college applications.

[mis]

Is the cornell/nyu application closed?

[///mzeasy]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but since it's that time of year, I though it would be relevant for those of us graduating this year. Anyways, a rough sketch of my list in descending priority.

UChicago

Columbia

NYU

Northwestern

Emory

Tufts

Brandeis

Tulane

Michigan

Hofstra

DePaul

Anyone else wanna weigh in?

[pete mcstunna]

DePaul should definately be your safety school (Trust me)...otherwise, that list looks great. good luck!

[poly800rock]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but since it's that time of year, I though it would be relevant for those of us graduating this year. Anyways, a rough sketch of my list in descending priority.

UChicago

Columbia

NYU

Northwestern

Emory

Tufts

Brandeis

Tulane

Michigan

Hofstra

DePaul

Anyone else wanna weigh in?

stats and what you're looking to study for and what kind of school you're looking for would be helpful

[sunny]

canadian here.

Ryerson --> Business Management

Guelph --> Business Admin

Windsor --> Business Admin

[sean_]

they have a university in windsor now?

[soraanaam]

me computer science in networking at UCI

[///mzeasy]

stats and what you're looking to study for and what kind of school you're looking for would be helpful

Definitely into the whole "liberal arts at a university" concept that seems fairly exclusive to chicago and columbia. I attended the summer quarter at uchicago and am fairly obsessed with going there now.

For stats:

• 4.1ish gpa
  
• not-so-hot standardized test scores: 29 on act
  
• fair amount of extracurriculars (years of symphony with leadership, community service)
  
• I also have heard that my attendance at a shitty public school in southeast helps my chances (diversity for northern schools)

[Guest youngteam]

there are, what, like three universities in canada. get the fuck out of here.

[branespload]

It's sad that wasting my life on superfuture when I could be doing college apps only reminds me of how much of a failure I am.

UC apps are due the end of this month, aiming for the top 3.. Berk/LA/SD, but I have more interest in the SoCal schools.

I'll be applying to Stanford, USC, UC Berk/LA/SD/I, CSULB, Cal Poly SLO and Cal Poly Pomona most likely.

My weighted GPA is around 4.32 and SAT Reasoning is 2030.. I don't have many extracurrics outside of Robotics. Eep.

[poly800rock]

Definitely into the whole "liberal arts at a university" concept that seems fairly exclusive to chicago and columbia. I attended the summer quarter at uchicago and am fairly obsessed with going there now.

For stats:

• 4.1ish gpa
  
• not-so-hot standardized test scores: 29 on act
  
• fair amount of extracurriculars (years of symphony with leadership, community service)
  
• I also have heard that my attendance at a shitty public school in southeast helps my chances (diversity for northern schools)

i'd maybe add vassar and sarah lawrence if you're into liberal arts.

i'm not really familiar with act's, and your gpa seems ok, it's one of those weird gpa's.

your diversity will help you out. I'd add brown, maybe i'm biased.

did you take any sat II?

[sunny]

there are, what, like three universities in canada. get the fuck out of here.

no, like, i get, like 3 choices, like.

beyond that i have to pay $35 for each uni and i dont need/want to.

[sunny]

they have a university in windsor now?

since 1963 buddy.

[stevie starscream]

all for a 6 year pharmD

MCPHS

LIU

St. John's

Upitt

Rutgers

SUNY Buffalo

[///mzeasy]

i'd maybe add vassar and sarah lawrence if you're into liberal arts.

i'm not really familiar with act's, and your gpa seems ok, it's one of those weird gpa's.

your diversity will help you out. I'd add brown, maybe i'm biased.

did you take any sat II?

yeah, I took world history and lit. Scores aren't great; 650 for world history and 600 for lit if I recall correctly.

oh, and I would have a 4.0 unweighted gpa

[Knugget]

It's sad that wasting my life on superfuture when I could be doing college apps only reminds me of how much of a failure I am.

UC apps are due the end of this month, aiming for the top 3.. Berk/LA/SD, but I have more interest in the SoCal schools.

I'll be applying to Stanford, USC, UC Berk/LA/SD/I, CSULB, Cal Poly SLO and Cal Poly Pomona most likely.

My weighted GPA is around 4.32 and SAT Reasoning is 2030.. I don't have many extracurrics outside of Robotics. Eep.

Ooof. That looks pretty decent to me...

Applying to UC: LA, I, Berk. Either I get in, or community college.

3.96 weighted. I do not know my SAT/ACT score yet. I've put in work for community service, sports, all that other crap, but it's not much cmpared to my buddies.

[doczein]

some things i learned from experience:

-no matter how good you think you are or your application is chances are college admissions will still fuck you over. i had the highest gpa (4.702 with ib and ap grades, 4.0 otherwise) and a reasonably well sat score (2160) in my dc-suburb school district and still got rejected by my top 4 schools

-affirmative action will work against your favor if you are asian or white

[jeepster]

i'm sending my applications out within the next two weeks. im trying to finish everything before thanksgiving and send it out the week after. all of my deadlines (reg admission) are after the new year, so i'm set in that regard.

i hate college applications. hopefully, i'll get in where i want and i won't have to worry about doing anything else.

[ProfMonnitoff]

Since I never really explained why I am in Birmingham right now, I figure this is a decent time to do so.

My dumbass high school managed to send the wrong IB predictions to all colleges that I applied to last year. Instead of sending the ~40 that I was predicted to get (and got), they sent out a prediction in the low 30s. This was only caught after I had been (obviously) denied by most schools, and only admitted 2-3 months ago.

At least I'll probably get a nice chunk of money from the lawsuit.

So, this year I'm doing all this crap over again.

UK: (Cambridge: Social and Political Sciences. Others: Sociology)

Cambridge (Clare College)

London School of Economics

Warwick

Bristol (got an unconditional within 12 hours)

Bath (5 choices dont cost more than 3 so why not)

US: Sociology

Columbia (maybe with Linguistics, application is done except for that choice)

Brown

Princeton (all 3 are reaching out, but possible)

Maybe Chicago, but I don't know if I can get a decent recommendation from a science teacher

Maybe NYU but I can't really justify the tuition

What I have to offer:

IB Scores:

Total: 40

English A2 HL: 7

Econ HL: 6

Math HL: 5 (retaking, but really just for Cambridge)

Phys SL: 6

German SL: 6

Comp Sci SL: 7

EE/TOK: 3

SAT1: took it twice, best total score 2250, each above 700, but cant remember the individual scores from the top of my head. my strongest section was math, my weakest was writing.

SAT2: MathII 790, German 800, Literature 600 I think (maybe 590?), but English isn't my first language. i'll probably just not send the literature score at all.

GPA: Dunno to be honest, but I had a B to B+ average while taking a full set of IB classes (arguably the hardest combination as well). Probably the weakest part of my application. I went to a relatively prestigeous private school in Vienna. I'm German and 100% white. No minority benefits. But I'm an international applicant.

Extracurricular: Tennis, taught mentally disabled girls for a year, about 200 hours of various bullshit community service (thanks, CAS), a decent photography portfolio (wouldnt get me into a photography program probably, but its good for what it is)

I can actually write pretty good essays too. I just dont ever capitalize or use punctuation or structure my sentences on here because I can type faster than I can think so most of my posts are kind of streams of random thoughts.

I have interviews at Cambridge on the 6th

[soonami]

Definitely into the whole "liberal arts at a university" concept that seems fairly exclusive to chicago and columbia. I attended the summer quarter at uchicago and am fairly obsessed with going there now.

For stats:

• 4.1ish gpa
  
• not-so-hot standardized test scores: 29 on act
  
• fair amount of extracurriculars (years of symphony with leadership, community service)
  
• I also have heard that my attendance at a shitty public school in southeast helps my chances (diversity for northern schools)

tbh, I don't think your test scores will be good enough to get you into your top three schools. You might want to look at less prestigous schools, lib arts schools in bigger cities, or some kind of honors program at your state school.

Also what doesn't help is that since you go to a shitty public school in the SE, your guidance counselor is probably dumb as rocks and completely inept at their job of counseling you. I would try and contact admissions in some schools you are interested in and see what they have to say.

And ProfMonnitoff :

GL with everything, I know my high school messed everything up too, but nearly as bad. Hopefully, things will work out for you. I know that most US schools are pretty easy on international students and your test scores are pretty decent.

[///mzeasy]

tbh, I don't think your test scores will be good enough to get you into your top three schools. You might want to look at less prestigous schools, lib arts schools in bigger cities, or some kind of honors program at your state school.

Also what doesn't help is that since you go to a shitty public school in the SE, your guidance counselor is probably dumb as rocks and completely inept at their job of counseling you. I would try and contact admissions in some schools you are interested in and see what they have to say.

And ProfMonnitoff :

GL with everything, I know my high school messed everything up too, but nearly as bad. Hopefully, things will work out for you. I know that most US schools are pretty easy on international students and your test scores are pretty decent.

Yeah, I know my scores are a bit lacking (but then, they are in the middle 50% at the top schools) and you nailed on the head with my counselors. They are absolutely no help; I rely on my friends in nyc for solid guidance information. But overall, I'm nervous as hell about getting into any of my top 5. I'm happy with my safetys and would be okay with going to them, but having gone to uchicago for a summer, I am consumed with getting in there. And trust me, my bottom school is most-likely better than honors programs that any georgia state schools may have to offer.

[ProfMonnitoff]

the good news is that i'm spending this year at university doing basically nothing academic at all. as long as i pass i'm alright. that means i get to spend lots of time on stuff that i will probably never have time for again. its like a gap year except i have 15 hours of classes and 5 hours of extra work each week.

I have a good friend who got into Columbia (same program actually). He went to the same high school as I did. Only ~2100 SAT, but a nearly perfect GPA. He plays an instrument which I don't, but I have sports and the mentally disabled girls thing that I always stress out of proportion regardless of how cliche it is.

meazy, how was the summer program at uchicago? I did the one at Columbia in 2006, and it was easily the best summer of my life so far. their radical policy on alcohol kinda sucked (whereas with normal students apparently they dont care one bit), but it didnt really matter because there was so much other stuff to do.

[soonami]

haha I forgot to look at your location

But then again there are some fine ass girls at GT....

If you are serious about UChicago, I hope you applied early decision because acceptance rates are much better(sometimes more than 10% higher) for those that apply early decision

[///mzeasy]

meazy, how was the summer program at uchicago? I did the one at Columbia in 2006, and it was easily the best summer of my life so far. their radical policy on alcohol kinda sucked (whereas with normal students apparently they dont care one bit), but it didnt really matter because there was so much other stuff to do.

You described mine as well, 'best summer of my life'. I had some friends that had liquor every weekend though they were across the hall from the director of the program. I didn't touch the stuff, it wasn't worth not being able to apply to my first choice. Honestly, I think the colleges only care because we're high school students, they definitely don't make a deal out of it for college students. It was such a great experience though; I've always lived in the suburbs and was very happy with my living arrangements in the city. My classes were extraordinary, I've never enjoyed class or been challenged so much in my life; made me really hate coming back to the narrow-minded schools of the south.

If you are serious about UChicago, I hope you applied early decision because acceptance rates are much better(sometimes more than 10% higher) for those that apply early decision

After speaking with my admissions counselor at u of c, I'll be applying in January. This is simply due to the fact that I'm graduating from high school a year early and my circumstances require that they see my midyear report before they even consider admission.

[ProfMonnitoff]

I didn't.

The same is true for Columbia and almost every other comparable school as far as I can tell. I think that the difference is mainly because the early applicants are generally better candidates.

You might also have the factor that the people who review the applications have gone through so many that they are sick of it by the time they are halfway through the regular decision ones (a teacher at my school did admissions for a state school in the US for a year and told us about how half assed the process is, simply because the people who work there are "just people").

My first choice is either Cambridge or Columbia, if I got into both that would be a pretty tough decision. Cambridge has the slightly better program, and they have the best dorms of any school ever. Also they are about $30,000 cheaper, which adds up to $120,000. Columbia pretty much has the location. That's not to say their academics are bad of course.

[jeepster]

though i did meet the target for most of my schools in terms of SAT's, 1830 being my best with a 640 in verbal, 540 math, and 650 writing, i feel like somehow its gonna run against me. i'm not a good test taker, thats a given, but i'm a very smart person, and im being modest. poly, from your experience working in admissions, and since im doing this already (i might've told you this in the past), i'm submitting a writing portfolio of some collected works that i'm really proud of (some published in newspapers, some just really good pieces i've written) - would this better my chances? my academic record isn't so great, and though i am making ~3.5 so far this year, i never made higher than a 2.9 throughout high school (save for 1 quarter my sophmore year).

the whole concept of college applications is so utterly depressing. ugh.

[poly800rock]

some things i learned from experience:

-no matter how good you think you are or your application is chances are college admissions will still fuck you over. i had the highest gpa (4.702 with ib and ap grades, 4.0 otherwise) and a reasonably well sat score (2160) in my dc-suburb school district and still got rejected by my top 4 schools

-affirmative action will work against your favor if you are asian or white

i think too much emphasis is placed on i got this GPA and SAT so I'm a shoe in for this competitive school. It doesn't work that way, they get so many applicants that they pick and choose their class. Not to say that poor scores and a killer essay will get you in, but the reverse is true. I know that as FACT.

i'm sending my applications out within the next two weeks. im trying to finish everything before thanksgiving and send it out the week after. all of my deadlines (reg admission) are after the new year, so i'm set in that regard.

i hate college applications. hopefully, i'll get in where i want and i won't have to worry about doing anything else.

good luck. My advice to kids applying next year is that, regardless if they have deadlines, get your shit in as early as possible. Just because it's a deadline shouldn't mean you should wait that long. You increase your chances exponetially if you apply early, as you're not reviewed against as many applicant. Good luck again jeep

Yeah, I know my scores are a bit lacking (but then, they are in the middle 50% at the top schools) and you nailed on the head with my counselors. They are absolutely no help; I rely on my friends in nyc for solid guidance information. But overall, I'm nervous as hell about getting into any of my top 5. I'm happy with my safetys and would be okay with going to them, but having gone to uchicago for a summer, I am consumed with getting in there. And trust me, my bottom school is most-likely better than honors programs that any georgia state schools may have to offer.

I think if you continue to show interest in your top choice and make sure to let them know it's your first choice and you did do some stuff there last summer, you might at least have an in. Did you get a chance to meet anyone while you were up there? Stats aren't everything, make sure your ESSAY is killer. It's honestly probably the most heavily weighted aspect at a competitive school where they read that shit

[soraanaam]

you guys too smart make my brain explode

[ProfMonnitoff]

i fucking hate the high priority that US schools give to the GPA. that being said neither you nor me can change the system, and a low gpa WILL work against you.

one of the teachers who is writing a recommendation for me worked in admissions for brown for a year.

he told me that the way they reviewed applications went like this:

1. look at numbers - GPA, SAT, IB/AP. if more than 1 of these was below a certain threshold, the folder got thrown out before it was even looked at.

2. look at everything else that is standard in every folder. recs, essay, minority status, school reputation (a bad reputation can work for or against you), etc.

3. if the folder makes is that far, they might look at the other stuff.

the thing is that most of the time these people are WAAAY behind on reviewing candidates, and do them at a rate of about 5 per hour, often on a couch with a beer. that means that the time you put into your essay and your extra writing might translate into 5 minutes in total if you catch the admissions guy on a bad day.

[poly800rock]

though i did meet the target for most of my schools in terms of SAT's, 1830 being my best with a 640 in verbal, 540 math, and 650 writing, i feel like somehow its gonna run against me. i'm not a good test taker, thats a given, but i'm a very smart person, and im being modest. poly, from your experience working in admissions, and since im doing this already (i might've told you this in the past), i'm submitting a writing portfolio of some collected works that i'm really proud of (some published in newspapers, some just really good pieces i've written) - would this better my chances? my academic record isn't so great, and though i am making ~3.5 so far this year, i never made higher than a 2.9 throughout high school (save for 1 quarter my sophmore year).

the whole concept of college applications is so utterly depressing. ugh.

from the list of schools you gave me earlier, here's what you wanna ask yourself. is it worth getting into those schools for you? Would you be willing to kill at a regular state school for a year before you transfer to another school? Transfer stats aren't usually as high as out the gate stats. I think you're smart to include the EC stuff, as it shows you're more than just numbers (and it could explain maybe why your numbers aren't as high as you want them to be). Make sure you let them know that shit was published. Hope that helps. GL