What to Think of My College List?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I'm a rising senior so I'd like to get my college list squared away ASAP so I can focus on retaking the SAT and taking the SAT II's. Some about me:</p>

<p>GPA - 3.93 UW, 4.61W (5.0 scale, one extra "point" for honors or AP class)</p>

<p>APs taken - National State and Local Government (4 on AP test), Physics C, BC Calculus, Language and Composition, World History, Psychology (next year), Environmental Science (next year)</p>

<p>SAT I (first try - retaking beginning of senior year) - 740 M (thought I could do better here), 650 CR, 620 W ------> 1390/1600 + 2010/2400</p>

<p>Extra Curricular Activities:</p>

<p>4 years varsity tennis (1 year captain - junior year)
1 year varsity golf
2 years on newspaper staff (One year leader of the sports section - "Sports Associate Editor")
250+ hours of community service
Student Ambassador representing my school
Math Honor Society - 2 years
Science Honor Society - 2 years
English Honor Society - 1 year (first year offered)
National Honor Society - 1 year
Founding Member of the "Cranium Club" at our school (the board game)
Job at Local Country Club for one year (hopefully two years next year)</p>

<p>As of now, I'm looking to major in business.</p>

<p>I'm a huge sports fan and I hate cold weather so I've pretty much limited myself to schools in my home state (Maryland) or further south and schools with big athletic programs. My list:</p>

<p>Top Five (in no order):
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
University of Maryland - College Park (instate)
Georgetown University
Wake Forest University
University of Virginia</p>

<p>Just Missing the Cut:
University of Southern California
University of Miami - Florida</p>

<p>Of my top five, Wake Forest and Virginia are probably the bottom two. The only problem is that UNC (OOS) and Georgetown are extremely competitive and I'm kind of nervous as to chances and I may only end up getting into Maryland of those three. Don't get me wrong, I visited and I really really liked Maryland (not to mention it'd be MUCH cheaper) but I really feel like my hard work in HS was for nothing if I go to Maryland. A large portion of my HS ends up there and I'm not sure I want to be in that position.</p>

<p>Sorry for the rant - just looking for thoughts on what my list is lacking, general suggestions, etc. Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>I’d rank your list for business (based on recruitment, ignoring fit and cost):

  1. UVA
  2. Georgetown
  3. UNC Chapel Hill
  4. Wake Forest
  5. Maryland</p>

<p>Look at Texas - Austin as well. Michigan, Boston College, Notre Dame, and Indiana would work if you’re willing to go further north.</p>

<p>This is all assuming you want to major in business and a big athletic program is a must.</p>

3

<p>What is your financial situation? </p>

<p>Will your parents pay for the school of your choice? If not, then you need to have an affordable list, otherwise you could end up with a pile of acceptances and no affordable schools.</p>

<p>but I really feel like my hard work in HS was for nothing if I go to Maryland. A large portion of my HS ends up there and I’m not sure I want to be in that position.</p>

<p>Oh please. Do you really think that UMaryland doesn’t have a bunch of kids who’ve worked just as hard as you have?</p>

<p>However, if your parents have said that they’ll pay $50k+ per year for the school of your choice then great. :)</p>

4

<p>cc2727 - Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately I can’t see myself at any of those schools but Texas. How selective is Texas OOS?</p>

<p>mom2collegekids - the deal with my parents is that they will pay for my college education but if its cheaper than what my sisters attended (the likes of emory and vanderbilt), I’ll have a larger food budget, etc. So I guess I’m very lucky in that regard.</p>

<p>I know that sentence sounded extremely snotty but I didn’t mean it that way. I know there will be kids there that worked as hard as me and are probably much smarter than me. But justifying the work to myself when I’ll be running into the kids from my school with 3.0s that partied every weekend isn’t exactly a rewarding feeling.</p>

5

<p>But those will be the same students going to the other big state u’s, you just won’t know them. So it is really a moot point, and shouldn’t really influence you. Just realize that you are in a better position to excell now. and there will be a top of the class group that you’ll probablly interact with. You may have placed out of classes some who didn’t do a well may have to take.</p>

6

<p>For a business major whose main criteria include sports and weather, Maryland (in-state) delivers the best bang for the buck, considering that you visited and like it. Georgetown, UVa, and UNC are all more prestigious, but that does not come mainly from their business programs. Look at Business Week’s rankings for undergraduate programs. Maryland (23) is ranked almost as highly as Georgetown (19). UMCP is a much more selective and respected school than it was years ago.</p>

<p>Look at it this way. Median starting pay at Georgetown is $6K more than median starting pay at MD. For that, you’ll pay an up-front premium of about $120K. That does not include any interest you’d pay on loans. Go ahead and apply to all these places, see if you get some aid (if that’s in the picture), then reassess.</p>

7

<p>McCombs School of Business OOS is definitely selective, but I’m not quite sure on exact numbers, maybe someone else more familiar with Texas can tell you. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t rely on Businessweek’s rankings too much. They are more of a measure of student happiness with the school than recruitment opportunities. In general, it is more important to attend a prestigious undergraduate school as a business major compared to other majors, because companies will only recruit out of certain schools.</p>

<p>Also, median salary is a biased statistic. The surveys don’t have anywhere near a 100% response rate, and it doesn’t include bonuses. I’m not saying that they are completely useless, just that you shouldn’t decide what college to attend based on an expected value equation.</p>

8

<p>UNC-CH and UVA are tough admits for OOS. Georgetown takes 19% of their applicants. Coming from the DC area makes it even tougher. You are correct that it’s possible UMD may be your only admit from your top five. Not that you aren’t qualified, but there are LOTS of people applying for limited spots. If you can raise your scores, that would help your cause, but would not guarantee anything.</p>

<p>If you like big state schools with a sports vibe, have you visited Penn State? Are you willing to look further south (Clemson, South Carolina, UGA, Bama)? Or to the midwest and Big Ten schools? Syracuse also strikes me as a place you’d have an excellent shot of getting into. Being geographically flexible make may you a more attractive candidate to some of those schools.</p>

9

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<p>So, what is a better objective basis for the decision? We are talking about a huge price premium to attend the other schools compared to UMCP. If companies recruit so much more out of Georgetown or UVa than out of Maryland, and if this is worth a premium so large, does the advantage show up in another observable measurement? </p>

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<p>How much more important? How much more prestigious does it have to be? What kind of companies and which schools? There may be something to these claims but if so how does the OP put them in perspective? The one thing for sure in this case is that he’ll be spending as much as $120K more to attend a school other than UMCP (unless aid shrinks the difference). The extra money could be put toward an MBA after a few years of work.</p>

<p>Maryland, by the way, has a rather well-regarded economics department. At the graduate level, anyway.
[Rankings</a> at IDEAS: Economics Departments](<a href=“http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.econdept.html]Rankings”>http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.econdept.html)
[NRC</a> Rankings in Economics](<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area36.html]NRC”>NRC Rankings in Economics)
[Rankings</a> - Economics - Graduate Schools - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings]Rankings”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-economics-schools/rankings)</p>

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<p>It depends on what business function the OP wants to go into. If he wants to go into investment banking or management consulting, he should strongly consider UVA or Georgetown, because getting in from Maryland would be very difficult. If he wants to go into accounting, then Maryland is the obvious choice because the prestige of undergrad isn’t nearly as important and it would be the cheapest.</p>

<p>It is impossible to quantify the value of one college over the other. A contrary example is: [Top</a> US Colleges ? Graduate Salary Statistics](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp]Top”>http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp). Georgetown grads appear to make $22,000 more annually on average than UMD grads at mid-career. This is poor justification to attend one school over another though, because there are too many confounding variables. I just want to show that the other extreme exists for these type of statistics.</p>

<p>OP, you should ask the same question on the Business Major forum, you would get better insight. Also check out [Careers-in-Business.com:</a> Your Guide to Business Jobs](<a href=“http://careers-in-business.com/]Careers-in-Business.com:”>http://careers-in-business.com/) for a good list on areas of business you could go into. You don’t need to decide; it’s just something you should keep in mind.</p>

11

<p>add Clemson as a safety school :)</p>

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<p>BrownParent - I agree and I fully understand that. I don’t know why I have a mental block against Maryland. I guess its just something I will have to overcome</p>

<p>TK21769 - “Go ahead and apply to all these places, see if you get some aid (if that’s in the picture), then reassess.”</p>

<p>That’s good advice. But I’m not sure I’m really in the running for aid (certainly not financial aid), so it may be a moot point. We may just have to assume I got into all the schools but at full cost.</p>

<p>I like some of the other questions you raised, I’d really like to see if anyone has some answers to them.</p>

<p>CountingDown - “If you can raise your scores, that would help your cause, but would not guarantee anything.”</p>

<p>I agree and I’m spending a good portion of the summer studying for the retake. There’s no guarantee that my scores will raise though and, like you said, it may not make a difference anyways.</p>

<p>“If you like big state schools with a sports vibe, have you visited Penn State? Are you willing to look further south (Clemson, South Carolina, UGA, Bama)? Or to the midwest and Big Ten schools? Syracuse also strikes me as a place you’d have an excellent shot of getting into. Being geographically flexible make may you a more attractive candidate to some of those schools.”</p>

<p>I’m not necessarily into “big state schools” just schools with athletic pride (for example, schools like Georgetown, Wake Forest, and Southern California aren’t big state schools but \are very into sports and are on my list).</p>

<p>I have not visited Penn State but have heard its extremely similar to Maryland but more expensive (OOS). It also may be easier to get into OOS than Maryland is IS.</p>

<p>I’m willing to go anywhere in the South, but are schools like Clemson, South Carolina, UGA, and Alabama really adding anything to my list?</p>

<p>Syracuse was a school I was looking at for a while but its just way too cold. In the end, that’s a criteria I’m not willing to give in on.</p>

<p>I’d look Midwest or Big Ten if the schools were relatively (compared to Maryland) warm. Suggestions?</p>

<p>cc2727 - I looked carefully at that website you linked. I went through almost every career path on there and accounting, hedge funds, and corporate finance caught my attention the most. In all truthfulness, I feel like corporate finance is extremely broad so I’m not sure I’m really interested in it as a whole and I did not get a chance to look into specifics. I feel like I’m most interested in accounting and hedge funds, two totally different life styles. I would have to decide if I’d rather have a steady job, without as much reward, and potentially less “fun” (accounting) or if I’d rather life a potentially more rewarding life, living life on the edge, but with the potential of living in a box on the side of the road (hedge funds). I’m not sure what this has to do with this thread but it gave me a nice perspective on my future. Thanks! :)</p>

<p>Pierre0913 - I’m pretty sure I talked to you about Clemson a long while back. I was really into it then but truthfully, it has dropped completely off my radar :(</p>

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<p>Your list looks great. I’m a UNC student and would recommend it to anyone; I’m glad to see that you are interested in it.</p>

<p>You asked if schools like South Carolina would “add anything” to your list. For what it is worth, South Carolina has been consistently ranked #1 in international business, so they do have a good reputation. South Carolina also seems to meet your sports requirements.</p>

14

<p>Your list does look good and you have good stats as well. Take a chance and apply to USC however. It is a great school and you cannot beat the weather. But UNC is a great school too, and if you are looking for sports, you will have an awesome time there. Basketball season there is unlike any other, so you will love that!</p>

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<p>*
GPA - 3.93 UW, 4.61W (5.0 scale, one extra “point” for honors or AP class)</p>

<p>SAT I (first try - retaking beginning of senior year) - 740 M (thought I could do better here), 650 CR, 620 W ------> 1390/1600 + 2010/2400</p>

<p>I’m willing to go anywhere in the South, but are schools like Clemson, South Carolina, UGA, and Alabama really adding anything to my list?*</p>

<p>Well, it can depend on your major. For instance… If you’re pre-med or pre-law, then saving a bunch of money by taking a big merit scholarship might be a way to get your parents to pay for med school or law school to minimize debt. </p>

<p>For instance, if you were to raise your math or CR score by 10 points, you’d get free OOS tuition at Bama and be in the Honors College (right now, you’d get a 2/3 OOS tuition scholarship). Your parents would only have to pay for room, board, books. That additional $40k per year that it would cost at - say - Vandy - could be used towards grad/med/law/business school…or a down payment on a home after graduation. Right?</p>

<p>I wouldn’t want to waste $50k per year unnecessarily for undergrad, and then have to borrow $200k for med/law school if avoidable. If I could work out a deal with my parents, I would.</p>

16

<p>OP - Just want to say that you sound A LOT like my son - similar grades, sports interest and business major. He is at Wake Forest and loves it! One factor to consider is that Wake Forest is smaller than all the other schools you have mentioned - about 5000 undergrads. My son feels this is an advantage - his classes are small, he has ample opportunities to meet with professors privately, and he has some other oportunities that might not happen at a large university. The business school - Calloway - is very well regarded. It has the highest pass rate in the nation on the CPA exam, for example. If you need more specific info on Wake, feel free to PM me.</p>

<p>As for your other options - UNC and UVA for OOS - very reachy. And I happen to agree with you about Maryland - it’s a great school - but it’s like a continuation of hs for many kids. And I completely get what you are saying - it is hard to be at the top of your hs class and then go to Maryland - it does not sound snobby to me - I get it completely.</p>

<p>My other suggestions would be Duke and University of Miami.</p>

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<p>However, if I don’t plan on attending grad school, wouldn’t I land a much better job out of a better school? The extra tuition might not be “wasted”. (Directed to Mom2CollegeKids)</p>

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<p>To Rockvillemom - I visited Wake and I REALLY liked it. I’ll keep you in mind if I have any specific questions. I’m planning on visiting again next year if I am granted admission.</p>

<p>I think UNC is a little more of a reach for me than UVA because I have a double legacy (both parents) at UVA.</p>

<p>About Maryland - I don’t absolutely HATE the idea of going, but I saw kids who barely showed up to classes in HS get in this year. It does make the most financial sense though, obviously.</p>

<p>Duke would be very high on my list if they offered undergraduate business but to the best of my knowledge they don’t. I have University of Miami on my list towards the bottom with Southern Cal.</p>

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<p>Think of it this way. If you don’t do well in college (no matter where you go) that hard work in HS went strictly for what you retained out of it. </p>

<p>Of these business programs, it’s what you do there that matters, not where you go. You’ll get the same opportunities out of Maryland than you will out of Georgetown (except there will be a larger potential pool of Maryland alums hiring). Business is about leveraging your assets and in-state tuition at a fine business program (Maryland) should be a no-brainer call. Sorry to be so blunt.</p>

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<p>Happy to help you with any Wake Forest questions - feel free to PM. Your are right about Duke - my son applied because he loved the school and would have majored in something else - but you are correct - no undergrad. business. I believe with a double-legacy at UVA you are considered in-state for admissions - you might want to look into that.</p>