I know that I don’t have a legacy. I just asked if it matters but you answered my question
Generally, my scores in the general SAT are
Math: 800
English:660-680
I know that I will need to improve my English. What should my goal be? 730? And how can I increase my English score?
“it is a matter of fact that MIT and Stanford are better than NYU let’s say and no one can say no to that”
Actually I think that I would say no to that.
It is a matter of fact that MIT and Stanford are higher ranked than NYU. I agree. It is a matter of fact that MIT and Stanford are academically more demanding than NYU. I agree with that also. There are probably more students who want to go to MIT or Stanford than students who want to go to NYU.
However, there are far more students for whom NYU would be a better fit than either MIT or Stanford, than the other way around.
One reason is that for most students, even most students who want to go to MIT, MIT is just too tough and if they went there they would have a lot of trouble. Pretty much everyone who goes to either MIT or Stanford were in the top 1% of all students in their high school and expect to be in the top 25% of the students at their university. Three out of four are wrong on this last point. There are many more students who are in the top 5% of their high school and want to go to MIT or Stanford. If they spend much time on this they are probably mostly wasting their time.
There are far more students who can go to NYU than can go to MIT or Stanford. Getting accepted is one reason.
Have you taken the actual SAT or are you estimating?
There are rankings for schools and there are better schools depending on different criteria. When two schools are in the opposite end of spectrum, you may be able to tell one school is better than the other. When you are looking at schools in similar caliber, which one is better is totally subjective. Even different rankings put them in different orders. In addition, it would be more relevant for your intended major rather than the whole school in the comparison. If there is an absolute ranking of schools, it would certainly not be the one on USNews.
One of the biggest problems with USNews is that they take into account endowment and average alumni donations. These are very rough measures of the quality of education at a particular school.
USNWR does not use yield in the ranking methodology
Edited. Thanks @whatisyourquest
Caltech is more like a think tank/research institute. It is very small, with an undergraduate class of around 250 per year. The facilities are amazing and the location is beautiful. The only criteria for admission is merit - you have the smartest STEM kids applying there. You will be on a first name basis with some of the smartest people in the world there. Unbalanced M/F ratio.
Berkley is a huge general purpose university, also excellent in STEM and other areas too, but much more politically radical and outspoken. IMO a bit run down too. You can find anything and everything you would want to do there,
Both feed the many technologies companies and research institutes in the area.
No, I haven’t taken it yet. These were estimations based on my performance on the practice tests @intparent
Re #28:
“Unbalanced M/F ratio.”
Yes, it exists.
https://www.registrar.caltech.edu/academics/enrollment
“The only criteria for admission is merit”
Not really. In recognition that the M/F imbalance isn’t desirable or appealing, gender (as well as merit) matters in Caltech admissions. The same is true for several other highly-selective, STEM-focused universities. E.g., at Caltech, MIT, and Harvey Mudd, the admit rate for women is roughly twice that for men.
http://time.com/money/4147738/colleges-women-higher-acceptance-rate/
The “major” concept applies to undergraduate programs in the US system.
So, “where you did your major” refers to your undergraduate institution.
Where you get your graduate degree(s) may have greater impact on hiring decisions (or perhaps on salary levels) in the USA than where you get your undergraduate degree. It really depends on the institutions you’re comparing, the field, and the nature of the impact you’re considering. Academic, business, engineering, and medical careers all have different requirements. For example, to practice medicine in the USA an MD is essential, but it really does not matter where you get it (as long as it’s an accredited program).
Caltech is not very holistic in admissions, it is very data and achievement driven, and does not discriminate against Asians . The UC/CSU system also bans racial preferences. I think you will find that nearly every STEM oriented college will have female preferences, however, and many non-STEM oriented LAC’s have male preferences.
Re: Unbalanced M/F ratio
It is very true that the ratio has been unbalanced at Caltech in the past. However, the past 3 years of admissions have been significantly more balanced. Data is from Common Data Sets.
Class of 2021: Unknown ratio (52% of students admitted were female – data given at Prefrosh Weekend)
Class of 2020: 44.3% female (50% of students admitted were female)
Class of 2019: 46.5% female (49% of students admitted were female)
Class of 2018: 39.8% female (46% of students admitted were female)
Class of 2017: 35.5% female (41% of students admitted were female)
If you look at the set of majors that Caltech has and compare those majors at most large universities, you would often find equal or worse male:female ratios, because the overall college population balances out the STEM majors who are not bio majors.
(For the UC system, in addition to not looking at race during admissions, the admissions staff does not see the gender of the student.)
Note: RPI appears to be an example of a STEM-based college that still gives very little preference to female applicants. They are about 31% female.
Much of the problem is that females apply to such colleges in significantly lower numbers. Colleges have said that it appears women are often less self-confident than men (even with equal stats), and so apply in lower numbers to STEM-based colleges. And, if fewer women attend a college, there also tends to be a lower yield in the female applicants, because the ratio is a strike against the college for the females (as well as males).
@Ynotgo actually RPI does give preference to female applicants (47% admitted vs 39% for males). It just has 3 times as many male applicants than female. That’s partly because of the m/f ratio (though the m/f ratio is worse for males than females), but also (and I think primarily) because RPI is primarily known for engineering, which attracts many more males than females.