too many colleges, help please!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>ok so here is my preliminary list. keep in mind I'm at a very early stage in the process and I'm going to start seriously visiting later the summer and during the fall.
MIT
Harvard
Princeton
Stanford
upenn
columbia
cornell
brown
amherst
duke
brandeis
tufts
emory
haverford
rice
u chicago
harvey mudd
northwestern
bowdoin
carleton
carnegie mellon
NYU
BU
BC</p>

<p>I'm going to college most likely to major in some sort of biological science, probably biochemistry or molecular biology. here are my stats:</p>

<p>freshman year was P/F
sophmore year:3.08 uw 3.88w
junior year: 3.32 4.12w
this is at a very small, rigorous private school in MA that deflates grades. there are only 35-40 kids in each grade and there are no class rankings</p>

<p>PSAT
CR:78
M:72
W:71
221 total and the NMSQT sent me a letter to choose 2 colleges to send this to.</p>

<p>SAT I
(one sitting)
Overall: 2280
W: 760 - 12
CR: 800
M: 720</p>

<p>SAT IIs
Math II: 770
Chem: 770
USH: 710</p>

<p>APs
Spanish Lang: 4 (soph year, rest are junior year)
Calc AB: 5
Eng Lit: 5
Chem: 5
USH: 4
so I will be an AP Scholar with Distinction</p>

<p>the one B I got junior year was in chemistry, but I showed that I've pretty much mastered it (5 AP 770 sat II). the school has a reputaion of grading hard, plus my headmaster will send a letter to colleges and the headmaster goes to colleges and explains that the teachers grad hard. there is no class ranking (only 30 something kids in my grade), but they send graphs of what grade you got and what everyone else in that class got.</p>

<p>I have a double legacy to harvard, no URM, just white male and jewish if that means anything else. my ecs are ok, science clubs and things, did science olympiad, took the AMC, sports all 3 years, will be a captain next year. I went to JHU summer program summer of freshman year. taught ESL to latin american immigrants for 3 years and i've worked the same lab for 3 years and i'm going to do an intel science porject and hopefully finish as a semifinalist. the lab is with harvard medical school and I'm an author on a paper (because of the research I did) that might be published in nature or nature medicine.</p>

<p>so what should I eliminate? btw I'm more of a city person, but if there are things to do and nteresting people, that can replace a city setting for me.</p>

2

<p>any suggestions? am I reaching too much? please help</p>

3

<p>well, you're SATs are pretty good, but not for some of those schools. And you should concentrate on your GPA...your ECs are quite good and the double legacy at Harvard will help, but your grades are what is really holding you back. They're good, but not good enough for many of those schools.</p>

<p>MIT through Amherst are all gonna be reaches just because of the schools that they are...everybody wants in them, and many of the ppl applying will have better grades than you. </p>

<p>The rest are a mixture of matches and BU is a definite safety. UChicago and Northwestern, however, are going to be on the reach side also. </p>

<p>Don't worry...I too have a ton of reaches, but all you really need is one or two safeties, and then you can go nuts and apply anywhere given you have the time.</p>

4

<p>your list seems to be all over the place. Do you want to go to a big, medium, or small school? Research university or LAC? Core or no core? You have listed all the Ivies except Dartmouth, which would make me think you've narrowed your list a little at least, but then you list Bowdoin which is very similar to Dartmouth... so maybe you just forgot to list it?</p>

5

<p>wow, you have an extreme range of schools- from tiny, middle of nowhere LAC to huge, impersonal, urban setting; from laid back and social student body to serious and cutthroat; from artsy to jocks . each would provide a VASTLY different college experience.
exactly what are you looking for?</p>

6

<p>haha raindrop- great minds think alike</p>

7

<p>Your GPA is fine as are your scores if you are coming from one of the
private schools in Mass with no grade inflation
At my son's private school in Mass, the mean GPA is about a 3.0 or less while the mean SAT is about 1370 (old test)
and kids getting into the schools you are interested in have 3.4-3.5 GPAs UW. These colleges know the schools and understand what you have had to do to acheive the GPA that you have. Keep plugging away and you will be fine</p>

8

<p>i'm not sure he/she knows what they're looking for yet. I didn't either for a long time. But, given what schools have been suggested, your chances are decent - still, you have a lot of reaches.</p>

9

<p>well basically, I want to go to a school with good sciences, which means a research university, but an elite LAC will also have acceptable research opportunities as well. I'm very dubious of research possibilities at tiny LACs, but bowdoin amherst and carleton have good research. I prefer smaller schools, but not really small ones. mudd is the only exception there, and that's because it's so good in the sciences. a less restrictive core is probably better, and I don't know much about dartmouth. I thought it didn't have great sciences though.</p>

10

<p>MomofaKnight - I'm not sure I understand. I could see a more difficult school making it harder for students getting a lower GPA, but shouldn't the SAT then be higher?</p>

11

<p>SATs aren't everything and even saying that, his SATs are great and totally acceptable coming from his school with his GPA (with good recs, essays,Ecs)--he has a good shot at most schools on his list</p>

<p>Basically, Ivies, MIT etc are reaches for everyone--even straight A students with perfect SATs. Honestly, do you really think colleges see a 720 Sat as that much different than an 800?--they reject tons of kids with perfect SATs and perfect GPAs. These schools do not want a class full of 4.0, 2400 SAT kids---they want some diversity and interest</p>

12

<p>a 3.08uw gpa wont get you into any top schools.</p>

13

<p>no i don't mean him...his SATs are quite good, but a 1370 for a student coming out of a supposedly difficult private school seems to call into question just how difficult the academics are...I don't mean to sound rude, it just doesn't add up.</p>

14

<p>Its not always as simple as numbers---these schools look for the complete package</p>

15

<p>right, but my point is, if one is receiving a much more rigorous education, given the same standardized test as students in public high schools, wouldn't that student be expected to score much better due to his advanced education?</p>

16

<p>please show me a non hooked kid that got into an ivy with a 3.08gpa.</p>

<p>unless his parents donated a TON of money to Harvard, that wont even help.</p>

<p>academics arent the only thing, but they are the most important thing.</p>

17

<p>i got a 1520 on the sat math/verbal, not 1370. I figure that shows that my education has been pretty rigorous. unlike public schools and some private schools, this particular school doesn't inflate grades and a 3.32 gpa is pretty darn good at this school. for example, the graduating senior class was 35 people. out of a class of 35, 13 were national merit semifinalists and 13 more were national merit commended students. 19 of the 35 were ap scholars of some sort, 5 with distinction, 5 with honor and 9 were scholars. keep in mind this is out of a class of 35 students.</p>

<p>so do others agree that these schools are matches/reaches? could someone please suggest match/reach status on some of these schools? I don;t know which are better than others</p>

<p>duke
brandeis
tufts
emory
haverford
rice
harvey mudd
northwestern
u chicago
bowdoin
carleton
carnegie mellon
NYU
BU
BC</p>

18

<p>any more suggestions on match/reach for those schools or suggestions for safeties? please?</p>

19

<p>one last bump for opinions on those schools (reach? match?) and safety suggestions. pretty please?</p>

20

<p>ok so I've decided that wash u in stl looks like a very possible school for me, and it seems like a match. u pitsburgh and oberlin also seem ok for safeties. case western is pretty safe too, I think.</p>