Top Tier Colleges for a B Student

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a high school senior this year and am desperately looking for a realistic chance for an assortment of colleges and universities. As a first generation prospective college student, my immigrant parents are slightly clueless when it comes to helping me out in the admissions process, which I understand, but is frustrating at times. Also, I am aware that my gpa is not top tier caliber, however I've been told on numerous occasions that the admissions process is unpredictable, and so I'm planning on applying to numerous top tier (reach) schools as well as a few in-state safeties. Please be polite yet truthful. Thanks!</p>

<p>Schools: Kenyon College, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio State U (in state), Purdue, all of the UC's (UCLA, UC Merced, Berkely, Irvine, etc.), Wellesley College, Barnard College, Agnes Scott College, University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign, College of Wooster, Denison University, University of Michigan Ann Arbor.</p>

<p>Also, if you know of any universities (that have a strong Psychology program) that might be a fit for me, please let me know.</p>

<p>SAT: 1900 (retaking in October and plan on scoring much higher)
ACT: 28
GPA (Cumulative unweighted) 3.3 I know its a bit low, but due to personal circumstances (severe anxiety and frequent panic attacks) and some not-so personal circumstances (teacher strike that lasted about 2-3 months). I go to a generally well respected public high school.</p>

<p>Senior Year Classes: AP Bio,AP Stats, AP English, AP Computer Science, AP Macro and Micro Economics. I plan on getting all A's and 1 B this semester. Also took AP US History (4) and AP Gov (3). I've taken mostly honors and AP classes in High school. Lastly, I am independently studying for the AP Psych exam and plan on scoring high (I want to be a psych major)</p>

<p>E.C.s: Treasurer of Spanish Club 9-12 grade, One of the founders of my school's Model UN team, Volunteer at multiple renowned hospitals, did research with a psychology professor at a local university, intern at the Center for the History of Psychology at a local university, Editor and VP for The Voice: my school's first literary magazine, and more. I also went to Costa Rica and did some volunteer work at a local school located in a notorious gang violence, drug trafficking area. As you can probably tell, I am really into volunteering. And as cliche as it may sound, I want admissions committees to know that volunteering is a big part of my life.</p>

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<p>bump…</p>

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<p>I don’t recognize all the colleges on your list, but to deal with the ones that I do know… Purdue: Match (I think) but SATs have gotta go up by 100 or so to be sure.
Barnard and Wellesley: reaches, as you know</p>

<p>The one thing I can really contribute to this is the GPA issue; I have the same GPA and suffer from that along with the immigrant parents bit. From what I get, many people end up having the same GPA, and the same ECs. Having varied and interesting ECs, (as well as stressing them in your app) will put the light on you as an interesting student and just not another name on paper. Stress the immigrant bit, see if diversity can help you…</p>

<p>Lastly, good luck on the SATs. If you can swing it 200 points, there are some good university openings and chances…</p>

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<p>-Reaches-
UC Berkeley: out of reach
UCLA: HIGH reach
Barnard: HIGH reach
UMich: high reach
Wellesley: high reach
Kenyon: high reach
Case Western: low reach</p>

<p>-Matches-
UC SD: high match
UC Irvine: high match
UC Davis: high match
UC SB: high match
Denison: high match
Ohio State: mid match
Agnes Scott: mid match
Wooster: mid match
Purdue: low match
UIUC: low match</p>

<p>Good luck! :)</p>

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<p>Beatles,Thanks so much for your advice!I appreciate it!</p>

<p>TypeRA, I appreciate your insightful advice, and I am glad you could relate to my parental situation! Good luck with your search!</p>

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<p>Have you run the net price calculator on the school website for all these schools? That would be a good idea – your list is pretty long, that is a lot of applications (and a lot of financial aid paperwork) to complete. It might help you pare your list down a little.</p>

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<p>Sorry, I’m a compulsive bumper…bump</p>

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<p>So… have you run the NPCs? You bumped, but did not answer the question… because it doesn’t matter if you can get in if you can’t afford it.</p>

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<p>Intparent, regarding the net price calculator, I have done that for a few colleges. While I will be applying for financial aid, my household income does not qualify for much aid-if any. Nonetheless, thank for for your advice!</p>

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<p>So… your parents can afford to pay 60K per year for a college like Wellesley and have agreed to do so? Just asking… we get so many students out here who figure they will think about the money part later. And spend a lot of time researching and chancing for schools they actually can’t afford.</p>

<p>You can keep bumping, but I think thebeatlestoday has given a pretty accurate assessment of your chances.</p>

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<p>Are you a California student? Do you know your UCGPA? </p>

<p>Almost all the UC’s (except Santa Cruz, Riverside and Merced) are averaging a UCGPA of 4.0 or above, and GPA seems to be weighted more heavily than SAT or ACT.</p>

<p>Here is UCLA’s 2012 admitted student profile
<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof12.htm[/url]”>www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof12.htm</a></p>

<p>Cal
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/berkeley/freshman-profile/[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/berkeley/freshman-profile/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UCSD 2013
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/san-diego/freshman-profile/index.html[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/san-diego/freshman-profile/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UCD 2013
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/davis/freshman-profile/index.html[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/davis/freshman-profile/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UC Santa Barb 2013
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/santa-barbara/freshman-profile/index.html[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/santa-barbara/freshman-profile/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UC Irvine
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/irvine/freshman-profile/index.html[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/irvine/freshman-profile/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UC Santa Cruz
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/santa-cruz/freshman-profile/index.html[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/santa-cruz/freshman-profile/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Merced
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/merced/freshman-profile/index.html[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/merced/freshman-profile/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Riverside
<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/riverside/freshman-profile/index.htmlverside[/url]”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/riverside/freshman-profile/index.htmlverside&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Intparent, again, my family is in no way millionaires, but we have agreed on all of these school. Thanks again!</p>

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<p>Shrinkrap, thanks for those stats!</p>

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<p>Kenyon, Wellesley, and Barnard are all reaches to high reaches with your test scores and GPA, but Agnes Scott and College of Wooster are matches. I don’t know about the UC’s and I don’t recognize the rest.</p>

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<p>I disagree with some of the above posts; I think with your awesome ECs and personal circumstances that UCLA and Berkeley are reaches, not high reaches. Get your SAT up above 2000 to solidify them as reach schools.</p>

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<p>Guitar500, Thank you so much! I appreciate it!</p>

<p>Shrinkrap, how does one calculate the UCGPA?</p>

<p>duckylink, its amazing what a few words can do to boost confidence! I appreciate your advice, and am definitely going to get my SATs up to a 2050, at least.</p>

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<p>“Shrinkrap, how does one calculate the UCGPA?”</p>

<p>Are you a California high school student? </p>

<p>If so, you check which of your schools honors classes are weighted.
<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/[/url]”>www.ucop.edu/doorways/</a>
Then you use this.
<a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;
If you are not a California high school student, I believe you only weight your IB’s and AP’s, and use your 10th and 11th grade classes.</p>

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<p>Shrinkrap, I am not a Californian student. So I only weigh my AP classes on a 5pt scale. The rest are fours? And I I’ve been hearing something about the UC system only allowing you to weigh 8 AP/IBs in total.</p>

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<p>More schools to consider: pepperdine, fordham, suracuse, skidmore, union, ithaca. (Would either be low reaches or matches)</p>

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<p>Jwajwa, great thanks! Ill be sure to look into those! But, am I correct in believing that Pepperdine is a notorius party school? Please correct me if I’m wrong, my opinion is based on 3 students who have been there.</p>