Need Safeties

College Search & Lists
1

<p>So these are my STATS:
GPA: 3.97 UW, About 4.3 W
Rank: My school doesn’t rank.</p>

<p>ACT:
1st time w/o practice: 29
Hope for next time: 32-34</p>

<p>SAT IIs: (expected)
Biology -750
Math 2 - 800
Literature - 700-750</p>

<p>APs:
Only two (Spanish for natives and Psychology) are offered at my school before senior year, but I self-studied English Language and received a 4.</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
SRLA - 3 years (have run 7 marathons in the past three years)
Sunday teacher at a local mosque - 7 hrs/wk - 4 to 5 years
American Red Cross - Vice President - 4 years
Service Club (similar to Key Club) - Founder, President - 4 years
BioMed Club - President - 4 years
Autism Speaks LA Chapter Volunteer Coordinator - 2 years
Class President - 1 semester
Math Club: 3 years</p>

<p>Internships/Programs:
Boeing Intern (unpaid)
Northrop Grumman Employee (paid) during summer and into senior year
Southern California Academy of Sciences research program (published in organization’s bulletin)
First Youth Congressional Council Member</p>

<p>Community Service:
300+ hours from volunteering weekly for 2 years at a local aquarium
Countless hours (7 hrs/wk for 4-5 years) as a teacher for a local mosque that I’ve been attending since birth practically (not counted officially by school because it is religious)
I got the mosque to create a non-profit organization during my sophomore year to send school supplies (primarily books) to Afghanistan. I am in completely control, and am basically the only person who does anything. For the past 1.5 years, I’ve been sending about 300-450 books every six months to four different schools in Afghanistan. I’ll probably write about this in an essay because it is a very personal experience. This essay will primarily showcase my Afghan heritage, and aspects of it, such as this, playing 3 Afghan instruments, etc.</p>

<p>Awards:
Never really cared for these because I didn’t see the point. One team math award for the Pomona-Wisconsin Talent Search</p>

<p>Other information:
female
low income
Southern California
Attend one of the top 10 public schools in California
Believe I will have great recommendations, and will work hard on the essays
Hardest course load available (1 B in high school math -honestly, I slacked off. 2 Bs in college courses - both psychology)</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:
Very competitive. 8-9 classes 3 of which are at a Cal State and 4 of which are APs (Lit, Calc BC, Physics, Spanish). Most students at my school get 3-5s on AP exams.
I’m looking for safeties. My top choice right now is Yale.</p>

<p>THANKS!</p>

2

<p>UCSD/UCD will work as a safety for you.</p>

3

<p>Cool. I was planning on applying to SD, but not Davis. I’ll add that to my list, especially since the UC application system is so easy.</p>

<p>Do you have any suggestions for LACs or anything besides CSU/UCs?</p>

<p>Also, this is a side question, but do you think I would be qualified for Yale? I get that it is a reach for everyone, but there are some people that are just not qualified/competitive in their pool. As an educated guess, do you think I would be competitive?</p>

4

<p>You’re competitive as long as you raise your ACT score. </p>

<p>LACs? Hrm…it really depends on what you want…any prospective majors? (I’m guessing biology as of now)</p>

<p>Try Tufts (not LAC, but has the environment, though maybe more of a match), Brandeis (good bio program, again not really LAC but has the environment somewhat).</p>

5

<p>I’m not sure what I want to major in. I’ve looked into a few different fields, including biology and engineering. I enjoyed both, but I haven’t really found anything that I am passionate about. I will put Undecided for all of my college applications.</p>

<p>I’ll look into Tufts. I was thinking of applying to Brandeis. A few other people mentioned that school as well, and I think I will now. I just need to look into the school more.</p>

6

<p>Alright, good luck! Hope I helped.</p>

7

<p>Thanks. You helped a lot. :]</p>

8

<p>hmmmm… i’m not so sure these are realistic recommendations. you should certainly apply to Yale if it’s your dream, but it seems like a super reach at this point. Tufts is quite a reach as well, and UCSD and Brandeis are very high matches. If you earn your expected scores, however, you’d be in really good shape, and just as competitive as the next yale hopeful :slight_smile:
here’s some suggestions for safeties with your current stats: Pitzer (it’s a claremont school), Occidental, colorado college (all small LACs)</p>

9

<p>Oh, if I reach my expected scores, would you still rate UCSD, Brandies, etc. as you did? I’ve taken a lot of practice tests, and I always score between 32-34 on the ACT and my SAT IIs are always within 20-30 points of the ones expected. I’m working, though, to increase my Bio and Lit score.</p>

10

<p>Harvey Mudd would be a great choice for you (although not a safety - probably more like a high match). It’s mostly an engineering school, but they have other science majors as well. </p>

<p>If money is a concern, a UC would probably be your best bet. UCSD is very strong in the sciences…I think you’d have a great shot, being in state. I don’t think it would be any higher than a match. Davis is pretty good too, and would be a safety. </p>

<p>You could also check the LACs on this list: <a href=“http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankingDetails.asp?categoryID=1&topicID=14[/url]”>http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/rankings/rankingDetails.asp?categoryID=1&topicID=14&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Also try Case Western Reserve. It’s small-ish, and they’re really good with merit money.</p>

12

<p>I love Mudd! Unfortunately, I am just not sure I want to focus on sciences/engineering. However, if I end up at Pomona, I’d definitely cross-schedule and take classes at Mudd. I really like the people there. </p>

<p>I think I’ll look into McKenna more from the list you gave me. Thanks! I’m actually from a low-income family, and it seems like the larger colleges offer pretty amazing finaid packages (Ex. Stanford) for low-income students. Is this true?</p>

<p>The schools on my list right now are:</p>

<p>Common App + Supplements
Oberlin College
Pomona College
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of Rochester
Williams College
Yale University
Tufts University</p>

<p>Not Common App
Brown University
University of Chicago</p>

<p>UCs
UCB
UCI
UCLA
UCSB
UCSD
UCD</p>

<p>So, excluding the UCs, I have 10 on my list so far. I don’t count the UCs primarily because they don’t require essays (exc. personal statement) and recommendations, so I don’t suspect it will be too much work to apply to them.</p>

<p>Do you think, assuming I meet my numbers, this is a good list?</p>

13

<p>Thanks! I’ll look up Case Western Reserve. It’s the first time I’ve heard of it. Hopefully, I’ll end up with a nice surprise. :]</p>

14

<p>I think so. You have a good number of safeties to fall back on (Davis, SB, Irvine).</p>

<p>The only thing I notice is that aside from UCSD, you don’t really have any matches. Just safeties and reaches. There’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily. But if you want a good number of options to choose from in the end, it might be a good idea to trade a couple of the reaches for matches.</p>

15

<p>how can ur school be top 10 public schools in california if u cant do hardly any aps b4 senior year?</p>

16

<p>I thought Oberlin might have been a match.</p>

<p>Do you have any suggestions for matches? </p>

<p>By the way, McKenna seems like a great school! It will definitely have the atmosphere - as a Claremont college - that I enjoy. I’m still going to look into it more, but I think I might add it to the list.</p>

17

<p>Westside: We are able to take more college courses than most schools. We are located very close to a Cal State, so we can take courses there beginning junior year. I’m not sure how the rankings work, though, but according to our APIs, we are one of the top 10 (and according the faculty). Considering our school is less than 2 decades old, also, we’ve been very generous in regards to the engineering companies and many other larger companies being our benefactors.</p>

<p>Our school tends to do very well at colleges. Our class size is rather small, 150, but we send about 10 applicants (of about 15-20 that apply) to Stanford, 20-30 to UCB, and about 30-35 to UCLA. More than this number gets accepted, but not all matriculate.</p>

18

<p>Reed could be a match, but a higher ACT would help (29 is about the 38th %ile). Reed is especially good if you think you might want to do research in some field. Your ECs and hooks seem excellent. Tamim Ansary is a Reed alum and gave the 2006 commencement address. Reed guarantees full need-based aid for four years.</p>

19

<p>Yeah, 29 isn’t my best. I’m confident I can bring it up. :]</p>

<p>Thanks. I’ll look into Reed. :]</p>