Your Guidance Needed

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So, I woke up this morning, got ready for school, and was eating breakfast when I realized that there is only about a month left of school for me. It kind of made me wonder what I am going to do next year considering I will be a high school senior and I really haven’t considered what college I’d want to go to. I guess I’ve just been too busy with everything that’s happening in my life now, but now that I’m about to become a senior. I need to start making some decisions.</p>

<p>So, for my first decision, I’ve decided to go to college. I mean, there never was any doubt in my mind that I wasn’t going, once you actually say it and mean it, the words take on a whole new meaning. This will be one of the most important decisions in my life so I want to make the right one. Neither of my parents went to college and even though they try their hardest, they aren’t providing much help. My counselor is some help. He gives me information, but at my school there are too many students to a counselor to get the individual attention that I need. </p>

<p>My best and favorite subjects are math and chemistry. I want to go to one of the best schools that is known for math, science, and engineering. Currently I have a 4.0 GPA and I got a 29 on the act. I don’t really have a lot of EC, just the golf team, marching band, tutor (I don’t know if this even counts), and I’m in a math, engineering, and technology club. By the time I graduate I’ll probably be in a couple other clubs, have about 200 hours of community service, and will have taken 4 APs (chemistry, English, euro hist, and calc).</p>

<p>My counselor believes that I could go to an ivy, but I don’t know if my scores are high enough. I’m going to take the act again. Hopefully I can get a 30 or better, I’m not a good standardize test taker. I’ll also be taking subject tests. I</p>

<p>Basically I want to know…</p>

<p>Should seriously consider going to an ivy? If so which one offers the best math, sci (particularly chemistry or physics), eng program?
Should I take the sat? I live in Mich so all we do is the act. I took the psat though and got a 188.
What are some other schools that are good in math, science (chemistry or physics), and engineering that could be possibilities?</p>

<p>I know that Umich has a very good engineering program and I was already thinking about applying there. I don’t really want to go to a huge school, but it doesn’t matter that much. As long as there is lots of stuff to do on campus and the people are friendly, I should be good.</p>

2

<p>You can no longer apply to most of the colleges to start in the Fall of 2006.</p>

<p>you will either have to take a gap year or go to an ok school.</p>

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<p>I thought I put that in there but I'm a junior.</p>

4

<p>oh whoops. i thought it said that you are a high school senior. my bad.</p>

5

<p>He's a junior in highschool currently and soon to be a senior, this is a good time to seriously think about colleges as you'll be applying in the coming months.</p>

<p>As to advice, your stats are good, and you could try applying to a few top schools, but without amazing ECs, minority status, or very high test scores, your chances of acceptance aren't the best.</p>

<p>University of Michigan is ranked 6 for engineering (USNews) so that's always a good choice, especially since you're instate, unless the "big school" issue is very important to you, I'd seriously consider it. A few others are Stanford, Berkeley, Caltech, MIT, Georgia Tech, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, and U of SoCal.</p>

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<p>I'm an African American female, does that really make that much of a difference?</p>

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<p>African Amereican + Female + Engineering= Golden
Get a slightly better ACT/SAT score and you will be set</p>

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<p>does anyone know of any other schools I might be able to get into?</p>

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<p>You have a lot going for you - an excellent HS record, and being a minority female applying for engineering. As others have recommended, plan to take the ACT again in October, and look into SAT2 tests - some schools require them even if you have the ACT.</p>

<p>With your interests, the tables are turned and you are in the buyer's seat. What kind of school would interest you? Engineering tends to be exclusively offered at larger schools, but there are some smaller schools that offer engineering. Take a look at Northwestern, Cornell and Princeton. Do you golf well enough to play in college?</p>

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<p>lol..No, I'm not that good, but I do want to play in college. I want to go a college that focuses on academics, but the students there also have a social life. I also want to go to a school with lots of on-campus actvities and with access to the city life, preferably somwhere east or in the midwest. The size of the classes matters more to me than the size of the university. I want to be somewhere with a lot of diversity.</p>

<p>I'll be taking chemistry, math 2, and english lit subject tests in june as well as the act again. I'll definately look into your suggestions, thanks.</p>

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<p>If you could get about a 2000 on the SATs, you would have a great shot at some of the top schools in the country.</p>

<p>as someone mentioned before:
African Amereican + Female + Engineering= Golden</p>

<p>Id look at top 20 schools with 2-3 safeties.</p>

12

<p>nothingbutthebest,</p>

<p>i'm told that a large number of collegiate athletic scholarships for women's golf go unused every year.........more so than with any other women's sport..........so you may want to check into the golfing thing more seriously..........email the coaches, complete the questionnaires at their websites, etc.</p>

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<p>Cornell, Illinois, Miami University, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon, Michigan</p>

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<p>Look at Worchester Polytechnic and Rensselaer Polytechnic. Worchester has a lot of project oriented classes. They do that to make it more interesting. Those classes reportedly tend to help people's GPA, too.</p>

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<p>OP, you are jumping WAY ahead in the game. You are trying to pick schools without making decisions about what you want in college. Urban or rural? Near home or far away? Size of the college? Type of kids it attracts? Personal attention in small classes or larger lecture orientation? And so on. The right way to do it is figure out what you want, then find a basket of reach/match/safety schools that provide it. The way a lot of people on these boards do it is assemble a list of prestigious schools with little attention to whether they are a good fit for the student or not.</p>

<p>Your situation of an overwhelmed counselor is unfortunately not unusual. The first sign the counselor is basically clueless, BTW, is (at least from you wrote) the counselor said getting into an ivy is just a matter of you making the decision that's where you want to go. Ivies get thousands of apps from fantastically qualified students, so even if you're one of them it's no sure thing.</p>

<p>Fortunately there are resources you can use to help yourself. Stay away from this board until you've read thru a book or two on college admissions so you have a real handle on the process. I recommend "Admission Matters", but there are several other good ones out there. After reading a book or two, visit some colleges of various types such as a large U, a LAC, etc (preferably ones still in session) to get a real feel for what fits you. After that the board can be useful for asking specific questions, but at the stage you're at you're just going to get a bunch of names chosen from the same top 75-100 schools with no attention paid to whether they'd be right for you.</p>

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<p>the Ivies aren't that good for engineering (except Cornell). Consider MIT, but if you like the atmosphere at Michigan, it's probably not for you.</p>