<p>Now is probably the time I should be starting to think about the college process (seriously). I have a few quick questions:
(a) Which colleges dont look at freshmen year grades? (With Fr. year I have like a 3.7 high or 3.8 low, but without it I have a 3.9 high so its a big issue)
(b) What are some award opportunities (both small and big) that I can enter in the next year or so? (So far, all I have is a small math thing from Rose-Hulman)</p>
<p>My top priority in choosing a post-secondary educational institution is academics. I would like to go to a university that has a top rated economics program and a strong political science program, both of which have undergraduate research opportunities. I would also prefer an urban university with a big Jewish community. The colleges below are the ones I would like to look into to. They are separated by groups and ordered by preference (in each group). While, I dont know what my final stats would be, I do hope that they will dont disappoint TJHSST’s community (lol). Im just wondering if anybody has anything to say (campus, academics, admissions, social life, etc) about these colleges:</p>
<p>The VA Group (in-state)
U. Virginia
Virginia Tech
College of William and Mary
George Mason University</p>
<p>The Elite Group
Yale University
MIT
Princeton University
Harvard College
Stanford University</p>
<p>The Urban Group
Columbia University
U. Pennsylvania
U. Chicago
Northwestern University</p>
<p>The Other Group
Johns Hopkins University
Washington University in St. Louis
Rice University
Carnegie Mellon University
U. Michigan
Cornell University
Dartmouth College</p>
<p>If I were you, I would got to UVA or W&M, unless you can actually get into the “elite group.” After those, Chicago, NWestern and the other Ivies would be your best bet. I would not even consider the other in-state group, JHU, or UMich(why consider UMich when you have UVA?). Others to consider are Emory and Notre Dame.</p>
<p>The quick response is I agree with Esrajay. OOS kids are dying to go to UVA or W & M so why go elsewhere? All the schools listed are terrific so it often comes down to personal preference and your SAT scores. My d applied to some of the schools you listed -UVA (rejected) and accepted to W & M-CMU and is now attending Cornell. She got a 1420 SAT. So if you receive around a 1400-with good essays you have a shot at these schools. Concentrate on the best fit for you. We too are Jewish and d didn’t want too small a school or too rural. All the schools you listed should meet your basic needs but it comes down to personal preference. You can also check the Hillel website (Hillel.Org) as they have a student guide to schools. It will give you an idea about the Jewish population on campus. I am also going to suggest another school-- University of Rochester. They do have a very fine economics dept. They also have some good merit based scholarships-the Bosche & Lomb Award (math/science) and the U of Rochester Humanities & Social Science Award. It is only good if you attend U of Rochester but I believe it helped my daughter “secure” an $8,000 scholarship from CMU as they knew she was offered $ from Rochester. Of course as she’s at Cornell, none of this helped but it would have been a savings if she attended either of these institutions. Your guidance office has to recommend you for the U of R Awards and the nomination period is around Jan or Feb of 11th grade. At least that is how it was 2 years ago. I strongly suggest you check the U of R website. It is a great school for economics and may prove to be a good “safety” if your SAT’s are in the 1300 SAT range.</p>
<p>Now I am going to ask you --VA Student a Question!! Give me a VA student’s view of ODU-GMU-CNU-VCU. I’m looking for a school for d # 2-also in 11th grade- B + student and will hopefully get 1000-1100 on SAT’s. I asked this question on parents forum and got good advice-but did not get current info on Old Dominion. I guess my question to you is Can a Jewish kid from NY be happy at ODU and the other schools??? Not interested in JMU spent time in Harrisonburg on vacation and think it’s too rural. Hope to hear from you soon. Check out U of Rochester and good luck with your college search-</p>
<p>Just reread your question. Most if not all schools look at grades from freshmen year. Colleges will receive your student transcript that will include all HS grades. But it definitely looks good when there’s a grade improvement in 10th & 11th grade. Don’t worry about it.</p>
<p>Marny - thats for the reply. As far as VA goes, I go to a marget public school in northern virginia and about 2/3 of the student here go to either UVA/WM/VTech (about 1/3 go to ivy). I would also say George Mason (its here in NoVa, its robotics team beat MIT’s last year, two Noble Econ laureats) and James Madison (many NoVa kids go there) have pretty good academics and a somewhat smart student body. I don’t think the rest of the public schools in VA (VCU, etc) are that good.</p>
<p>I heard that some schools (Stanford, Princeton) don’t look at freshmen year grades. I wonder if there any other?</p>
<p>hey dlevit, i think you are misinterpreting what you have “heard,” first of all, you are correct in that princeton, stanford, and several other universities do not “account” freshman year, this DOES NOT mean that for every applicant they receive, they recalculate the gpa given to them by the guidance counselor without freshman year grades, that would be inane, instead what they do is have leniancy over freshman year grades, if they see that you have improved throughout your high school career, it’s okay and it means that they will consider that an advantage. In other words, say you have a 3.7 gpa, and you could have had a 3.9 gpa, well when princeton reviews ur application and sees that there are several B- 's freshman year, which most likely dropped the gpa, they will give you clemency and understand that it was freshman year; that is what whoever told you means about princeton, stanford, and other colleges in terms of freshman year grades. Anywayz hope that helps to clear up some things =)</p>