nukchebi0

I haven't really given the college selection process as much attention as it probably deserved it. School, sports, my (very few) ECs, and standardized testing took precedence during the school year over something that seemed much more distant than I realize it is. Fortunately, it is now summer, and I have much less pressing concerns, and a lot more free time, than I used to. So I decided that I should probably begin formulating a list of reaches, matches and safeties to apply to, as well as think about which schools I want to apply to early action. However, I really have no idea what are good matches or safeties for me. I also know little about the EA/ED process (beyond that it exists and you apply early), nor which colleges it would be prudent to utilize with. So, I was thinking that everyone on here, who seems much more versed in the college entrance game than me, could assist with choices and enlighten me on EA/ED. So, could you please do so?

I am thinking of dual majoring in Economics and Engineering, because it gives me a bit more flexibility than with just an engineering degree.

I have found reaches, too, since I think all top 20 schools are reaches (and I don't have any compelling hook).


They are:

Stanford
Brown
Harvey Mudd
MIT (possibly, I really don't like the idea of near downtown Boston)
Caltech (not sure about this either)


Here are stats, with ECs cut out. I can tell you that by CC standards, they are weak. I assume you need them to find matches and safeties.

Caucasian Male
Small public school in Oregon

Class Rank: 1/130 (tied with 4 others)
GPA unweighted: 4.0
GPA weighted: 4.08, 4.2 next year

AP classes are weighted, honors are not.

AP classes taken/will take:
AP US History
AP Calculus AB
AP English (Language and Composition, I think)
AP Biology
Will take Calc BC as an independent study next year

Honors taken/will take:

Math 1 and 2 (Geometry and Alg 2) (Honors 1 in eighth grade)
Math 111/112 (precalc through community college)
English 10 and 11
We the People (honors government)

My school doesn't offer more than four AP classes, so I assume the relative lack won't be an impediment. I took the hardest course load available, including a third year of Spanish.


Tests:

No scores for the AP test, since I took them this year. I feel I did well, so assume a 4 or 5.

SAT I: 2350 - 770 V 780 M 800 W
SAT II: None yet, Math IIC, Chemistry and US History in October. Range 760-800 on each
PSAT: 223


Thanks to everyone who responds.

Daniel12

Good thinking -- now is a great time to get started with the process.

Regarding EA/ED, I would say both give small advantages in admissions in that (A) it shows interest in the school (especially with ED, since it's binding) and (B) there is a small amount of chance in college admissions, so having two shots is slightly better than just one. But both of these are only small factors; generally the better reason for applying EA or ED is that it gets the admissions process out of the way early so you won't be as stressed in the few months between EA and RD results.

Regarding college admissions in general, a member of CC (halfthelaw) and his friend put together an excellent guide a couple years ago. I highly recommend it:
http://epfarms.org/~hmartin/CollegeA...HowtoGuide.pdf

Ren the SAT'er

omg. reading ur sat scores just kills me~~ darn nice scores man~ im jealous~!

teenage_cliche

Alright, because your reaches are varied and don't really tell us these things:

How big do you want a school to be? How urban or rural? What do you want the weather to be like? What do you want the social life to be like - more drunken partying or more intellectual, or do you want to have the options of both?

Usually people say your state public schools make good safeties. I have no idea about Oregon, but you might want to look into those.

nukchebi0

I would prefer a size under 10,000; smaller is always better.
Location is not an issue as long as it not downtown or in a ghetto (Columbia/NYU and USC are respective examples).
I would prefer the latter form of social life to the former.

Wneckid99

brown is right near downtown providence- not a big city but a small city- just so you know

stanford looks like a good slight reach for you

teenage_cliche

More on the high match/reach side, but you might want to look into Swarthmore. I've heard it's one of the few LACs with a pretty strong engineering program.

nukchebi0

Isn't Swarthmore buried in Philadelphia?

And thanks for the help so far. I will definitely have to reconsider Brown.

What do you mean by "good slight reach"?

Prism123

Dual majoring in engineering and economics is gonna be pretty challenging, that said from your stats your smart enough to pull it off.

And if you didn't say under 10,000 I was gonna suggest applying to Cornell.

Also, as a side note, is their really enough additional material in BC that wasn't covered in AB to constitute a full year? A quick glance at the college board site, the additional material, the polar, parametric, and vector stuff will take a month, and the series stuff will take a month, but the rest is just simple single serving concepts like partial fractions, l'hopitals, Eulers, improper integrals, etc that will take a day to a few days each. I could be underestimating though.

Although since its an independent study you could always start on multivariable stuff.

nukchebi0

I was thinking of Cornell, but the size did put me off. I don't like big schools.

As for the calculus, I wasn't aware of that. I guess since it is BC there is a bit of overlap from AB, and not enough new materials. Thanks for making me aware of that. I'll have to talk with the teacher guiding it about starting on multivariable concepts.

As a side not to that, how to the colleges know that the independent study listed on my transcript is for this? Is that the purpose of a counselor recommendation letter?

Finally, more suggestions for colleges are always welcome.

molliebatmit

Have you visited MIT?

I mean, physically it's close to Boston, but it doesn't feel like an urban campus a la BU or NYU, at least not to me.

lfecollegeguy

Check out Carnegie Mellon as well. Engineering + Econ (jointly administered with the prestigious Tepper Bschool). Easy to double major too.

nukchebi0

Would that be more of a safety or match than a reach?

lfecollegeguy

CIT would probably be more of a match, ECE would be slightly harder and Tepper would probably be a slight reach (for anyone) as indicated by this year's accepted/rejected thread.

nukchebi0

Caltech a match? I didn't think it was a match for anyone.

What is ECE?