Midwestern state that isn’t represented much with Top-20 schools. I’m guessing Indiana or Missouri so if you are assured of acceptance to Notre Dame or WashU, take it and be happy. Nothing wrong with those schools and HYPS are reaches even with your stats.
I’d like to know how you already have a guaranteed acceptance to a top 20 as a junior. Maybe I missed something. Care to elaborate even if “it’s hard to explain?”
@Hamurtle actually it’s neither state and neither of those colleges.
Those are the only midwest schools in the top 20 (USNWR national universities), unless you’re in Illinois and thinking about UChicago or Northwestern.
“Midwestern state that isn’t represented much with Top-20 schools. I’m guessing Indiana or Missouri so if you are assured of acceptance to Notre Dame or WashU, take it and be happy.”
The OP said he didn’t like the culture, so you can’t “take it and be happy”. By definition, the OP wouldn’t be happy, that’s why OP is looking at other schools in and outside the top 20.
To update, nothing much had changed. However, the TEAMS team that I’ve captained has qualified for nationals. Additionally, I will be president of NHS next year. Currently, I’m waiting to hear back from summer programs but my backup plans for the summer are researching with an local Engineering department chair at a T20 and taking calc 2 to get ahead. Unfortunately, we were snowed out for the AMC so I wasn’t able to take it. I feel like the summer research would be helpful because he knows my situation and would write a compelling rec hopefully. This will also give my a chance to highlight my matlab skills in a group setting which is something I was advised to do as I was told that solo projects don’t carry as much weight.
Does anyone have any other advice for me. Anything I can do to improve myself RN? I 100% want to work in the financial industry but I feel like an engineering major is safer. Interested in UPenn, Cornell, UChicago, Northwestern, Duke (all high reaches I won’t list my state school or safety). Mega reaches are Columbia/Princeton/Stanford.
Update: Just accepted to Bovard Scholars! Pretty prestigious program so I’m excited!
It seems like you’re doing the right things. The key is to make the admission officers remember you. When the time comes make sure you have a well rounded application with amazing, thoughtful essays, letters of recs, and activities descriptions. If you are looking for something else to do right now I would look into more volunteer opportunities that relate to your major. Strategy is important. Even within the same universities, different schools have different acceptance rates and preferences for certain applicants, like how females applying to STEM fields have an advantage. Do research on each of the schools you are interested in and know how to maximize your chances. After going through it myself this year, I’ve learned that the admissions process really is a lottery system. Once you meet the basic requirements, it is very hard to predict exactly what colleges want anymore. Good luck to you next year!
@collegekid1337 Congrats on the Bovard Scholars! That program will give you solid structure for your application process. Do keep us posted.
- I’m going back to your ‘I have a T20 guaranteed admit w/ full funding but I loathe the option’ vs your ‘I have a T20 guaranteed admit w/ full funding so I’m not bothering with anything else that lowly’ comments.
It is not impossible that you could be shut out of all of your under 10% admit rate schools, leaving you with the T20 you loathe. If you are good enough to have one T20 signed, sealed and delivered by grade 11, why wouldn’t you apply to one or two more that you would like better?
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You have a chip on your shoulder and are carrying a lot of assumptions. Asian? obviously won’t get in. Other students got courses you didn’t/couldn’t? it’s rich parents gaming the system for their kids again. etc. these comments are laced through your narrative, and take away from the legitimately strong story that you have to tell. When you write your essays, be aware that you need to edit yourself, so that the takeaways are focused on you and what you bring to the party - use things from your past to show the path to now and your direction forward.
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“UPenn, Cornell, UChicago, Northwestern, Duke… Mega reaches are Columbia/Princeton/Stanford.” Go spend some time reading results pages from this year. You will discover that you have mixed up narrow differences in % acceptances with how outcomes actually work. Plenty of posts this year from people who got Princeton but not Northwestern, Stanford but not Chicago, Columbia but not Cornell. It is not a straight ladder. Although you will hear about a couple of people every year getting into (say) all the Ivies, the reason you hear about that is that it is rare. The vast majority of successful applicants to those schools also get turned down by others of them- not b/c their applications were any ‘less’, but b/c they didn’t fit the class that the schools were building as well. This is what @lookingforward is pushing you to do: focus on the actual individual schools more - not just for how they fit your career plans / desire for prestige, or how you assess your chances, but for how you fit the classes they look to build. Some will suit you more than others. You say you aren’t applying to Harvard or MIT, implying that the reason is that you think that they are “harder” to get into than the other fancy names you want. Again, it’s not the %. MIT kids are MIT kids: if you are one, it’s a wonderfully happy place- but if not, not so much. So apply / don’t apply because the program & the university call out to you, not because of your assumptions as to what your chances are.
@momprof9904 Thank you!
@peach0v0 Thank you for the advice! I’m planning on doing some more volunteering over the summer because I think I’ll have a lot of extra time.
@collegemom3717 Yeah, going back, it really angered me about how ironically I wrote the original post post. I can’t recall exactly, but I think I wrote it as a joke and then it turned serious when people started actually commenting on it. I would 100% never be sarcastic like this on essays or anything official. I don’t ever really get heated about this stuff, I just meant it as a joke. Sincerely, my apologies for that. Moving to the T20, I think think I was too harsh when I said that I disliked its atmosphere. I’ve had a chance to visit some of the other “less” selective schools that people in this thread suggested like emory, etc, and the only one that I found I would prefer was Duke lifestyle-wise, but the thing is financially I’m not sure how the financial aid would be at these “lower” T20’s. That’s what I meant when I said, “it’s not worth it” and my biggest concern looking at other “lower” T20’s when I know I can go almost for free at mine. I’ve also had a chance to meet several of the professors and know the campus of “my” t20 for several years now, and I’ve really liked it. I know it seems that I’m changing around my whole position, but I think its just something that I’ve come to realize. About the 3rd thing, you’re definitely right about it being a crapshoot all around. I was just trying to give it some structure and some order, because that’s what people seem to do on here. However, I am well aware of the fact that at this level, its basically “random” acceptance, or in other words, whoever fits in that the colleges need to round out their class, like you said. I think part of it was that I was embarassed to say that I would be applying to Stanford, Princeton, and Columbia and be considering them just as “reaches” because I honestly don’t know if I’m qualified for that, but I guess that that applies to every school. Anyways, thank you for the advice.
thanks for the update, @collegekid1337 - and great to know that your thinking is evolving. The big thing about the college process is indeed the process of sifting through a lot of variables and figuring out what really works for you. You are not only ‘allowed’ to let your thinking change as you learn more, you are encouraged to 
You do understand that some of the places you see as “lower” T20s have just as good finaid as what you consider “top” tier, right?
If you are coming around to the school where you have a lock on a full ride, super! you have a “safety” so can afford to just shoot for the stars. But if you would be unhappy to go there, it makes sense to have another option. In the meantime a reach is a reach is a reach- and if in real life SPC are the only ones that would make it woth giving up the bird you have in hand- great! go for it.
ps, @peachOvO, please don’t throw things like “like how females applying to STEM fields have an advantage” out into CC world- that is more myth than truth, and too many students are grabbing it and holding on to that hope like a talisman- and too many students in general treat it as something that is unfair to other applicants. It is true that the acceptance rate for females at some schools with a serious gender distortion is higher than for males- but in most if not all cases, their stats are just as strong as the guys, just the % are higher b/c of the smaller pool.
@collegemom3717 I completely agree with what you said. I meant my previous statement to be interpreted in terms of pure chances and luck really. From my personal experience of seeing both males and females in STEM with similar high stats apply to selective schools, I’ve seen more females get in than males, and the reasoning makes sense to me. Of course, as outsiders we can only speculate about what’s really going on in the actual admissions process. So, although we can’t prove factually the validity of the “myth”, we also can’t say it’s unfounded entirely.
So Bovard Scholars is only a 3 week program in July. Are there any ideas of what I could do before or after to improve my application? I know Common App opens July 31st or something too. Going back to my summer backup plan, Research at a local university and taking Calc 2, I don’t think that’s possible anymore obviously. Also, feel free to chance me if anyone wants to. I always appreciate new advice!
Good for you that you have a sure thing school. So only apply for those schools that you would attend over that one.
You are eligible for substantial financial aid, correct? You’ve done the estimators, no absent parent, owned business in the picture? So you are going for both merit and Financial Aid? The top schools tend to give excellent aid so if you are eligible, getting in is the big deal here.
I had good stats as well (like near perfect) and great EC and I got waitlisted everywhere! The top schools I applied to were not ivys, they were southern/ cali schools and I have already been released from many waitlists. My advice is to find somewhere with a high ED acceptance rate and apply ED because one school is better than 12 waitlists.
Have you considered Dartmouth? My understanding is that it is a huge feeder for careers in finance on Wall Street. Anecdotally, that’s the route a cousin of mine took.
@cptofthehouse Yeah. I don’t want to get too personal, but I’ve looked at it inside-out and I’ll be good on aid. Like you said, the hard part’s getting in.
@kp2023 I hope you got in somewhere you wanted to! I feel like the biggest thing that “sets me out” is being low-income and disadvantaged, as Bovard Scholars shows. I’m already planning to choose the “background” essay on the common app, as that’s what I used for all the summer programs I applied to, although ofcourse ill be working on it a ton more. I know, that alone all of this doesn’t matter but I feel like it may be the thing that tips me over the edge to one of these schools, where there are 9 other Asians exactly like me applying. Also, ED-wise, I plan to ED however I’m not sure how much the higher ED rate matters for a school like UPenn where a lot of ED’s are just legacies+athletes+other guaranteed accepts.
@RayManta I thought Dartmouth (for undergrad) was more of a non-STEM school with CS/Engineering majors (like any top school nowadays) filling in the gaps, so I never really thought about it. I will look into it now though!
When your looking into UPenn, I suggest you research the Jerome Fisher M&T Program. It is a dual degree program for business and engineering. So, you get admitted to the Wharton Business School and Penn Engineering. My son will be starting the program this fall.
@“UMD2021&2023” Thank you for the advice. I’ve already looked at M&T and have heard that its extremely difficult to get in. Your son must have been an amazing student.
My top choices right now are UPenn, Princeton, and Stanford. Finance, ORFE, and CS majors respectively, although I know that you don’t always apply by major or even college. Leaning towards applying to Princeton or UPenn early. I’d appreciate any advice or chancing to these schools, although I know its a crapshoot in the end.
One thing that would help my application a lot as well is Questbridge. My EFC is slightly above 0, so I doubt I’d be matched, but I have heard that just becoming a finalist helps with early applications that are outside of Questbridge.
I also plan on working this summer. I have done paid internships but I think a proper job would add a lot to my application but also benefit me as well personally. If anyone on here has advice on working without a car (as it’s not financially viable for me to get one) please let me know.