Amherst and/or Williams and/or Middlebury on your list. There was a recent Amherst vs. Williams thread if you don’t want to apply to both. Is continuing with crew an issue? For business shouldn’t you also consider Penn and Dartmouth?</p>

3

<p>Holy Cross has a good crew team.</p>

4

<p>Gosh…you’re only a junior and the GC expects a list of 10 schools by Friday?</p>

<p>Ok…</p>

<p>Current colleges on list: Harvard, Yale, Brown, Georgetown, U of Notre Dame</p>

<p>Add a few of these…Stanford, Penn, Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Wash U, …and a couple of safety schools…like Indiana (Kelly) and Mich (Ross)</p>

5

<p>You are as “matchy” as anyone on this Board for the top 20 schools. </p>

<p>You don’t have any more to prove academically. It’s now for you to decide what you want. If Yale, then SCEA and be done with it. If admitted to Yale, you have only to apply to a school you might prefer… Brown? Dartmouth? Notre Dame, Georgetown SFS? You listed Future Business, so I would assume Penn-Wharton would be a possibility for you interest. </p>

<p>If however you are not successful with Yale SCEA, that will signal to you that you need to cast a broad net within the top 20… that something is missing that we don’t see from your stats. </p>

<p>My prediction is that you will get in to Yale SCEA, then be in a position to be extremely selective about where else you apply over the ensuing two weeks.</p>

6

<p>mom2: I would consider Vandy, GTown and Notre Dame as quasi Safeties for this applicant.</p>

7

<p>I think those three are matches and not safeties. Good probability he’ll make it into at least one, though.</p>

8

<p>*mom2: I would consider Vandy, GTown and Notre Dame as quasi Safeties for this applicant. *</p>

<p>Matches…but he does have a reasonable chance for acceptance EXCEPT that he’s from the NE which may be an overly represented group at those schools. So many top NE students use those schools as backups to ivies…</p>

9

<p>Thanks. I turned in a list for my counselor…Can you chance me on my top choices?
Harvard, Yale, Brown, UPenn, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Vandy, UMich</p>

10

<p>They’re all reaches except for the ones we IDed as matches, if for no other reason than the selection percentage. What is your safety school?</p>

11

<p>I’m not sure…I’m thinking maybe Penn State and maybe one of the SUNYs</p>

12

<p>I think Indiana (Kelly) would be a good safety. Better than a SUNY…JMO</p>

13

<p>OP: I’ll give it a try.</p>

<p>H: your stats are around 75%, so instead of 5% chance (20% of admits are hooked in some way) for a mid-stat applicant, I think you’re more like 15%
Y: due to muliti-generational Legacy status, 40% - 50% vs. 20% or so for non-hooked 75% statted applicants
B/D: smallish Ivies, so separate tier fron N/P. Stats are probably 80%, so I’d give you 35% for each
N/P: again stats 80%, so 40% each
ND/V/G: Stats are now closer to 85%… 50%-60%
M: 90% if you apply in their new Early Action program, 70% otherwise.</p>

14

<p>P.S. Have you tried “thinking down” of more colleges choices? Sorry, I just find the phrase “thinking up” amusing.</p>

15

<p>Haha thanks. Some coaches have contacted me about crew (Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and Brown) but I don’t know because they all want definite answers. Apparently, I can’t apply RD for any other school if I accept an offer. I’m pretty sure I won’t be going to California though.</p>

16

<p>You’re a junior and they want definite answers now???</p>

17

<p>No. But, coaches and my counselor have told me to be thinking about it now so that I will be able to make a decision before December next year.</p>