<p>My stats:
White, 780 M, 770 V, 720 W. 3.93 UW GPA (most, but not all, top-lane classes), good suburban public school. ECs are pretty average (meaning way below average for CC). Legacy at Caltech and Chicago. Grad school legacy (is that worth anything?) at Stanford and Berkeley. </p>
<p>Parent’s assets are too high for any need-based grants, so a private school would be something like 120k more expensive. Therefore, splurging really wouldn’t be worth it except for a school that’s significantly better. For me, I’m thinking that mostly means a big prestige name that would generally impress and give a boost for eg finance or consulting (just to keep my options open). </p>
<p>I am leaning towards science, but nothing more specific, and that could easily change after a few breadth courses. I’m thinking I’ll end up going for an PhD or MD, just based on family history, but that could also change. I’m not worried about my UG prestige for grad-school admissions, and I’ll have no lack of access to “advising” (my siblings went to top grad schools from UCs). </p>
<p>Given how competitive things are now, is it even worth it as a hookless white suburbanite to apply to top private schools, or should I just stick with the UCs? (I’d probably throw out an EA/ED to one school regardless)</p>
<p>To hopefully stimulate discussion, I’ll note that right now I’m figuring those schools to be HYPSMC, Columbia, Penn, Duke, Dartmouth, Brown, Williams, Amherst. </p>
<p>Should I add/subtract anything from that list?</p>
<p>Do I have a realistic shot at any of those? I figure I can rule out all those but Penn, Duke, Williams and Amherst, but should I give up on those as well?</p>
<p>If you’re going to be applying to such high-caliber schools you need to make sure of one thing. Love your safeties. I’m not from California, so I can’t really judge you in-state for those UCs, but I know that nothing is guaranteed from some of those other private schools you listed. Make sure to one school that you are very confident you will get into and would be very happy going to.
Another path to consider is some schools that give merit aid. I know WashU, Emory, and some other top-notch schools give some great merit aid. Personally, I was offered a merit scholarship from USC that reduced the yearly cost of attendance to $10,000 as opposed to $50,000+ you will see at those other schools.</p>
<p>monroe has good advice, be happy with your safety schools! your stats are no gimme at Cal or UCLA either, you could be rejected from both, the UC’s put significant weight on gpa, and 4.4w kids get rejected all the time. consider that UCLA had 55,000 applications for 6,500 spots, which means even kids with excellent stats get rejected. for the privates i recommend focused EC’s…aka a passion in something! i do think you can get healthy merit aid from the privates.</p>
<p>ps legacy means little these days</p>
<p>I know that nothing is guaranteed at those privates, my question was more whether there is a chance at all (as unfocused as I am). </p>
<p>Would getting significant merit aid from those T20 privates be any more plausible than getting into the really top schools? </p>
<p>I’m certainly applying to UCSD as well, but I’m not overly worried about UCB/UCLA, unless they’ve gotten much harder in only two years. I’m in the middle of a huge clump of green on Naviance (we get about 50 acceptances a year at Berkeley, average GPA is 3.80)</p>
<p>For sure, add Chicago, it has great prestige, especially in finance. And I’m sure a lot of people will tell you to take ANY decent private over a UC, to avoid 300-student Bio 1 and rubbing shoulders with proles. </p>
<p>I think you do have a better chance at Chicago (and at merit aid at solid privates), because those schools care more about numbers and less about extracurriculars.</p>