Pleas help me finalise my college list!

College Search & Lists
1

Hi everyone. I am an international applicant from India

With the common application coming out in a few days, I could really use some help in filtering my college list. I have 19 names right now and really want to get it down to 15. Here`s my list:

UPenn (First Preference)
UC Berkeley
Stanford
Harvard
Yale
Columbia
Princeton
Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
UMich
Duke
UVirginia
NYU
UChicago
Northwestern
Georgetown
UCLA
Notre Dame

I`m planning on a business major and comp sc major, and if business is not available then economics. I have made the list with a few safeties in place (UCLA, Notre Dame, UVA, UMich) and would highly appreciate advice as to which colleges I should remove.

Here are my stats, just in case you want them to see which colleges qualify as safeties or matches for me(**** means name removed to prevent identification):

Academic Credentials:
10th Boards (ICSE): 97.4%
Class 11 (CBSE): 94.4%
Class 12 (CBSE): Projected around 97%
Current Class Rank (75 students): 1
SAT: Superscore 2330 (CR 760 M 800 WS 770), one sitting 2290 (760 760 770)
SAT Subject: Physics: 800 and Math 2: 800
AP: Physics C (5)

Sports:
– Have been playing tennis for the past 8 years. Have reached top 150 of country, have played for my state once.
– Soccer,Basketball, Cricket at inter and intra school level.

Public Speaking:
– Have taken part and won inter and intra school debate competitions in both Hindi and English
– Taken part and won intra school extempore events
– Founded a debate club in my present school
– MUNning Career: Will have completed around 15 MUNs by the time I apply. Till now i have won 3 out of 4. I have also worked for the biggest MUN in my city,**** Model United Nations as an Assistant Director
– Started my own private MUN conference, which generated a revenue of roughly 2500 USD. (Completely independently organised which makes it on of its kind)
– Have won prizes for best debater in English and best debater in Hindi in my previous school

Social Work:
– Founder of President of an NPO ‘**********’, which aims at tackling problems society faces. This was founded 3 months ago and has completed 4 projects on cleanliness, recycling paper, saving petrol etc. We will be doing several more projects in time to come
–Given a local TED talk on above^^

Others:
– Founded my own company which sells art services such as design, craft items, etc
–Interned at a software company '’ where I worked on Open ERP development
–Interned at local start up '* which sells good quality milk
–Co-Owner at a web design company ‘*****’ founded by my friend (Clients and Accounts Management)
–Current Head Boy of School
–Served as House Prefect in 10th grade and led my house to a victory
–Will be going for a 20 day exchange project to Sweden where we will be working on a module to tackle superstitions and environmental problems

Hobbies and Skills:
– Adept at English, Hindi, Marathi
– Skillful at playing the ‘Harmonium’ an Indian Musical Instrument(Have been playing it since 9 years, just as a hobby)

Thanks in advance!

2

Correction: The NPO was founded in November 2014, more than 8 months ago

3

[QUOTE=""]
I`m planning on a business major and comp sc major, and if business is not available then economics. I have made the list with a few safeties in place (UCLA, Notre Dame, UVA, UMich) and would highly appreciate advice as to which colleges I should remove.

[/QUOTE]

???

Where did you get the idea that UCLA, ND, UVA, and UMich would be safeties? Those would all be reaches, except UMich might be a match…

You’ve names all the ivies. That just means you’re listing prestige and have paid no attention to what the actual school is like since they are very different from each other.

Will your parents full-pay? If so, then great, but you need to add some safeties.

4

Thanks for replying! :slight_smile: @mom2collegekids

I`ve shared the list with several people I know who study/have studied in top universities in the US and they have told me that those would be safeties for my profile.

I am considering removing Dartmouth and maybee Princeton from the list based on the feelings I get, so its not entirely on prestige and I have put thought into it.

Yes they will, but aid would be preferred (obviously)

5

You have a list of what are arguably the top 19 universities in the US. So, yes, it’s an outstanding list.

Just recognize that there are thousands of students with your stats applying to each of those schools, so you do have a risk of being shut out. You have no safeties. I personally know an applicant to UMich this year with equivalent stats who was rejected.

6

listen to mom2collegekids she is 100% correct.
picking colleges based on prestige instead of what best fits you is not a good idea. also you could get rejected by every school on your list.(admissions offices are secret and their logic is unknown to the outside world) nobody can predict who will or will not get into any of those schools.

7

You are a very competitive applicant, but when UCLA has below 15% acceptance rate for International students and a price tag of $220K/4 years, UCLA is definitely not a safety. You need to broaden your list so you may end up with very few choices in the end.

8

look at some of these schools
http://www.case.edu/
http://www.bradley.edu/
https://www.tamu.edu/
http://wilkes.edu/

there are 1000x of great schools in the united states! I suggest you cast a wider net.

9

You seem to be an international student.
If you are and you need financial aid, be aware that many state universities in the USA do not offer it to international students. Berkeley does not. Michigan does not. UVa does not. UCLA does … but for 2013-14, only 74 undergraduate international students received it. That’s 74 undergraduates out of ~30K, not 74 freshmen.

All the other schools on your list are very expensive (and highly selective) private schools. Only 4 of them (Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and Princeton) claim to be need-blind in admissions and to meet 100% of demonstrated need for international students.

So if you need financial aid, every school on your list is a reach.
Even if you don’t need financial aid, I’d say it’s still a stretch to call UCLA, Michigan, and UVa safeties.

10

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for their inputs. I will definitely look into some good safeties. :slight_smile:
However, I implore you to please answer the original question, which is, which of these colleges should I remove from this list?
@tk21769 @zobroward @Gumbymom @MidwestDad3

11

Which schools you should remove depends on what you are looking for in a school. As many have said, the only thing these schools have in common is that they are highly rated.

Do you like small or large schools?
City or country?
Warm weather or cold weather?
Prefer east or west coast?

What do you want in a school?

12

@me29034 I think I should have been clearer in my post. Sorry!
My main requirement in a school is the quality of education and the people around me. I definitely want a school which imparts a great quality of education, but more importantly I want to be surrounded by people who are really passionate, with real zeal and enthusiasm wanting to make a mark on the world. I want to be in a lively student community and a great campus life. I`d probably prefer a large/medium school to a small school which is why I havent put any liberal arts colleges in my list.Otherwise I really have no preference based on location, weather, etc

13

All of these schools will offer you a great education and will have a great student body and campus life. That isn’t going to help narrow them down. You need to research the schools more to try to get a feel for them. Only you can decide which ones feel right.

14

Hmm ok. Is there anything unique about these universities which you may be knowing which may help me make my decision??

15

Is there a particular reason why you need to knock four off the list? Why not just keep them all on and add a few safeties/likelies (I would second CWRU, for example).

The best thing to do would be to visit. Spend time in class and talking to students.

It is very difficult for us to suggest any to remove. They are all outstanding institutions. You will find passionate classmates at each one.

16

@MidwestDad3 I want to remove to save money, as we are all aware of how expensive applications themselves can be :confused:
As I love in india, visiting would be impossible.
Thanks for your help anyways!

17

I guess the problem is, of my D’s friends who applied to multiple Ivies, most got in to only one if any (though several also got into Ivy-equivalents such as Duke, Northwestern and Hopkins). So you don’t want to eliminate one that might have accepted you.

18

Many schools on your list don’t have undergraduate business programs. At some schools, the approach to economics is rather mathematical and theoretical. If you’re looking for a more practical, pre-professional approach, then you might want to eliminate the University of Chicago.

Georgetown does have an undergraduate business program, but I don’t know if it allows students to double major in CS. So check that out (if a double major is what you want.) Ditto for Penn/Wharton and any other university with a separate undergraduate business “school”.

Again, if you do need financial aid and you are an international student, then eliminate any schools that do not offer it to internationals (namely Berkeley, Michigan, and UVa.) However, if you think you won’t qualify for any financial aid, and just want to leave open the option to attend a somewhat lower-cost university, then keep them.

19

Removing schools would also cut down the number of supplemental essays that you would need to write, which would be very, very many as it stands. And with the super-selectives, the supplements could potentially make a difference, a chance that you’ve researched and thought about that particular school and why it’s a fit for you. Actually, that’s the case with any school, but with the most competitive ones you really need to make sure that every part of your application is as strong as you can make it.