<p>Talk to your parents and compromise - you’ll apply to a few Ivies if you can choose the other colleges to apply. The odds are in your favor that you’ll go to the college of your choice.</p>
<p>I second these motions, if your E.c’s are okay- you took the hardest courseload( explains your GPA) andyour bring you SAT to a 2100- I don’t see why you don’t have a shot at the lower ives or the lower 10. But, you should at least convince your parents to give you safeties.
However, more importantly, if you DON"T WANT TO GOT TO AN IVY, which is the vibe I’m getting from you then you shouldn’t apply to one.</p>
<p>Have you talked to your school’s guidance counselor about this yet?</p>
<p>OP, You are getting brochures from Ivy’s and other colleges because they buy the list of PSAT scores from the Collegeboard, and then hire outside companies to send out mailers in order to get students to apply. Its’ NOT because they want YOU. It’s because they WANT you to APPLY. It’s called enrollment management. Would your parents insist that you go out and buy a CAR just because they received a brochure in the mail? Explain this to them. Maybe it will open their eyes.</p>
<p>So will they pay for education if you apply to Ivies and they just don’t accept you? If so, give up trying to persuade them that you have no chance, bite the bullet, and put earnest effort into the applications. I’m really sorry you’re in the position; I’m assuming your economic background excludes much need-based aid? </p>
<p>Also: if you’re parents are so concerned with your college application process, it seems discordant that you have such low grades. I’m not criticizing you; it just seems unusual that a kid whose parents are hyper-involved has below a 3.5. What’s up with this?</p>
<p>^I don’t Know about that. My son has a 3.0. I don’t think I’m “hyper involved”, but I DO have 2000 posts on college Con!</p>
<p>OTOH, my daughter had a 4.1</p>
<p>You should show your parents admissions profiles and stats for Ivies so that they see how competitive it really is. </p>
<p>Many parents these days don’t seem to realize that getting into college now is much harder than when they were in high school.</p>
<p>The ONLY way you have a chance at any Ivy, or T20 school for that matter is if you are in the top 10% of your class. If you look at the admit rates for people below the top decile at all of those schools, including Cornell, you will see that they admit almost zero people that are not in the top 10%. I think Brown had something like 4500 applicants that were not in the top ten %, and they only accepted a small number, like 8. If you are not in the top 10% you have no chance at all. Tell your parents that. It may work.</p>
<p>I’m in the exact same situation as you with similar stats. I’d like to know what can be done as well.</p>
<p>Can you ask your parents for “help”? As in, I’m really, really swamped. Could you make up a data base of the Ivies that shows how many kids with my GPA get in (available on College Board). Any could you fill in how much that would cost our family with our level of income? Do that, Daddy, dearest, and I’ll apply to two of the schools you pick. And I’ll apply to at least two schools that are dear to my heart. Then we will NOT discuss this any further until the acceptance letters are in hand. </p>
<p>They love you. They think you are the finest kid in the universe. Ok. We can live with that. Give a little (two applications to the two Ivies they prefer). Who knows, maybe it will work. That could be a fun option to have next spring. </p>
<p>Then work like heck to find a couple of schools that are totally up your alley. If you, in good faith, try things their way with an honest effort, then they really should support you in considering a few other options (fine if they think your dream school is really your safety. Parents don’t have to know everything). Good luck!</p>
<p>@Tboone: Brown’s numbers weren’t that bad 
still very tough, but certainly not impossible. 2,394 applicants in the 2nd 10th of graduating HS class applied and 47 were accepted.</p>
<p>To be honest, I don’t know if you’re following this thread anymore… but I thought I might try and help. :-)</p>
<p>If you’re parents really want you to go to an Ivy League school, look into some of the “lower ivies” and other such institutions. Though they’re name might be deceiving, they’re reputation and educational foundation are absolutely phenomenal. Here are some universities you might want to take a look at:</p>
<p>U Wisc
Rice
Emory
U Mich
U Mass Amherst</p>
<p>Also, what about liberal arts colleges? Would you be at all interested in those?</p>
<p>love the tag lol.
at least you’re african american. i’m pretty much hating the fact that I’m asian rn, not to sound extremely racist, but with affirmative action, u could get a 2100, i could get a 2300 and they would probably accept you</p>
<p>i have the completely opposite situation as you. i think i could get in, my parents however, don’t like the price tag.</p>
<p>torinoway,</p>
<p>Where on earth did your parents go to college/university that makes them so convinced that the only way you have a future is if you go to an Ivy? Have they looked around themselves at the people who they know who are reasonably happy in life and asked those folks where they went to school? Or heck, whether they even went to college at all?</p>
<p>Have your parents even considered the remote possibility that you might not get into an Ivy? What have they come up with to suggest to you as safety schools? Every April there are a whole bunch of “I didn’t get in anywhere I like” threads here at CC, and even a few “I truly didn’t get in to any of the schools I applied to, what do I do now?” threads. Not to mention the “I didn’t get into any school that I can afford” threads.</p>
<p>So IF your parents are hell-bent that you apply to a bunch of Ivys, I say go ahead and let them pay for all of those applications. Just be sure that your list includes some places that you like better as back-ups, and at least one rock solid safety where you will be admitted based just on the stats you have (probably a state school).</p>
<p>As for visiting campus, well it’s nice, but every single year students end up enrolling at colleges and universities that they have never visited and do just fine.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>In response to satiravelvet, UWisc and UMich are not the only Big-10 Schools that are good. Torinoway could also apply to illinois or purdue, which are just as good. Michigan and Wisconsin have enough coastie problems to deal with on their own. I’m sticking up for all mid-west schools. Can someone tell me why all people from the coasts only apply to Wicsonsin and Michigan as Big-10 schools? someone help me out</p>
<p>“As for visiting campus, well it’s nice, but every single year students end up enrolling at colleges and universities that they have never visited and do just fine.”</p>
<p>This is so true. I visited many schools I was accepted to in April—and by visiting, I realized none of them were for me! Strange how that works I guess :)</p>
<p>I think the key here is that the OP doesn’t WANT to go to an ivy. It doesn’t matter if you can get in or not, if you don’t even want to!</p>
<p>So the advice in my opinion should NOT be on telling your parents how “you can’t get in”; that’s not the point. Truth is, you do have a chance to get in. But should you go if you get in? If you don’t want to, then NO.</p>
<p>The point is he DOESN’T WANT TO GO TO AN IVY. So who cares whether he gets in or not?</p>
<p>well that’s the whole point; from what i’ve heard and read about many of the schools my parents want me to apply to, it just doesn’t seem like a place where i’d be happy. i’m not a fan of the east coast and NEED a large city that’s no more than 30 minutes away, i get bored so quick! i mean really now, i’m an artist, my world’s got to have some inspiration!</p>
<p>but i’ve had MANY a talk with them. even with public universities that are high ranked, like u penn and berkeley, they give the most juvenile response; “yeah, but still” what does that even mean!?</p>
<p>and faking interest is REALLY difficult with my mom hounding me about “making a descision”. it’s not that i’m undecided as to where i want to go, it’s just that whenever i bring it up, i get yelled at!</p>
<p>my parents are very naive, very crazy people. my dad is seriously convinced that no one in the world gets 1910’s on the SAT. i was like, “are you KIDDING me?!?!?!” because while it’s a good score, it sure ain’t good enough!</p>
<p>and speaking of a 1800, getting into stanford, i know one of those! 3.4 gpa too, but she was like, the crew champion of the pacific northwest, so it was a sports kind of thing with her.</p>
<p>i know i’ll have to apply to ivies, i just don’t want to get in because i don’t want to go, like i said, i don’t like the vibe. but i’m worried that if some miracle occurs and i do get in, then i’m gonna have to go… / =</p>
<p>and no i haven’t talked to my guidance councelor. it’s summer, haha</p>
<p>and i know the PSAT college mail is bogus, but my parents don’t believe me.</p>
<p>the funny thing is, my parent’s aren’t really involved, i’m a very independent kid, i haven’t been asked about my homework since i was ten or so. they’re just convinced that everyone at my school is rascist and that’s why i have bad grades. honestly, it’s because i partied way too much, killed a load of brain cells, but then decided to stop…and that took two months of sleeping and missing school and being sick to return to a normal-ish state. i did have a 3.7 once upon a time though… but this past junior year killed that. my mistake.</p>
<p>and that’s true, my dad’s ex wife got into harvard and he’s convinced that anyone can do it, and i’ve shown the graphs and charts and percentages but they don’t believe them. they’re like those christians that don’t believe in dinosaurs! (no offence if anyone is that kind of christian…)</p>
<p>i’m not in the top 10%. top 25%, but definitely not top 10%!!!</p>
<p>but every time i ask my parents to prove to me that someone exactly like me (same gpa, sat, etc) has been accepted, they tell me to go do it…so that probably wouldn’t work, but it’s a nice suggestion!</p>
<p>and i don’t mean to sound like an elitist or anything but money isn’t the issue, i’m pretty well off.</p>
<p>UPenn is actually an ivy league school (private).</p>