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Public High School
GPA: 4.3
SAT: 1450
Rank: 17/800
Senior Classes:
AP U.S Government and Economics
AP English IV
Calculus (H)
Spanish III (H)
AP Chemsitry II
Medical Terminology
Culinary Arts

Extra Cirriculars:
Student Council Representive (10th, 11th, 12th)
Drama Club (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th)
Theatre/Drama Classes (8 Years)
Competitive Ice Dancing/Skating (9th, 10th, 11th)
Cheerleading:
Basketball JV Cheer (9th)
Football JV Cheer (10th)
Football Varsity Cheer (11th,12th)
Varsity Golf Team: (10th,11th,12th)
Tennis Team: (10th,11th,12th)
Golf Lessons: (9th,10th,11th,12th)
Miss "school name" Pagent Contestant: (10th,11th,12th)

My College List:
UConn
Yale
Harvard
Brown
UCLA
Columbia
Clemson
CofC
Babson
Michigan State
UNC-Chapel Hill
USC-Columbia

What do you think???

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - 04:49 pm: Edit

Are you sure it is Michigan State and not University of Michigan you wish to apply to?

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 03:55 am: Edit

I take Alexandre's response as a subtle hint, basically you really need help with this list. Here's why: Unless you have some special thing that gets you into H or Y, you are playing a horrible strategy.

My Predictions:

ABSOLUTE REJECT - 10% Chance MAX
Yale
Harvard

GOOD CHANCE REJECT - 35% Chance MAX
Brown
Columbia

DECENT CHANCE - 65% Chance
UNC-Chapel Hill
UCLA

GREAT CHANCE - 95% Chance
UConn
Clemson
CofC
Babson
Michigan State
USC-Columbia

Basically come may you will get to choose between UNC and UCLA if you're lucky, if not you'll end up at a safety. The safety strategy makes ZERO sense for you. You are a marginal candidate at the top schools, basically you might get lucky, you might not, BUT you are way too strong for the bottom schools. You are actually giving yourself very little safety. Basically if you're not getting the Ferrari you're driving a Pinto and that is not way to go about this. Adding a number of MATCH!!! schools is a true safety for a candidate like you. That means WUSTL, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Vassar, Middlebury, Cornell PLUS a couple decent chance reaches like Penn, Dart, Duke. Sorry to be blunt, but you're wasting money on safeties and major reaches, with only Brown, Columbia, UNC, and UCLA as balance. ALSO I see no coherence to this list, do you realize how different UNC is from Columbia???

If I were you

Reach:
Columbia
Dartmouth
Brown
Duke
Penn

Match:
UNC
UCLA
Northwestern
WUSTL
Emory
Cornell/ Vassar/ Middlebury

Safety
MICHIGAN early in the cycle
One of the other safeties you mentioned...

I am only saying this based on what I have seen. Get over the yale thing, if you're lucky you'll get into one of the reaches I mentioned. At worst you'll get into a few of the matches and will be alot happier come March.

By Kimfuge (Kimfuge) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 06:31 am: Edit

I second Slipper

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 07:51 am: Edit

I do not entirely agree with Slipper. UNC and UCLA are as selective as Brown and Columbia for out of sate students. I actually got into Brown and Columbia but was rejected by UNC. And although the odds of getting into any of those 4 are not great, she is pretty much typical of the quality of students that those 4 schools accept. In fact, her 1450 on the SAT is significantly higher than any of those 4 schools' mean and her class rank (top 2%) is also above the average at those schools. Let us analyze:

MEANT SAT:
Columbia: Mid 80%ile 1310-1510 (mean 1410)
Brown: Mid 80%ile 1290-1500 (mean 1400)
UCLA (out of state): Mid 80%ile 1250-1450 (mean 1360)
UNC (out of state): Mid 80%ile 1280-1470 (mean 1370)

ACCEPTANCE RATE:
Columbia: 11%
Brown: 16%
UCLA (out of state): 17%
UNC (out of state): 17%

I do agree that there are no real matches in her list. She should apply to schools like Michigan, Cornell, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, Chicago etc... that are more realistic but still ranked among the top 10-15 nationally.

By Pattykk (Pattykk) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 09:17 am: Edit

You also need to work on your spelling. Misspellings of words like extracurricular and pageant really stand out and make a negative impression on applications. It's not your fault, because schools don't teach spelling and grammar properly, but you can at least use spell check. You are a great student and have impressive achievements. Have you visited many schools? It sounds like you need to do a little more soul searching about what would be the right school for you, since you have very different types of schools on your list. I liked Slipper's list, but I would take Columbia off (not a school for a girl who likes to cheer and be athletic) Best of luck.

By Ohio_Mom (Ohio_Mom) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 12:29 pm: Edit

Alexandre -
thanks for posting the UNC/UCLA out of state rates. EEK!

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Thursday, September 30, 2004 - 09:19 pm: Edit

Regardless of the difficulty of how hard UNC/ UCLA are out of state (my sense is a notch below the ivies closer to Northwestern in spite of accept rate), my basic point as Alexandre noted was that she has few matches. The safety concept was designed to make sure one CAN go to college, usually a couple of schools. Reaches were a couple, maybe even more schools that were slight shots. But the focus should be on matches and she has none...also her stats are a little higher than those schools but don't count out special cases which tend to bring the averages down a little...

By Dancerdi (Dancerdi) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 04:34 am: Edit

Any suggestions/comments? I'm from NJ, and looking to stay in the North East -- thinking about majoring in Communications or English

SATI: 1220 (630v/590m)Taking again Oct
SATII: 550M - 700SPA : Writing in Nov

My list so far:

Reach:
NYU
Boston College
Georgetown

Target:
Villanova
Loyola College
College of NJ

Safety:
Rutgers (New Brunswick)
Montclair State
Drew

My senior courses:
APUSH
APLIT
Modern European Hist
Psychology
Pre-Cal Honors

EC's:
Asst. Ed. Newspaper
Capt Dance Squad
VP Spanish Club
Media Club - Dir. School Tv-show
Theater Club
Forensics

I also dance (outside of school) 12hr/wk, and will graduate w/dance teacher certification next year. I compete at regional & national levels and have earned medals of various degrees. (should I mention this on my apps?)

I'm a Latino F, small cath HS, school doesn't rank; 6th semester cum avg is 97.917

I'd like some input regarding my choices. Are they enough? Good/bad? Should I look in to some LAC's, I'm really not familiar with any. Also, I'm really not thrilled with my safety list -- the only one I really would NOT hate going to is Rutgers. Any suggestions?

Txs!

By Diceypit (Diceypit) on Friday, October 01, 2004 - 09:01 pm: Edit

yeah, cornell is a good reach/match

By Dke (Dke) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 07:27 pm: Edit

Yale5709e, I just showed this thread to my husband (Harvard grad back in the day) who thought that the postings here were unusually harsh...He said to write a great essay and go for it......not to be discouraged and that your credentials were excellent...(He has done alum admissions work in the past for Harvard so he's not completely clueless about the way things are these days)

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:55 pm: Edit

It's not about "going for it", its about having a good strategy, which she needs help with. A good strategy requires good matches, reaches, and safeties, she is very heavy reach/safety side which is a huge risk.