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I will just give very basic stats and I would appreciate if anyone would tell me how unrealistic I am being. I know I've posted a message similar to this a couple of months ago, but your feedback will greatly help me in my college admissions process.

SAT I: 670 M 700 V
SAT II: 630 IIC 660 Wri 750 US

top 10 %

4.1/4.5 GPA UW

6 AP's this year

EC's are average
hopefully my recs and essay will be good.

I am Hispanic from a poor city.

I will bring my SAT Math to over 700. My SAT IIC will be over 720. I doubt my writing will get over 700, but I will try. I'm also going to take the sat II physics.

I would like to double major in engineering and (economics or business), so if you have any suggestions for some good match schools please suggest.


Prospective schools

MIT
UPENN
Dartmouth
U-Chicago
Tufts
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
U- Maryland(college park)
USC
BC
BU
Northeastern
UMASS- Amherst

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 09:56 am: Edit

take off MIT unless you're 100% sure you won't go into a non-science field

Dartmouth doesn't really seem like a great engineering school

UChicago again there top in economics, engineering not so much

Tufts is known for IR, i have no idea about their engineering school

NU is a great school for engineering and is very liberal artsy

carnegie mellon doesn't have economics, only architecture, art and engineering, but then again they're tops in engineeering

UMD-big state school, easy to feel lost in, but it's an excellennt school

USC is a good school, but there more known for film than anything else, big frat school

BC is a great choice for you, i think it's a lot better than BU, northeastern has a great engineering program

UMASS-you'll get in

By Adjlad (Adjlad) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:37 am: Edit

MIT does have the sloan school of business.

I visited Dartmouth and I liked their engineering program.

Carnegie Mellon does have business though.

Can I get additional comments on my exorbitant amount of reaches, and absence of matches?

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:45 am: Edit

sorry i was thinking of cooper union, not cmu

from what i've heard you'll be segregated if you do a non-science major at MIT

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:47 am: Edit

oh and your math is quite low for MIT

By Adjlad (Adjlad) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 08:36 pm: Edit

Can anyone tell me what they feel are matches for me on the list I made?

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Sunday, October 03, 2004 - 11:42 pm: Edit

Matches: Carnegie Mellon, Boston College, U of Maryland, USC, BU

Safeties: Northeastern, U Mass

realistic reaches (reaches but decent shot): UChicago, Northwestern, Tufts

All the rest are high reaches with the current stats.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 01:26 am: Edit

Half of those schools are not that good in Engineering (not top 50) and do not have Business for undergrads. Let us analyze each of them individually:

MIT: #1 in Engineering and top 5 in Business and Economics. Excellent choice.

Penn/Wharton: #1 in Business, top 10 in Economics and top 30 in Engineering.

Dartmouth: Average in Engineering (~ # 50 in the nation), no Business for undergrads, but good in Econ.

University of Chicago. No Engineering, no Business for undergrads, but top 5 in Economics.

Tufts: Average in Engineering (not in the top 50 nationally, no Business and good but not great in Econ.

Northwestern: Top 15 in Engineering and top 10 in Economics. No Business for undergrads.

CMU: Top 10 in Engineering and top 10 in Business. Top 20 in Economics.

Maryland: Top 25 in Engineering, Business and Economics.

USC: Top 10 in Business (undergraduate level), top 25 in Engineering and decent but not great in Econ.

BC: Weak Engineering, top 50 Business school and decent but not good in Economics.

BU: Average Engineering, top 50 Business schooll and good but not great in Econ.

Northeastern: Average in Business, Economics and Engineering (top 100 but not top 50 in the nation).

UMASS: Same as Northwestern.

Given your academic interests, I would drop Northeastern, Chicago, Dartmouth, Tufts, BU and BC from your group.

Given your credentials and majors, I would look at the following schools:

Apply to just two of the following super reaches:
MIT: A big reach, but why not? They are top 5 in the three fields you want.

Penn/Wharton: #1 in Business, top 10 in Economics and top 30 in Engineering.

Princeton: Top 15 in Engineering and top 5 in Economics. No Business school.

Stanford: Also a big reach, top 3 in Engineering and top 5 in Economics. No Business for undergrads.

Apply to two of the following reaches:
Carnegie Mellon: Top 10 in Engineering and Business and top 20 in Economics.

Cornell: Top 10 in Engineering and top 20 in Economics and Business.

Michigan-Ann Arbor: Top 10 in Engineering, top 5 in Business, top 10 in Economics.

Northwestern: Top 15 in Engineering and top 10 in Econ. No Business.

Apply to 3 of the following matches:
Maryland: Top 25 in Engineering, Business and Economics.

Texas-Austin: Top 10 in Engineering and Business and top 25 in Economics.

USC: Top 10 in Business (undergraduate level), top 25 in Engineering and decent but not great in Econ.

Wisconsin-Madison: Top 15 in Engineering and Business and top 10 in Economics.

Apply to two of the following safeties:
UMASS-Amherst

Minnesota-Twin Cities: Top 20 in Business, Engineering and Economics.

Purdue-West Lafayette: Top 10 in Engineering, top 20 in Business.

Washington-Seattle: Top 25 in Engineering and Business.

By Adjlad (Adjlad) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 03:22 pm: Edit

Thank you so much. You just changed my list for the better.

By Ohio_Mom (Ohio_Mom) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 03:33 pm: Edit

UT Austin is enormous, but my neice, an upstate NY girl, enjoyed their law school and the university in general. Very lively.

When you check websites for the safeties Alexandre suggusted, look into the Honors programs - your top 10% and SAT may make you eligible. Many good perks - dorms, classes, registration, etc.

Purdue, in particular, has a huge alumni base and a lot of name recognition for future networking!

By Yattaspoonpower (Yattaspoonpower) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 04:53 pm: Edit

Alright you're list needs some work. If you are applying to Ivies you shouldn't be applying to northeastern, BU, or Umass - amherst. I realize that you need safeties in there but BU has a grade deflation policy where it sets the highest grade it will give out in each department and that in essense becomes an A. Thats what I heard at least. Also, if you have ever been to Umass-amherst the campus is ugly. Then Northeastern, i just don't like. When I checked the BC engineering majors because I like engineering, i didn't find any engineering majors. Maybe I was looking at hte wrong part of the site but it appears that there are no engineering majors available at BC or Brandeis. I <3 U. Marlyand, good school. I recommend U. Illinois - Urbana Champaign. As for other safeties, i don't know. My guidance counselor said that if your SATs scores are at the 75 percentile or higher for the school then it should be considered a safety. Which is true to a point, obviously. For safeties you should look at schools that you're SAT scores fit well.

By Ohio_Mom (Ohio_Mom) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 06:30 pm: Edit

"My guidance counselor said that if your SATs scores are at the 75 percentile or higher for the school then it should be considered a safety. "

This can be a recipe for disaster at the more competitive schools. If a schools admit rate is below 30%, there is a good shot that many people above the 75% SAT mark are rejected - I believe that both the Tufts and MIT websites give acceptance/rejection for accepted (not just matriculated) students.

Applying to a couple of ivies is fine for the OP - then a notch down for the realistic schools, plus one or two less competitive schools that would serve the OP well if the admissions crapshot was unkind and the matches did not come through (or they did with poor finaid packages).

It is very important to look at the acceptance rate as well as the 25/75% SAT range. For example, the Tufts 25-75% SAT is 1250-1420, and they admit 26%. Case's SAT range is 1220-1430, but they admit 75%. For an applicant with a 1430 and excellent GPA, Case might indeed by a safety. But would Tufts? I wouldn't bet on it.

By Alan5 (Alan5) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 11:22 pm: Edit

Keep BU. Keep Northeastern. The co-op program is ranked #1 in the nation, the campus is amazing, and the engineering school is ranked in the 50 (grad school and rising). Dump UMass. The campus is ugly and very rundown. UMass has been hit hard by state budget cuts. Dump BC, it does not have an engineering school.

By Rhkid005 (Rhkid005) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 12:30 am: Edit

You might want to consider Swarthmore College (big reach, think Penn/Dartmouth), Bucknell University (match), and Lafayette College (match/safety). All three are excellent liberal arts colleges that also offer engineering (which is rare in a liberal arts college). Swarthmore and Lafayette also have good economics programs (I don't know anything about Bucknell's).