<p>I'm interested in majoring in economics, but I'm looking for whatever schools I might be able to get into. I feel kind of dumb posting this, but I'd like to know if my choices are realistic.</p>
<p>I go to a high-ranked (newsweek top 100) public school with some crazy smart people.</p>
<p>unweighted GPA /w freshman yr: 3.8-decimals
unweighted w/o freshman yr: 4.0</p>
<p>I'll have taken 9 AP courses by the time I'm done with high school.</p>
<p>Scores: 2330 SAT I (800 math, 780 writing, 750 reading), 800 math iic, 790 bio m.</p>
<p>Only extracurricular worth mentioning is a lab internship I did. Rest of the stuff is pretty generic (community service, spanish club, etc.). Awards are generic (psat semifinalist, AIME qualifier, etc.) I'm a first-gen (second gen?) korean male so I'm willing to bet that will hurt me.</p>
<p>School choices: UC Berkeley (instate), Stanford, MIT, and UPenn (Wharton) are my top choices. Please tell me what you think honestly, and feel free to leave other suggestions. Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>So are you a first generation or second generation korean male? I'm not sure exactly what you mean by this....???</p>
<p>I'm not too clear on the terminology, but I immigrated with my parents here.</p>
<p>Then you are a first generation student.
And I think you have a pretty good shot, because your SAT score is high...however, you need an outstanding essay and more outstanding ecs/volunteer work to be fully considered.</p>
<p>That's pretty much what I figured. Any other opinions/suggestions where to go?</p>
<p>So first generation doesn't mean first to attend college but first immigrants?</p>
<p>No, I think it means:</p>
<p>FIRST PERSON to attend college IN THE FAMILY</p>
<p>so like, if you're the first one in your family that is going to college, I believe that is first generation. Not quite sure though.</p>
<p>First--your choice of schools:
UC Berkeley--match (you should be a "lock" to get in here)
Stanford--slight reach
MIT--slight reach
Univ of Pennsylvania--depends on the school you apply to--for economics, probably a match, but if you apply to Wharton--probably a reach</p>
<p>The reason you are a reach at some of these places and not a match is because of your lack of extracurriculars and awards. These are the top schools and they want to see more activity on your part besides the grades.</p>
<p>Other top econ schools to consider--
Chicago, Northwestern, Brown, Claremont McKenna, UCLA, Yale, and Duke</p>
<p>Also you need to pick a safety (everybody does). Since you live in California, maybe someplace like UCSD or UCSB would be decent choices.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response Calcruzer, that was some useful info</p>
<p>Berkeley - 80%
Stanford - 35%
MIT - 30%
Wharton - 30%</p>
<p>Eh, I dunno. For Stanford and MIT I think they really try to look for what else you do besides good GPA/SAT scores. I didn't really see that in your post. ::shrug::</p>
<p>No one's chances for stanford, mit, and wharton are that high
unless you are black, jewish, poor, intel semifinalist, etc all at once</p>
<p>dark_pantheon:
your chances are good but not that good. these schools are extremely selective
but i'd say you get into one of them and definitely in at berkeley</p>
<p>Everyone's been right on target.</p>
<p>You're in at UCB, but no one can tell you your real chances at places like Stanford, MIT, and Wharton. They're the best of the best, and you're close to the best. Is that enough? Maybe. Maybe not.</p>
<p>I concur fully with BandTenHut</p>