What colleges should I look into?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>First of all I would like to thank you in advance for coming to my thread and taking time to read and provide advice. This is beyond helpful and I am very grateful for this community.</p>

<p>In short, I am a rising high school senior, beginning to look into colleges. I am interested in majoring in most definitely sciences. Most likely biology, chemistry, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, psychology, or the like. As of now, like many other young inexperienced people, I see medical school in my future, so I would like to keep that in mind during my college search. However, it is also very important for me to go to an university with a wide variety of colleges, just in case I discover my passion for another subject. However, I am focusing on sciences because I am almost 100% sure that I will NOT major in literature, history, agriculture, etc etc.</p>

<hr>

<p>My Stats:</p>

<p>GPA Weighted: 3.94 (around this, calculation method may be off)
GPA Unweighted: not sure, will update later</p>

<p>SAT I (Super Score)- 2020
780 Math
640 Reading
600 Writing</p>

<p>ACT- 33
32 Writing
33 Math
33 Reading
34 Science</p>

<p>SAT II-
740 Math 2
740 Biology E
750 Chinese</p>

<p>9 AP Classes completed by graduation with hopefully all 4s and 5s</p>

<hr>

<ol>
<li>I am currently looking into Duke, John Hopkins, Ivies (Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth, etc), UC Berkeley, Stanford would be my dream school... but I highly doubt that it is even a reach for me.
2.Which other colleges would be matches for my stats?</li>
<li>Reaches?</li>
<li>Advice on early decision if it increased my chances?</li>
<li>Is financial aid generous for low income families?</li>
</ol>

<p>Thank you so so so much once again for your help and feel free to ask for clarification on anything!</p>

2

<p>UW GPA would really be helpful, in addition to class rank/percentile rank.</p>

<p>I would say it looks like you have a pretty good list of schools, I’d consider Carnegie Mellon to, I’ve heard they’re strong in sciences. Maybe consider Northwestern, too, in addition to some liberal arts colleges like Pomona, Williams, and Wesleyan (not sure about their bio programs).</p>

<p>Many top schools, at this point, have become committed to meeting 100% of need based financial aid for admitted students, but their programs vary widely.</p>

<p>It’s hard to “chance” you without some additional info about your application (essay strength, LoR strength, EC activities, volunteer work, work experience, etc)</p>

<p>Were your nine APs completed in two, three, or four years? Did you take the most challenging curriculum all along?</p>

3

<p>Okay, so the first thing I’ll say is that it’s very difficult to gage your college search if you don’t know your unweighted GPA. Colleges don’t look at your school’s weighted GPA, so they usually look at unweighted. Because you’ve taken 9 APs, your W GPA is going to be a lot higher than your UW. Secondly, if you’re considering all of those schools, I would strongly urge you to retake the SATs or take the ACT.
As for schools you should consider: Tufts (probably a reach), Brandeis (this is going to be safetyish match for you), Tulane (super generous with merit aid, but you’re not a definite yet), maybe Emory (reachish), UCSD perhaps (it’s expensive, but I’ve heard of OOSers getting good aid, one of my friends got a nearly full ride there).
And I disagree with Iamasophomore. The LACs s/he suggested are almost as difficult to get into as HYPS. If there is one thing this list does NOT need, it’s more reaches.</p>

4

<p>*imasophomore</p>

<p>Williams and Pomona are super competitive top schools. But I’m pretty sure they aren’t as competitive as HYPS.</p>

<p>Wesleyan, while also a top school and very competitive, certainly isn’t as competitive as HYPS.</p>

<p>Even if those are too competitive and too reach-y (even though I think it would be a good idea to at least visit a LAC and see if maybe you like that environment more, I certainly did, and replace some larger top schools on your list with smaller top schools like Williams), definitely consider some LACs. Though I don’t have full faith in the USNWR rankings, their list of top LACs is a good start to get some names in your head.</p>

<p>[National</a> Liberal Arts College Rankings | Top Liberal Arts Colleges | US News Best Colleges](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges]National”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges)</p>

5

<p>If you are looking at biomedical, I’d suggest CWRU and U. Rochester.
Your test scores and course load difficulty is more impressive than you UW GPA.</p>

<p>Since you are low income, look at schools with big endowments, where your stats are at the upper end.</p>

<p>Try not to apply to too many reaches. </p>

<p>Apply to you home state’s flagship.</p>

6

<p>I posted my ACT stats, got a 33 overall.</p>

<p>Course Schedule-</p>

<p>Middle School
Honors Algebra I
Honors Geometry
Honors Spanish I</p>

<p>Freshman
Honors Algebra II
Honors Biology
Honors Language Arts
Honors Spanish II
American Gov/Health
Band</p>

<p>Sophomore
Honors Pre-Calculus
Honors Chemistry
Honors Language Arts
Honors Spanish III
AP World History (5)
Band</p>

<p>Junior
AP Calculus AB (first semester had a 79 unweighted and 86 weighted, worried about this)
AP Biology
AP Lang
On-level Physics
On-level US History
Band</p>

<p>Senior
AP Stat
AP Chemistry
AP Lit
AP Micro/Macro
PE/Internship
Band</p>

<p>ECs-</p>

<p>Club (# of years in by graduation)</p>

<p>Student Council Representative (4)
Beta Club (4)
Marching Band (received varsity letter) (4)
Tutors in Action (2)
Winterguard (1)
Science Olympiad (1)
Pep Band (1)
Medical Society (1)</p>

<p>-regular volunteer at local library
-peer education at a local AIDs center
-part time job as of summer 2011</p>

7

<p>Thank you for the list of schools, super helpful! Basically at where I am at now, I’m going to find one reach school to apply for early decision. So I’m looking at a list that I will narrow down soon. I’m also going to apply EA for UGA and Georgia Tech as safeties and go for their honor programs. As upper-tier school admission can be very unpredictable based on essays, I’ll be applying for a few… maybe 2-3 RD if I don’t get in for ED.</p>

8

<p>I think I will also look into U Rochester, I actually know a close friend that got in with a full ride who has lower stats than me.</p>

9

<p>If you are thinking about biomedical engineering or just biomedical, check out Georgia Tech. It’s not as selective as UVA or anything, but its biomedical program is only second to johns Hopkins.</p>

10

<p>Yup! I’m definitely applying to Tech as probably a second choice school because, although it’s engineering programs are stellar, I am not a math-y person and the general social life is eh. I’m going for an out-of-state choice first that has the academics, the enviroment, and the opportunities in my field that I am looking for.</p>

11

<p>I am pretty sure you will get rejected at all ivies/stanford with those stats. =/</p>

12

<p>Oh wow, sorry, I just noticed you said you were going to apply to GA tech.</p>

13

<p>Of course, I realize that my stats are in the low-middle. But I believe that with strong essays, I’ll stand a fair chance. Top tier school admission can be very unpredictable!</p>