This is ridiculous...I really need some help

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Its basically fall and I still don't know where i'm going to apply. I have a good idea, but my list fluctuates on what people tell me. I didn't do any college visits and I don't know too much about colleges so whatever I hear from friends or read on these boards, my list changes. </p>

<p>I REALLY need to finalize my list by this week. I don't want to post my chances again here, so here's the link:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=235315%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=235315&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Skim through that please and help me decide where to apply!</p>

<p>Def. Applying
Michigan
Michigan State
UChicago
Indiana</p>

<p>Most likely applying
Carnegie Mellon
NYU-Stern
Emory
Boston College
Vanderbilt</p>

<p>Add to list or no?
Cornell
WUSTL
Notre Dame</p>

<p>I am interested in business. I like an urban atmosphere but i'm not too picky about setting as long as its not like, literally in the middle of nowhere.</p>

<p>Help me put together a list that's balanced and based on my chances!</p>

2

<p>I would be surprised if you do not get into U Michigan. Your ECs are fantastic. I would definitely keep BC and Vanderbilt. I would add Cornell- they have money and you need it. I would add Notre Dame. U Chicago is good, but they are probably less EC crazy than some of the others. They do give good aid to a number of people, too. Notre Dame likes ECs, leadership, action-taking, etc. I like NYU, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, WUSTL, too but you should check into how much aid each place has to throw around. Lots of the liberal arts colleges give good aid, too. Mich State and Indiana-safeties. I would really add and subtract schools based on their reputation for giving aid.</p>

3

<p>Good advice.</p>

<p>I think i'm going to drop WUSTL, CMU and NYU. I like Tepper and Stern but the thing is, I didn't even start studying for my SAT II subject tests and frankly, I don't want to go through the hassle again. CMU and NYU were mostly "backup reaches" if I didn't get into Umich but somehow I got into Stern/Tepper.</p>

<p>Advice?</p>

4

<p>Are your parents willing to let you go somewhere far away? Do you want to go to a school with strong athletics? What about a party school? Do you want to have 300+ person lectures? Do you want to go to a school where everyone knows each other? What activities do you want to continue in college? Do you want to study business, or economics (yes, they are different, very different)? Ask yourself questions like these, you will understand what you really think is important in a college and then can apply that to where you want to apply.</p>

5

<p>in my case:</p>

<p>definitely applying:
Macalester
Pomona
C</p>

6

<p>Michigan, Chicago, NYU, CM, Emory, BosCol, WUSTL</p>

7

<p>I want to go to a good undergrad school that will not limit my choices when it comes to grad school. Now I know people say "undergrad doesn't matter" when it comes to grad school, but realistically I want to go to a good ugrad school that will set me up for a good grad school provided I do well. </p>

<p>I don't care if its a party school or not, because if you're going to party you're going to party regardless of the school. </p>

<p>I want to study business. Econ if I don't get into a ugrad bschool.</p>

<p>I want to go to a school in either an urban atmosphere or in a good college town. Climate doesn't matter.</p>

<p>Money is a factor. I want to go to a school that has good opportunities for aid, but I don't want it to be the one thing holding me back. I have an outside source to help me with my college tuition, but I want to go to a school that is generous with aid.</p>

<p>I decided not to apply to NYU and CMU because 1. they don't give much aid and 2. I don't/am not ready to take the SATII's for them.</p>

<p>List so far:</p>

<p>Michigan State
Indiana
Michigan
Boston College
Emory
Vanderbilt
UChicago
Notre Dame</p>

8

<p>Run away screaming from UChicago. Now. </p>

<p>You don't study business here. You study economics. It's an excellent department, but then you have to put up with the other econ majors. Which, by the way, are 20% of the school.</p>

<p>It's on par with Harvard etc. for costs and there isn't nearly as much alumni funded stuff (because they make their students miserable, and thus when those students become alums they won't donate don't want their children to go there). The cost of my schooling right now takes up 1/3 of my family's net income. It's not fun.</p>

<p>Cool city? If you leave Hyde Park often, yeah. Anthropologically, the south side is fascinating, but I don't think it's what your average kid's hope of big city life is. </p>

<p>Also, don't go to Michigan State if you're looking for intellectual stimulation. I've heard the poli sci college is decent, but my friend who just landed up there is miserable because the conversation is exactly the same as it was in high school.</p>

9

<p>You might want to look at adding UW-Madison to your list, although I don't know about how much aid you would get. They have a strong business school and a similar feel to UM.</p>

10

<p><a href="http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college_092503.pdf&lt;/a>
<a href="http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college2_092503.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://wsjclassroom.com/pdfs/wsj_college2_092503.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>This is a listing of grad school placement per school, it could help you with your list. One is for all schools, the other for public institutions.</p>

<p>I had the same thought as you thinking "hey, I could just study Econ if I didn't like business." I'm taking Econ and It has nothing to do with business. It's harder, it's not fun, and I wish there was a way I didn't have to take the class (it's a major requirement). I would STRONGLY suggest that you study business, because it's something you want to study and are interested in, so you will do better in it.</p>

<p>In terms of business schools tha fill a good amount of need based aid, here is a list, the numbers on the right are the percentage of applicants who have 100% of their need filled:</p>

<p>Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (Sloan) 100
Emory University (Goizueta) (GA) 100
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 100
Cornell University (NY) 100
University of Virginia (McIntire) * 100
Boston College (Carroll) 100
Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) 99
Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC) 99
Univ. of Southern California (Marshall) 96
University of Iowa (Tippie) * 92
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 90
Case Western Reserve Univ. (Weatherhead) (OH) 88
University of Texas–Austin (McCombs) * 88
Babson College (MA) 88
U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) * 75</p>

<p><em>Note: Schools that didn't report % of applicants who had 100% filled: NYU, Notre Dame, RIT, and Arizona State. I wouldn't consider NYU b/c of their aid, but Notre Dame supposedly has great FinAid, Arizona State gives out good scholarships for a student with your scores, and RIT has good aid and scholarships for someone like you.</em></p>

<p>From that list, I can say you're probably not getting into Penn, MIT, and WUSTL. I mean, everyone has a chance, but a student with a 3.3 GPA, high need, and no huge hook other than good ECs isn't going to get in, as your test scores aren't better than the other applicants. I remember you saying earlier that you didn't want to go to MIT anyways, so cross it off. Here's a list of schools, i'm sure you can find one's you like and don't like from here, and eliminate some. Or if you really want to, apply to all of them!</p>

<p>REACH
Emory University (Goizueta) (GA) 100
Cornell University (NY) 100
Georgetown University (McDonough) (DC) 99
Univ. of Southern California (Marshall) 96
University of Notre Dame (IN) n/a</p>

<p>MATCH
University of Virginia (McIntire) * 100
Boston College (Carroll) 100
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 90
U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) * 75</p>

<p>SAFE MATCH
University of Texas–Austin (McCombs) * 88
Case Western Reserve Univ. (Weatherhead) (OH) 88
Babson College (MA) 88</p>

<p>SAFETY
University of Iowa (Tippie) * 92
Michigan State University (Broad) * (in-state)
Arizona State University (Carey) * n/a
Rochester Inst. of Technology (NY) n/a</p>

<p>*Note: I didn't include numbers for avg. % of need filled, as the other numbers are better for an applicant in your situation, but RIT fills 90% on average, and Arizona State 64% (keep in mind you're getting more than this).</p>

11

<p>And I will tell you again, don't apply to Indiana. They will give you a 7K/year scholarship, and you will get a pell grant, but even with that, your tuition will still be about 10K/year. I would be going to MSU if I was studying business, as IU after FinAid is about twice as expensive as MSU, where you will receive the MCS and the MEAP award for about 2500/year in addition to your pell grant. Same for Michigan, if you get in there, I don't think they reject many kids with 33 ACTs who are in-state.</p>

<p>Also drop Vandy and Chicago. Great schools, you can probably get in, but they don't have business, and you don't want to spend 4 years somewher doing something you don't want to do.</p>

12

<p>Vanderbilt has managerial studies courses (Finance, Accounting, etc.) that kids take while majoring in economics.</p>

13

<p>


</p>

<p>Excellent questions that cut to the chase.<br>
Is there any website (hopefully, free) that asks these type of questions and, upon answering them, informs the student which schools he/she should consider? Thanks.</p>

14

<p>collegeboard.com
usnews.com</p>

15

<p>REACH
Emory University (Goizueta) (GA) 100
University of Notre Dame (IN) n/a
Vanderbilt
UChicago</p>

<p>MATCH
Boston College (Carroll) 100
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor * 90</p>

<p>SAFETY
Michigan State University (Broad) * (in-state)
Indiana</p>

<p>I think this is going to be my college list. I already applied to Indiana so I can't take it off, haha.</p>

<p>I'm keeping chicago and vandy on because I finished the essays and I want to try for two prestigious schools not b-related. </p>

<p>I'm going to look into USC and UT Austin though....out of the list of colleges A2Wolves posted, those two are the only two I have an interest in....although there are a lot of other good schools on the list, I can't see myself going to georgetown, cornell or viriginia for some reason.</p>