Assess my chances for tier-2...

Applying to College
1

<p>I know I’m not Ivy League material but I’m wondering if it’s a reach for me to shoot for a tier-2 school. I don’t want to get my hopes up prematurely.</p>

<p>I have a GPA of 3.4-3.6 with 3 AP courses. My school is very small and it does not offer an abundance of AP coursework. My SAT scores are as follows:</p>

<p>Verbal: 680
Math: 660
Writing: 700</p>

<p>I play varsity soccer and I’m also on the debate team and have won Statewide awards for that. I also lead an orchestra at church and play several instruments.</p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

2

<p>Not sure what you mean by a tier-2 school. If you mean that list of school that the Ivy-league wannabes end up at, when they don’t get into HPYS, then I think your grades and test scores are probably too low. Nice ECs thought. If you can be a little more explicit about what kind of school you are looking for, you’ll be better advice.</p>

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<p>I was thinking schools like Notre Dame, Duke, Emory, George Washington, or maybe Wake Forest.</p>

4

<p>Duke is Tier 2 in the most competitive year of college admissions in history?</p>

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<p>Is that a question or a statment? Confused by your post!</p>

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<p>The schools you’re listing are not Tier 2 schools. That’s what was confusing in your original post, and what may raise eyebrows after your clarification. According to US News, which is where a lot of this “Tier…” talk comes from:</p>

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</p>

<p>So among national universities, “Tier 2” begins somewhere roughly between spots 62-65 in this year’s rankings. The schools you list, on the other hand, sit in spots 19, 8, 17, 54, and 30, respectively. Duke’s position puts it ahead of 4 Ivies. Calling any of these schools “Tier 2” is just nuts. I’m sure that you weren’t intentionally being insulting, but a lot of posters throw around talk of tiers without really knowing or clarifying their meaning. For the record, I’m not endorsing these rankings, just assuming that they’re related to your use of tiers.</p>

<p>Your question, really, seems to be “How high can I reasonably reach, given my stats? And in particular, how might I fare at Notre Dame, Duke, Emory, George Washington, and Wake Forest?” Sorry if I’m misinterpreting you, but your use of “Tier 2” originally confused me, also.</p>

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<p>LOL all i saw was asses and I lol’ed.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification Student615. I am new to the college search and frankly, some of you seem a little uptight. :slight_smile: Take a load off. Anyway, again if you look at my scores above, do you think Tier 3 is a reach for me? Thanks for any advice.</p>

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<p>No, Tier 3 would not be a reach for you.</p>

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<p>If you’ve been in contact with the soccer coach and/or have been recruited, Notre Dame, Duke, and Emory would be match schools.</p>

<p>If not, George Washington and Wake Forest would be match schools, Emory and Notre Dame low reaches, and Duke a reach.</p>

<p>Also, did you look at LACs that need soccer players? Many top tier LACs would love to have an applicant like you. Just a thought.</p>

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<p>I see a lot of people on CC using the US News terminology, but incorrectly.
Student615 posted the US News definition ( which would be the final word, since they made the ranking up LOL ), which means that colleges ranked up to 124 are listed as “Top Colleges” ( I guess you could say tier 1 and tier 2) .
I have seen threads where people say the top 20 are tier 1 and the next 20 are tier 2 and so on, which can confuse the heck out of people. That’s probably why the OP stated his question that way.</p>

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<p>Justin: Numbers aren’t everything in this process, but they’re a good place to start figuring out where you stand in terms of safety/match/reach schools. I suggest starting by looking at the info of schools that already interest you, and perhaps a few actual Tier 2 and Tier 3 schools so that you can better understand what you’re talking about when you make those references. Just googling “[school] + average + SAT” will usually get you the relevant info. Of-course-of-course-can’t-say-it-enough-of-course you should look beyond numbers and rankings, both high and low, to determine your interest in (and possibly your chances of admission to) a school. </p>

<p>To give you an idea of the variance even within the schools that you’ve listed, here are the 25-75% stats (noting again that numbers are not everything…just a jumping off point):</p>

<p>Notre Dame: CR 630-740, Math 660-760
Duke: CR 690-770, Math 690-790
Emory: CR 640-730, Math 660-740
George Washington: CR 600-700, Math 600-690
Wake Forest: CR 610-690, Math 630-710</p>

<p>Somewhere around the beginning of Tier 2, USNews lists UConn: CR 530-630, Math 560-660</p>

<p>USNews lists Tier 3 alphabetically rather than by ranking, so the first on the list is Adelphi University: CR 480-580, Math 490-590</p>

<p>Now, obviously my Tier 2 and Tier 3 examples are not intended to be representative of their entire groups…just to give you a very rough idea of what it means when you speak of tiers, and of where you might want to focus your research. If you’re planning to play soccer in college, I have no idea what kind of monkey wrench that may or may not throw into the situation, but this type of thing will all become more clear in time. Also, if they hold any interest for you, remember to look at LAC’s :)</p>

<p>ETA: All stats were found at [U.S&lt;/a&gt;. University Directory - State Universities, Online University Degree Search and College Rankings](<a href=“http://www.stateuniversity.com%5DU.S”>http://www.stateuniversity.com).</p>